Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-03-24
GRACE L. H. LUTZ.

sSA40 "OSf . HA0SS >. 110.u AN. 1tVS AIO0U
to go on and find Alltster avenue
though he did. and then turned back
again, stopping by the roadside. He
got out Of the a looking all the
time at the barn and seeing 1t. in the
light Of the girls eyes. AS he walked
up the grassy slope to the front doors.
he had some conception of what 1t
must be to live so that this would
seem grand as a home. And he show
ed he was not spoiled by his life in
the lap Of luxury. for he was able to
get a glimpse .of the grandeur of the
spot and the dignity Of the building
with it's long simple lines and rough
old. stones.
The sun was just going down as he
stood there looking up: It touched
jewelled settings. clarifying the. old
structure into a palace. The evening
was sweet with, the voices of birds not
Tar away. One above the rest, clear
and occasional, high in the elm-tree
over the barn, q. w~ood-thrush splitting
It's silver notes down to the brook that
echoed them back in a Tilt. The young
man took off his hat and stood in the
evening air. listening and looking. He
could see the poetry Of it, and some
how he could see the girls face as II
she stood there beside him. her won
derful eyes lighted as they had bee,
was there. She was right. 1t was
beautiful, and it was a lovely soul
that could see 1t and feel what a home
this would make in spite Of the
ignominy Of its being nothing but a
barn. Some dim, memory, some faint
remembrance, Of a stable long ago,
and the glory of it. lowered on, the
horizon Of his mind: but his educa-
ton had not been along religious
lines. and he did not put the thing in
to a definite thought. 1t was just a
kind of sensing of a great fact of the
universe which he perhaps might
have understood in a former ex-
istence. .F'.
Then he turned to the building it,
self. He was practical, after all, even
paddock How did they get into thi.
thing? How had the girl got in ?
Should he be obliged to break into
his own barn? .
He walked down the slope, around
to the back, and found the entrance
close to the ladder but the place was
quite da-.s within the great stone
walls. and he peered into the gloomy
basement with disgust at the dirt and
murk. Only here and there, where a
crack looked toward the setting sun,
a. bright needle of light sent a shaft
through to let. one see the inky
shadows. He was half turning back,
but reflected that the girl had said she
went up q ladder to the middle floor.
IT she had gone, surely he could.
Again that sense that she was strong
er than he rebuked him. He got out
his pocket ffashlight and stepped
within the gloom determinedly. Hold
ing the flash-light above his heada he
surveyed his. property disapprovingly;
then with the light in his hand he
climbed in a gingerly way up the
dusty rounds to the middle floor.
AS he stood alone in the dusky
shadows of the big barn, with the
blackness of the hay-loft overhead,
the darkness pierced only by the keen
blade. Of the flash-light and a few
feebler darts from the sinking sun
the poetry suddenly left the old barn
and a shudder ran through him.. Tc
think OF trying to live here! How
horrible! - =
Yet still that same. feeling that the
girl had more nerve than he ha6
forced him to walk the length and
breadth of the floor, peering carefully
into the dark corners and acquaintin1
himself fully with the bare, big place;
and also to climb part way up the lad.
der to the loft and send his aash-light
searching through it's dusty hay.
strewn recesses.
With a feeling utterly at variance
with the place he turned away in dis.
gust. and made his way down the lad.
ders again, out into the sunset.