Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1913-11-07

AOAA19 IAA&f ~ ~ A4 40
lected. | can't go with Jackie very
often on account of the babies. He'll
get you a good pony and turn you
loose on them. and. my. oh, the good
you'll do them. A special providence.
I call itr'
Mae Maude smiled as the immediate
past rushed before her minds eye" A
queer kind of providence. she thought
But she fell into line and was soon gal
Looping over plain and prairie. a full
sized benediction In the settlers homes
and the backbone of the nearest school
house Sunday school, to which the cow
boys hocked for miles around for "a
good look at the new super, just on
from the east"
One Sabbath Mrs. Agnes crimsoned
to the roots of her hair with the ter
rible publicity of telling the Sunday
school folks about the bee" they were
going to have. to put up a lean-to, with
a porch for vines, to give the new su-
perintendent a living room. and would
they all come? And those who hadn't
any women folks of their own to bring
to help get the big dinner and supper
might bring somebody else's. and Mr..
Duncan was over on Forty Mile run or
he'd give 1t out. but they'd all come
just the same and have a mighty good
time putting up the new Sunday
school lady's lean-to.
When Mae Maude climbed up on the
rear car Of the express. after throw
ing her old shawl and her boys hat
into the river that bleak November
night of the baby's funeral. she was
sure she could never laugh again. But
when Mrs. Agnes told Jack the next
day about her announcement of the
"bee' Mae Maude had to put the frills
on the story. Jack Duncan caught his
wee, plump wife in his arms. with a
baby or two thrown in for good meas
ure, their squeals of merriment ac-
c~ompanying his full throated American
laugh. their heels kicking his broad
chest gleefully. while the second edi-
ton of Melville Tremaine squeezed his
mothers neck. shouting mildly: I'VE
don't have to preach. momsy and me.
We'm goin' to farm IT,
Then all Joined, big and little. In the
chorus of laughter. and there came
neal being a riot of hugs and kisses.
Mae Maude. with the help Of the
second generation of Duncans and her
correspondence with the back to the
soil' wise men of Washington. made
the manse ten acre lot bud and bios
som as the rose. Many a good hint did
she give the settlers and their wives
that made her word on farming It"
take the place of their '.rule of thumb"
methods.
Dan Wetherell. a thoroughgoing
young ranchman, with his eye OF the
legislature. noticed her neat, trim ap-
pearance while she took notes in the
.lecture car and increased the fire.
quency of his visits at the manse.
One day he quizzed Mrs. Agnes about
her friends widowhood. quite shock
ing her by asking her If it were sod
or grass"
Mae Maude heard only the word
widow" but it sent the "creeps'' up
and down her spine. After that Dan
Wetherell might as well have tried TO
win one of Grenfel's Labrador peaks.
IL hCPt IaO OA lhC hOllC iOAho
through the Duncans. ever to the mys-
FERROUS disappearance of Melville Ire
maine soon after her own. Every
body had given him up for dead; but.
woman fashion. she held stubbornly
the hope that she would see him again
her very own-the noble fellow that
he was when she first knew him. Hay-
ing beer through the ordeal herself
and knowing how they always thought
along the same lines when he was him.
self, she looked for him to come to her
permanently redeemed.
One evening a day or two before
Thanksgiving John Duncan came home
from a two weeks trip. He was silent
and absentminded. though the small
house was fairly tipsy with merriment.
Agnes usual ~expedient of putting the
baby in his arms was a fiat failure. 1t
came near breaking the child's neck.
for he set it down on the floor, It's long
clothes wadded about its useless feet,
and when 1t was tumbling over on its
small nose he took 1t. this way and
that. as he would have done a bag of
grain to make it stand OIL end
Mrs. Agnes sprang to the rescue
"For mercy's sake. jack"
He came TO. the surface long enough
to beg the baby's pardon and stop with
a big. brushy kiss its issue of protest
ing notes. Come, Aggy. let's go and
take a walk"
He drew her hand into the bend of
his eIhow- leaving the bahy and the
Thanksgiving box that had just ar
rived from the home church. the o
tents of which the junior Duncans
were almost perishing to explore
just fairly beyond earshot he broke
out with. Lost my trail Yesterday. Ag
gle. and you can't CUES whom | ran
across"