Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1914-11-27

MP her purse. counted ont the money
in the irelight and went out the door
and down the street In the dusk and
into the p~ostofice. which was also the
telegraph office. one which the little
town owed to Ebenezer Rule. and 1t a
rival to the other telegraph Office at the
station.
'How much does it cost to send a
telegram" she demanded. Idaho
she answered the mans question.
flushing at her omission.
While the man. After by name. la
boriously looked it up, covering in
credible little dirty figures with an In
credibly big dirty f~oreinger, Mary
stood staring at the list Of names
tackled below the dog cared Christmas
notice. She remembered that she had
not yet signed it herself. She asked
for a pencil. causing confusion to the
little figures and delay to the big fin
ger, and. while she waited, wrote her
name. "a good. sensible move she
thought as she signed.
When After gave her the rate. thrust
ing finger and figures Jointly beneath
the bars. solicitous of his own accu-
racy, Mary filed her message. 1t was
to John Blood and 1t read:
"Be sure o tie his tag on him
good"
Ebenezer Rule had meant to go to
the city before cold weather came. He
had there a small and decent steam
warmed fat. where he boiled his own
eggs and made his own coffee. read
his newspapers and kept his counsel.
descending nightly to the ground floor
cafe to dine oil ambiguous dishes at
tables of other bank swallows who
nested in the same cliff. But as the
days went by he found himself staying
on in Old Trail Town, with this excuse
and that. offered by himself to him
self. As, for example. that in the fac
tory there we're old account books that
he must go through. And having put
off this task from day to day and find
ing at last nothing more to daily with
uG btI Jul OuG LnOininS " bAC dAACtCAt
building down in that part of the vii
lage which was older than the rest and
was where his business was conducted
when it was conducted.
1t had showed in the night. and
Buff Miles. who drove the village snow
pillow, was also driver Of the bus"
So on the morning after a snowfall the
streets always lay buried thick until
after the $40 express came In. and
since on the morning following a snow
fall the $40 express was always late.
Old Trail Town lay locked in a kind Of
circular argument and everybody stay
ed indoors or stepped high through
drifts. The direct way to the factory
was virtually %untrodden. and Ebenezer
made a detour through the business
street in search of some semblance OF
a track"
The light of a winter morning is not
kind, only just. 1t is just to the sky
and discovers 1t to be dominant; to
trees and their lines are seer to be
alive. like leaves; to folk. and no dis
guise avails. Summer gives compile
ments and accessories to the good
things in a human face. Winter affords
nothing save disclosure. In the I'M
compromising cleanness of that wash
of winter light Ebenezer Rule was him
self. for anybody to see. Looking like
countless other men-lean. alert. pre-
occupied, his tall figure stopped. his
smooth. pale face like a photograph too
much retouched this commonplace
man took his place in the day almost
as one of its externals. With that
glorious pioneer trio-mineral. vegeta-
table and animal-and with intellect,
that worthy tool. he did his days work.