Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1913-10-24
1--WE reap what we SOW.
We reap what we SOW
q see you remember

80 NS
ing? The past is cut off from my life.
| have been pardoned, and will not
have anybody forcing that past upon
me-"
Her words came bitingly: you
can't help it. You sowed. You can't
pardon a seed from growing"
81 a help it, and I will. The past
is no more mine than hers-our mar
riage was legal, but 1t bound me no
more than it bound her. She chose
her own companions. I have been
building up a respectable life. here in
Littleburg. You shall not overturn
the labor of the last ten years. You
can go. My will is unalterable. Co
and do what you can!"
Instead of anger, Fran showed sor-
row: How long have you been mar
ried to the second Mrs. G~regory-the
present one?"
He turned his back upon her as if
to go to the door, but he wheeled
about: "Ten years. You understand?
Ten years of the best work of my life
that you want to destroy"
Poor lady," murmured Fran. 1.-THE
first Mrs. Gregory-my 'friend'-has
been dead only three years. You and
she were never divorced. The lady
that you call Mrs. Gregory now-she
isn't your wife, is she?"
9" thought" he was suddenly
Rshen pale-"but I thought that she
I believed her dead long ago-I was
sure of it-positive. What you say is
impossible"
But no one can SOW without reap
Ing" Fran said, still pityingly. when
you sang those words, 1t was only a
song to you. but music is just a bit
OF iife's embroidery, while you think
it life itself. You don't SOW, or reap
in a choir loft. You can't SOW deeds
and reap words"
." understand you, now" he fall
tered. you have come to disgrace
me. What good will that do you, or
or my first wife? You are nc abstrac-
ton, to represent sowing and reaping,
but a desh-and-blood girl who can go
away If she chooses"
"She chooses to stay" Fran assured
him.
J0o a6fO 1C0O1fCQ W Iulu m0
and break my wife's hearth" The
sweet, accomplishing face of the sec
ond Mrs. Gregory rose before him.
And Grace Noir-what would she
think?
mo, I'm just here to have a home"
"Will you enjoy a home that you
seize by force?"
Don't they say that the Kingdom
of God may be taken by force? But
you know more about the Kingdom
than |. Let them believe me the
daughter of some old boyhood friend
-thatll make 1t easy. AS the daugh-
ter of that friend, you'll give me a
home. Illkeep out of your way, and
be pleasant nice little girl, of any
g you please" She smiled remotely.
He spoke DULY: But they'll want
to know all about that old college
friend"
Naturally. Well, just invent some
story-ITl stand by you"
you don't know me-" he returned,
drawing himself up. What! do you
imagine would lie to them?"
Il think" Fran remarked imperson-
ally, that to a person in your posi-
tion-a person beginning to reap what
ne has sown, lying is always the next
course. But you must act as your
conscience dictates. You may be
sure that If you decide to tell the
truth, I'll certainly stand by you in
that"
Helplessly driven to bay. he flashed
out violently, Unnatural girl-or
woman-or whatever you are-there
is no spirit of girlhood or womanhood
in you"
Fran returned in a low, concentrate
ed voice, "If I'm unnatural, what we're
you in the Springfield days? Was 1t
natural for you to be married secretly
when the marriage might have been
public? When you went away to
break the news to your father, wasn't
1t rather unnatural for you to hide
three years before coming back?
When you came back and heard that
your wife had gone away to be sup
ported by people who were not re-
spectacle, was 1t natural for you to
be satisfied with the first rumors you
heard, and disappear for good and all?
AS for me, yes, / have neither the
spirit of girlhood nor womanhood, for
I'm neither a girl, nor a woman, I'm
nothing" Her voice trembled. Don't
rouse my anger-when l lose grip on
myself, I'm pretty hard to stop. If ]
let everything rush on my mind-how
she-my sfriend-my sweet darling
.ffriend-how she searched for you all