The Topeka state journal., 1918-10-28
EVENING STORY
The Wide World Around.
BY s. B. HACKLEY.

just cautiously entered the back door
Of his mothers cottage.
Early that morning, in: the court
house at West Hardtown, 100 miles
from Burnhan1, Robert had seen his
father, Charles Greer, sentenced for
life to the states prison. In the big
front bedroom, Jael, the young fel-
lows mother, for six weeks close to
oath of fever, lay slowly recovering.
1.-TWO weeks before. the father, who
worked aboard the river steamer Mary
Ann, had quarreled with Cyrus Canter
in West Hardtown. Cyrus and Anan-
las, brothers and surly, had provoked
the quarrel that ended in fight with
chairs. Greer had not meant to kill
the man, but he forgot the power of
his arm, and Cyrua's neck was broken
at the first blow.
Robert had warned their friends and
neighbors to keep his mother in ignor-
ance of what had happened, and hoped
against hope that his father would go
free. But the Canters were inf1uen-
tial people in West Hardtown, and the
trial had ended unhappily for Greer.
The boy-he was scarcely twenty
took his sweethearts face between his
trembling hands.
I'VE won't tell her. F'1o." he whis-
pered. I'VE won't ever tell mother
not even If she comes to die. Dad said
for me to make her believe he's dead"
"Dead!' gasped Flora, make her
believe that? why. she's looking for
| him today, as soon as the Mary AIMS
unloaded. She came in about an hour
ago."
"I know it," Roberts lips trembled.
but we've just got to think of some
way to make her believe dads dead.
He says we must be dead to him
! never write to him nor try to see him
he couldn't bear that. The Mary
Ann
A roar that shook the panes in the
Ic1r Il hi
Ann would never run up the river
again. Before many days the bodies
Of the captain and the three deck
hands who died when the explosion
sent the boat to the bottom of the
river. came to the muddy surface of
the stream and were identified, but
the bodies of the remainder of the
crew were never recovered. 1t was
easy to say that Charley Greer was
one of the dead, but JaeI refused to
believe it.
Charley was always the first man
off the boat when she docked!" she
insisted. He'd always come to the
house to see me a moment, then he'd
go back and help unload. I tell you,
Bobby. Charley isn't dead. He's alive
and well somewhere! He's always
wanted adventure, and he's never got
him, when We were first married, to
some wild country in South America,
where he could hunt but / was afraid.
Then you and your three little sisters
that died came along and he quit talk
ing about it. And now, since you've
been grown, Bobby. he's hated to say
anything about wantin' to wander for
fear you'd laugh at him. / just be-
lieve he's slipped off from us all to go
somewhere and take his fun! And
when he's had it he'll be coming back.
Why. Bobby, what makes you cry?
H., = An
back?'
When six months passed with no
letters from her husband, Jael ex-
planned his silence to her son by the
fact that he was in the wilds, where
no mail could be sent out. but at the
fancy plate that Charles had afways
liked at his place at table.
He'll be coming in at just any time
now, Bobby she told him. "a year
is generally all the time men stay on
hunting trip, isn't it?'
why, no. mother" Robert ex-
planned. 1--WE read that Englishmen
who hunt spend as much as six months
or year in one place. trying out the
hunting in each place. Sometimes they
put in five years or more at hunting
big game. and if they take a notion to
go on exploring trips there's no telling
JaeFs face fell "Stay away from
| their families all those years. Pobby?"
Robert averted his ewes. "Of course
they know they're coming back to 'em,
mother"
For an instant her lips quivered,
then she smiled again.
"Of course. and we want daddy to
have all the fun the rest of 'em have.
He knows you'll look out for me and
meyer leave me while he's gone, Bobby.
Charley worked awful hard all them
a long, long holiday. We oughtn't to
say a. word, even if he's taken a notion
to tour the wide world around. ad
we'll stay right here in this house and
wait for him until he comes back"
Roberts ruddy face pahd. Flora's
mother had been ordered to Colorado
to live, and Flora was her only child
and support. Flora would have to go
to Colorado with her; her cousin had
already secured teachers place for
her there-and he-he'd intended to
take his mother and go out there. too.
gentle obstinacy. Never would she
leave her home while she expected his
father back! And he could not leave
her alone. There was nothing to do
but to release Flora from her promise
to marry him. But somehow Flora
did not understand.
.'I'Il keep mother out there. where
she can live. Bobby she told him.
''and I'll wait for you
But for how long?" Roberts voice
was hoarse. 'Mother'u never quit
hoping. and IL can't ever tell her
about father FIora,'
"I know" she answered. '1 wouldn't
want to walk to happiness over her
broken heart. We've won't be the
first people that fate's kept apart, Bob
by. and it isn't as if one of US were
dead. We can keep on loving each
other acroSS that thou nd miles and .
I'll wait for you, Bobby-Ill wait,
IL it's the rest of my life!"
Five governors had served in the
twenty years before C1audius Bassett
was elected. In the second month
after his election, Bassett paid a visit
to the state prison farm. and the i'm
preston made on him by the yearning
eyes of the forgotten bits of humanity