White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1921-01-30

TX @PNNn Nv F'efh W -
n tender joke with him. lie loved the
Hardin trait In her, the persistence
which will not be daunted. An occupa-
ton with n Hardin was IA dedication.
He would not acknowledge the lines
blood In her. Like that fancy mother
of hers? lines was a Hardin through
and through!
"It's IN the blood" ran his thought.
"She can't help 1t. All the Hardins
work hat way. The Hardins always
make fools of themselves :"
Innes, lifting her eyes from a Grip
pied rose, SAW that the black devils
were consuming him again.
"WIll you look at this wreck |" she
cried.
The windStorm the previous week
lad made n sickening devastation of
her labors. The morning glories alone
We're seatheless. A pink oleander
dropped many broken branches from
which miracles OF perfect flowers were
unfolding. The prettiest blossom To
Hardin was the gardener herself. She
was vivid from eager toll. Hardin
looked at her apngobatiyely. lie liked
her khaki suit. simple as a uniform.
with its flowing black tie and leather
belt. She looked more like herself to-
day. She had bleached out. In Tucson.
She had been letting herself get too
tanned, running around without hats.
Sunbnrn paled the value of those
splendid eyes OF hers. He could always
tease her by llkening them 10 topazes.
His eyes ran oyer the pink and pur.
pie lines of eord-trained vines which
made floral screens for her tent. Free
of the strings overhead. they rioted
over the ramada, the second roof, of
living boughs. lie acknowledged their
beauty. They gave grace TO bare ne
eessIty; they denied the painting.
thirsty desert just beyond.
lie remembered his own ramada.
Gerty had hated it, had complained of
it so bitterly whea she came home
from New York that he had had 1t
pulled down and replaced by a V roof
Of pine boards, glaring and ugly. Gerry
was satisfied. for IL was clean she no
longer felt that she lived In n squaw
house. Let the Indians have ramadas :
there was no earthly reason she should.
lie had urged that the desert dwellers
had valuable hints to give them. But
what was n remada to him, or anything
elsef Hardin turned to leave.
She did not want him to 60 so soon,
She pointed out a new vine to him.
She had brought II from Tucson /;
'kudzu.' they called 1t; a japanese
vine. And there was another broken
rose, quite beyond the help of stripped
handkerchiefs and mesqult splInts.
He followed her around the tent, hef
prattle falling from his grim mood. lie
was not thinking of her flowers except
as a knocking parallel. The desert
storm a made a havoc of his garden
"a sorry botch Of his life. lie and
innes had been trying to make n gar.
den out of a desert the desert had
f1outed them. II was not his fault.
Something had happened: something
quite beyond his power. Luck was
turning against him.
innss, why. she was playing as with
a toy. 1t was the natural instinct Of a
woman to make things pretty around
her. But he had sacrificed his youth.
MS n His domestic life, too
ne should never have carried a dainty
little woman like Gerty into the des.
ert. He had never reproached her for
leaving him. even last time when he
tnought 1t was Tor good. The word
burned his wound. Whose good? His
or Gerty'si Somehow, though thew
wrangled, he always knew II would
urn out all right; life would run
smoothly when they left the desert.
but things were getting worse: his
mouth puckered over some recollec.
TONS. Yet he loved Gerty; he couldn,t
picture life without her. He decided