The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-19
Copyright 1o11. bu the Bobbs-
 Merrill CO.

Cs-s-s-e-.-s-s-.-s-s-.-.- ilization. Mukee. the half Cree, had never seen white woman, for even the factors wife was part Chippeway- an, and no one of the others went down to the edge of the southern will derness more than once each twelve month or so.
 The girl-she was scarce more than budding into Womanhood-fell happily into the ways of her new life. She did nothing that was elementally unusual, nothing more than any pure woman reared in the love of God and of a home would have done. In her spare hours she began to teach the half doz- en wild little children about the post, and every Sunday she told them won derful stories out of the Bible. She ministered to the sick, for that was a part of her code of life. Everywhere she carried her glad smile, her cheery greeting, her wistful earnestness, to brighten what seemed to her the sad and lonely lives of these silent men of the north.
 And she succeeded, not because she was unlike other millions of her kind, but because of thea difference between the fortieth degree and the sixtieth, the difference in the viewpoint of men who fought themselves into moral shreds in the big game of life and those who lived thousand miles nearer to the dome of the earth. 1 A fam xrS hoForo fhova hodfaNoYs1< Q wonderful event in the history of the company's post. A new life was born into the little cabin of Cummins and his wife. Then had come the sudden change, and the gloom, that brought with it the shadow of death, fell like pail upon the post, stifing it's life and bringing with it a grief that those who lived there had never known be- fore.
 There came to them no word from Cummins now. He stood for a mo ment before his lighted door and then l went back, and the word passed softly from one to another that the most beautiful thing in the world was still living her sweet life in that little cabin at the end of the clearing.
 "You hear the music in the skies
 now. my Melisse?" whispered the man, kneeling beside her again. Tt is very pretty tonightp'
 ''It was not that" repeated the wo-
 man.
 l She attempted to stroke his face,
 but Cummins saw nothing of the ef- fort, for the hand lay all but motion
 less. He saw nothing of the fading softness that glowed in the big, loving
 eyes, for his own eyes were blinded by hot finn And the woman saw nothing of the hot film, so torture was saved them both. But suddenly
 the woman quivered. and Cummins heard thrilling sound. Tt is the music" she panted John. John, it is-the music-of-my-peo plew
 The man strengthened himself. his face turned to the open door. He heard it now. Was it the blessed angels com ing for his Melisse? He rose, sob- bing note in his throat, and went, his
 arms stretched out, to meet them. He l had never heard a sound like that never in all his life in this endless will 1 derness.
 My Melisse, my Melissew he sob-
 bed.
 A figure came from the shadows, and with the figure came the music, sweet and soft and low John Cummins stopped and turned his face straight
 up to the sky. His heart died within l him:
 The music ceased. and when he look
 ed again the figure was close to him.
 sta aggering as it walked, and face 1 white and thin and starved came with 1 it. It was boys face.
 "For the museeks of the violon- some 1 ting to eatw he. heard, and the thin 1 figure swayed and fell almost into his 1 arms. The voice came weak again. l "Thees is Jan-Jan Thoreau-and his 1 violon.''
 The woman's bloodless face and her
 great staring, dark eyes greeted them 1 as they entered the cabin. As the man
 knelt beside her again and lifted her mead against his breast she whispered once more:
 Ut is the-music-of my people-the viclin!"
 John Cummins turned his head. 1 "Play." he breathed.
 "Ah, the white angel is seek-ver'
 seek" murmured Jan, and he drew his
 bow gently across the strings of his l violin.
 | From the instrument there came something so soft and sweet that John Cummins closed his eyes as he held
 the woman against his breast and lis
 tened. Not until he opened them again
 and felt strange chill against his 4 GRaak. did he kn0x that hia hslQEed,a