The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-15
EVENING STORY
The Shining Way.
BY S. B. HACKLEY.

|
mountain, and set down the little bas-
ket of fried chicken and biscuits she
was taking to a sick neighbor. Tho
| it was a long way she he'd come from
the hidden Cullom stronghold at the
top of the mountain, she had not
stopped to rest, but to think over
things.
Today was Wednesday, and Monday
she had let the children set as the
| day when she would be married the
second time-and without love-with-
| out love!
| She united the strings Of her black
alpaca sunbonnet and threw them
back. Things were closing in on her;
Ishe felt as if she were smothering.
| Back in '65, when young Isaac Gull
| lum brought her to his new home here
| in the widest part of the county, he
had set out great orchards with an
| eye to making "moonshine. And
Isaac had made a success of his VEN
, ture. No revenue officer would ever
| have dreamed of fields and orchaI DIS
lying behind that forest of hemlock
and oak, poplar and chestnut.
| At Isaacs death. his son Sheridan
fell heir to his orchards and his call
ing, but Sheridan could not make the
liquor as Isaac had made it, try as he
might. A year after 1saac's death,
however. Sheridan learned that Simon
Cone was an expert distiller and per-
suaded him to stay with him. Sheri-
dan paid good wages and gave Simon
every consideration.
| When he chose, he slept late in the
I mornings and his breakfasts were kept
warm for him. RoXana, Sheridan's
mother, did most of the cooking, and
before many months Simon began to
turn admiring eyes on the spry little
IrUD 10 l..
body he had ever known.
Sheridan and his wife, Dorcas, we've
much pleased. If Simon married
mother his stay with them would be
certain-permanent Their persuasion
and Simon's urging we're too much for
Roxana. She promised to marry him.
That morning Dorcas had made her
try on the dark blue poplin dress they
had bought for her. Roxanna had
suggested that the color was insult
able for a woman in her sixty fifth
year.
| "Blacls is ell right to mourn a hus-
band in" Dorcas had insisted, "but not
to wed one in, mother!"
To mourn a husband! And She
she had not mourned Isaac. t
I'm bound to you and I'll stay with
you and do my duty by you as long as
1 have to- she told him in the first
year of their marriage, but don't ex-
pecr love from woman you married
thru !.e."
The year before Herndon Heriot,
the young man she loved, hal gene
away IL tie war.
81 wisht I could read and write,
Roxie, darhrl'," he told her at Parting.
SOS I could write to you while I'm
away; but can't, and I wouldn't trust
nobody to do it for me; but you be
waitin and ready to marry me when
I come home-Roxie-you be ready"
But that winter when Isaac Cullom
fol hnr of dir1ey in ft1n 0f
Hern's marriage she believed him.
and stung with the insult she believed
Hern had put upon her, she married
Isaac hastily.
Then, one day in May. when she
went out to gather the white azaleas
Hern always loved, the boy himself
came up behind her.
He was gaunt and palette left
sleeve Of his blue army coat hung
limp from the elbow. but he was
i've come back to marry you.
Roxier
Don't tech NEEDN'T kiss me,
Henri" She pushed him back from
her TIN another mans wife Isaac
Cullom told me you were married.
Il believed him, Henri
He listened to her story, his face
whittier than the azalea blooms she
!, had let fall.
1T never grieved for my ARM" he
told her. II jest laid there in the hos
pital and tried to get well quick-I
knowed you'd love me jest as much
with one arm as two-and. soon's
they let me, 1 came to find you. Your
ma said you was out here. She never
told me" He turned away and
pressed his uninjured right arm across
his face. ooh, Roxie-Roxie'-
| desolate sobs shook hint can't
hardly bear it,"
Then he'd gone, and she had never
seen him again. The child, Sheridan,
had made life with Isaac endurab BILE !;
the child she had wanted to call
"Herndon," but had not dared.
I've promised Simon and the chill
dren-but 1 married once without love
and 1 can't bear to do it again.
thought Roxana- Il may be up in
old"
She rose, her small features work
. ing. The emotion of lifetime pressed
upon her.
Lifted a been SO fair If I'd loved
my man." she murmured. II wish
, somebody would tell me now not to go
! agin my heart! 1 wish there was
! Somebody
Her faded cheek crimsoned sud
, denly. There was Hern. Hern lived
twenty miles away-a1one-and he
, was not married. She set her lips and
. deliberately turned her face away
, from Keturah Placer's. The October
air was like honey; Roxanas feet felt
like wings. For hours she walked
before she stopped and ate a lunch
from the basket she had started to
/ take to a sick friend
Il don't want folks asking ques-
j tions,' she told herself cheerfully at
dusk as she made for her weary body
t a couch in a big dry stack of straw
some distance off the road; Its clean
Z | and 1 amt afraid,''
: BY noon the next day she reached
the mining town near which Heriot
| lived
} "Hern's at home" a friendly noun
I taineer told her, as he pointed the
l way to her. He gifts sizab pen
| sion and he's well fixed, but he says
8 he gifts mighty lonesome sometimes.
q Twin by hiSse'fi''