Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1918-08-17

sound, her heart leaping wild with ex-
pectation. And always she would lie
down again, and sometimes press her
clenched hand to her lips to keep back
the despairing cry. Always she ad-
jured herself to be patient. to wait
doggedly as Bill would have,waited, to
make due allowance for immensely Of
distance, for the manifold delays. which
might overtake q messenger faring
across those silent miles or q man hur-
rying to his home. Many things might
hold him back. But he would come.
It was inconceivable that he might
not come.
Meantime, with only a dim con-
seriousness of the fact, she underwent
a marvellous schooling in adaptation.
self-restraint. She had work of sort,
tasks such as every housewife finds
self-imposed in her own home. She
was seldom lonely. She marveled at
that. It was unique in her expert
ence. All her old dread of the pro-
found silence, the painless forests
which infolded like a prison wall, dis
tances which seemed impossible Of
span, had vanished. In its place had
fallen over her an abiding sense Of
peace, of security. The lusty storm
winds whistling about the cabin sang
a restful lullaby. When the wolves
lifted their weird. melancholy plant
to the cold, star-jeweled skies, she lis
tened without the old shudder. These
things, which were wont to Cypress
her, to send her imagination Keeling
along morbid ways, seemed but ma
tural aspect of life, of which she her.
self was part.
Often, sitting before her glowing
fireplace, watching a flame kindled
with her own hands with wood she
herself carried from the pile outside.
she pondered this. It defied her pow
ers of self-analysis. She could only
accept it as fact, and be glad. Gran
Vile and all that Granville stood for
had withdrawn to more or less re-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. It 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 a1ield. partly for the
physical brace of exertion in the crisp
air. Otherwise she curled comfortably
before the fireplace and sewed, or read
something out of Bills catholic as
sortment of books.
It was given her, also, to learn the
true meaning of neighborliness. that
kindness Of spirit which is stifled 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 firewood. 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 mind that burrowed necessarily
to the roots Of things. He had lived
and worked and read, and, bordering
it all, he had summed up q few Of the
verities.
life, it iss giffen us, und We must
off it make der best We can," he said
once to Hazel, fondling few books
he had borrowed to read at home.
Life iss gOot, yust der lifting Of life. If
only We go not astray alder der WOOL
ish dings-und If der self-breservation
struggle wears us not out so dot We
cannot enjoy being alife. So many
ISIS struggle und slave under terrible
conditions. Und 1t ISIS largely because
off ignorance. We know not vOt.ye can
dO-und We shrink vrOm der unknown.
Here ISIS acres by der dousand vree
to der man vOt can of it make use
und dousands vot lifts und dies und
neffer hAss a home. Here iss goot,
CLEAN air-und in der shmoke und
shmells und dirty streets ISIS ravage
Of tuberculosis. Der balance ISIS not
true. Und in der own way der rich
ISIS full off drouble- nit eggcite-
ment, weary NIT pleasures. Ach, der
woods und mountains und streams,
blenty off food, und kindly neighbor
ISIS not dot enough? Only der alb
normal wants more as dot. Und I dink
der drouble iss largely dot der modern,
high-bressure Utilization makes for der
abnormal, vedder man iss a million
aire or works in der brewery, content
ment ISIS q state off der mind-und If
der mind works NIT logic it will content
find in der simple dings."
It sounded like a pr0nouncement Of
Bills. But Lauer did not often grow
serious. Mostly he was jovially cheer.
full, and his wife likewise. The North
had emancipated them. and they were
loyal to the source of their deliver
ance. And Hazel understood, because
she herself had found the wild land q
benefactor. kindly in its silence, rest
full In its forested peace, q cure for