Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1914-05-21
CHAPTER XIV.
Katharine Decides

Katharine left the neld OF Hunny-
mede with John Valiant In the dun
colored motor. She sat in the drivers
seat beside him, while the bulldog ca
pered, ecstatically barking, from side
to side of the rear cushions. Her
father had declined the honor, remark
ing that he considered a professional
chauffeur a sufficient risk of his valua-
BILE life and that the Chalmers grays
we're good enough Tor him-a decision
which did not wholly displease Katha-
rtne.
The car was not the smart Pan
hard In which she had 80 often spun
down the avenue or along the she'll
roads Of the north shore. 1t lacked
those fln-de-siecle appurtenances which
marked the ne plus ultra of its kind,
as her observant eye recognized; but
it ran staunch and true. The powerful
hands that gripped the steering-wheel
we're brown with sun and wind, and
the handsome face above it had a look
of keenness and energy she had never
surprised before. They passed many
vehicles and there were few whose oc-
tupants did not greet him. In fact,
as he presently remarked, it was a
saving of energy to keep his hat off;
and he tossed the Panama into the
rear seat. On the rim of the village
a group raised a cheer to which he
nodded laughingly, and further on a
little old lady on a timid vine-colored
porch beside a church, waved a black
mitted hand to him with a sweet old
time gesture. Katharine noted hat he
bowed to her with extra care.
That's Miss Matte Sue Mabry," he
said, the quaintest, dearest thing you
ever saw. She taught my father his
letters"
Where the Red Road stretched level
before them, he threw the throttle
open for a long rush through the
thymy-scented air, The light, Late
afternoon breeze drew by them, sweep
ing back Katharine's graceful sinuoui
veil and spraying them with odors o
clover and sunny fruit. They passed
orchard clumps bending with yount
apples, boundless aisles of green
young-tasseled corr and shadowJ
groves that smelled Of fern and sassa
fras, opening out into more sunlightet
vistas overarched by the intense pene
trable of the June sky.
John Valiant had never seemed t.
her 80 wholly good to see, with hi
waving hair ruffling in their flight ant
the westering u shining redly on hi
face. Midway of this squirt he looket
at her to say: did you ever know
more beautiful countryside? See hov
the pink-and-yellow Of those grail
fields fades into the purple of the hills
Very few painters have ever capture
a tint like that. It's like raspberrie
crushed in curdled milk"
i've quite lost my heart to it all,
she said, her voice jolting with tn
speed Of their course Its a perfec
pastoral y = = so different fror
our terrific city pace. e It y c
course it must be a trifle dull at time
& = seeing the same people a
WAYS y . + and without the thei
ter and the opera and the whirl abor
one--but y the kind of lii
one reads about y = 4 in the no
els Of the South, you know " p"
l suppose one doesn't realize that
actually exists until n comes to
Southern place like this. And Il
negro servants! How odd it must
to have a white-haired old darby in
brass-buttoned s~wallow-tail for a bu
Ter! So picturesque! At Judge Cha
mers' l have a feeling all the time TIL
. I'm walking through a stage r
hearsal."
The car slackened speed as it 81
by a white-washed cabin at whose e
g trance sat a dusky gray-bearded Fl
ure. Valiant pointed. do you g.
9 him." he asked.
: "I see a very ordinary old color
man sitting on the doorstep" Kath
g rine replied.
That's Mad Anthony, II loo
d Mother Shipton. He's a prophet a
s%oothsayer. Uncle Jefferson-tha