The Ekalaka eagle. [volume] (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920, 1914-06-12
The Life of a Willful Bow
Who Set Upon Himself the
Responsibility Of Avenging
His Fathers Murder :: :: ::

mouse 10 rights ana arranging Il coll
dinner for her father and mother. as
she herself meant to take her own din
ner ut Mrs. Tompkins'-Mrs. DAVIS |
sister. who lived in the Draft not very
far below the schoolhouse, and who
was always ready to give the girl a
meal. even if no store of affection for
her or slightest interest in her went
with it.
Already Ellen was somewhat tired
from her mornings work, and there
still lay before .hcr the long walk to
the Draft. She was tired and she was
dishcartened. for besides the usual
weary hardness of her life's outlook,
just now the hurt that Adrian Blair
had given her still lay fresh in her
heart and stung her keenly whenever
she let her thoughts go back to it.
And 60 back to it they would in spite
of her determination to put it behind
her. Adrian's rough words, spoken as
she supposed in contempt, returned to
her mind owe and over, is Dave
Cree cr sweetheart er yourn:'
A sweetheart of hers. AS though
1ANll Apltll ulu lloI hllON, W lliL Tic
whole Draft must know, that no one
was her sweetheart or ever had been
nor in all probability even would be!
And then. too. his quick guess that
she cared for David. At every fresh
remembrance of that, even all alone,
her cheeks burned and her eyes grew
misty with modification. Other things,
too cnr,hino1 IN that SUNDAY p,nrr;,r
to make Ellen feel with especial keen
ness the gray mist of her isolation and
poverty. Her Sunday dress and sun
bonnet Of calico seemed more than
ever faded and scant. They had never
been of a pretty pattern and had been
bought by Silas Daw. dear knows how
many summers before, at Linden, and
10Y their original ugliness had bleach
ed to Il hateful bleary mixture of yell
low and red that err skeercrow d be
ershamed ter wear,' Ellen whispered
bitterly as she looked over the shrunk
length of her skirt and down at her
rough, clumsy shoes. made painfully
conspicuous by the tiimsy shortness of
her dress. She had carefully washed
and irOned the dress the day before
in an attempt to improve its appear
ance, because, for the sake of her hurt
vanity. she had tiercely resolved to
make herself look as we'll as she pos
sibly could. But the endeavor vas
very far from a success, and when she
looked at her dark, unhappy face in
her scrap of mirror and surveyed her
fOrlorn frock, she felt for herself and
her whole makeup an absolute, bitter
contempt.
Il don't wonder folks laf at YER"
l she said cruelty to her reflection. I'D
| laf at yer myself eff | was ter meet Yer
as somebody else. No. no. she cried
pa%ssionately, breaking off, Il wouldn't
: laf, l don't believe l would, eve eff
hit was somebody else. | b'licve I'd
| be sorry fer anything so miser'ble look
t in. | hope l would. Oh, l hope
l. would. Oh. Lord" she whispered
presently. II wished Their was some
c body out'n all ther world kecred how
| looked, cr whether l lived er died
Jest somebody. l wouldn't kcer who
n jest so long as they keered fer me
Y Maybe then Id git SOS | keered Ell
little bit fer myself an didn't think
was jest ther poorest an homeless
t thing in Their whole country"
0 There now. there she cried, after
G a moment. II amt ergoin' ter thinl
erbout hit no mo-. l know I'm ugly an
II orn'ry an nobody don't kcer whether
# am or not, but l jest won't think er
II bout hit no mo-! l wont, won't
# WON'T she cried ticrccly.
is And yet, poor lonesome little thing
in spite of her determined bravery sh,
Il did think about it ovcr and Owe again
It and she might have stayed away from
n preaching altogether that morning il
IS her bitterness and humiliation of Spiri
le say that she knew one happiness wa
it in store for her there. She would b.
IS able to sing. And for this one bit o
pure delight she was willing to bray
I, all the covert chances of amusemcn
IG thai her appearance always provoke,
ID and of which she was always so pair
ID fully aware. Moreover. though sh
II scarcely acknowledged it to herself
IS she wished exceedingly to hear NOR
H. particulars of Kip R.yer>on's retur
If and to look at Mary ltcddin and Davi,
II Cree.
.p 1t was an intensely hot May morr
H. ing. and more than one brcatlleSS an
N moist individual hoped "thcre'd com
lc or rain fore night" Fol a week pas
n this procession of hot bright days la,
lc gone by. trcading on each others heel
lc and making the farmers toll at tllei
planting with fcvcriSh haste. II ann
ious eye cooked toward the horizon i
I'd fear of Il possible thunderstorm. E>
le cry day had opened with daZzlin
clearness, and every day weathc
til prophets had promised Il storm befor
he evening. But though each a%ftcrnoo
in round, ominouS LIQUIDS had boiled II
re out of the west in black heaps, so fl
no rain had come of them, or, if any