Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-03-26

On the banks of Allan Water
None was gay as she.
That very night the soldier came In.
TO her life. came as she walked about
the farm to see that all was secure.
Her skirt was caught as she trod fear
fully through growth of high frs;
she heard the mutter of mans voice.
A dark lantern revealed spur en-
tangled In her skirt, young and
slender man clad In brilliant brass
and scarlet. 1t flashed like CLEAN
of romance In gray days. that scarlet
coat that was afterwards to be re-
membered as SO sinister portent.
The man was Sergeant Troy, a
light-hearted seoundrel whose ready
fattery sounded sweeter in Bath
sheba's ears than the stammering long
ing of Gabriel or Boldwood. He
courted her Economically, wooing her
with his sword. She stood, a few days
later, in hollow Of ferns and about
her flashed his whirling, edged weapon,
slashing so close to her that she could
hear It's sharp hiss as 1t carved out
in the air her iissome figure. And when
he turned to leave her, he stopped
swiftly and kissed her on the lips.
Gabriel tried to warn Bathsheba but
she scorned his reproaches. SO he bore
silently with his grief and he did not
tell her that Troy had beguiled little
Fanny Robin away from Weatherbury.
Boldwood, whose heart had never be-
fore beat faster at woman's APP
proach, could not so control his anger.
He shouted maledictions upon the man
who had robbed him Of all that had
made life joyous. His madness pre-
cipitated that which he most dreaded,
Bnthsheba's marriage to Troy.
The hasty marriage led swiftly to
sorrow, inevitably TO tragedy. Troy
celebrated the wedding by revel In
the barn where he and all the jovIal
rustics were soon hopelessly befud-
died. Gabriel dared not drink with
them. The creeping things of the
night and the huddled sheep had
warned him of the nearing storm and
In the fields the high ricks OF wheat
and barley lay uncovered.
The moon vanished and the wind
subsidized; on far horizons baleful fires
fluttered. The mutter Of distant thun-
der rolled into a sharp rattle. The
flashes grew bright bs he worked to
protect the grain. Then Bathsheba
was With him and their labofing forms
were outlined in black by the green
snakes OF fire that darted venomously
earthward. AS she trembled with
fright, Gabriel felt her warm arm
tremble in his great, sheltering hand.
She was another mans wife; she did
not love him; but there was solace
In the strange ways Of fate that had
brought her nearer to him than when
her heart was free.
Tragedy came when Fanny Robin
crept home to diea Her body, with
that Of her child, was brought back
to the house where she had worked
Standing by the coffin, Bathsheba
learned that Troy had never loved her
as he had this 9Th who had borne
death and shame Tor him. He fled from
Weatherbury and word was brought
to Bathsheba that he had been swept
out to sea and drowned.
The seasons rolled on and sorrow
frux IN put Is1.a ~, les fan
ness that added to her charm. Bold
wood dreamed again and he was made
happy by a promise, although six years
must pass before Its fulfillment.
To celebrate his Joy, he planned a
Christmas-eve party. more. than year
after Troy had disappeared. And 1t
was on this night that Troy chose to
reappear, stridlng like a spectre among
the merrymakers. AS he advanced
upon her, Bathsheba stood like
stricken thing, half-convinced that de-
fusion had enthralled her. But there
was nothing ghostly In the rough COM
mand that he shouted at her nor In
the brutal grip that he took upon her
arm. Then only did she stir, but she
could not speak. A strangled scream
was heard, then q deafening roar.
Some eyes were upon Troy, pitching
forward and never to rise again; 9TH
ers upon Boldwood, standing with
smoking gun In his hands.
Not until the next August, long after
It was known that Boldwood was to
be imprisoned for life, was Bathshebs
able to walk as far as the village
street. Fate had been hard to her.
OF three men who had loved her, ona
had been killed by another who would
never stride on the daylight again.
And now word had come to her that
sturdy Gabriel Il
whom she had found the one man mn
the world who did not fall her in helsaz
need, was leaving her. She sought
him in his humble cottage and nd
confessed that he was going becausd%
people were coupling his name WITH
hers. "Such thing as that is too ab-
surd--to0 soOn--to think of, by farE
she cried. When he agreed with her \
that II was "too absurd" she insisted
that she had not said that, but "too
soon" Even then minutes clicked
away before Gabriel could realize that
what he had 30 long sought was to
be his.
Their lives, in calm and storm, had
been so close that, after the wedding,