Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-07-20

ter, breaking bounds as the oyerhang-
ing trees hid the hill from view.
| Glenn sat on the vast window seat
| and toyed with book. ]. Y. came
and dropped down beside her. well.
Glenn, he's come back
Glenn nodded Are you sure he
doesn't want anything. Uncle John?
He hasn't had a thing to eat since
seven O'Clock this morning"
Alan's bell tinkled. Glen started to
her feet and then sat down again.
/ You'd better GO But when ]. Y.
/ strobe off she followed
why is the house so quiet? Is it
on account of the captaing' asked
Alan.
Bless you, no. The captain sleeps
for week at a time. The children
have gone over TO the lake."
I just wanted to tell you that l like
their noises-they're new. There's
nothing really the matter with me ex-
cept that I've got to take things in
turn, and lying still and sweating
comes first After that, perhaps tomor-
/ row, I'm going to eat. The penulti-
mate act on my list is a cigarette and
the ultimate is to get up in the old bel
fry and yell" He turned over and
sank his head into the pillows.
"All right my boy" said J. Y. smiI-
! ing. There's only Glen and myself
here and Wei go and try to make
noises like the children" He came out
| OF the door in time to catch sight of
! Clem's skirt as it whisked around the
corner of the hall. He followed and
found her already seated at the piano.
Her fingers wandered over the keys
and then her soft, full voice broke out
| in one old song after another She was
happy because she felt that singing
she was with Alan
Alan stirred in his bed and listened
| He determined that tomorrow he must
De well. Robbed of tbs afternoon. Ne
was being robbed Of half of life He
! cursed the fever and then, as he felt
how near Clem's voice brought her to
him, he blessed it.
At night when all the rest of the
| household had gone to bed, J. Y. softly
! opened Alan's door and looked in
Alan was awake and nodded. J. Y.
came in and pOttered about the room.
He rolled bit of paper into an ampler
| shade and further yelled the night
lamp. The lines in J. US rugged face
| We're sOftened to lines Of sweetness.
He asked if there were nothing he
| could do and then turned to leave the
room. With his hand on the door, he
paused and smiled down on Alan. 'My
! boy, you have been far, far away"
Far away" replied Alan drowsily,
'but [ have come back"
The bracing air of Red Hill and
| long nights sleep enabled Alan to keep
! his word with himself. He was up and
out on the day following his arrival,
but he still felt delightfully."- lazy and
| pitifully weak. Glen took charge of
| him. First she tried to settle him in
| a hammock with many pillows, but
Alan shrank from the hammock. They
| spread rugs instead in a nook under
! the trees, and Alan stretched himself
out amid q riot of many-colOred cush.
ions, while Glen sat close by in a low
rocking chair and talked and read and
| talked.
Talking or reading, Glenn was
| source of unvarying delight to Alan,
| Was it possible that one could live
| twenty years in an old world rub
elbows with life for twenty years, and
remain so fresh, so untainted? His
own life rose up before him and
Knocked at him. Was it possible that
one could live thirty years in this
same world and be so old? He
shrugged shoulder petulantly He
would not think-he refused to think
while he was so weak
When Glenn talked, it was like a
child dreaming aloud; when she was
silent one felt the presence of woman
| hood, wise with the unconscious accu
mutations of generations and una
| dashed. When Glenn talked Alan was
at ease but when she was silent he
was moved-troubled A SCARED man
may play with a child and no harm
to either. He can detach himself from
his past as from the child and at
safe moral distance turn to watch its
| unconscious gambOls But with
woman it is different. Womanhood is
a force; its mission to embrace, to sac
rifice. It is unreasoning. Like funda
mental man it demands a god and
worships the god that comes to it's
need Alan felt this force lowering in
| Clem's siIences and was troubled.
The SUFFICIENTLY Of a sick man dis
arms woman; she knows she is safe
and abandons her weapons of attack
and defense as long as the invalid is
! taken up with the state of his insides
| Glen was unaffected, even tender. With
Alan as long as he was weak. but as
| his strength returned to him she with.
! lreW. one by one and gently, the init
mate attentions a woman accOrds to
babes and the related helpless. But
| there was nothing absolute in her with
drawaI; it was more a temptation than
| a denial, born of Woman's innate de
sire to be pursued. While Alan was
merely cOnvalescent it contained a sup
pressed gayety. half demure, half mis-
| chievous, but when his full strength
came back and he failed to pursue, the
gayety arrested itself, turned into q
questioning usefulness and ended in
the secret shame and bushes Of the
| repulsed and undesired