Tombstone epitaph., 1916-12-24

quainted hyarabouts as further up Tribulation. What manner O lookin' man air he?"
 He don't look like noth!n' much, replied his wife morosely. Hes jest an ornery.lookin' old man"
 ''Whither did he sot out ter go when he left hyar?"
 The woman shook her head, then grim fash of latent wrath broke in her eyes
 'Ill jest let ye hev the truth, stranger. Some trifiin' fellers done sa'ntered past hyar with a jug of flicker. an thet fool Fletch hes jest done follered 'em of. Thet's all thar is to hit. an he haint got no license ter ack thetaway nuther. reckon by now he's a-layin drunk some 1 whars."
 For a moment there was silence, through which drifted the distant tinkle of cowbells down the creek. Beyond the crests fingered only lemon afterglow as relict of the dead day The brown. colorless man astride his mule sat stupidly looking down at the brown. colorless woman across the stile. The waiting girl heard the preacher inquiring which way the master of the house had gone and surmising that 'mebby he'd better set out in search of him." the words l seemed to come from a great dis tance and her head swan giddily. Then. overcome with disgust and weariness. Juanita Holland saw the afterglow turn slowly to pale gray and then to black. shot through with orange spots. Then she grew sud denly indifferent to the situation. swayed in her saddle. and slipped Imply to the ground.
 The young woman who had come to ] conquer the mountains and carry a torch of enlightenment to their Hit eracy had tainted from discourage ment and weariness at the end of the first days march.
 The weariness which caused the fainting spell must have heightened it's duration, for when Juanita's lashes flickered upward again and her brain came gropingly back to consciousness she was no longer by the stile.
 She was lying in the smothering softness of feather bed. On her pal ate and tongue fingered an unfamiliar. swedish taste. while through her veins she felt the coursing of 6 warm glow.
 Over her stood the woman who had been across the stile when she tainted, her attitude anXiously watchful. In one hand she held a stone jug, and in the other a gourd dipper. So that accounted for the taste and the glow. and as Juanita took In the circum. stance she heard the high, nasal voGe pitched none the less in tone of kindly reassurance.
 Yen be spry as squirrel in a leetle spell. honey. Don't fret yoresef none Ye war jest plumb tuckered out an ye swooned I've been a rubin your hands an a-pourin' a little white flicker down yore throat. Don't worrit yoreself none. We're pore folks an we hain't got much but l reckon we kin make out ter enjoy ye somehow"
 The four walls of the cabin might have been the rocky confines of a mountain cavern, so formlessly did they merge into the impalpable and sooty murk that hung between them, obliterating all remoter outline Only things in a narrow circle grew visible. and at the center of this lighted area was the slender figure of girl hold ing up a lard taper. its radius of light yellow and fickering-
 As the mountain girl felt the eyes . of the strange and. to her. wonderful woman from the great, unknown world on her. her own dark lashes fell timidly and the hand that held the taper trembled. while into her cheeks crept a carmine self-conscious- ness. Juanita, for her part, sensed in her veins a new and subtler glow than that which the moonshine whisky had |, uuickened. The men and women of the hills had made her heartsick with their stolid and animallike coarseness. Now she saw a slender figure in which the lines were yet transitory between the straightness of the child and the budding curves of womanhood IL was 10 sucn CnliGTen or the nllls as this that Juanita Holland was to , bring the new teachings. But even as , she smiled the child-for she seemed , to be only fifteen or sixteen-surren- dered to her shyness and, thrusting the taper into her mothers hand,
 shrank out of sight in some shad. , owed corner of the place. Then Juanita's eyes occupied them selves with what fragmentary details , the faint light revealed. The barrel , of a rife caught the weak flare and
 glittered. The uncarpeted floor of rude puncheon slabs lay a thing of I gaping cracks. and overhead there was z vague feeling of low rafters. from . which hung strings of ancient and 5 shriveled peppers and a few crinkled
 hands" of natural leaf" r Dawn" commanded the woman , take yore foot in your hand an ligh, !. out ter ther barn an see ef ye kin
 nnd some aigs."
 As Juanita watched the door she Q caught a glimpse of a slight figure that vanished with the aarna oufch