The Mena weekly star., 1921-04-14

 river, with kindly family of pearl fishers. They told me had been sick for a long time When grew strong, I sold my jewelry, sll but my wedding ring-that I saved for your sake bought this houseboat, and became a pearl fisher. You know the rest"
 The Iron n-Gray-woman fell silent; rocked softly back and forth time or two; allowed the chair to settle still. The man reached an arm around her shoulders and drew her head over upon his breast. The little act of ten derness seemed to touch her deeply. For a long time the tears flowed on while the young man knelt and mar veied
 Mother" he said very gently at last, stroking her hair, i've must go back to him.
 He felt her quiver at the word. She sat for a long time staring dowa at the floor.
 For your sake--we must" she an- swered at length. "But not until you are twenty-one, or--we find the pearl -the pearlw
 But I am twenty-one in June--this June-the twentieth; and this is the thirteenth" The man was trembling with an eagerness he could not con ceal. "The time is so near--his name my fathers namer' He searched her wet eyes for the answer. In all his life. 1t was the first time the curtain that hid his past had ever raised. It must have been the fever that made her speak now. It was no light matter to unlock that l door: to prohe wound of twenty years. She trembled up from her chair, her eyes wide and wild Your father-' The young man, too, had risen. She clutched his arm, Your father !"
 The words seemed to choke her There came a torrent of coughing and the man gently eased her back 1 into the chair.
 As he stopped over her. anxious to do something to alleviate her suffer ing, vet not knowing what. she raised her face in a gasp for breath. and he saw blood upon her lips. He snatehe6 another cup of water and kr beside her. but for long time she Jumped | forward, her shoulders cupped in an6 her arms locked as If trying to holt back the cough. until she seemed ac tuaiiy to conquer it by sheer force o' will Finally she groped with on, hand for the cup; supped the cool wa ter, strengthened, and lay back in hel chair. There was no more blood oI her lips, and the man said nothing O the tiny fleek he had seen there.
 Mother they're getting worse these spells. Let me bring the docto down from the village" l Her eyes opened; she looked up q him with feyerish quickness.
 I've lived twenty years without tn, world I'll not go back to it now"
 But, mother, if we just keep on thii way, youll--you1l"-he hesitated a the next word finally let 1t fall-"dle
 Die" she seemed to fondle th' word. "A small thing-to die,' l She sat musing as If she found , melancholy comfort in the thought.
 But I shan't die" she continued with nasty glance up at his face My cough Is worse today because m. medicine is gone"
 The young man started
 Your elecampane gonel"
 T took the last of 1t yesterday"
 Mother r
 He went to the cook stove and lifted the saucer from a small jar in whicl the roots were usually steeped. It wa empty and dry. There was great ten derness in his voice as he came bacl and bent over her chair.
 "You shall have your elecampan, tea he said, If the roots are to b. found in the Flatwoods; and you shal sleep tonight in the old cabin up ther. under the cool trees"
 A ripple of pleased expectation. oi half-awskened interest, broke ths drear surface of the weary face-liks a faint glow back of curtain thai never raises.
 He reflled the cup with cool water rummaged & spade out of the locker under the forward deck, and was ius on the point of leaping to the banl when he heard her speaking. H. poked his head back inside the cur tains, and she repeated what she hat just said:
 Isn't the Flatwoods where the wlit Man livesI Seems to me once heart that there is such man in thes, woods"
 He felt carelessly along the rusty bi of the spade with his thumb.
 "f believe this Is the woods
 Maybe he's--I mean--he's not dan gerousf''