The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1913-11-14
(Copyrigh. 1913. by W. wer,

(CopNrish, 1913. by w. Werner.)
Mary Shannon sat on the doorstep
watching the highway that lay, white
in the summer dust, half IL mile op.
posite across the valley. Intervening
charmingly were bright flats on either
side of Il shallow. shadowy river.
Beyond the highway rose hills, still
as Mary'S eyes. 1t VAS an cNpanse
of beauty ana the girl on the door
step felt it us such even though she
had been seeing il all her life long
But the highway Interested her more.
For there on this afternoon, AS on
others. flashed the shining cars of the
towns fortunate, filled with comfort-
able men and gaHlS yelled and bon
neted women.
Mary knew very we'll that the broad
highway WITS for the moneycd and
favored ones. The narrow road was
: for her. 1t was SO narrow Il road
and SO lonely: \ hundred feet far
ther down the slope upon which her
like Il scorned thins. stealing between
rank weeds and bushes which gath
cred the dust from al i%nfrequent
wagon. For sometimes Il wagon did
takc this way to town. but no auto.
mobile ever had left the trail Of its
big, padded wheels there.
The act that the road was so sell
dom travelled made the situation OF
Mary;s house very lonely. Ii was Il
tiny house. gray as the abandoned
hornets nest that chung under the
caves and as battered hy wind and
weather. Before it was Il hi; Of yard
tunias and pansics grew IN II tanSlc.
\ few ruinous stone steps led from
It doWn the bank to the road.
Mary had lived there all her wen
" years. For six years she had lived
unmothercd. Her father worked with
Il team in the big woods back on the
mountain hauling lumber. There was
danger there. but at least not
otony. Mary thought that her fa-
Their had the better of ii. Yet she
complained to him. He had il
hard enough. She kept her miscries
silent aud i'll other ways tried In make
now to no. Yet. she had her %longingS,
her dreams. She yearned for some
thing different than she had. How
ever. if ever she had tried To put her
feelings into words she could scarce
ly have made them comprehensive.
She only knew that she attained to
the impossible in ONE shape or other
and that she was no like other girls.
h n of her experiences was
limited. She had got IL little school,
ing and added to it by reading the
books that her mother had brought
To the little gray house. Her mother
had been a rare woman. When she
ran away with Moss shannon her
life ended as it We're. But she had
tried to pass something on to the
daughter who was like her. And
Mary had accepted the training. At
twenty her whole philosophy If life
resolved itself into this one thing
better to live in the gray house for
did. And vet Mary knew nothing OF
lei Gor her father did not bring his
mates to the house) save what her
eyes showed her.
Now as she sat on the doorstep and
watched the highway she wondered
much. The day and the scene called
her. She was young; she wanted some
one to talk to; she wanted 1--we and
tenderness. Since her mothers death
she had not known a caress She
wanted companionship, nut whether
that OF man or woman she could not
tell. She had read all her books I'M
ii, she knew them by heart.
Suddenly her hands. restless FOR
employment. moved and grasped the
ends Of the two endless. heavy blond
brafds that lay in her lap and began
to undo them. She was dimly con-
Even in pictures she seldom saw so