Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1919-02-06

the despairing cry. Always she adj
jured herself to be patient, to wait
doggedly as Bill would have waited, to
make due allowance for immensely Of
distance, for the manifold delays which
might overtake a messenger faring
across those silent miles or a man hur.
rying to his home. Many things might
hold him back. But he would come.
It was inconceivable that he might
not come.
Meantime, with only a dim con-
seriousness of the fact, she underwent
a marvellous schooling in adaptation,
self-restraint. She had work Of q sort,
tasks such as every housewife finds
self-imposed in her own home. She
was seldom lonely. She marveled at
that. It was unique in her expert
ence. All her old dread Of the pro-
found silence, the painless forests
which infolded like a prison wall, dis
tances which seemed impossible Of
span, had vanished. In its place had
fallen over her an abiding sense Of
peace, of security. The lusty storm
winds whistling about the cabin sang
a restful lullaby. When the wolves
lifted their weird, melancholy plant
to the cold, s~tar-jeweled skies, she lis
tened without the old shudder. These
things, which were wont to Cypress
her, to send her imagination Keeling
along morbid ways, seemed but q ma
tural aspect of life, Of which she her.
self was a part.
: Often, sitting before her glowing
fireplace, watching a flame kindled
with her own hands with wood she
herself carried from the pile outside,
she pondered this. 1t defed her pow
eFs Of. s~elf-analysis. She could only
accept it as a fact, and be glad. Gran
vile and all that Granville stood for
had withdrawn to a more or less re-
mote background. She could look yer
the frost-spangled forests and feel
that she lacked nothing-nothing save
her mate. There was no impression Of
transient abiding; no chatting to be
elsewhere, to do otherwise. It was
home, she reflected; perhaps that was
why.
A simple routine served to fill her
days. She kept her house shining, she
cooked her food, carried in her fuel.
Except on days of fortnight storm
she put on her snowshoes, and with
q little rifle in the crook of her arm
prowled at random through the woods
partly because it gave her pleasure
to range sturdily afeld, partly for the
physical brace Of exertion ia the crisp
air. Otherwise she curled comfortably
before the fireplace and sewed, or read
something out Of Bills catholic as
sortsnent of books.
IL was given her, also, to learn the
true meaning Of neighborliness, that
kindness of spirit which is stifed by
stress in the crowded places, and slim
ulated by like stress amid. surround
ings where life is n~oncomplex, direct,
where and effect tread on each
others heels. Every day, if she failed
to drop into their cabin, came one OF
her neighbors to see if all were well
with her.
Quite as a matter of course Jake
kept steadily replenished for her g
great pile of frewood. Or they would
come, babies and all, bundled in fHrs
Of Jake's trapping, jingling up of ar
evening behind the frisky bays. Ant
while the bays munched hay in Roar
ing Bill Wagstaff's stable, they would
cluster about the open hearth, popping
corn for the children, talking, alNay!
with cheerful optimism.
Behind Lauer's mild blue eyes Turk
ed a mind that burrowed i%ncessantl.
to the roots of things. He had livel
and worked and read, and, ponderin:
it all, he had summed up q few of thu
verities.
Life, it ISIS giffrn us, und We mus
off. it make der best We cam" ne sait
once to Hazel, fondling q few book
he had borrowed to read at home
Life ISIS goot, .yust der lifting OF life, i
only We go not astray afder der WOOL
ish dings-und if der self-breservatio]
struggle wears us not out so dot v
cannot enjoy being alife. So man,
ISIS struggle und slave under terrible
conditions. ind it ISIS largely becaus
off ignorance. We know not vot We cal
do-und We shrink vrUm der unknown
Here ISIS acres by der dousand vre
to der man vet can off it make use
und dousanls yot lifts und dies I'M
nelfer hass q home. Here ISIS goot
CLEAN air-Ind in der shmOke un'
shmclls und dirty streets ISIS 4 ravag
of tuberculosis. Der balance ISIS no
true. Und in der w way der ricl
ISIS full off drouble-drunk nit eggcite
ment, weary nit pleasures. Ach, de
woods ind mountains und streams
blenty off food, uifd a kindly neighbo
ISIS not dot enough? Only der alb
normal wants more as dot. EEad / dim
der drouble ISIS largely dot der modern
high-bressure Civilization makes for de
abnormal, vedder a man ISIS a million
aire or works in der brewery, content
ment iSs u state off der mind-und i
der mind works nit logic it Wiz eonten
find in der simple diEgs."