Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1909-07-24

he could bear. But why?" he cried
once more.
II can't answer you any different,
John"
1t seemed a long time before eth
er Of them spoke again. A foot over
head, moving back and forth In the
vacant chamber, brought them both
consciousness of that outside, mex
orable life which goes on whether
we be quick or dead. The clock
licked sharply on the mantel. An
drew Shafer sat so motionless that his
large figure looked as though cut out
| of the dark.
You ought to believe me, boy"
| An odd, hushed sense of the end of
things came to the younger man.
There grew on him a feeling as OF
still presence in the room, of a
shape with pale, pushing hands held
| up between him and that secret of
a score of years. Yet he burst out
into a struggling last word. She was
good woman" he faltered.
Il amt saying anything against
your mother, John. She kept the
house clean, and she cooked the meals
regular, and she worked hard in the
garden, and stood twice a week in the
market. And now" Some remnant
of passion burned W. in the mans
voice. 1t trembled. And now-she's
laying out in the cemet'ry."
The clock licked sharply on.
There can't anything be done about
it now. Don't you go worrying about
it, boy"
John sat dumb. 1t began to grow
DINNER in the room.
I'm going out awhile" said An
drew Shafer. He rose up from his
chair and strobe heavily towards the
door, and opening it stood for mo-
ment in the stream of thick dusk
from the west. His speech rang out
with the force of an oath. Me and
you'll begin all over again, boy
The sky was sharp with stars. There
was no wind. On the opposite side
of the yard, clear dark mass against
the clearer dark, rose the line of
| OpS
and undid the latch of the stable door.
The warm scent of hay, the crunching
sound of the cows at their cud, the
hushed, impalpable stir of the housed
air, came to him as, slouehed and
lonely, he waited there. His foot struck
against the shaft of the market wagon
lifting it's larger bulk in the corner,
In toI1 70
seemed to lean silently out of the
gloom. 1t was young, radiant, I'M
touched of wind or weather. His
youth gripped him hard. He slipped
the latch back and gently moved away.
The garden next. A place of ghosts
The long procession of the years, the
splendor and the pathos, the memo
ries, and the homelinesses, of the sea
sons went marching by. Flowers
bloomed; bees hummed; little violet
colored butterflies wavered between
him and the sun. And among them
all moved Henrietta, pulling here, clip
ping there; If it were June, the pinks
If it were October, the chrysanthe
mums-especially those that looked
like disks of white ivory, for these
the town folks bought to carry out to
the cemeteries.
He wandered out to the orchard
striking into the narrow path that
zigZagged downward under the bare
trees to the highway beyond. AND
of sudden, pink and white and
heaven sweet, blossomed the apple
boughs to left and to right of him. Fol
an instant it was his wedding day
and he and Henrietta were strollins
hand in hand across that rosy acre
of fairyland. An instant! In another
the long, melancholy years of his life
passed before him. He felt himself
beaten, defrauded, betrayed. Their
there came to him another vision O.
Henrietta, Henrietta grown dumb ant
silent-eyed, with the remnant of hel
dark beauty clinging to her like the
petals of a rain-drenched rose. Gu
; OF those long and melancholy year!
had she not brought even less thar
he? With sort of dim added sens,
he began to realize her struggle will
the stirless weather of her existence
he saw its vacant ways, her bitterness,
at him, her rigid yet shamed accept
ance of the lot she had made ant
chosen for herself. And out of he
gray life what was left but stril
of earth in a quiet country church
yard? For now she was cold, cold ant
dead!
l A mans footstep, heavy and hating
r sounded without in the road.
That you, Andy?" said Adam Mar
=, | tin.
Yes, Adam
A Whit of tobacco smoke came pun
gently through the dark. Adam strod,
t forward and stretched a slow hant
. across the palings.
I've been down to the store for Clar
e issy. AS soon as l seen you / said
e Maybe Andy has some stuff he'd lik
: me to take to market for him da.
z after Tomorrow )"