The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1914-02-28

takes root" she said aloud, my sweet
heart loves me-" She leaned from the
sill to peer down into the misty gar
den, but could not follow its fall.
Long ago her visitor would have
reached Damory Court. She had a
vision of him wandering, candle In
hand, through the empty echoing
rooms, looking at the yoiceless por-
traits on the walls. thinking perhaps
of his father, Of the fatal duel OF which
he had never known. She liked the
way he had spoken of his father!
AS she leaned, out Of the stiffness
there came to her ear a mellow sound.
1t was the bell Of the courthouse in
the village. She counted the strokes
falling clearly or family as the slug
gish breeze ebbed or swelled. It was
eleven.
She drew back, dropped the curtain
to shut out the wan glimmer, and in
the darkness crept into the soft bed
as if into hiding-place,
.
A warm sun and az air mildly mel
low. A faint gold Swallowed mist over
the valley and a soft lilac haze blend
ing the rounded outlines OF the hills.
Through the shrubbery at Damory
Court cardinal darted like Grim
son shuttle, to rock impudently from
a fieering limb, and here and there
on the bluish-ivory sky, motionless as
pasted wafer hung hawk; from
time to time one of these wavered and
slanted swiftly down, to climb once
more in huge spiral to Its high tower
of sky.
Perhaps It wondered, as Its tele-
scopic eye looked down. That had
been its choicest covert. that DISNEY
eed tangle where the birds held per
petual carnival the weasel lurked in
the underbrush and the rabbit lined
his windfall. Now the wildness was
gone. A pergola, glistening white. now
upheld the runaway vines, making a
sicklelike path from the upper ter
race to the lake. In the barn loft the
pigeons still quarrelled over their new
cotes of fresh pine. and under a clump
of locust trees at little distance from
the house, a halfdozen dolls cabins
on stills stood waiting the honey stor'
age of the black and gold bees,
There were new denizens, also
These had arrived in a.. dozen zinc
tanks and willow hampers, to the
amaze Of sleepy express clerk at the
railroad station: two swans now sailed
majestcally over the lily-ponds of the
lake. along its gravel rim and a pair
of bronze colored ducks waddled and
preened, and its placid surface rippled
and broke to the sluggish backs Of
goldfish and the flirting fms Of red
Japanese carp.
The house itself wore another air.
It's look of unkemptness had largely
vanished. The soft gray tone of age
remained, but the bleakness and for
lornness were gone: there was about
all now a warmth and genial bearing
that limited at mellowed beauty. fire.
light and cheerful voices within.
Valiant heaved a long sigh of salts
faction as he stood in the sunlight gaz'
ing at the results of his labors He
was not now the fiippant boulevardier
to whom money was the sine qua non
of existence. He had learned sover-
eign lesson--one gained not through
the push and fight OF crowds. but in
the simple peace of countryside, I'M
vexed by the clamor of gold and the
complex problems of competitive ex'
istence-that he had inherited need
of activity, of achievement that he had
been born to do.
"Chur," he said, to the dog rolling
on his back in the grass. what do
You think of it all, anyway He
reached down, seized hind leg and
whirling him around like teetotum,
, gent him flying into the bushes.
whence Chum launched again upon
him Ike eatapult lie caught the
white Shoulders aud held him wise like.
| Just about right, Ell? But Wait till
We get those rambiersi"
--~--s~az-sa. s----->-~----- ~ .asesssrs