The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1914-07-27

s ss'S se the s, Rs7i' XE
strained to the
breaking point BY weeks of enervating
dry heat.
He had looked across the table with
a look in his eyes hers could not
bear.
"Will-you-shut-up!"
She had sat stunned for a moment,
and then, choking down dry sob,
said
I'm sorry, Dick. You've been so
worried. It's been terrible-this
year"
His face did not soften, and he
laughed harshly.
Eyes, this year and last, and the
year before that, and all the rest of
the years to come probably" He
stood up abruptly. I'm going to
town"
She noticed the slight stoop of the
boyish shoulders and the listless drag
of his feet, and then she turned and
looked out across the baking fields,
where the crowding rows of gray.
green corn dropped as If the heat
were heavy and bearing them down.
The child that lay on the bed tossed
and walled fretfully. After she had
soothed 1t back into an uneasy slum.
Der, she commenced to clear the
table. working swiftly to ease the con.
striction in her breast.
When her fingers touched the fine.
ly-chiseled edges Of the cut-glass sugar.
bowl that stood so anonymously amid
their homely ware, she paused and
whispered aloud the thought that this
bare touch had awakened.
He travels the fastest who travels
alone"
His mother had said 1.-THE same
who had given them the sugar-bowl-
said 1t in her presence when she and
Dick had gone to tell her their re.
solve. that they were going to be mar.
ried.
Placing the ironing board across the
backs of two chairs, she lifted the
iron from the stove and tested it with
molstened finger. The light breeze
that stirred the curtains felt cool on
her damp brow, but. she did not look
up to see the green haze.
Neither did she note the far-sff hum.
like the hum of bees when they gath.
er at the home hive at nightfall-a
hum that grew louder, and swelled in
volume till 1t sounded like the rumble
OF thousand busy looms-louder,
louder.
An eery note sang through it; loud.
er and higher, and louder and higher
like the increasing roar Of advancing
war.
The shrieks Of the child seemed fee
BILE and impotent In the face of tho
roar, as she seized it up and plunged
head down into the swirling dust ont.
side.
For moment she was but a play.
thing Of the storm that whirled her
skirts above her head and blinded her.
She was hurtled along until she STUN.
bled and fell to her knees on a mound
OF earth. which with a heart.leap of
Joy she recognized as the storm.house.
Then the door yielded, crashed down
over their heads, and from pande.
monium she stepped into peace.
Long she sat with wide-stretched
eyes staring into the darkness of their
refuge, until things began to take on
a dim, ghostly shape, and even the
dirt wall opposite came into view.
The mutter was dying lower and
lower, and the whine was stilled.
when suddenly there came a clear.
sharp tap on the tin door of their
refuge. She caught her breath and
strained to hear. Yes, there was an.
other, and two, three, four, until il
sounded like the preliminary rattle
and then the full rolling of a drum.
The woman breathed in deeply, All.
dloly, and then she screamed:
Baby 1.-THE rain!-the rain!"
Swiftly she rushed up the four steps
and pushed back the trap-door, half
soooing' half laughing crafty. She
iiited her arms and let the water
stream down her upturned face, as il
she were drinking it in along with
the thirsty earth.
1t was salvation to her life that had
been so near ruin that very day, for