Connecticut western news., 1919-10-23

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 You !:sde a =ooI Of Me. I've Mind
 to Bash Your sItaN In for You" room was still full of snoring sleepers and the air was very close and foul. Dave sat down by the little table that frOnted the open window and rested his head on his hands. He was recalling, with considerable effort, the events of the previous night; piecing them together in Impossible ways; re- asserting them until they offered some sequence. The anger he had felt toward COnWard had subsided, but the sting of shame ranked in his heart. "Fool!' he said to himself. And be- cause he could think of no more spe- cific expression to suit his feelings, and because expression of any kind brought a sort of relief, he kept on repeating the word, 'FOOl! fool foolw And as his self-condemnatiOn gradually won him. back to a sense of perspective he became aware of the danger of his position. He had left his ranch home to better himself, to learn things, to rise to be somebody. He had worked harder than ever be- ! fore, at more disagreeable employ ment; he had lived in conditions that were almost nauseating-and what had he learned? That you can't beat a card man at his own game, price sixty dollars, and that the gallery seats are cheaper and sometimes safer than the orchestra.
 Then all of a sudden he thought of Reenie. He had not thought of her much of late; he had been so busy in the days and so tired at nights that he had not thought Of her much. Now she burst upon him again with all that 1 beauty and charm which had so mag netiZed him in those glad, golden days, and the frank cleanncSs of her girl hood made him disgusted and ashamed. It was to fit himself for her that he had come to town, and what sort of mess was he making of it? He was going down instead of up. He had squandered his little money, and now he was squandering his life. He had been drunk.
 Dave's nature was one in which emotions were accelerated with their own intensity. And the sudden man. ner in which Reenie had now invaded his consciousness intensified the black ness in which he was submerged, as | lightning darkens the storm. |. He saw her on that last night, with the moonlight wooing her white face, until his own body had eclipsed it in warmer passion, and he heard her words, q know you are true and clean"
 True and clean. "Yes, thank God, I am still that!' he cried, springing suddenly to his feet and commencing to dress. five been spattered, but nothing that won't wash off. Per haps''-and he stopped as the great thought struck him-'perhaps it was the luckiest thing in the world that the booze did put me out last night. It'll wash off,"
 #
 Fortunate fate, or whatever good angel it is that sometimes drops un- expected favOrs, designed that young Elden should the following day deliver coal at the home of MT. Melvin Dun- can. MT. Duncan, tall, quiet and forty five, was at work in his garden as Dave turned the team in the lane and backed them up the long, narrow drive connecting with the family coal chute.
 As the heavy wagon moved straight to it's objective MT. Duncan looked on with approval that heightened into admiration. Dave shOveled his load without remark, but as he stood for a moment at the finish, Wiping the sweat from his coal-grimed face, MT. Duncan engaged him in conversation.
 ''You handle a team like you were born to it, he said. "Where did you get the knack?'
 "Well, I came up on a ranch,' said Dave. 'T've lived with horses ever since I could remember"
 You're a rancher, eh?" queried the older man. "WelI, there's nothing like the range and the open country. If
 could handle horses like you there
 isn't anything would hold me in town
 "Oh, don't know" Dave answered
 "You might get sick of it"
 Did you get sick of it?"
 Elden shot a keen glance at him
 The conversation was becoming per
 sonal Yet there was in MT. Duncan's
 manner a certain kindliness, a certain
 appeal of sincere personality, that dis armed suspicion.
 ''Yes, got sick of it," he said. "1 lived on that ranch eighteen years . and never was inside school or church Wouldn't that make you sick?
 So beat 1t for town"