East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1914-06-19

for sometbing-something which an OBJ |
trusively insistent thought told her had
been in the rough, unpublished lines Of
other letters, received year ago
short, rugged letters burning with the
white fire of strong man s love.
Her eyes fell on the lines, $50, my
bird, my little singer of sweet songs, we
will take flight from this land Of gloom,
and somewhere, far from its cloudy
shores, build a nest together beneath
southern skies!" Only q few hours
ago these very words had filled her
foolish little soul with ecstasy. Now,
they seemed a trifle vague-unsatisfy-
ing. Somehow the "building of nest
beneath Southern skies" seemed to her
at this moment thing less desirable
than the going back into an ordinary
homely room in the Gland of gloom, 3"
where a tired man was sitting lonely
and dull, brooding over a fire which
he was almost certainly letting 60 out.
All! There ahead glittered the lights
of the station. How near they werel.
The Other Man would be awaiting her
there.
Suddenly her hand shot up; the trap
flew open.
"I-think I'll get down here" she
gasped.
She left the amazed driver looking
wonderingly at just double his proper
fare, crossed the road and in five min
utes time was hurrying back over the
way she had come, as fast as the fast
est taxi would take her,S
The latchkey was still in her pocket.
She slipped it in, crept lightly through
the .hall-the sitting room door was
shut now-upstairs to her room.
How strangely unchanged it looked
considering that century had pass
ed since a silly woman had left it and
started off on the road to-whatf But
the silly woman had come backbone
back home.
i She unpacked the little bag with i'm
patient hands, hiding it away. She tore
off the unsuitably dark garments, put
on her dainticst house frock, combed
out her curly hair, fastened the spark
ling earrings in her little pink ears.
Then she went down.
He was still sitting where she had
left him. The room looked cheerless
and as she had expected, the fire need
ed attention. He was gazing into its
dull embers listlessly, the book he had
been reading lying beside him, face
downward on the floor.
He did not look up as she opened the
door, but when bright little vision
passed him to go down on its knees,
hearth brush in hand, between him and
the forgotten fire, his whole face
changed.
"Childie, You,n he exclaimed. az
thought it was one Of the maids
You've come back-I am gladl What
happenedi"
"Nothing-nothing happened" she
. said, rather breathlessly. II just came
back. 1 thought you would be lonely
and-and cross-and- knew you d
! let the fire out-and-"
But tears were splashing on the
hearth brush and the shovel, and the
fire was not getting made up properly
after all. So the neglectful husband
leaned forward and drew the Neglected
Wife up bodily into his arms.
"Look here, little woman" he said
, "you and have been going the wrong
way and work lately, and it, got to be
different. I've been seeing it all since
you said what you did just now. I've
, been thoughtless brute, very likely
wrapped up in my own profession. But
, you haven't troubled as you might te
enter into the difficulties or under
stand what the strain of it is some
times. We've been drifting toward
shipwreck, dear, but there's not going
, to be any shipwreek if my wife will
help me steer. See, little one. Will you
,, help me steeri"
! "oh, will, I will; yes, ] will" she
sobbed Historically, winding her arms
tightly round his neck, and wondering
: whether. she would ever have the cour
! age to tell him how very near they had
A IL. -. - ~-k,nh h.