Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1916-09-21


slave shackled to necessity all her
life. For long time her master had
been a typewriter which was very bad
and before that it had been a step
mother, which was worse. And in all
the years of her life-they were thir.
ty-there had never been man bu:
Mr.. Askins, and Mr.. Askins was very
stout and very gruff and married.
All this was wrong, as Miss Milford
very well knew. 1t was disregarding
the good Lords plain intention. She
had eyes that could love, cheeks that
Instinct told her it was a sacrilege 60
yield all this to a noisy thing of iron
and ink, a thing that had no love in it,
because its maker had not conceived
1t In love.
But the necessity was an ever pres
visitor, knocking at the door of her
heart when she caught baby's smile
or heard the low laugh of lovers In
the spring dusk on Calton Hill.
This made life so dull a thing; as.
sisting in the capture of murderer
she felt was Of failure and the loss o.
her adventure-and the fifty pounds.
So she tripped down the parked mill
side to the station in the valley that
cuts Edinburg in two, like an upended
cheese with thrippence worth sliced
pIa hn pn1f hHr
cheeks burn and her heart quicken its
beat in anticipation.
She found her train and boarded it
an exciting business in itself and
enc requiring close attention-and
was borne south at speed that made
her eyes widen and which left far be-
hind the bleak wind from the Firth.
She was the only passenger to
alight at Melrose, for the tourist sea-
son had not opened, and even in Scot
land a prophet-but there! Miss Nit
ford was only too glad to find herself
alone, and though she loved her Sect.
indeed, she saw something that ap-
Lealed far more than grayed ruins,
however romantic, and started up q
little rocky road that wound around
the shoulder of heather splotched
hill-and then-It was the "and then"
that appealed. There had never BEEN
any land thens" for Miss Milford
The necessity had made a certainty
of everything.
What she found around the corner
was a green valley walled around with
purple hills and the blue sky topping
1t all. Such an eXtravagant waste Of
color made her gasp, for her surround
ings had always been gray, like her
clothes, her life gray, like the scud the
cruel east wind drives over from Nor
way.
Here nothing was gray but the alb
bey below her, and no wind crept ov-
er the sheltering hilltop but that ten-
pered by the sun. She sank down on
a rock and drank 1t in with eyes,
mouth and nose; drank and drank un'
I'll the glad wine of life filled the emp
ty cup that was herself.
And then Miss Milford made dis.
covery that was certainly the creates,
discovery ever made in the world
she discovered she was herself! Ah.
you may scoff and jeer and become
angry and set in array your Newtons
and Galileos and Marconis, but / tell
YOU your jeers are empty and your ai
ray . puny force against the might OF
that. Miss Milford would tell you the
same.
She would tell you that al, her life's
dreams. which are life. had always
Leen of being some one else, some one
with beauty. money, grace, wit and all
the talents rolled in one terrific whole.
Being that some one else had seemed
the only avenue to freedom. With an
excited laugh that came from way
down within her she plucked off her
hat and tossed It on the furze loosen
en- the stiff linen binding her throat,
and with happy shiver shook down
the scanty lengths Of her hair
Then her hands flew to her rebell-
ious hair while she gazed at the face