The daily Alaskan., 1920-10-05
COPY RTGFIT BY TIE BoBBS-EIERRILL COMPANY

And why nOtg It's empty, ana mo- body would care. In these deep woods there's nobody to care"
 A flicker of light crossed her face.
 "Td get well up there, under the strong cliffs, with the cool spring so near. And I've lived so lOng-since you were q child in arms-On the river -the Ohio; the White; the Wabash" '"
 Always, motherl Always the house. boat-drlftlng; drifting-and you so frail. so beautiful"
 The man left the window and knelt by the rocking chair. The IrOn-Gray- Woman saw the question In his eyes a hunger for sCme word out of the past; word that had never come. All his life she had kept 1t from him whatever II had been that happened back there behind the veil of her si- Iencc that left him nameless; river waif; a nOmad in an orderly world; q fisher of pearls; a pcarlhunter. Her eyes came back and faltered over him. No longer n child; a boy-the retec- tlOn startled her A man knelt at her slde-the question written big upon his face. And it was his right to know. Her head dropped back against the quilt that cushioned the chair. It's solemn thing to be the mother of a man-glOrious but solemn.
 The ustrOus eyes-brighter for the fever wasting thcm-came back to him after a time. He saw fOr-hung thoughtfulness in them; knew they had strayed into that past from which he was barred. The thin lips parted. The mans fingers Curled tense upon the chair arm.
 "To city on the Wabash, in early days came three families of Virginia's uurrSt blood-my family, your fathers family. and the family of-of-another man."
 The Iron-Gray-Woman shuddered and was. silent for a moment. The man picked up a wasted hand; stroked if softly between his own, and she went on, strained and slow, Ike one desperately nerved to a long-dreaded task.
 "NTv parents both died when l was so small that I can barely remember them. leaving me, their only child, to the care of a distant relative, great uncle of my fathers. This great-great- uncle-wen. as I look back upon my life l cannot remember that he ever gave me a pleasant word.
 My aunt was as different as dawn to dark. She was everything that he was not. A thousand times she loved my hurt away.
 "Tnpy had a daughter, m only child, almost my age, and of the same name surname and all. When uncle was away on business trips, as he often was for weeks, it was like sunshine after rain. Such happy times! They are high among the few pleasant memories of my life"
 The IrOn-Gray-Woman paused, her dark, deep eyes seeming to search back Into the dead past, like traveller stralning his gaze across a stretch of desert to where the oasis lies. The man shifted to his other knee and she went on.
 My aunt died when We were In our glrlhOod After that-the gray days were ever more thun the bright. A petulancc settled deep upon my uncle. His best word was a grOwl. The sery- ants moved about the house like silent shadows.
 "In this same city upon the Wabash lived two other families, as have told yOu-yOur fathers family and the family of-of-anOther man. Your father and this other man were both my suitors.. But my uncle tried every means in his power to turn your fa- ther away from me to my cousin, while he secretly encouraged the at tentions of the other man to me.
 Your fathers blood was of the best in Virginia. A soldier, as the men of his family had-always been, he had already won, by conspicuous gallantry, the rank of colonel in the Indian wars"
 "What was he likeT
 The Ir0n-Gray-Woman turned her eyes and studied him so long, so in- tently, that he tremblcd lest his Ques- . tion-a question that came in spite of him-had startled her into silence.
 Like you," she resumed, land not like you. His eyes were blue, his hair light. Your hair Is dark, like mine. Your eyes are like mine. But he had the same height and breadth of shOul- der; like you, slow of speech, slow to strike. till the right instant came then, us the hawk strikes.
 q never liked the-other man; though my uncle made it impossible for me completely to discourage his attentions" Her words dropped back into the memory groove worn deep by the years. "I kept up a show of interest in him, for the sake of my cousin. She really loved him, and 1t was the only way she could get to see him. He was a very handsome man; though, as it afterward turned out, the hIork sheen Of his family and deeuly