Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-03-19


7 was no one to comfort her then, n
5 one left from those Other Years, bu
the old russell apple tree. And 500
all too soon-that would be but
: memory.
A few feet away was the hole il
the stone wall where she had frs
seen the little Haskins boy who haI
played with her for little time ant
then moved away and grown up ant
become a minister and gone as mis-
: sionary to India. Where was he now
and did he ever think of the girl OF
the adjoining farm in Foxboro wht
had dared to follow him through thu
hole in the stone wall under boulder.
that might easily slide off and crush
them? She wondered.
Over between the two scrawne,
astIuchan trees was the big boulder
where she had always sought safety
from the wicked knives of the NOV
ing machine when they cut the grass
in the orchard. She had played mud
pies there with Nellie Harrington
who came down from the Harrington
place which had burned years and
years ago and was now only black
berry-grown cellar-hole and stump
OF senile brick chimney; Nellie had
married one of the Blodgett boys and
died with the coming of little child.
A score of old familiar things she
saw: The one pure white stone in
the wall where on a winters day she
had come face to face with fox !;
the outline of the frog pond in the
swamp where some men had once
shot an ailing horse; the bars into
the woodlot where the youngest Os-
good boy had started fire with
stolen matches and nearly ruined a
township; raspberry and blackberry
bushes where she had watched for
the first autumn fruit to ripen. Every
feature of the landscape had it's as
sociations.
cold applc-trcc!- dear old russell
apple-tree" she chokcd. "I'm going
away now and can't come back any
more. You have always seemed hui
man to me. Will you remember the
little girl who played dolls here, and
brought cookies and sugared bread
andbutter here, and came here for
solace when she had been punished
for some disobedience of childhood?
Will you remember her, old apple
tree,-and think of her as having
gone out into the world from this day
a Wor1lan?"
A breeze blowing over the valley
stirred the branches. 1t seemed as
though the tree had replied. She
stole her arms about it's battered
scaley trunk and placed her fair face
close against its surface.
Her face was streaming tears when
Jack came upon her.
"Mary," he said with a wonderful
tenderness in his rebuke. "You pro-
missed you weren't going to the auc-
ton today; you said you were going
to stay with the Osgoods until after
the agony was over. That's why l
worked at the office. Otherwise 1
should have tried to be with you"
She slipped off the apple-trees low
bough as a little child climbs down
from the knee of an aged grandparent
slipped down and stood before her
lover with her back against the tree.
He looked into her face and he
knew what she had that day suffered
and was suffering now.
l.. ~
81 never felt more lonely in my
life than l do now, jack" she said.
Cup to now l have been only girl.
After this Pm woman,-a woman
and alone. A man can be alone and
lonely and not mind but lonely
woman is the most miserable Great
ure in Gods world"
"Mary," he said, give been talking
to Mr.. Hold. He was at the auction
you know, and he saw you. He made
me come out early and and !.
take care of you. Mary, dear, I'm
alone, too. I'm alone and in debt.
I have my own way to make, my liv-
ing to earn under handicap. You
know what that handicap is and what
it means. But Mary, since this
has happened, since you too have
been left alone, since my talk
with Mr.. Hold and his kindness to me,
I've come to realize what it means
for you and / to try to solve this
problem alone and apart. l II
want you, Mary. want you to help
and encourage me; to work with me;
to be at home when | come there at
night after trying to fight my way
ahead in the day. want to feel that
nothing is going to part us but
death. / want you to marry me,
Mary,-marry me and fight with me,
and share with me the glory of Win
ming the victory. Perhaps / have no
right to ask it. I'm a poor man.
But we are both alone and poor now
Why should it be any harder to fight
our way together than separately
and alone?"
at would be-easier-Jackw
"Will you marry me, Nary"
, "When?" she asked fearfully.
"Now!" he said. "Tonight! Mr.
Hold said--and l see how truly he
knew-that you would need me to-
night, especially. Oh Mary! love
you! want you! Come with me
and let's live-together!"