Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-04-26

along morbid ways, seemed but a ma
tural aspect of life, of which she her
self was a part.
Often, sitting before her glowing
fireplace, watching a flame kindled
with her W hands with wood h
herself carried from the pile outside, J
she pondered this. 1t defied her pow
ers of self-analysis. She could only
accept ii as a fact, and be glad. Gran
Vile and all that Granville stood for
had withdrawn to a more or less re-
mote background. She could look over
the frost-spangled forests and feel
that she lacked nothing-nothing save
her mate. There was no impression of
transient abiding; no chatting to be
elsewhere, to do otherwise. 1t was
home, she reflected; perhaps that was
why.
A simple routine served to fill her
days. She kept her house shining, she
cooked her food, carried in her fuel.
Except on days of fortnight storm
she put on her snowshOes, and with
a little rifle in the crook of her arm
prowled at random through the woods
partly because it gave her pleasure
to range sturdily afield, partly for the
physical brace of exertion in the crisp
cir. Otherwise she curled comfortably
before the fireplace and sewed, or read
something out of Bills catholic as
sortment of books.
1t was given her, also, to learn the
true meaning of neighborliness, that
kindness of spirit which is stified by
stress in the crowded places, and slim
ulated by like stress amid surround
ings where life is noncomplex, direct,
where cause and effect tread on each
others heels. Every day, if she failed
to drop into their cabin, came one of
her neighbors to see if all were well
with her.
Quite as a matter of course Jake
kept steadily ~replenished for her a
great pile of frewoOd. Or they would
come. babies and all, bundled in furs
of Jake's trapping, jingling up of an
evening behind the frisky bays. And
while the bays munched hay in Roar
ing Bill Wagstaff's stable, they would
cluster about the open hearth, popping
corn for the children, talking, always
with cheerful optimism.
Behind Lauer's mild blue eyes Turk
ed a mind that burrowed necessarily
to the roots Of things. He had lived
and worked and read, and, bordering
it all, he had summed up a few of the
verities.
Life, it ISIS giffen us, und We must
off it make der best We can," he said
once to Hazel, fondling a few books
he had borrowed to read at home.
Life ISIS goot, yust der lifting Of life, If
only We go lot astray alder der WOOL
ish dings-und if der self-breservation
struggle Years us not out so dot We
cannot enjoy being alife. So many
ISIS struggle und slave under terrible
conditions. Und it iss largely because
off ignorance. We know not vot We can
do-und We shrink vrom der unknown.
Here ISIS acres by der dousand vree
to der man vot can off it make use
und dousands vot lifts und dies und
neffer hass a home. Here ISIS goot,
CLEAN air-und in der shmoke und
shmells und dirty streets ISIS a ravage
of tuberculosis. Der balance ISIS not
true. Und in der W way der rich
iss full off drouble-drunk NIT eggcite.
ment, weary init pleasures. Ach, der
woods und mountains und streams
blenty off food, und a kindly neighbor
ISIS not dot enough? Only der alb.
normal wants more as dot. Und I dinB
der drouble ISIS largely dot der modern
high-bressure utilization makes for del
abnormal, vedder a man ISIS a million.
aire or works in der brewery, content
ment iss a state off der mind-und Il
der mind works NIT logic it will content
find in der simple dings."
1t sounded like a pronouncement Of
: Bits. But Lauer did not often grow
: serious. Mostly he was jovially cheer
full, and his wife likewise. The Nortl
had emancipated them, and they wer,
loyal to the source of their deliver
$ ance. And Hazel understood, becaus,
she herself had found the wild land
benefactor, kindly in it's silence, rest
full in its forested peace, a cure TO
sickness of soul. Twice now it hal
e rescued her from herself.
r November and December went thei
appointed way-and still nc word o
Bill. If now and then her pillow wa
I wet she struggled nightly against de
o preston. She was not lonely in tn
dire significance of the word-but sh
b longed pa~ssionately for him. An,
g she held fast to her faith that b
r would come.
The last of the old year she wen
little abroad, ventured seldom beyon
It the clearing. And on New Years ev
Jake Lauer's wife came to the cabi
l. to stay.
q, Hazel sat up, wide awake, on the il
t, slant. There was not the slighte:
sound. She had been deep in sleel
\ Nevertheless she felt, rather tina
A knew, that some one was in the livinl
4 room. Perhaps the sound of the doc
A opening had filtered through her stun
A Der. She hesitated an instant, NJ
through fear, because in the months
. living alone fear had utterly fOrsake
"A her; but hope had leaped so Ofte
n only to fall ~sickeningly, that she W;
n half persuaded it must be a dreaI
n Still the impression strengthened. 81
slipped out of bed. The door of Il
. bedroom stood slightly ajar.
Bill stood before the fireplace, b
1 shaggy fur cap pushed far back on b
: head, his gauntlets swinging from Il
cord about his neck. She had left
great bed of Goals OF the hearth, al
the glow shone redly on his frost-sca
bed face. But the marks of bitter tr;
bucking, the marks of frostbite, t
stubby beard, the tiny icicles that st
clustered on his eyebrows; while the
traces of hardship tugged at her hea
they we're forgotten when she saw t
expression that overshadOwed his ia,
i. Wonder and unbelief and longing we
all mirrored there. She took a S
step forward to see what riveted !
me gaze. And despite the choking 81
at sation in her throat she smiled
ri she had taken off her little, bead