Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1918-07-11
Out of the
Shadow
IN
By SUSAN cLAGETT
Copyright, 1915 by the Mcclure Newspa'
per Syndicate)

deer miss kin 20 help we uns me
an liz Crawford is havin Hard time
guyment TUX our mems an we alls tryin
to git vittles an cloths to Give the
chilrun to eat we CANT an miss Honey
we ais mos purish me an liz an her
Gal babys is Twin with mol wade an
arfter we ais dun git thru the wuk
thars muffin to do but set fore the Fire
an tat an knit an soner ef our mensll
kun hum an how I'VE unsll git thru the
Winter 1t is Awful cold an me an mol
go up the mountin an cut down pine
saplins an drug EN- hum aint plainin
miss honey an aint begin but jest
wants TO know eff yore friensll buy
we alls Tatin.
With great ReSpec yore
"Frlen liza rankin"
I.avinia read the letter over and over
again. She could make nothing of 1t
but a tumble of words all but illegibly
written. Not a comma, not period.
She glanced at the name: liza rankin,
and light came to her. The meaning
of the letter became clear. Her throat
contracted with an uncomfortable
ache and tears hid the package in her
lap at which she fumbled with unsee-
ing eyes.
1t was roughly and insecurity tied
and she wondered how it had come
intact through the mails. AS the
thought flashed through her mind q
smaller package dropped upon the
floor. With an exclamation she picked
up yards of beautifully fine and intri-
cate tatting Examining the contents
Of the larger bundle, she found it con
tanned several sets of table mats with
crocheted borders and coarse, home
spun linen centers.
Her mind went back to the summer
Just past and the several summers
before when she had helped spin the
cloth from flax raised in the little
clearing about the cabin. If she had
been asked she could not have told how
she had heard of the little home in the
Tennessee mountains across the border
from Virginia, but each summer there
after had found her visitor, and she
and Eliza Rankin had become fast
| friends.
She had helped Eliza make her we'd
ding dress had returned to the noun
tain for the wedding, taking with her
| from her own store of furniture enough
to make comfortable the tiny two
room log house that was to be Eliza's
future home. She had been with her
when the child Was born; had been
with her when, dryeyed, the grief
stricken mother had laid the still little
form in its crib for the last time,
and Ii was in the rough little cabin
that Lavnia came under the influence
that altered the course of her own life
when she raised her head from her
spinning and met the keen, questioning
gray eyes of the mountain doctor who
had stopped for a moment to ask for
drink OF milk.
She met him often in her wanderings
about the mountain, but aside from the
| pleasure of an occasional meeting She
had given him no thought until she
| raised her head that day and her eyes
were held by the dominant gray ones
of the man standing in the doorway.
she felt as If he was reading her
very soul Filled with resentment, the
angry color flooded her face under his
merciless gaze. Indignantly she
Strengthened in her chair. Then, to her
| everlasting shame, she left the spin
ming wheel and walked directly into
his arms.
She left the mountain the next day.
There was a long wait at Bristol be-
fore the arrival of the north-bound
train, but almost as it came into sight
| Doctor Cochran crossed the platform
to her side.
Eliza told me you had gone. Why7'
he had asked abruptly.
She had looked at him coolly, criti-
cally A big, awkward but powerfully
built man, coarsely clothed with his
blue homespun shirt open at the
throat and sleeves pushed carelessly
back from his muscular arms. Her
very silence brought to him a realiza-
| ton of her thought.
"Ohi That's it! A mountain man
is not good enough You want the fine
clothes, the suayity and convention to
\ which you are accustomed. You can
have them If you want, / do not doubt
1t. But whoever he be he viii never
have what you have given to the
mountaineer.'
She had risen and faced him How
dare you"
lie had laughed roughly in Interrupt
ton. Dare? dare anything, my
dear young lady, and tell you plainly
that in that half hour in Eliza Ran
kin's cabin you gave me what you viii
never give another man, and that was
your SOUL and turning on his heel he
left her as the train pulled into the
station.
She heard from him once. months
later He wrote that he had yolun-
teered and must see her before he left
for France. The note was unanswered
He did not come, and as the DAYS
passed she knew her day Of reckoning
was upon her; that she had let him 20
to his work thinking her heartless.
II an came back as she looked nj
the work in her lap and as she let the