Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1914-05-07
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hair-the color of wet raw wood in
the sunlight-was very near the brown
head and sometimes their fingers
touched over the work. Once, as they
stood up, flushed with the exercise, a
great black and orange butterfly,
dazed with the sun-glow. alighted on
Valiant's r~olled-up sleeve. He held his
arm perfectly still and blew gently
on the wavering pinions till it swan
away. When a redbird firted by, to
his delight she whistled Its call so
perfectly that it wheeled in mid-fight
and tilted inquiringly back toward
them.
AS they descended the terrace again
to the pergola, he said, There's only
one thing lacking at Damory Court
a sun-dial." ti
Then you haven't found it?" she
cried de~lightedly. Come and let me
show you"
She led the way through the maze
of beds at one side till they reached
a hedge laced thickly with Virginia
creeper. He parted this leafy screen,
bending back the springing fronds
that thrust against the fiimsy muslin
of her gown and threatened to spear
the pink-rosed hat that cast an ador-
able warm tint over her creamy face,
thinking that never had the old place
seen such a picture as she made
framad in tho dam Oroon
Some such thought was in the ma
jor's mind, too, as he came slowly up
the terrace below. He paused, to take
off his hat and wipe his brow.
With the place all fixed up this
way" he sighed to himself, Il could
believe it was only last week that
Beauty Valiant and Southall and |
were boys, loafing around this gyar-
den. And to think that now it's Va
liants son and Judith's daughter!
Why, it seems like yesterday that Shir-
ley there was only knee-high to a
grasshopper-and | used to tell her
her hair was that color because she
a through hell bareheaded. I'm
about a thousand years old, l reckon!"
Meanwhile the two figures above
had pushed through the tangle into
a circular sunny space where stood a
short round pillar of red onyx. 1t was
a sun-dial, its vine-clad disk cut Of
gray polished stone in which it's metal
tongue was socketed. Round the outer
| edge of the disk ran an inscription
in archaic lettering. Valiant pulled
away the clustering Ivy leaves and
read: Il count no hours but the hap
Ply ones"
IF that had only been truel" he
said.
TT is true. See how the vines hid
the sun from 1t. 1t ceased to mark
the time after the Court was de-
serted"
"TIl put moonflowers at its base and
where you are standing, Madonna
lilies. The outer part of the circle
shall have b~ridal-wreath and white
irises, and they shall shade out into
pastel colors-mauves and grays and
heliotropes. oh, l shall love this spot!
perhaps sometime the best OF all"
(which do you love the most now?'
He leaned slightly toward her, one
hand on the dial's time-notched rim.
Don't you know" he said In a lower
voice. Gould any other spot mean to
me what that acre under the hemlocks
means?'
Her face was turned from him, her
fingers pulling at the drifting vine, and
a splinter of sunlight tangled in her
hair like a lace of flrefiies.
Il could never forget it." he con.
tinued. THE thing that spoiled my
fathers life happened there, yet there
we two first talked, and there you"
DON'T" she said, facing him
DON'T"
"Ah, let me speak! want to tell
you that ! shall carry the memory Of
that afternoon, and Of your brave kind
ness, always, always! If l were never
to see you again in this life, l SHOULD
always treasure it. If l died of thirsi
in some Sahara, 1t would be the las
thing I should remember-your face
would be the last thing should see
II T."
In the silence there vas the SOUND
of a slow football On the gravel walk
and at the same moment he saw
magical change. Shirley drew back
The soft gentian blue of her eye
darkened. The lips that an instan
before had been tremulous, parted il
a low delicious laugh. She swept hin
a deep curtsey.
Il am beholden to you, sir" sh,
said gaily, for a most knightly CON
pliment. There's the major. Com
and let us show him where we'v