Connecticut western news., 1918-04-04

.partly because it gave her pleasure to range sturdily afield, partly for the nhysical 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 kindliness of spirit which is stifled by stress in the crowded places, and stlm- 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 or her ncighbors to see if all were well with her.
 Quite as a matter of course Jake kept steadily replenished for her great pile of f1rewood. Or they would come, babies and all, bundled in furs of Jake's trapping, jingling up ot 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 Lauers mild blue eyes turk ed a mind that burrowed necessarily to the roots of things. He had lived and worked and read, and, apondering it all, he had summed up a few of the verities.
 life, it iss giffen us, und ve must off it make der best ve can," he said once to Hazel, fondling a few books he had borrowed to read at home. Life iss goot, yust der lifting of life, 1T only ve go not astray alder der vool- ish dings-und if der self-breservation struggle years us not out so dot ve gannot enjoy being alife. So many iss struggle und slave under terrible conditions. Und it iss largely because off ignorance. Ve know not vot ve can do-und we shrink vrom der unknown.
 Here iss acres by der dousand vree to der man vot can off it make use
 und dousands vot liffs und dies und
 neffer hass a home. Here iss goot,
 glean air-und In der shmoke und shmells und dirty streets iss a ravage 1 of tuberculosis. Der balance iss not
 true Und in der own way der rich
 fss full off drouble-drunk init eggcite-
 ment, weary init pleasures. Ach, der
 woods und mountains und streams,
 plenty off food, und kindly neighbor 1 -iss not dot enough? Only der ab-
 normal wants more as dot. Und dink
 der drouble iss largely dot der modern, | ar
 abnormal, vedder man iss a million 1 aire or works in der brewery, content 1 ment iss a state off der mind-und If
 der mind works init logic it will content
 find in der simple dings."
 It sounded like a pronouncement 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 [
 benefactor, kindly in its silence, rest
 full in its forested peace, a cure fol
 sickness of soul. Twice now it hat
 rescued her from herself.
 November and December went thei1 appointed way-and still no word o. Bill If now and then her pillow was wet she struggled nightly against de pression. She was not lonely in th' dire significance of the word-but sh'
 longed passionately for him. Ant
 she held fast to her faith that h.
 would come.
 The last of the old year she wen little abroad, ventured seldom beyond the clearing. And on New Years ev Jake Lauer's wife came to the cabil ito stay.
  Hazel sat up, wide awake, on the fn tstant- There was not the slightes sound. She had been deep in sleeI Nevertheless she felt, rather tha knew, that some one was in the living room. Perhaps the sound of the doc b ,opendmg had filtered through iher slun jber. f She hesitated an instant, no } through fear, because In the months O living alone fear had utterly forsake
 her; hut hope had leaped so ofter . only to fall sickeningly, that she wa
 half persuaded 1t must be a dream ] Still Tthe impression strengthened. Sh slipped out of bed. The door of tn bedroom stood slightly ajar. Bill stood before the fireplace, hi shaggy fur cap pushed far back on hi head, his gauntlets swinging from tn cord about his neck. She had left great bed of coals on the hearth, an the glow :saaone redfy on his frost-scat bed face. But the marks of bitter tra bucking, the marks of frostbite, tn stubby beard, the tiny icicles that sti d clustered on his eyebrows; while thes traces of hardship tugged at her heal they were forgotten when she saw tn expression that overshadowed his fac I Wonder and unbelief and longing wer ! all mirrored there. She took sh step forward to see what riveted hi