News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1921-12-07

49, ~ 1919 " W. 81
Tears glittered in the Chinese boys
eyes, but he smiled with great air
of cheer
81 keep house !" he promised.
The dog came fawnlng and spring
ing IRON the stables, and Peter wills.
tied to him.
Come on Buck We're going now"
He opened the farmyard gate where
her hand had so often rested, crossed
the muddy corral, opened another
gate, and struck off across the darken.
ing world toward the ridge. The last
| sunlight fingered on crest and tree-top,
tangled itself redly in the uppermost
branches Of few tall redwoods, and
was gone Twilight-a long twilight
that had in it some hint of spring-lay
softly over the valley; the mountain
| doomed high in the clear. shadow.
Gaining the top of the first ridge, he
paused and looked back at the cabin,
| the little brown house that he had
| built almost fifteen years ago. He re-
membered that 1t was In the beginning
| sert of experiment his mother and
| he were too much alone in their big
| city house, and she had suggested,
with rare wisdom, that as he did not
care for society, and as his travels al
ways meant great loneliness for her.
he should have little eyrie of his
own, to which he might retreat when
ever the fancy touched him.
She liked Del Monte and Tahoe. her
self, but she had come. to Mill Valley
now and then in the days of his first
wild delight in its freedom and beau
by, silk-g0Wned and whife-gloved and
very much disliking dust She had
sent him plants, roses, and fruit trees
and she had told him one day that he
had neighbor in the valley who was
an old friend of hers,ea Doctor Strick-
land, a widower, with children
He remembered sauntering up the
opposite canyon to duly call upon this
inventor-physician one day, and his
delight upon finding well-read, mu-
-sic-loying, philosophic, cratic man,
who had at once recognized Il kindred
spirit, and who had made the younger
man warmly welcome.
Presently, on the first call, an en-
chanting little girl in a shabby smocll
had cOmeSin-a little girl all dimples,
occurrences and untouched boyish
beauty. She had said that "Anne wath
mad wiz her, and that AliX-" she
managed to lisp the name, "wath up
in the madrone"
A somewhat older child, named Alix,
a freclded, leggy little person with
enormous front teeth, had proved the
claim by falling out of the madrone,
and had received no sympathy for
bump, but a-to hm-rather surprs-
ing censure. He had yet to realize
that nothing ever hurt Alx. but that
she always ruined her clothes. and
frequently hurt other persons and 9th
er things. He found her a spirited, en- |
thusiastic little person, extremely ar |
ticulate, and quite unself-conScious |
and she had entertained him with an |
excited account Of a.seX feud that WAS |,
being pushed with some violence at her |
scheol, and had used expressions that |
rather shocked Peter quiet third |
girl-a niece, he gathered-had toinedl
tile group, a girl with bralds and clean
hands, who elucidated:
"AliX and | don't like our teacher"
"She's a sneak and a skunk !" AliX
had frankly contributed. Chsny, now
quietly established in her fathers lap,
lad smiled with miscellaneous enjoy
nent; nobody else, to Peters surprise,
lad paid this extraordinary remark the
slightest attention. He remembered
hat he had fancied only the smallest
If these children, and had been glad
when they all went ont of the room.
Looking down at the cabin, the
ears slipped past him like a flying
lin, and it was the present again, and
AliX-AliX was gone.
He reused himself, spoke to the dog,
md they went on their way again.
1ud squelched beneath Peters boots
n the roadway; the dog sprang light
Y from clump to clump of dried grass
But when they left the road, and cut
traight across the rise of the hillside,
he ground was firmer, and the two fig
res moved swiftly through the dark
light. The early stars came out, and
bowed them, silhouetted against the
ky above AliX's beloved Tamalpais,
he mans erect form with its slight
mp, the dog following faithfully, his
lump tail and feathered ruff showing
dull luster in the starlight.
Cherry, with her violet eyes and
hair, Cherry, with her lit
e hands gathered in his. and her
cart beating against his heart, and
Xix, his chum, his companion, his
)mrade on so many night walks I'M
er the stars-he had lost them both.
ut it was Alx who was closest to his
loughts tonight, Alix, the thought of
HON was gradually gripping his
cart and soul with a new pain.
Alix was his own; Cherry had never
zen his own. 1t was for him to COM
'rt Cherry, ii had always been his
iSSiOn to comfort Cherry, since the