The Newport miner. [volume] (Newport, Wash.) 1899-current, 1910-01-13
VERY STUPID OF HIM.,
BY THOMAS KENT WATERMAN.
copyright, 1903, by American Press Asso-
ciation.I

sat meditating with her eyes on her
work. Presently she looked up. Seeing
| him, glad smile was about to break
out on her lips. but she depressed it.
"Well. I declare.' she exclaimed.
"Where did you come from? Id as
as you
81 should have been very much dis
appointed" replied the man, going up
| on to the porch and taking a seat, Ito
see your ghost. prefer to see you in
the fiesh.''
"Let me see. It must he seven or
eight years since you left You went
| away the day after-after l saw you
last, didn't your
Eyes. l left you standing on this
very porch. 1t was twilight, with a
moon in the first quarter. l went
down the road there determined that
| you should never see me again.
| "And what brings you back noww
81 came to get married"
| He was looking her in the eye.
Though inwardly she WINGED at the in
formation, she succeeded in appearing
Indifferent to it.
''Who is the happy woman?" she
asked.
give answered a question. It's my
turn to ask one. Are you married?''
'No."
He sat looking at her inquiringly,
and she continued:
| There's never been any one here
who wanted me-"
"Nor any one you wanted"
That's right"
Same here. Eve remained single
since l left you because there was no
| one could get that I wished to mar
ry."
! But now you can get the one you
want?"
| mo, but / must have q companion.
I feel myself getting old. I'm thirty
two"
"And I'm thirty
! $50 concluded to come back here
among the people 1 was brought up
[
and take her back to the most God for
saken country woman ever lived ill.,"
''You won't have any trouble getting
girl to go with you, but it's not much
of an outlook for her."
How about me?'
She'll be constantly mourning for
civilization and to see her do SO will
he very hard on you"
you wouldn't marry man who
was intending to take you to such
country, would you?"
Eyes, if l loved him."
"And make him miserable by mourn
/ ing for these beautiful hills?"
IT'D try not"
There was silence for awhile be-
tween them, broken by the man.
Seems to me that il you had got to
| the state have, tired of living alone
and didn't care whom you married, and
I could give up my interest out there
you'd fill the bill"
IF married you / wouldn't let you
give up your interest out there, wher-
J ever that is-not on my account
"But you said you'd do that If you
loved the man,
| Eyes; that's what said"
''But IL you didn't lore the man
II wouldn't marry him at aIl''
| Another silence. The man sat tap
| ping his boot with stick he had cut
| beside the road.
"I'm sorry about that" he said pres
emily. II didn't know but that if you
felt the same as I do it wouldn't be
necessary for me to go any farther for
a companion"
"But l don't feel as you do. In
your case the romance has passed
away, and you merely want some one
to keep you from being lonely. I will
marry no man don't love-"
| He sat for awhile with disap-
pointed look on his face, then rose to
| 60
| singular" he remarked, looking at
| the sky. There's the half moon up
there, and the twilight's coming on.
! just the same as when I left you be-
fore.'
"And you haven't improved a bit
since then. In another eight or ten
years you'll come back again and talk
just as stupidity as you did when l
saw you last and as you are talking
now."
| "Myra. what do you meanY
The only reply he received was
passionate burst Of weeping.
! "Myra, sweetheart, do tell me!'
| "You went away and have been
:. gone eight years. Why didn't you
| come back the next day? I expected
/ you and had little present for you"
But you refused me-"
sThat's nothing if did You didn't
expect me to fall right into your arms
at once, did you?"
| The man looked at her, on his face
an expression OF infinite pain min
Cling with one Of infinite pleasure.
Then he took her in his arms, and