Grand Forks daily herald and the evening times., 1914-07-14

house was rented, and it was poor Of
it's kind. Always there had been IN
her heart the sweet hope that some
day soon she would have a home of
her own. THAI hope seemed SUDDENLY
to ave died.
It was still an hour before her ia
ther would return to supper. After
she had hung UP her shawl she went
to her room. A wooden chest stood
under the window. She knelt down
and lifted the lid. Within lay the
things she had begun to make os soon
as she became engaged to Alec Mac
Laren. They represented more than
mere handiWork; they represented
dreams, hopes, and above all self
denial. She had gone without a new
hat to buy that linen tablecloth. Her
father had given her the money to use
as she would. and after a struggle she
sacrifice as h hemmed it. She had
had visions of her own table spread
with this cloth, with Alec smiling over
it to her. She had gone without a
dress she needed in order to get linen
towels. They were a little yellow
now, for it had been seven years since
she finished hemming them and put
them away.
Lower and lower she dropped over
s"o ASooo SiiSot, uIllll A6r NGdQ
rested upon its edge. The sharp wood
cut her forehead, but she did not feel
1t. Her tears fell and her heart
seemed to be bursting with pain and
humiliation.
When Mabel Hawkins, happy BRIDE
to-be, had asked Rachel when she
was going to be married she had only
lone what somebody else was doing
every day. Everybody was wonder
ing n asking why she and Alec did
not marry. Alec had a good job; he
could afford to keep a wife. He was
saving money. He had, too, reached
an age when a man is supposed to
want a home. 1t all seemed very
strange to the neighhors, who had
brought daughters up to womanhood
n married them since Rachel had
been engaged.
1t wac beginning to be almost more
than h could bear. Doubt troubled
her. The contents of her dover chest
grave clothes. There was very little
difference between them ana those
things her mother had left behind her
when she died. It came to her
strangely that she could not bear the
sight or smell of these linen things.
INC when she rose and shut down the
lid h felt that there was no use in
her making a comfort like Mabel's.
n had removed the traces of tears
~hen her rather came home. He was
a small, stopped man. He washed
at the sink, combed his nne white
peard and hair with a pocket comb
and took his seat at the table.
They saw were going to have a
hot, dry summer" he began. az sort
Of dread 1t. too. Funny that the heat
willis me right down now; and I never
used to mind. I'd like awful well to
er sets In"
ira like awful well 70 have Vol,
get out of it., father" she replied.
Eyes, sir" he sighed, .Im real kind
OF sick OF the shop. I was working
there before I ever met your mother.
I hain't had many days off since.
I've kinda made reclining all winter
on going u to Dams this summer"
lis tired eyes looked away into the
Rachel knew what he was
rted and had a ranch out In kansas.
q he was anxious to have his ia
ther come out and live with him. For
seven years there had been an agree
ment that as soon as Rachel married
her father should 60 out to Dams.
old man looked forward to this
with chtldish eagerness. He had lived
on ranch in his boyhood days and
ne longed TO be out OF the shob in
den him hope and wait. Next spring
perhaps. But now 1t was the seventh
spring, nj still Alec said nothinei
Rachel" he said abruptly. they
amt any prospect OF your being mar
ried this summer, Is thsy?n
She looked into his y mo. Ia
ther," she replied.