Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-12-30

over 10 Mary Chavah'S next Tuesday
night?''
She looked up from the loaf she was
cutting. the habitual wonder OF her
childish curved lashes accented by her
sudden curving OF eyebrows
Next Tuesday," she said. "why.
that's Christmas eve-'
Abel explained. saying. What OF
that" and trying to speak indiffer.
emily but. in spite OF himself. shining
through.
We'll. that's kind OF nice to do. amt
itT' she answered.
My. yes" Abel said emphatically.
IT'S a thing to do-that's the thing
TO do
1t was Mis- Mortimer Bates. the non
conformist by nature. in whom doubts
came nearest 20 expression.
Il don't know" she said: 1T kind of
does seem like hedging"
They amt anybody for IL to seem
to- Mis- Winslow contended reason
ably. but us. And we understand"
We was going to do entirely with
out Christmas this year Entirely
without" Mis- Bates rehearsed.
Was we going to do entirely with
out every day. week day. year in and
year out milk OF human kindness?"
Mis- Winslow demanded. well. then.
let's use n little OF II. same as we
would on a Monday wash day"
No voice was raised in real protest
None who had signed the paper and
none who had not done so could take
exception to this simple way OF hos
pitality 10 the little stranger with
q ny ff hA
little town being a little town that
they somehow let it be known that
every one was expected to look in at
Mary's that night. No one was I'M
invited. And this was like n part OF
the midwinter mystery expressing IT
self unbidden.
Mary alone was not told. She had
consistently objected to the Christ
mas observances for so long that they
feared the tyranny OF her custom
She might not let us do it." they
said. but if we all get there she can't
help liking It. She would on any 9TH !
or day
So she alone in Old Trail Town woke /
that morning before Christmas with 1
no knowledge of this that was afoot 1
And yet the day was not like any 9th |
er day. because she lay there drcading |
IL more.
She had cleared out her little sleep /
ing room as she had cleared the lower /
floor. The chamber. with its white .
plaStered walls and boards nearly |
bare and narrow white bed. had tn.
look OF cell in the first light strug-
CLING through the single snow framed
Here since her childhood she
had lain nightly: here she had brought
her thought of Adam Blood and had
seen the thought die and had watched
with IL: here she had lain on the nights
after her parents had died: here she
had rested. body sick with fatigue. I'm
the years that she had toiled 20 keep
her home In all that time there had
gone on within her fnany kinds OF
Heath. She had arrived somehow at Il
lumb feeling that these dyings were
gradually uncoverinG herself from
within; rather uncoverinS
some self whose existence she only
limly guessed. "They's two of me-"
the had thought more often of late.
and We don't meet-we don't meet"
She lived among her neiGhbors without
nate. without malice; for years she
lad meant nothing but love" and
his not negatively. The rebellion
gainst Christmas was against only
he falsity of its meaningless observ-
nee. The rebellion against nking the
hid. though somewhat grounded in
Ter distrIIst of her own fitness. was
eally the last vestige of self that
nd chung TO her in bitterness not to-
yard Adam. but toward Lily. Ever
ince she had known that the child
vas coming she had felt n kind OF ,
piritual exhaustion. sharpened by the
TRANCE sense of oppression that hung
pom her like an illness.
II feel as If something was going :
D happen she kept saying.
In a little while she leaned toward =
be window at her beds head and look
d down the hill toward Jenny's. Her ?
- =