The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1911-08-11
a GREWSOME
REVENGE
b. PETER c. DoHoNoF
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation, 1911.

In Russia there is q custom among
the rural classes in certain regions
which is very curious. Instead Of a
man asking a girl to marry him, a girl
who wishes a man for a husband goes
to his house and asks him to marry
her. If he declines and turns her out
her relatives will be revenged upon
him, so she may stay on, If she likes,
till he succumbs or concludes to take
a thrashing from her big brother.
Peter Hazielvich while living in a
region where 1t was customary for the
man to propose met a young girl at a
dance and afterward courted her. She
listened to his lovemaking, expecting
every day that he would propose to
her. But Peter delayed and, finally
meeting another girl he liked better,
ceased his attentions to the first and
bestowed them on the second.
Five years later Peter was living, q
single man, among those people whose
marriages were arranged by the wo-
mans making the first advance. He
had failed to win the second girl he
had courted, and his attentions we're
not renewed to the first. Indeed, the
tilted girl, Katherine Dronsky, gave
every evidence that If he came court
ing her again he would catch a tartar.
One day Katherine, while attempt
ing to kindle a fire by pouring kero-
sene oil on it, caused an explosion.
She was badly burned, and on ecov-
ering her face was a mass of scars.
One day Peter was at work on his
farm in his new home when he saw
a woman go into his house. She be-
ing yelled, he could not see her face.
At once he suspected that II of his
neighbors was intending to make him
a proposition of marriage. This dis
concerted him, for he had not seen
any woman in his neighborhood
whom he would like to marry except
one, whom he did not believe wanted
him. But the thought that it might be
she filled him with pleasure. At any
rate, anxious to know who had IA
vored him, he threw down his imple-
ments and went to the house.
There, standing in his living room,
was Katherine Dronsky, the girl he
had Tilted.
This Is what she said:
peter, hearing that you had come
to this country, never having been
able to conquer my love for you, 1
concluded to come too. We-my moth
er. my brothers and myself-have
bought a farm near yours, and I, hear
ing Of the custom of this country by
which the girl instead Of the man pro-
poses marriage, have come to ask you
to be my husband" wa,
Peter quailed before the look she
gave him-a look Of hate, revenge, tri-
umph. 1t froze the very marrow in
his bones. He stood looking upon the
horrible face confronting him like one
paralyzed by a specter. He knew
Katherine's brothers and that they
had been bitter against him for his
desertion of their sister and had she
willed it would have punished him.
Now, doubtless, they were ready to
support her in this revenge she had
evidently set her heart upon.
"You don't seem pleased to e me,
Peter" the woman said scornfully.
"I'm not so beautiful as I was when
you courted me, but I have the same
heart. At any rate, if there is any
change of heart you have caused it, so
yours is the fault. They tell ME here
that when a girl goes to a mans
house to propose marriage she remains
there If she likes till he accepts her.
I have come here to stay"
She took off her wraps and, going to
the fire, sat down before it. Peter
stood for awhile wondering If it would
do any good to throw himself on her
mercy. But he decided otherwise. He
went back to his work.
He had one %hope-that since there
was no one but himself in her house.
no mother. no sister. perhaps Kath-
crime would consider it improper to
stay there with him, and she surely
could not force him to make 1t proper
by marrying her. There was an out
house IN the premises used Tor the
storage Of farm implements, and dur
ing the afternoon he saw Katherine
carrying bedding and other furniture
there. So this hope died in his breast.
Instead it gave him q slight comfort.
He would be free from her during the
night.
And so the two entered upon a new
life, the one Of endurance, the other
Of revenge. Peter never spoke to her,
and after her proposal she v spoke
to him. She cooked her own food in
the clubhouse, and Peter cooked his in
the farmhouse. Peter grew lean and
haggard, and. his eye after q time had
the look Of one whose mind is on the
point Of giving way. He worked on.
his farm from early morning till as
late as he could see, never going into
his house except for his meals. Kathhs
crime kept In her own quarters except
for about an hour after Peter quit