The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-03-11
BY M. JEAN AICARD

pour over it's rim, indented by usage
little chaplets of water drops. trans
parent pearls, all smiling to see tn
light of day. f3t..
Thank you. Tonin.',
You pardon me, Mariette?"
f, Yes. because you are brave at heart
know it." as@ e4
| With US brave" means good ans
we'll behaved"
And them" she adds. Il have never
before seen you dressed, as a sailor
It il true that you are good look.
Ing fellow, like that. although. with
your shirt, with it's collar open to tht
breast, and the pompom on your cap
you look something like a girl"
"A girl" he answers. Girls like
But not of me; for it is with a good
motive that l have come to see YOU
'Ah," she replies dreamily.
Now the bucket is placed on the
margin of the well and the water looks
SO fresh that one is eager to drink it.
LINZ. d UAlu MuTIette UeHuS over auO
drinks.
1T is lucky. the water that you
drink, Mariette." he says. and you
yourself are SO fresh and pure that
you resemble it. One could drink you
up in glass of water" !.
/ And when the lips of the young girl
have quit the rim of the bucket he
places his own there in the same
place. 1t is love that they drink at
the close Of this spring day.
Where are you going. like this,
Tonin?" 3.a.,
Marietta" he answers, II am now
a sailor. l have come to tell you that
SO until now But being obliged to
go away this evening has given me
courage. Listen! know that VIC
TORN pays court to you. So l have
some fears. And l ask you not to give
me an answer right aaWy. Take your
time! Reflect! Study him and then
choose. Adieu, my little Marietta. We
shall see each other again. l haven't
much property to my name. But I
have a little. Think about it. But
wait, let me fill your pitcher and car
ry it home for YOU a
No." she says, "Victorin would hear
about it. 1t is true that we are not
yet engaged. he and l. But it is GER
tain that l like him and he knows it
very well. Adieu, Tonin. | would
rather carry my pitcher alone"
She started off, carrying her pitcher
by the handle, like basket-her green,
glazed pitcher, glittering in the last
rays of the sun. But she was trou-
bled. Hef@heart beat visibly under her
corsage. Tonin felt that he had made
something of an impression on her and
called to her from a distance: as=
Before the end of the year, If you
decide for me, send me in a letter, on
board my ship a leaf of the ivy which
covers your well. You need not write
anything. l shall know what you mean
to say. Marietta. Because the ivy leaf
has the same shape as heart
She, turned about uncertainty, and
in spite of herself, afraid of losing too
hope of love, she threw him
a kiss with her free hand.
Some months later Tonin, the fusi-
leer OF marines. lay on "a couch in
the naval hospital of Sainte Anne, at
rc to IA
of Dixmude. The poor young man
had shown there a most admira BILE
gallantry. But, wounded, by "a shell
explosion. he had been obliged to sub
nit to the amputation of his left arm.
And though Tonin, before his com
rades. preserved appearances. ioked
and made light of his affliction, at the
bottom of his heart he felt profound
dispair From the, beginning, and with
reason. he had said that. thus disfig-
ured. he was no longer fiance worthy
OF the Mariette who was so physically
attractive, of the pretty little girl with
the wiilowy body, SO full of graccs,
of the Marietta of the well, the wei!
covered with ivy.
Oh! That ivy shading and guarding
the Well There had been nights of
fever i'm which Tonin saw it again
stirred and ruffled by the
wind and taking thousand changing,
fantastic forms. Now faces made
grimaces at him from between the
clusters of foliage and they vera the
faces of German soldiers peeping a.
Ionin, IA sentinel far away from his
" comrades. Now he seemed to see. the
mouths Of cannon thrust from the ver-
dure. then bursts of flame: then he
heard the sound Of pebbles rolled by
the sea which the machine guns make
Sometimes all the bees and all the
angry wasps which rove about the
ivy and the well, in which they find
to eat and drink, precipitat-
ed themselves on him in swarms, and
all. all of them. set to singing his
left arm, his mutilated arm. in which
he now felt these myriads of bites.
mo, no. Poor me! 1t is certain
that I can no longer be a husband
worthy of herr"
He kept repeating this to himself
in a mechanical way. and sometimes,