The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-10-05
EVENING STORY
Her Awakening.
(By Martha Mitchell.)

DaJCH o
some semblance of a home. he was
stricken and died. Sanders was an
unmarried man, and the one WhoIn ne
named as heir to the little speck OF
mountain home was Grace Milton
j then in her early teens. 1t was with
no little degree of surprise that young
Miss Milton received the announce
ment at her home in Virginia that she
was the heir to a certain tract or land
/ in the Ozark mountain country.
she turned the business OF seeing
after the property over to a lawyer
cousin, and forgot all about 1t. And
when this cousin moved to another
/ city a few years later, he handed
Grace Milton the papers pertaining to
j her property. She filed them away
and forgot them again.
| The months stretched into years
! during the time that the little place
had no tenant, and the space that
Ralph Sanders had cleared there In
! the forest became wild tumble OF
Young pine, sassafras and bamboo.
, And before long the low house that
/ he had built was completely hidden
from the river. over the place the
razor-back hogs and lean cows from
the neighboring farms came to forage
on the young growth. There, too, the
children of the community came to
play at hide-and-seek among the
young pines that rose like giant
needles over the yard, In the rooms
7
they played Keeping house" with no
one to take exception TO the noise they
made in their riotous frolicking.
Later still, these same children
came to roam through the growth on
/ their childhood playground, two by
/ two. as lovers in that more quiet world
i where two is company and three is a
crowd.
Meanwhile Grace Milton was grow
! ing up in the society of her surround
I Il - nil
that was passing from her possession
because of unpaid taxes. While she
| dreamed dreams, the half-wild chill
dren that played over her western
property grew up to reverence the
memory of the little deserted place
that had been their unrestricted play
ground, and they came back to the
spot years later with half-formed
thoughts of home just like it.
Spring had come again and Virgil
! Ferris, one of she boys who had
romped over the place, now a stall
| wart man. began clearing away the
young growth, little thinking that this
very act would restore to him the
sweetheart with whom he had quar-
relied.
About this time Grace Milton was
seeking vainIy for some refuge, some
place where the memory of her bitter
words would cease to burn like hot
iron in her soul. For she too had
quarreled with the man whom she
loved, and all because he refused to
have his wife Independent of him and
his fortune, while she despised iEde-
pendence for the sake of maintaining
her so-called Fwoman's rights" Grace
knew he was right; knew that he was
/ right when he said she only thought
she was strong minded, and doubly
right when he said she was best fitted
for wifehood and motherhood; that
the other things in a womanS life lust
I arfi he
! office came But Grace resented his
and now she had only a bitter memory
of his strong face, the deep-set eyes
and firm mouth set in lines of pain as
| he said, Very well, Grace, 1 love you
too well to care to see you other than
as my wife. l shall wait in silence,
| hoping for the day when you will
come to me ready to be just that"
She had sought forgetfulness in suf-
| frage meetings, in society in chart
| ties, church work and travel, But the
pain at her heart grew and would not
be eaSed. Then a solitary camping
and tramping trip to her Ozark estate,
which had long been a source of mer-
riment among her friends, suggested
itself. She would go to the Ozarks
and stay until the tumult in her brain
and heart subsidized, for she would not
make her peace with her lover. Be
cause, she argued, wouldn't that Just
be admitting that she was wrong
to him?
After she alighted from the train
in the village of RuI-&le she learned,
by dint of much questioning of the
sleepy agent, that the Sanders estate
was where we see them young pine
saplin's, that's it. About a mile down
tn river
After getting her directions she de-
elined the offer of a ride in a ram
shackle old buggy drawn by a more
oRly AIl i
picked her way down Unlicensed and
very rutty road toward the pine sap
Inns"
Many paths crossed and recrossed
among the slender trees, but none of
them seemed to lead anywhere She
was about to despair of ever finding
the log cabin of which she had heard
little and spoken much, when she
heard a sigh-almostw a sob-not far
away. Holding her breath and listen
ing, fearing she knew not what she
heard a mans voice, deep and rich
and all unframed. singing an old bal
lad. He was evidently using an axe
for now she heard the even blows on a
log. A girls form darted down one
of the paths and, without thinking,
Grace followed. She halted when she
came in view of the young man
swinging the axe, for the girl was run
ming toward him now. frankly crying
Grace stepped back among the trees,
but still within earshot.
The man exclaimed, "Oh. youi''
Then no more was said until the girls
voice broke out:
Jack! Jack. I'm so sorry 1 ever
said I wouldn't marry you and be a
farmers wife. 1 will, 1 will; but why
have you, begun planting here? Don't
you know how you always said it was
a sort of fairy place and its owner a
fairy far away, who didn't want it dis
turbed %
Yes. I know said the man, "but /
just decided that fixing up the old log
house and seeding the cleared ground
wouldn't be disturbing even a fairy's
pace; and anyway, I'm doing it for
the fairy
But, Jack, do you think that the
owner of it would ever part with it ~