Crossville chronicle. [volume] (Crossville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1917-04-18

resi-, ami or these the daef- "a u
noblest had been Young 3D. Ist1n. !
When she came home & marry.
Alaire was still very much q child.
and she still considered Ei h1 knight
As for him, he was captiVateG by this
splendid, handsome girl, whom he re-
membered only as shy. red headed
little cOmrade.
AS Las Palmas had been the elder
Austin's wedding gift TO his Bon, so
Alaire's dowry from her father had
been La Feria, a grant Of lands across
the Rio Grande beyond the twenty
league belt by which Mexico fatuously
strives to guard her border. And to
Las Palmas had come the bride and
groom to live, TO love and to rear theiR
children.
But rarely has there been shorter
honeymoon. seldom Swifter awaken
ing. Within six months Young Ed"
had killed his wife's love and hid him
self become an alcoholic. Other vices
so multiplied that what few virtues
the young man had inherited were
soon choked. To the bride tho truth
had come as a stunning tragedy. The
wreck Of her hopes and glad imagin-
ings left her sick, bewildered, in the
face of "the thing that couldn't"
Nor had the effect OF this transfor-
nation In young Ed" been any less
painful to his father. When the truth
was borne in upon him Enthusiastically,
and the girl-wife remained firm in her
refusal to divorce her husband, the un.
derstanding had been reached by
which the management of Las Palmas
was placed absolutely in her hands.
OF course the truth became public,
as it always does. Young Ed Aus
tins life became a scorn and a kissing
among his neighbors. They were not
unduly faStidiOus. these neighbOrs, and
they knew that hot blood requires more
than generation to cool, but every
thing Ed did outraged them. In trying
to show their sympathy for his wife
they succeeded In wounding her more
deeply, and Alaire withdrew into her
self. She had changed. The alteration
reached to the very bone and marrow
of her being. At first the general pity
had wounded her. then 1t had offended,
and finally angered her. That people
should notice her affliction, particu-
larry when she strove so desperately
to hide 1t. seemed the height OF inso-
lence.
The management of Las Palmhs was
almost her only relief. Having fprung
from family of ranchers, the work
came easy. and she grew to like it-as
well as she could like anything with
that ever-present pain in her breast
Las Palmas had prospered to a'imira.
ton, and La Feria would have pros
pered equally had it not been Err the
armed unrest Of the country across the
border. No finer stock than the BOX
A" was to be found anywhere. But
Alaire had not confined her effc sts to
cattle; she had improved the bred OF
"BOX A" horses, too and hand In hand
with this work she had carried Oh
series of agricultural experimentll For
instance, she had started grove of
paper-shelled pecans. which was soon
due to bear; the ranchhouSe AID its
clump of palms was all but hidden by
a forest of strange trees, which were
reported to ripen everything from
mOthballs to bicycle tires. Blaze Jones
was perhaps responsible for this re-
port, for Alaire had shown him sew
eral thousand eucalyptus saplngs and
some ornamental rubber plants.
THAT Miz Austin Is money-unkin'
piece of furniture" he once told his
daughter Paloma. I'm no mechtni |
ADDER count mostly on my fingers
but her and me calculated the Profits
on them eucher what's their name
trees land it gave me splittin' head
ache. She'll be a drug queen, lure"
"Why don't you follow her exam
ple?" asked Paloma. 1--WE have plenty
Of land"