Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1912-03-14
CHAPTER xx.-contlnued.

Two days later, Daylight stood walt
ing outside the little Glen Ellen hotel,
The ceremony was over. and he had
left Dede to go inside and change
into her riding-habit while he brought
the horses. He held them now, Bob
and Nab. and in the shadow Of the
watering-trough Wolf lay and looked
on. Already two days OF ardent Cali
fornia sun and touched with new fires
the ancient bronze In Dayltghts face.
But warmer still was the glow that
came into his cheeks and burned In
his eyes as he saw Dede coming out
the door, riding-whip in hand, clad in
the familiar corduroy skirt and leg
gings of the old Piedmont days. There
was warmth and glow in her own face
as she answered his gaze and glanced
on past him to the horses. Then she
saw Nab. But her gaze leaped back
to the man.
"Oh. Elam!" she breathed.
Many persons, themselves city-bred,
and city reared, have fled to the
soil and succeeded in winning great
happiness. In such cases they
have succeeded only by going
through a process of savage disil-
lusionment. But with Dede and Day
light 1t was different. They had both
been born on the soil, and they knew
its naked simplicities and rawer ways.
They ~ere like two persons, after far
wandering, who had merely come
home again. There was less Of the
unexpected in their dealings with ma
ture. while theirs was all the delight
OF "Reminiscences. What might appear
sordid and squalid to the fastidiously
reared. was to them eminently whole
some and natural. The commerce OF
nature was to them no unknown and
untried trade. They made fewer mis-.
takes. They already knew. and 1t was
a Joy to remember what they had for.
gotten.
And another thing they learned was
that 1t was easier for one who has
gorged at the fesh-pots to content
himself with the meagreness of a
crust, than for one who has known
only the crust Not that their life
was meagre. 1t was that they found
keener delights and deeper satisfac.
lions in little things Daylight. who
had played the game In its biggest
and most fantastic aspects, found
that here, on the slopes Of Sonoma
Mountain, 1t was still the same old
game. Man had still work to perform
forces to combat, obstacles to over
come, When he experimental in a
small way at raising a few pigeons
for market. he found no less zest In
calculating in squads than formerly
when he had calculated in millions
Achievement was no less achieve
ment, while the process of 1t seemed
more rational and received the sane
ton of his reason.
The domestic cat that had gon,
wild and that preyed on his pigeons
he found, by the comparative stand
ard, to be Of no less paramount men
ace than a Charles Klinkner In tn,
field of finance, trying to raid him TO
several millions. The hawks ant
weasels and 'coons were so man.
Dowsetts, Lotions. and. Guggenham
mers that struck at him secretly. TIL
sea of wild vegetation that tossed II
surf against the boundaries of all hi
clearings and that sometimes crept II
and flooded in single week was n
mean enemy to contend with and sui
due, His iat,soilsdsxege table'gaSte
\ in the nook OK hills that failed DIN
best was a problem. of engrossing in
y boEtAncS. and when he had solved 1t b