Licking Valley courier. [volume] (West Liberty, Ky.) 19??-current, 1912-03-21

erty. At first every stormy night I
would fill his laborious clearings with |
drifting snow, but as it became pack
ed down and frozen solid he washable
to keep his various ways open without
great deal of difficulty. A little
work every morning and evening sui,
feed.
Every day he had to go down the
mountain stairway to the bottom of
the pocket to feed and water the bur-
ros. What was a quick and simple
task in milder, warmer seasons some
times took him a half a day under the
present rigorous conditions. And the
woman never saw him start out in
the storm without a sinking heart and
grave apprehension On his return to
the cabin half frozen, almost spent
and exhausted, she ever welcomed him
with eager gratitude and satisfaction
which would shine in her eyes, throb
in her heart and tremble upon her
lips, control it as she might. And he
thought it was well worth all the trou-
bic and hardships of his task to be 30
greeted when he came back to her.
Winter had set in unusually early
and with unprecedented severity. Any
kind of winter in the mountains
would have amazed the girl, but even
the man with his larger experience
declared he had never before known
such sharp and sudden cold, or such
deep and lasting SHOWS. His daily
records had never shown such low
temperatures nor had his observation
ever noted such wild and furious
storms as ragged then and there. 1t
seemed as if Nature were In con-
spiracy to seal up the mountains and
all they contained, to make ingress
and egress alike impossible. :
A month had elapsed and Ends
foot was now quite well. The man
had managed to sew up her boot
where the knife had cut II and al
though the job was clumsy one the
result was usable shoe. 1t Is as
tonishing the comfort she took when
she first put it on and discarded for
good the shapeless wooden stocking
which lad covered the clumsy band
age happily no longer necessary. AL
though the>torn and bruised member
had healed and she could use it with
care, her foot was still very tender
and capable of sustaining no violent
or long continued strain. OF neces-
sity she had been largely confined to
the house, but whenever 1t had been
possible he had wrapped her in his
great bear skin coat and had helped
her out to the edge Of the cliff for
breath of fresh air.
Sometimes he would leave her
there alone, would perhaps have left
her alone there always had she not
imperiously required his company.
Insensibly she had acquired the hab-
it-not a difficult one for a woman to
fall into-of taking the lead in the
small affairs of their circumscribed
existence, and he had acquiesced in
her dominance without hesitation or
remonstrance. 1t was she who or
dered their daily walk and converse
ton. Her wishes we're consulted
about everything; to be sure no great
range Of choice was allowed them, of
liberty Of action or freedom in the
CONSTANTS with which nature bound
them, but whenever there was any
selection she made It.
The man yielded everything for her
and yet he did it without in any way
derogating from HIS selfrespect or
without surrenderl4e his natural in
dependslce. The loman instructive,
" realized that in any great crisis in
any large matter, The determination
Of which would naturally effect their
present or their future, their happin-
ess, welfare lie, he would assert him
self, aud his assertion would be I'M
| questioned and unquestionable by her.
There was a delightful satisfaction
to the woman in the whole situation.
She had a woman's desire to lead in
the smaller things in life, and yet
crsyed the woman's consciousness
that IN the great emergencies she
would be led, in the great battles she
would be fought for, In the great dan
gers she would be protected, in the
Great perils she would be saved.
There was rest, comfort, Joy and salts
faction in these thoughts.
The strength of the man she mes
tered was estimate Of her own power
and charm. There was a great, sweet,
yoiceless, unconscious hattery in his
defcreroo Of which she could not be
unaware.
Having little else to do, she studied
the man, and she studied him with
warm desire and an enthusiastic pre-
disposition to find the best in him.
She would not have been human
girl il she had not been thrilled to
the very heart of her by what the
man had done for her. She recognized
that whether he asserted It or not, he
had established an everlasting and
irdisputable claim upon her.
The circumstances of their first
meeting, which as the days passed
did not seem quite so horrible to her,
and yet a thought of which would
bring the blood to her cheek still on
the instant, had in some way turned
her over to him. His consideration
Of her his gracious tenderness to-
ward her, his absolute abnegation, his
evident overwhelming desire to please
her, to make the anomalous situation
In which they stood TO each other