The Holbrook news., 1920-12-24

task of sharpening the fish spear
 Tt looks cool-and calm-up there
 He paused; glanced back over his shoulder at her, and waited for hel to go on.
 'Is that log house I see up there under the cliffs?"
 The floor of the hOusebOat creaked under the weight of him as he came to the window. He had to stoop low to bring his eyes level with the open. ing.
 "A log house; old and empty.
 The ron-Gray-Woman sat musing a moment, her eyes astray among the trees holding languidly in the serene June afternoon.
 Il wish 1 might live again upon the shore. The sun beats down so hot upon the houseboat, and grow weary of the eternal throb of the river. If could only live little while up there I should grow strong"
 And why not? It's empty, and no- 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 child in arms-on the river the Ohio; the White; the Wabash !''
 Always, mother Always the house boat-drifting :; drifting-and you so frail, so beautiful p
 The man left the window and knelt | hxy ,aI-; aI,of | Woman saw the question in his eyes a hunger for some word out of the past; word that had never come. All his life she had kept it from him whatever it had Sbeen that happened back there behind the veil of, her si- lence that left him nameless; a river waif; nomad in an orderly world; a fisher of pearls; a pearlhpnter. Her eyes came back and faltered over him. No longer a child; bOy-the .reflec- tion startled her. A man knelt at her side-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 lustrous eyes-brighter for the fever wasting them-came back to him after a time. He saw a far-flung 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 purest 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 it softly between his own, and she went on, strained and slow, like one desperately nerved to a long-dreaded task
 My parents both died when was so small that I can barely remember them, leaving me, their only child, to the care of a distant relative, a great uncle of my fathers. This great-great- uncle-well, as I look back upon my life I 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.
 'They had a daughter, an only child, almost my age, and of the same name surname and all. When uncle was away on business trips, as he often c1Di i'm after rain. Such happy times They are high among the few pleasant memories of my life"
 The Iron-Gray-W Woman paused, her dark. deep eyes seeming to search back into the dead past, like traveller straining his gaze across a stretch of desert to where the oasis lies. The man shifted to his other knee and she went on. Ag
 My aunt died when we were in our girlhood. After that-the gray days were ever more than the bright. A petulance settled deep upon my uncle. His best word was a growl. The serv- 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 like"
 The rOn-Gray-Wo turned her eyes and studied him so long, so tn- tently, that he trembled lest his ques- tion-a question that came in spite of | him-had startled her into silence.
 Like you," she resumed, land not l 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, as the hawk strikes. q never liked the-other man; though my uncle made it impossible for me completely to discourage his | n Ha. xx-Ordc droDrad hoo