The Washington herald., 1916-06-04

Leila Austin. during her % sheltered
years as a well-to-do mans only daugh-
ter. had never known an ungratified wish.
Poverty and struggle were mere
words to her-words that carried no real
meaning.
Perhaps that was why she refused Hal
sey Brent and accepted Tom Carter.
Brent was rich and was growing richer
day by day. Carter was mining en-
gineer, boundlessly rich in energy and
hope-and all but bankrupt in everything
else.
Mrs. Austin spent, long and proftless
hours in pointing out to Leila the advan-
tages OF marrying Brent and the hard
ships she must face as the wife Of man
who still had his way to make.
Leila listened patiently-ard married
Tom Carter.
Her fathers wedding gift to Leila was
a check for SO. 600, more money than Tom
Carter had saved in all his hard-working
life. She indorsed it over to her husband
and. with it, Tom bought the controlling
interest in an Oregon gold mine.
This investment was not as rash as
Leila's parents and Brent thought. The
mine was one which Tom himself had
helped TO develop and in which he had
boundless faith. By rare luck he was
able to buy in the bulk OF its stock at a
moment when the original promoters were
hard pressed for money.
It's a gamble. dear" he told Leila
But then. so is everything in life. l
know the region and know the mine.
There's a lot OF pay ore under those
gray rocks and it's only a question OF
time when someone will strike II. I'm
going out there and be my own superin-
tendent and manager combined. With
the money I've laid by from my salary
can keep the pay roll going. Any day
EfrfLy ha rio vain AID yph haY
We do! Well. little sweetheart Easy
street will look like a slum compared
with our quarters. I'm going to rechris-
ten the mine, too. I'm going to call II
the Leila A."
Leila's eyes danced. Already she was
beginning to build air castles as the
wife of a multi-millionaire mine owner.
The naming Of the mine in her honor
seemed the most delicious compliment
ever paid her. Tom saw the glow in her
pretty face and he went on more So
berly:
be hard shedding for while, dear.
Life out there in the wilderness is in
the rough I'll have to work early
and late and live in a two-room cabin,
mostly on bacon and beans and sour
dough bread. II you come out there
with me. that must be your life, too.
We won't be able to keep a servant
even II we could get one in such place.
You'll have to do all your own work,
and"
Tt will be Just like one long picnIc"'
she declared. TN love 1t"
1T will be one long period of grinding,
lonely drudgery." he corrected, with
only our love for each other to brighten
it Think carefully before you decide.
Wouldn't 1t be better for you to stay
here, comfortably, and let me send for
you when I've made my strike? /"
Stay here and let you go out there
all alone?" she gasped, in disnay. why.
Tom Carter do you suppose I married
you to be A grass-widow? Where you
go, I 60 Besides, 1t will be wonderful
TO have our own dear little cabin and to
keep it bright and homelike for you; and
to be waiting at the door for you every
night; and to feel I'm doing my own
share toward helping you win your for
tune. We're going out there, together,
my darling. And 1t will be the happiest
honeymoon any girl ever had. Just think
how jolly it will be to look back at when
we're millionaires! I wouldn't miss it
for worlds. How soon can we start?'
The westward journey was a delight
TO them both. They felt they were near
ing the Promised Land. The two-room
shack. half mile from the mine mouth
among the towering Oregon mountains,
seemed to Leila a tiny paradise.
With will, she set herself TO learn
ing her new duties as frontier house.
wife. It was, as she had predicted
zone long picnic" The mountain air
gave her an appetite that could digest
even her own first Efforts at burned
cookery; and a vigor that carried her
through the far heavier tasks of
sweeping, scrubbing and clothes wash
ing.
Her gingham dress was a novelty
So was her big husbands costume of
nd fcl
boots. Even the damp. black recesses
OF the mine were a fairyland to her.
Then, imperceptibly-day by day.
week by week-came a subtle change
IN both bride and groom.
Toms fiery enthusiasm for work
was not proof against months Of G.5-
couragement at the mine. Funds were
ebbing; the force of workers was
shortened; and not a sign OF the prom
ised gold was found.
With dogged determination Carter
toiled on; working twice as hard as
any miner in his employ. But it was
the bulldog determination of a beaten
man who will not confess defeat. No
longer did he feel the joyous zest Of
a fortune seeker; but rather the spirit
of a pugilist who, hopelessly out
classed, clenches his teeth and fights
on
Leila too. was finding that "one
long picnic may IN time bear
strange resemblance to "one long!
nightmare" The tasks that had at
first seemed a joke were now a dreary
reality.
To rise in the dark on winter
morning when the mercury was 10 de-
grees below zero; to thaw water over
e smoky stove for cooking a tasteless
breakfast to bend for hours over a
washtub. scrubbing oil-stained rough
garments; to sweep and scour and
mend. from dawn to dark-this was no
Paradise, at the least, to the gently
reared girl. but foretaste of its op-
posite.
And Toms lack Of success began to get
on her high-strung nerves, even as his