Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1916-12-19
Continued from preceding issue)

Il tUDLEut YOU iookti ~ II SuitI MIN
hon hon. responded Steve leisurely, and
while the rest laughed al her discontinue,
Fat Joe leaned over and nudged Garry.
"What'd ! tell you!" he demanded.
"Whatd | tell youf Say, aint he working
well tonight
There was no keeping the girl within
doors after dinner was over. She ran up
stairs and changed into moccasins and
white blanket coat and skirt that barely
met the moceasin tops halfway. And
Steve, who had changed, too, and was
waiting for her when she came down. had
lknotted a crimson scarf about the middle
lof his belted packet to match the white
one twisted about her throat.
The man and girl climbed far that night
in quite unbroken silence. They had reach
| ed the crest Of the first Hill and stopped
for the higher ridges in front of them,
black bulks filigreed with white, before
Barbara decided that she would have 10
make him talk From the first he talked
fitfully that night. On other occasions
she bad noticed how his mind seemed to
veer, whimsieally, from one topic 10 an
other with little apparent continuity of
Thought, only to swing back again Just
when she was beginning to feel that she
had lost the thread of inference to point
his argument with parallels that were new
and delightful VISIONS to her ears. But
tonight his grave voiced divergences oft
ener than not left her thoughts behind his
thoughts.
I'll il n very easy country to get lost
in" he remarked when he had had to in
sist that his sense of direction and not hers
should be the one TO be trusted.
1T doesn't seem complicated," he pom
dcred. "To = man who has come into the
world with his sense of north and south
and east and west all safely relegated to
his backbone instead of having To depend
npon the flIghty functions Of his brain for
his guide it, about the simplest thing there
is. lie finds his way without thinking
about the lay of the land or moss on the
trees or the sun or stars. But the other
one The one who hrs 70 stop and reason
tIat IL mus travel 30 many miles 10 the
west To reach home in the afternoon be
cause he came that way in the morning
why he even gets to doubling his compass,
until night catches him without roof over
his head and no wood collected for 4
campfire"
II shall try 10 remember that" she am
Swered ~oberly. al ever | am lost IL
shall try 10 wait confidently for daylight
and keep my ears 10 the fore"
She was near Ia tears when he stopped
and knelt in the snow 10 tighten Il thong
slipping from one webbcd foot. Below
them stretched a plain Of shimmering frost
points, bounded by nscrutinable walls of
black timber. Somewhere within the warm
err heart of a swamp a fox yapped hun
grily; somewhere within her own heart his
whimsical discourse had awakened a
sense of the mystery of his wilderne~s-its
implacablc enmity for those who do not
understand. And he looked up just when
that emotion came flooding into her face.
1T i northumberland
FUR she breaihcd, throwing out both arms
with that e~c~taiir impu ivene>s which he
knew 20 well. Now | know why you said
men always return To ii once they have felt
its spell!'
you are livelier than YOU know came
back from him. almost gruftlv again, and
she could not parry with letter nor men
iion of that night nj Thirty Mile when she
had stolen out to bid him goodby. Other
long tramps followed on other pale and
zero nights, but his attitude remained
much the same.
"You will he coming back" he told her
again the day he put her on the train.
"Iou will he back IN the spring."
Ii was his old, hopeful challenge, with all
the hope left nut.
II think So" she f~altered in return. 81
mean Ia rome and see the completion of
YOUR work if father will let me- She
knew n moment of confusion. Il wonder
many nights If you are safe up here in the
hills"
Indeed. Miss Sarah had made progress.
though the surface indications were small.
The girl would never think of him again
lSimply in terms of blue flannel and cordu-
roy. But that was not the most disturb
ingly vivid memory which she carried
away with her.
81 love you.' He framed the words 81
lently a. the train was pulling ort. and.
although their positions were reversed, the
moment was 20 reminiscent of ,iat day
when he had leaned ont of her fathers
switch engine cab and asked If she wanted
To ride that il made her throat ache.
She waved a small gIoved hand to him
on the platform.
She did not vnnt tu %