The Kenna record. (Kenna, Roosevelt County, N.M.) 190?-1924, 1917-09-07
HIS HELOVED W!FE



else could possibly say against Mel
SMteriee. Hes steady going and
thrifty. HE'S got that big farm on his
hands and money in the bank, and
don't see what more than that you
want, Mary Ellen. or what you expect.
Land alive, when l was a girl we'd
have thought half that was a CATCH"
Mary Ellen smiled, a little wlstful
smile, close Tipped, unsatisfactory, al
together aggravating to anyone who
tried to influence her one way or the
other. Her mother stitched along now,
on her sideboard scarf of tan linen,
keeping one eye on Mary Ellen nurs-
ing a lame chick by the kitchen fire.
There had been four Taylor girls, ev-
cry one of them clever and pretty, and
all the other girls were now safely
married off; but the youngest had been
like the lame chick in her hands, deli
cate when young and brought up with
extra tenderness and forbearance. She
was twenty-five now, ripe old age in
Baldwick. She had gone to high school
and later to normal school
"EIow old is Mr.. Satterlee, mother,
do you supposeT Mary Bllen's voice
held low contralto note that always
seemed to clear the conversational at
mosphere when she spoke.
"Not a day over forty" answered
Mrs. Taylor stoutly. 'F'ine-loOkng
man, too, and you can't say he isn't,
Mary Ellen"
"It isn't himself at ALL" said Mary
ellen. Its his beloved wife, Ann"
Every time l think of him see her
as 1 remember her when l was a little
girl. Wasn't she dear, mother?
know loved the columbines that grew
in her garden. They were the pret-
test anywhere around, ana one day
he moved the whole lot down. Then
there was one place in the lower mead
ow where arbutus grew around the
gray rocks. He blasted them ali out"
'But that's just a mans way about
such things, child" sighed her mother.
"Hewers of wood and drawers of wa
ter the Bible says they are. and don't
see what else the pesky things are for,
but a woman must be patient. I re-
member Ann Satterlee, too--Ann Jen.
nings she was betore she married him
Used to teach school for awhile over
at Hampton Roads Naturally curly
hair and sang in the choir. Seemed
as if Mel did"
'Did what, mother?"
ooh, just took it all out of her. Even
as a boy he was set in his ways
Course he took his fathers place SC
young. They say he's worth $1T00C
now, besides the two farms and all his
timber"
Mary Ellen knelt down and pulled out
from the chair beside the stove. The
sick chick was doing in its box. Out
of doors the spring held full sway over
the land. She stood on the threshold
for an instant, her eyes uplifted to the
beauty of the distant hills, then tool
the short cut through the fields to thC
little village burial ground behind tn,
church. 1t stood within its four square
rock walls, guarded by pine and hem
lock sentinels. Some of the old head
stones were of slate and half sunker
in the earth, century and half ole
and more. Mary ellen made her wa!
carefully along the narrow paths un
til she came to the one spot she sought
It was the last resting place Of Ann
beloved wife of Melvin Satterlee.
Mary Ellen knelt down pulling on
some stray weeds. Somehow she fel
q yearning sympathy toward the WON
an whose life she remembered so well
She felt as if Ann alone could under
stand now and shield her from Me
Satterlee's wooing, from money ant
prestige, his woodlots ana two farms
and If she refused him she knew sh
could not remain Mt home. And be
sides there was Elwood-x xElwood, onl
year older than herself, who had ney
er settled down, never made a success
Of anything he put his hand to.
They had gone to school together
and she had always helped him TO pas
his examinations. Later, when she ha
gone ahead, he had written to her O
all his trips away from home, of tn
long, joyous road jaunts he took b
himself, youths vagabond with onl
hope for comrade. Now he had com
into possession of the sawmill in tn
valley. Half the time when peOpl
came there he was away and the bi
wheel idle. Yet Mary Ellen loved hin
He knew every flower and plant in tn
hills, the call of every native bird an