The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-05-09

ana got my SHaEt all DlOQdy. Tor Id
been In the drift forty hours without
sleep and breathing powder smoke till
my knees backed and wabbied under
me. To this day the smell of stale
powder smoke makes woman of me,
but that morning | sang. for was 60
ing for nay bride. and the world was
brighter than it has ever been for
eighteen years. The little schoolhouse
was closed. at which ! remembered
that the term was over. I'd been liv-
ing underground for weeks and lost
track Of the days. so that had to
count them up on my fingers. 1t took
me long time. for | was pretty tired
in my head. but when I'd figured it out
I went on to where she was boarding.
1.-THE woman Of the place came to
tlae door, a Scotchwoman. She had a
mole on her chin. remember. Il brown
ish black mole with three hairs in it.
She wore an apron. too, that was kind
of checkered. and three buttons were
open at the neck of her dress. | recall
a lot more of little things about her
though the rest of what happened is
rather dreamy.
Il asked for Merridy, and she told
me she'd gone away-gone with Ben
nett the night before, while l was
coughing blood from the powder
smoke; that they were married i'm the
front room and that the bride looked
beautiful. She had cried bit on leav-
ing ChandOn and-and-that was about
all. | counted the buttons On the
ScOtchwOman'S waist eight or ten
times, and by and by she asked if
kind hearted woman. and I'd been to
her house a good deal. so she asked me
to come in and rest. | wasn't tired, so
| went away and climbed back up TO
the little shack and the mine that
hated now.
Il turned into a kind of hermit after
that and | wasn't good to associate
with. Men got SO they summed me-,
and | knew they told strange stories,
because | heard them whisper when
went to the stores for grub once a
month.
From time to time | heard of her.
but the news. instead of gladdening
me. as it would have gladdened some
men, wrung out what bits of suffering
were left in me. and fairly ached for
her. Nobody comes to see clearer than
a woman deceived, so it didn't take
her long to find out the kind of man
Bennett was. He wasn't like her at
ALL and the reason he had cOurted her
so hotly was just that he had had
everything that rightly belongs to a
man like him and had sickened of it.
so he wanted her because she was
clean and pure and different. and, real
izing that he couldn't get her any other
way. he had married her. But she was
a treasure no bad man could appreci-
ate. and so he tired quickly, even be-
fore the little one came.
when | heard that she had borne
him q daughter l wrote her letter,
which took me a month to compose
and which | tore up. One day story
came to me that made me saddle my
horse to ride down and kill him-and.
mind you, | was q man who made pets
of little wild. trusting things. But |
knew she would surely send for me
when her pain became too great. so |
uncinched my gear and hung 1t up
and waited and waited and waited.
Three long. endless years | waited, al
most within sound of her voice, with
out a word from her. without glimpse
of her, and every hour of that time
went by as slowly as If l had held
my breath. Then she called to me. and
| went
II tell you. was thankful that day
for the fortune that had made me
take good care of my horse, for l rode
like Death on windStOrm. L rode
through the streets Of Mesa, where
they lived, and past the lights Of Ben
nett's big saloon, where l heard the
sound of DEVILS revelry and a shrill
voiced woman singing-a woman the
like of which he had tried to make my
Merridy. | never skulked or sneaked
III luOSe uayS, anu uO Llldn cNei lHduC
me take back roads, so l came up to
his house from the front and tied my
horse to his gatepost. She heard me
on the steps and opened the door.
You sent for me- said l. Where
| is he" But he had gone away TO a
! neighboring camp and wouldn't be
| back until morning, at which | felt
the way thief must feel, for I'd
hoped to meet him in his own house.
couldn't think very clearly, however.
because of the change in her. She
was SO thin and worn and sad-sadder
than any woman I'd ever seen. I'd
changed a heap myself. Anyhow that
was the first thing she spoke about,
and the tears came into her eyes as
| she breathed:
Poor boy! You took it very hard.
| didn't your
You sent for me- said l. which
| road did he take?
There's nothing you can do she
answered. I sent to make sure that