The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-04-26

1 this feverish desire to write he or she cannot appreciate the feelings which prompted me to hold up every dstan as saw it and to lend it color where color might be lacking. Loving Miss Ellen with a passion that absorbed me then, described her as holy priest | might paint the Madonna whom he worshiped and with the accuracy with which the artist might put upon the canvas the features of his wife and children. | 1 My blood ran more rapidly through my veins as sketched Miss Ellen in bold relief and as faithfully described her honest father and manly brother. The names and the locality were con- ceaIed. but not more effectua1ly than the artist might hide the name of the ! mother model who sat for the Ma donna One who had known the art ist and his model would see in the l wrap of the Madonna a shawl the wife i had worn for a score of years in the humble neighborhood and In the 1n-f fant Christ the idealiZed features or the models child. When describing Miss Ellen and her family l felt 1n- spired and uplifted and left nothing out which I thought would enhance the l letter as picture. When I had finished
  I a line, even adding here and there sentence which would lend one more bit of color to the whole
 With this letter I sent note to the editor telling him that I would re- main in the vicinity of Ogletherpe an other fortnight unless he wrote me to the contrary. I said there was l much more material about Oglethorpe which I thought could be used to ad- vantage So> highly did I think. of what I had written that felt reason ably certain he would make no obJec- lions to my plans, and in another two weeks I hoped to have secured Miss ElIen's consent to become my wife.
 She seemed to know by intuition I what was in my heart and what had 1 a mind to do, for she avoided being 1 alone with. me, and whenever we | would walk after that she would ask 1 Bud to go with us. There was a gen 1 tie dignity about her during these last
 few days which kept me at distance, 1 and if I paid her compliment she
 would show annoyance and when our | conversation would become personal l in its nature she would remember
 that she had left something unattend- l ed to or would find some excuse to 1 leave me with a half finished sentence on my lips.
 I soon saw too plainly that she did
 not want me to speak to her of love,
 though she could not prevent my tell
 ing her of it with my eyes and by the
 silent way I would watch her when
 she would work. Squire Hawkins
 came again one evening, but she did not walk with him, and once when
 Bud got up to leave saw her lay her
 hand ever so gently on his sleeve,
 which was sufficient to have kept him l in his seat all night long had she wish | ed it.
 One morning she received letter at the breakfast table, and after opening it and glancing at the signature she
 slipped it in her belt, and when break | fast was over she went quietly out of the room, and I did not see her again that day. For several days, in fact,
 she avoided me altogether, and be-
 came wretched in the thought that had been mistaken after all; that she cared nothing more for me than she | did for any one else, even Squire Flaw | kins
 In fact, I was not so very sure about
 the squire. I heard that he was the richest planter in the county and had | She proud distinction of owning the
 only plantation which was not encum-
 bered with a mortgage He was an
 old friend of the family, and Bud liked
 him, and Miss Ellen herself did not
 seem to have anything against him. l
 might be a pauper for all~ she knew, l and so I told myself, but on thinking
 it over in my room at night I became
 convinced that Miss Ellen would never
 marry save where she loved, and that l hn fhn T
 have sworn.