The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1915-02-25

Cupleu. ltS IoOllltt Nuo lNohhh5
askew under rotting shingles The
doorstep was UNCOVERED, and the
stones OF the hearth were broken. But
il lay well hidden and would serve his
purposes
Shortly. candle flickered inside,
before a small hand mirror. Scissors
and safety razor were for while
busy. The man who entered In i'm
peccable clothes emerged fifteen min
utes later-transformed There ap-
peared under the rising June crescent
a smooth-faced native, clad In stained
store clothes, with rough WOODEN socks
showing at his brogan tops, and a
battered felt hat drawn over his face
No one who had known the Samson
South of four years ago would fail to
recognize him now And the strang-
est part, he told himself, was that he
felt the old Samson.
At point where hand bridge
crossed the skirtlng creek. the boy
dismounted. Ahead Of him lay the
stile where he had said good.by to
Sally.
He was going to her. aud
nothing else mattered.
He lifted his head and sent out a
long, clear whippoorwill call. which
quavered on the night much like the
other calls in the black hills around
him After moment he went nearer.
in the shadow OF a poplar, and re-
peated the call
Then the cabin door opened Its
iamb framed a patch of yellow candle
light, and, at the center. slender
silhouetted figure, in futtering. eager
attitude of uncertainty. The figure
turned slightly to one side, and, as 1t
did so, the man saw clasped in her
right hand the rifle, which had been
his mission, bequeathed to her in trust
She hesitated and the man, INVISIBLE
in the shadow, once more Initiated the
bird note but this time II was so low
and soft that II seemed the voice OF a
whispering whippoorwill
Then, with a sudden glad little cry.
she came running with her old aeet
grace down to the road.
Samson had vaulted the stile and
stood In the full moonlight. As he
saw her coming he stretched out his
arms and his voice broAe from his
throat in q half-hoarse. passionate cry:
Sally
II was the only word he could have
spoken just then, but it was all that
was necessary II told her everything.
For a time there was no speech. but
to each OF them Il seemed that their
tumutuous heartbeating must sound
above the night music, and the teleg-
raphy of heartbeats tells enough.
But they had much TO say to each
other, and, finally Samson broke the
silence:
did We think ] wasn't a-coming
back, Sally?" he questioned, softly. AT
that moment he had no realization
that his tongue had ever fashioned
smoother phrases. And she. too. who
had been making war on crude idioms.
forgot. as she answered:
"Ye done said ye was comm" Then
she added a happy lie: Il knowed
plumb shore ye'd do hit"
After a while she drew away and
said, slowly:
Samson, I've done kept the old
rife-gun ready fer ye. Ye said ye'd
need 1t bad when ye come back. an
I've took care of it,"
She stood there holding it. and her
voice dropped almost to a whisper as
she added
IT'S been a lot of comfort to me
sometimes, because it was your'n. |
knew if ye stopped keerin fer me ye
wouldn't let me keep tan as long
as ! had it l." She broke off. and
the fingers OF one hand touched the
weapon caressingly
After a long while they found time
for the less wonderful things.
81 got your letter, he said, seriously.
"and came at once" AS he began
to speak Of concrete facts he dropped
again into ordinary English and did
not know that he had changed his
manner of speech.
For an instant Sally looked up into
his face, then with a sudden laugh.
she informed him:
81 can say isn't instead OF 'hain't,'
too. How did you like my writing?"
He held her off at arms length, and
looked at her pridefully, but under his
gaze her eyes fell and her face flushed
with a sudden difiidence and a new
shyness of realization. She wore a
calico dress, but at her throat was
soft little bow Of ribbon. She was
no longer the totally unselfconscious
wood nymph, though as natural and in
stinctive as in other days. Suddenly
she drew away from him little. and
her hands went slowly to her breast
and rested there. She was fronting
a great crisis, but, in the first flush of
Joy she had forgotten II. She had
spent lonely nights struggling for rudi.
ments; she had sought and fought to
refashion herself, so that, ii he came
he need not be ashamed of her And
now he had come and, with a terrible
clarity and distinctness, she realized
how pitifully little she had been able
to accomplish. Would she pass mus
ter? She stood there before him
frightened, self-conscious and palpi
LII r.. e.... ntAnhl..4., 49,. ~. ........