The Washington herald., 1913-07-20

81 gotta stay home and cut brush"
mol" she cried out. "No-no!"
"Yes. Paw says the jedge, he don
it. He says the law made us all bad
'Tain't for poor folks. It's for rich
! Paw says damn everybody
Don't you mind" The girl bea
the rail with her fists. We'll ru,
away, Knute! I'm going to do some
thing, and you can run off, and mayb
work on the railroads. train agent O.
something! Or 60 be a soldier lik
We used to play! Or we'll run off ant
build boat and drift down riverI
Whenever Aurelie rebelled it was al
ways down river" with her.
No; paw, h. said God was witt
him, and damn everybody
She stared into his tear-stained face
'knute, l just got to go to school.
got to be a lady! And have heaps o
money! And do lots of things fol
and Peter! Oh, Knute, / know how! +!
He watched her dark and tragic face
Know how? What you going to do
Aurelie?' He faltered his horror
Whatever it was, Aurelie would do it.
"l-she breathed tensely-"am ago
ing to get marrIed?'
Knute looked fearfully at the jade
Married."
Yes, sir. To a rich man, some.
time! And have everything! But first
| got to 60 to school and be lady!"
"Oh, Aurelie- Knute gazed
wildly away at the town lights
Who"
Then, without a word, she pushed
him aside and fled out into the dark
He saw trail of dust arise in the
quarry road, but she was over the
fence and among the laurel and grape
vines. She ran, as the deer run, from
boulder to boulder of the cliff face,
and when she came out on the verge,
still ran, her arm against her beating
heart, but her eyes fixed on the dusk
below her.
The tree-enshrouded town lay there,
a few lights twinkling drowsily, the
clock in the courthouse an Opaque blur,
and single church spire visible in the
shadowy masses A farmers wagon
ratified up a cut of hill road home
ward, a dog barked sleepily, and a
cow-bell tinkled somewhere on the
content of the rich land. But the girl
raised her hands above the sumac
fringe from which the gossamer floated
to her face: she held them off as If
appealing from the fat and sober dead
ness of this life TO the world beyond.
There was the river winding south un-
der the first light of the September
moon. There was the East. She
edged forward in the red sumac until
her feet were on the last bit of the
cliff, where one stood with infinity be-
valley so much a phantom.
Now, I'll go" she whispered; now
he'll have to take mel"
And staring eastward, her heart
ceasing to throb with the rapture of
her flight, a little sigh came to her
lips. Listening, she heard a twig snap,
step below on the cliff trail. She
crouched Indian-like in the brush, and
then, when some one uprose in the
path, she flung herself upon him, clasp
ing him, laughing, crying, kissing him.
oh, boy" she cried, Pm going
with you-to East and college-any-
wherer She reached a hand out to
the purple gulf beyond the hill. There.
| cant. deep on meeting you every
night alone-and be good. 1t isn't in
mel can't can't!"
She fought to hold him closer, cry
ing her passion, caressing him with
little love-words of her vagabond child
hood, In French and Spanish; and ever
coming back to her kisses and the rap
ture OF his embrace You can't leave
me-oh, Harlan-you can't ever
againr'