The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-06-30
A DREAM THAT
FADED
By ESTHER VANDEVEER
Copyright, 1910, by American Press
Association.

S"id Il iIItlc gin " WuOh
her grandmother had been telling sto-
ries
"Oh, yes. There are romances in the
lives of all of us
well, grandma, tell me YOURS"
Let ne see. | was but eighteen
when my f"ther-your great-grandfa-
Their, you knOw-hired farm hand
who came along just at the beginning
or the harvest season. | will call him
Elisha. We girls used to HELM oct in
the grain i'll those days, and sometimes
l used to go out and help on purpose
to be with Elisha. He was two wears
older than |. and considered him very
handsome. | was at that age when a
girls heart goes out naturally, and
mine went out to Elisha.
One evening about sunset when we
were alone together among the wheat
we sat down on pile of sheafs to
talk. Elisha put his arm around me
and kissed me. Then he told me be
loved me, and | told him | loved him.
Il was too young-at any rate. too
nsophisticated-to know the next
thing to be done, which was for Elisha
to go to my father and ask for me.
He didn't do this. but when the first
natural outpouring of love was over
l asked him if | should say anything
about our affair to father or mother
He told me to say nothing at present
81 waited, no one but Elisha and
knowing what was between us, till the
harvest was all in and my lover was
paid off. That day he took me off
where we would be alone and said to
me:
Your father wouldn't think of Civ
ing you to me. l haven't a cent in the
world. We must wait. I'll try dur
ing the next few years to get a start,
then l will come back and ask for YOU
MY heart stood still. How could
wait several years for him to come
back to me? Each year would seem
a century. In three years l would be
twenty-One. and that seemed to me
then to mark girl as an old maid
But there was nothing to be done, so
l said goodby to Elisha. and be went
away.
There was farmer near us who
stood very high in the community
He was but twenty-eight years old,
and yet he had been in the legislature
of the state. He seemed to me to be
hundred years old He used to come
to our place and talk with father about
things that l didn't understand-tariff
and free trade. raising money to build
railroads to take our grain to market
and all that. When we were all in
the living room in the evening, and
father and Mr.. Baxter, I'll call him,
were talking about these things and
the slavery question in the south and
the troubles in Kansas | used to sit at
my needlework and wonder what they
meant. for l didn't understand a word
of it ALL
Then one day father surprised me
by telling me that Mr. Baxter had
proposed for me, and father hoped l
would accept him since the match
would be such good one for me-
"'Isn't that funny way to propose
for girl? | asked. 1 supposed the
lover proposed to the girl instead of
her father
1.-The most honorable way is to ask
permission of her father to speak 20
her.
"All this was too formal. too unnat-
ural for me. l told father that l would
not have Mr.. Baxter; he was altogeth-
said he was just the right age l re-
piled that he seemed too old anyway.
Father was obliged to tell Mr..
Baxter that | wouldn't have him. and
Mr.. Baxter only said that he was
very sorry, but he wouldn't think of
permitting the least influence to be
brought to bear on me to induce me
to accept him. | didn't tell any one
that my heart had been given to
farm hand. Indeed, | didn't dare tell
couldn't have braved fathers anger
and contempt. i ground my teeth to-
gether and resolved to wait for Elisha.
/ waited two years, and he didn't
come. l waited two years more.
Meanwhile Mr.. Baxter had been away
much of the time. He had been elect
ed to congress Then l heard father
say that he was sure of the nomina-
ton for governor.
This didn't interest me- l didn't
care if he was president. What l
wanted was that which would satisfy
the cravings of my heart-I wanted
Elisha.
1T was five years after Elisha had
gone away and three after Mr.. Bax-
ter had proposed for me that l saw
one morning when | was standing on
the porch a man coming down the
road. His clothes were city cut.
though not fashionable. He stopped
at the gate and asked me how far it
was to Boonton. l told him. and he
said, You don't seem to remember
me- No, l DON'T l replied. Sorry;
thought you would A suspicion
came to me when he said this that he
was Elisha. l dreaded lest he was.
for somehow l didn't like his looks.
/ can't tell you what there was about
him / didn't fancy; it was everything.
The fact is that had been changing
during these years he had been away
from me and now saw him for what
he was-a very commonplace man.
"Well. do you know. i turned and
hn