Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1921-12-09

"Please close it, Elizabeth" he re-
duested. and she obeyed Now sit
down. I've got something to tell the
three of you. And | fancy it will in.
terest all Of you"
The two who had just come III took
chairs at the fireside. After a mo
ment. John X Dale began:
You've often wondered, Bill. about
that savage Streak--as you choose 70
call it--that is in you. You inherited
it.. Much of that which we are, il is
claimed is inherited, and it must be
correct; like begets like, of course.
But there is no savage streak in you,
Bill. You are hot-headed, that's all.
Your virtues overbalance that, by far.
| have never seen another man who
had greater love for honesty and
fair play, or a greater hatred for all
that is hollow and false, or more cour
age to stick up for that which seems
to be right, than you. Now I'll tell
Won how you came by those fine quail
tiles and the h0t-headednesS-"
Elizabeth Littleford sat wide-eyed,
tense half GREATNESS. If he meant to
tell it, why didn't he tell it. Why did
he beat about the bush like that?
bill, this is hard for me. 1t brings
back terrible thing. You know about
David Moreand. . +. When l. awoke
that morning and found him lying
dead at my crazed drunken hands. |
wished that l. too, were dead. :.
That great and silent wilderness
smothered me. imagined that | could
hear voices calling to me, saying
"'Cain! Cain!'
i '"rhey came from the laurel thickets.
from the trees overhead, from the
ground, from everywhere. You see.
wasn't all bad, even in my wildcats
days. Then | thought of the law, and
| ran. =.
But the cry of child from the
cabin | was leaving halted me before
| had gone thirty yards. David More
lands wife had left him with baby
only few weeks old, which | didn't
pay any particular attention to until
that morning, that black morning. At
that time there was no other house
for miles around / couldn't leave the
| child there to die of starvation after
killing its father. So went back and
got the baby, and all its clothing, and
took it away with me. left it at a
| farmhouse down in the rowland, and
| re faH fo
| afreSh.
But later I married, and shortly
| after that | went to the farmer and
persuaded him TO let me adopt the
child. ! brought it up as my own, and
educated it. rs a sort Of compensation.
| And | came TO love it. But it was
years before my wife loved if. She
didn't like children then. But she does
now. She is paying now. and ! am
paying. Don't you understand, Bill
don't You understand"
There was a choke in his voice to-
ward the last. Bill Dale went TO his
feet His eyes we're wide, but he did
not seem unhappy: and for that Eliza
beth was grateful. John Mnreiand sat
as still, with his bearded. viking face
as expressionless as though ne had
known it all along
"And so really am in my own
country! /" cried Bill Dale. 81 am a
Moreland, and the Moreiands really
are my own people =
Eyes, you are in your own country,
and yor are q NORTHUMBERLAND your
baby name was David" said John X.
Dale.
1t was then that John Moreland
spoke.
"Bill, when | fr.st seed you, you
made me think o. my brother the day
he was married | amt never fo'got
that. sartainly amt surprised none
at all. We didn't know about the
baby Cherokee Joe told me the baby
had died"
"And now, SON" pleaded old Dale,
his voice breaking, say that you for
give me-"
Bill Dale, David Moreland's boy,
knelt beside the old sheepskin-lined
rocker, took the old coal kings hand
III DOIn MS own anu bcnt HIS HcAu
over it.
It's all right" he said thckly IT'S
all right"
Elizabeth Littleford arose and stole
bindly out of the house. Her foot
steps led her, quite without her real
izing where she was going, across the
meadow and to the river above the
blOwn-down sycamore. And there on
that sacred spot, where she had first
felt her heart leap at The sound OF
Bill Dale's voice. she sank down in
heap in the snow and cried, and
cried.
Twilight was gathering rapidly, but
she did not notice it. She did not
notice, either, that the air was grow
ing steadily colder with the approach
OF the mountain night. TO her q
warm sun was shining above 10 a
bright blue vault; to her the spirit OF
summer was everywhere: in her ears
/ HERE was the liquid song Of q Me2deT
+&TN