Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-12-21

lived largely in a dream world of her
own, she had one day CHANGED upon a
paragraph In a paper that had come
from town wrapped around a package
of matches. 1t was all about Ward
Warren. The name caught her fancy,
and the text of the paragraph seized
upon her imagination. Until school
filled her mind with other things she
had built adventures without end in
which Ward Warren was the central
figure. Sometimes, when she rode in
the hills, Ward Warren abducted her
and led her into strange places. where
she tried to shiver in honest dread.
often and often, however, Ward War
rem was a fugitive who came to her
for help. Then she would take him to
a ave and hide him, perhaps, or she
would mount her horse and lead him
by devious ways to safety, and upon
some hilltop from which she could
point out the route he must follow she
would bid him a touching adieu and
beseech him in the impossible lam
guage Of some old romancer to go and
lead a blameless life.
"Jase has got all gone feelings now,
mommie," Billy Louise remarked irrel-
evantly during a brief pause and re-
lapsed into silence again. She knew
that was good for at least five minutes
Of straight monologue with her mother
in that talking mood. She finished her
supper while Warren listened abstract
eddy to a complete biography of the
Meilkes and earned all about Marthy's
energy and Jase's shiftlessness.
Ward Warren!' Billy Louise was
saying to herself. Ward Warren!
There couldn't possibly be two Ward
Warrens; it's such an odd name.
Welt"
Then she went mentally over that
paragraph. She wished she did NOT
remember every single word of it, but
she did. And she was afraid to look
at him after that, and she wanted to
dreadfully. She felt as though he be-
longed to her. Why, he was her old
playmate! And she had saved his life
hundreds of times at immense risk to
hers, and he had always been her de-
voted slave afterward and never failed
to appear at the precise moment when
she was beset by Indians or robbers
or something and in dire need. The
blood he had shed in her behalf At
that point Billy Louise startled her
self and the others by suddenly laugh
ing out loud at the memory of one
time when Ward Warren had killed
enough Indians to I'LL a deep washout
so that he might carry her acros to
the other sidei
"Is there anything funny about Jase
Meilke dying, Billy Louise?" her moth
er asked her In a perfectly shocked
tone.
mo. 1 was thinking of something
else" She glanced at the man eying
her so ~distrustfully from cross the ia
BILE and gurgled again. It vas terribly
silly, but she simply could not help
seeing Ward Warren calmly filling that
washout with dead Indians so that he
might carry her across it in his arms
The more she tried to forget that the
funnier it became. She ended by leav-l
ing the table and retiring precipitately
to her own tiny room In the lean-to
where she buried hef face as deep as
it would go in a puffy pillow Of wild
duck feathers.
He, poor devil, could not be expected
to know just what had amused her
SO. He did know that 1t somehow con
cerned himself, however. He took up
his position mentally behind the wall
Of aloofness which stood between him
self and an unfriendly world, and when
Billy Louise came out later to help
with the dishes he was sitting alb
sorbed in a book.
The next morning the blizzard ragged,
so that Warren stayed as a matter of
course. Peter Howling Dog had not
returned, so Warren did the chores
and would not let Billy Louise help
with anything.
81 wish we could get him to stay
all winter instead of that Peter Howl
ing Dog" Mrs. Macdonald said anx-
iously after he had gone out. 81 just
know Peters off drinking. I don't
LAluh AC . d bdAC AlhA W AdfC dLOuuO,
Billy Louise. I didn't when you hired
him. 1 haven't felt easy a minute
with him on the place. 1 wish you'd
hire Mr.. Warren, Billy Louise. He's
nice and quiet
"And he's got a ranch of his own.
He doesn't strike me as a man who
wants a job milking two cows and
carrying slop to the pigs, mommie."
"Well, I'd feel a lot easier if we had
him instead of that breed. Only we
amt even got the breed half the time.
This is the third time he's disappeared
in the two months we've had him. I
really think you ought to speak to Mr..
warren, Billy Louise"
Speak to him yourself. You're the
me that wants him." Billy Louise an
swered. somewhat sharply. She adored,