The Mobridge news. [volume] (Mobridge, Walworth Co., S.D.) 190?-1917, 1914-05-08

his hands together and laughed aloud
Back 10 the SOIL" he said. John
Valiant. farmer The miracle OF ii is
that 1t sounds good TO me. ! want 70
raise my own grub and tin my own
soil. / want TO be my own man, And
I'm beginning 10 see ms way Crops
viii have 20 wait for another season.
but there's water and pasture for cat
tie now There's umber-lots of it
ON that hillside. too must look into
that"
Tie filed his pipe and climbed the
staircase 10 the upper floor. There
We're many bedrooms with great four
posted. %canopied beds and old-fash-
Toned carved furniture Of mahogany
and curly maple. and in one he found
q great cedar-lined chest filled with
bedlinen and napery. In these rooms
We're more evidences OF decay. The
bedroom he mentally chose for his
own was the plainest of all. and was
above the library. fronting the yaga-
bond garden 1t had a great black
desk with many glass-knobbed draw.
ers and a book-rack.
He fingered longest in a room
whose door was painted The Hilarium.
II had evidently been a nursery and
schoolroom Here on the walls we're
many shelves wound over with net
works OF %cobwebs. and piled with the
oldest assemblage OF toys. There
NHTA EnhnnI.hnnE to- F1.4r.,L-l nyA
dos-eared, from First Reader to
Caesars Gallo Wars. with names of
small Naliants scrawled on their fly
leaves. He carefully relocked the door
OF this room; he wanted to dust those
toys and books with his W hands.
In the upper hall again he leaned
from the window, shifting the far
hung scent of orchards and peach
blown fencerows. The soft whirriug
sound Of a birds wing went past, al
most brushing his startled face, and
the old oaks seemed to stretch their
bent limbs with a faithful brute-like
yaWn OF pleasure. In the room below
he could hear the vigorous sound OF
Daphne's hard driven broom and
the sound flooded the echoing space
with a comfortable commotion.
He went TO his trunk and fshed out
a soft shirt on which he knotted a
loose tie, exchanged his Panama for
a SLOUGH hat. and whistling the bar
carole from Tales of Hoffman,. went
gaily out Il feel tremendously alive
he confided TO the dog. as he
tramped through the lush grass. IF
you see me ladle the muck out OF
fountain with my own fair hands,
don't have a fit. I'm liable to do any
Ills eye swept up and down the
slope. There probably isn't a finer
site for a house in the whole South"
he told himself. The living-rooms
south and west. Wen get
scrumptious sunsets from that back
porch. And on the other side there's
view clear to the Blue Ridge"
He skirted the lake. only to grub
out some OF the lilies-there's too
many OF them-and straighten the
rim-and weed tb. pebble margin TO
give those green -ocks a show. III
build a little wharf below them TO dive
from. and-yes. III stock II with
spotted trout"
He was but a few hundred yards
from the house. yet the silence was so
deep that there might have been no
labitation within fifty miles. All at
1nce he stopped short; there was a
sudden movement in the thicket be-
yond-the sound OF light fast footballs,
az OF some n running away.
He made a lunge for the dog, but
with a growl Chuin tore himself from
he restraining grasp and dashed INTO
he bushes. A child, no doubt" he
as he plunged in pursuit. and
hat ~iubberly brute will scare it half
% DEATH"
He pulled up with an exclamation.
IN a narrow wood-path a little way
rom him, partly hidden by a wind
all. stood a girl, her skirt transfi-ed
with a wickedly jagged sapling. He
instantly how it had happened;
he windfall had blocked the way, and
she had sprung clear over it. not
noting the screened spear. which now
leld her 8 e~fectually as any railroad
pike.
In another moment Valiant had
her and met her face, flushed,
lalf defiant, her eyes a blue CLEAN OF
;moldering anger as she desperately.
almost sayagely, thrust wild tendrils
)f lame-colored hair beneath the
broad curved brim OF her straw hat.
Al her feet lay a great armful Of cape
.essamines.
A little thrill, light and warm and
ran through him. Until that
he had not recognized her.