Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1911-01-21
haIf-hsartsdly In abeyanoa


reverent stumblings III the dark valley
OF doubtful questions. More especially,
he would be vigilant TO guard against
those backslidings that came so swiftly
on the heels of each spiritual quicken
ing. His heart was fixed, so irrevoca-
bly,, so surely, that he could almost
wish that Satan would try him there
and then. But the enemy of souls was
nowhere to be seen in the leafy arches
Of the wood, and Tom bent again to
take a second draft at the spouting
rock lip.
He was bending over the sunken bar
rel A shadow, not his own, blurred the
water mirror. He looked up quickly.
Mani" he cried.
She was standing on the opposite
side of the barrel basin, looking down
on him with good natured mockery in
the dark eyes.
Il lowed maybe you wouldn't have
such back load of religion after you'd
been Off to the school a SPELL" she said,
pointedly. And then: Does 1t always
make you right dry an thirsty to say
your prayers. Tommy-Jeffy."
Tom sat back on his heels and re-
garded her thoughtfully. His first i'm
pulse was out of the natural heart,
rageful. wounded vanity squirting 1t on.
1t was like her heathenism imperti-
hence to look on at such time. and
then to taunt him about 1t afterward.
But slowly as he looked a curious
change came over him. She was the
same Nan Bryerson, bareheaded, bare
legged. with the same tousled mat Of
dark hair, and the same childish in
difference to a whole frock. And yet
she was not the same. The subtle diff
ference, whatever 1t was, made him get
up and offer to shake hands with her
and he thought it was the newly made
vows constraining him, and took cred
It therefor
you can revile me as much as you
like now, Man," he said, with prideful
humility. You can't make me mad
any more, like you used to- I'm older
now. and-and better, hope. 1 shall
never forget that you have a precious
soul to save"
Her response to this was a scofing
laugh shrill and challenging. Yet he
could not help thinking that 1t made
her look prettier than before.
You can laugh as much as you want
to; but / mean it," he insisted. And,
besides, Nan-of all the things that
I've been wanting to come back to.
you're the only one that isn't changed"
And again he thought it was righteous
guile that was making him kind to her.
Dye reckon you shorely mean that,
Tom Gordon?" she said and the lips
which lent themselves so easily to
scorn were tremulous. She was just
his age, and womanhood was only a
step across the threshold for her
ttOf do OF oov
bucket for you"
gin under the drip of the spring and
1t was full and running over. But
when he had lifted 1t out for her, she
rinsed and emptied it.
II just set it there to cool some" she
explained I'm goin' up to Sunday
Rock afte' huckleberries. Come and
go long with me, Tom"
He assented with a willingness as
eager as 1t was unaccountable. If she
had asked him to do a much less rea-
sonable thing, he was not sure that he
could have refused.
And as they went together through
the wood, spicy with the June fra
grances, questions like those of the
boyhood time thronged on him, and he
welcomed them as a return of at least
one of the vanished thrills-and was
grateful to her.
When they were fairly under the
overhanging cliff face of Sunday Rock,
she darted away, laughing at him over
her shoulder, and daring him to follow
her along a dizzy shelf halfway up
the crag; a narrow ledge, perilous for
mountain goat.
This, as he remembered later, was
the turning point in her mood. In I'm =
aginatlon he saw her try 1t and fail;
saw her 1.-THE, shapely beauty lying
broken and mangleG at the cliffs foot;
and In three bounds he had her fast
locked in his restraining arms. She
strove with him at first, like a wres-
Ting boy laughing and haunting him
with being afraid for himself Then
Tom Gordon, clean-hearted as yet,
did not know precisely what happened.
Suddenly she stopped struggling and
lay painting in his arms, and quite as
suddenly he released her.
Mani" he said. in a swiftly sub
merging wave of tenderness, Il didn't
go to hurt you'll"
She sank down on a stone at mis-
feet and covered her face with her
hands. But she was up again and
turning from him with eyes downcast
before he could comfort her.
(To be continued)