The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1915-04-02

very birth 10 dlscomforts and expo.
sures Of every sort. they would have
died long ago.
The Baxter kitchen shoiie and SIT
tered in all its accustomed cleanliness
and order. Scrubbing and polishing
were cheap amusements and nobody
grudged them to WaitStill. No tables
In RivcrbOrO were wliter. no tins
more luStrous. no pewter brighter. no
brick heartls ruddicr than hers. The
beans and brown bread and Indian
pudding were baSking in the warmth
Of the old brick oven, and what will
the crackle and sparkle of the fire, the
CLEAN Of the blue willow ware on the
cupboard shelves, and the scarlet gera-
NUNS blooming on the sunny shelf
above the sink, there were few pleas
anter places to be found in the village
than that same Baxter Kitchen.
Yet WaitStill was i'll at ease this
| afternoon; she harll!y knew why. Her
father had just put the horse into the
pung and driven up to Milliken's mills
for some grain. and Patty was down
at the store ]instructing Bill Morrill,
(CephaS Coles SucceSSOr) in his nOv
task of waiting on customers and
learning the whereabouts of things: nc
easy task in the b~ewildering variety
of stock in Il country store. where pins.
treacle. bingham. EPSON salts, Indian
meal. shoestrings, shovels, brooms, sui
phur, tobacco. suspenders. rum and in
digo may be demanded in rapid sue
cessiOn.
Patty was quiet and dOcile these
days, though her color was more bril-
liant than usual, and her eyes had all
their accustomed sparkle. She went
about her work steadily. neither rant
ing nor railing at fate, nor bewailin-
her lot, but even in this Waitstill felt
Il sense of change and difference too
subtle to be put in words. She had
noted Patty's summer flirtations, but
as if they had been the irresponsible
friskings of Il lamb in Il meadow.
Waitstill had more than the usual
reserve in these matters, for in New
England at that time, though the soul
was Il subject of daily conversation,
delicate topic to be alluded to as sell
dom as possible. Waitstill certainly
would never have examined Patty
closely as to the state of her affec-
tons, intimate as she was with her
sisters thoughts and opinions about
life. She simply bided her time until
Patty should ronfide in her.
She had wished now and then that
Patty's capricious fancy might settle
on Philip Perry. although. indeed,
when she considered it seriously. it
seemed like an alliance between Il but
tcrtly and an owl. CephaS cole she re-
gardrd as quite beneath Patty's right.
full ambitions, and. as for Mark Will
son, she had grown up in the belief,
held in the village generally, that he
would marry money and position and
drift out Of I%tiverbOrO into Il gayer,
larger world. Her devotion to her sis
ter was 50 ardent and her admiration
so sincere IniC Slle cOulu not lnlnk IL
possible that Patty would love any
where in vain. Nevertheless she had
an instinct that her affections were
1 cryStalliZing somewhere or other, and
when that happened the uncertain and
eccentric temper of her father would
raise Il thousand obstacles.
While these thoughts cOursed more
or less vagrantIy through Waitstills
mind she suddenly determined to get
her cloak and hood and run Over to see
Mrs. BoyntOn. Ivory had been away
a good deal in the woods since early
November chOpping trees and helping
to make new roads. He could not go
long distances like the other men, as
he felt constrained to come home ev-
cry day or two to look after his moth
er and ROdman, but the work was too
lucrative to be altogether refused.
With Waitstill's help he had at last
overcome his mothers aversion to old
Mrs. Mason. their nearest neighbOr,
and she, being now a widow with
very slender resources. went to the
- WTTTTTU NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.