The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-02-11
EVENING STORY
Out of the Shadow.
BY SUSAN CLAGETT.

arftcr we ais dun git thru the Wuk
thars muffin to do but set fore the Fire
an tat al kni. an wonder eff our mensll
KUN hum an how we uIsll git thru
the Winter it is Awful cold an me an
mol go up the mountain an cut down
pine saplins an drag EN- hum l amt
plainin miss honey an amt begin but
jest wants to know eff yorc friensn
buy VIC a1lT latin.
With great Respec yor
Frien liza tankin.'
Lavinia read the letter over and
over again. She could make nothing
illeEibly written. Not comma, not
period. She glanced at the name:
liza rankin, and light cameS 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 FUN
bled with unseeing eyes.
It was roughly and insecurity tied
and she wondered how it had come
intact. thru the mails. AS the thought
flashed thru her mind a smaller pack
age dropped upon the floor. With an
exclamation she picked up yards of
beautifully fine and intricate tatting.
Examining the contents of the larger
bundle she found it contained several
sets of table mats with crocheted bor-
ders and coarse, homespun linen CEN
tiers.
just past and the several summers be-
fore 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 sum-
mer thereafter had found her a visitor,
and she and Eliza Rankin had become
fast friends.
wedding dress; had returned to the
mountain for the wedding, taking with
her from her own store of furniture
enough to make comfortable the tidy
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 dry-eyed the
grief stricken mother had laid the still
little form in its crib for~the last time,
and it was in the rough little cabin
that Lavinia came under the influence
that altered the course of her own life
when she had raised her head from her
spinning and met the keen, question
ing gray eyes of the mountain doctor
who had stopped for a moment to ask
for drink of milk.
She met him often in her wander
ings about the mountain but aside
from the pleasure of an occasionaR
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 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.
Why" he had asked abruptly.
She had looked at him coolly, crit
ically. A big, awkward but power
fully 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 Dealiza-
ton of her thought
"Oh! That's it A mountain man is
not good enough! You want the fine
clothes, the suavity and convention to
which you are accustomed. You can
have them if you want do not
doubt it. But whoever he be he will
never have what you have given to
the mOuntaineer"
She had risen and faced him. How
dare you
He had laughed roughly in inter-
ruption Dare? 1 dare anything, my
dear young lady, and I tell you plainly
that in that half hour in Eliza RAN
kin's cabin you gave me what you will
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 his once, months
later. He wrote that he had volun>
teered and must see her before he
left for France. The note was I'M
answered. He did not come, and as
the days passed she knew her day of
reckoning was upon her; that she had
let him go to his work thinking her
heaftless.
1t all came back as she looked at
the work in her lap and as she let the
beautiful tatting slip over her fingers
her resolution was taken.
Naturally she met opposition when
she told her family she was going to
the mountains for a brief stay, but
she went on about the carrying out of
her plan and blessed the aunt who left
her a small legacy to do with as she
would. Knowing that the railroads
were congested by the movement of
troops she hired motor truck to
carry food and told the chauffeur she
was going with him across the width
of Virginia His expression spoke
volumes not intended for a woman's
ears.
She persuaded a married friend to
accompany her. This she regretted
later on, foA the cold was intense and
there was tire trouble. To her it
meant delay, but her friend could see
nothing in the trip but her own folly
in yielding to Lavinia's wishes.
Il will leave you at Hot Springs and
go alone" Lavinia told her at last
TT was really too much to ask of
you"
II will keep on until we reach a
shortly. when we come to that bond
with cipiliza ton 1 will leave you to
your own devices What on earth put
such an idea into your head. Couldn't
you have sent the things by freight ?'
Eliza and the others need food
and this is the quickest Xay to get. If