The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1921-02-04

A thought shadOwed his face-the
old thought that always brought the
cloud. His eyes narrowed; the lines
of his mouth drew tense. Drawing
the stems of the three roses through
buttonhole In his blouse. he strobe
away down the branch back to Fallen
Rock.
The languid eyes of the Iron-Gray-
Woman turned toward him as he
sprang in over the saving gangplank.
pushed aside the rumpled curtain, and
entered the tiny cabin of the house
boat. There was not so much nre In
the eyes The fever was going down
with the sun. The thought his re-
turning step had brought came out in
her first words.
"They who own the old cabin might
not like us to move in"
'sThey can only make us move out
again." was his CHEEKY answer. And.
mother, you never saw such a view
as you get from up there. And you
can drink right out Of the spring."
Something came to the face Of tha
Iron-G Gray Woman that had long been
a stranger there. Not a smile-a rip
Die, like the swath a chance breeze
ruffies across still Water.
"But you can't carry everything"
Everything. And the first load
shall be you"
MET"
"It would set you coughing to climb
the slope"
The woman dropped her eyes. After
all, weakness is not pleasant fact to
face. The loss Of power. the inability
10 do accustomed things, always
comes as shock. Life had brought
to the Iron-Gray-Woman little enough
-pitifully little enough. But though
life be ever so bare and gray. no one
likes to sit helpless and watch 1t go.
HAPPY the young man sensed moth
ing of this. but was already busy
gathering together such Of their
meager stock of household goods as 1t
would be absolutely necessary to
carry up to the cabin under the cliff
II the coming night was to be spent
ashore.
Nothing remained but the actual
going ashore. His mother came nrst,
as he had said. While packing. he
had planned to help her up the hill to
the spring and leave her there while
he swept the old cabin, aired 1t out.
put up the cook stove, and otherwise
made the place as sweet and inviting
as possible for her occupancy.
Just before passing through the
rumpled curtain Of the houseboat she
stopped and gazed over the tiny cabin.
"Just one look before I CO." she
said.
He was astonished at the wistful.
ness in her tones.
"why, mother. you can come back
any minute"
at has been my home for twenty
years." she said as she turned away,
her tone more the voicing Of reflec-
tion than the statement of fact.
Across the gangpiank and up the
slope among the trees he led her
carried her-with all the tenderness
due from a man to his mother; for
the Iron Gray-Woman had the man.
ners and speech Of a "lady OF high
degree;" and she had taught him. all
she knew. He had brought along
cushion. which he spread for her upon
a moss-uphoistered rock. With the
spray Of the waterfall In the air, with
the cup in her hand, the cool spring
within reach, he left her and hurried
back to the houseboat.
The sun was dipping low toward
the distant bend in the river when
the last Of the moving was done. A
purple twilight had given place to
dark before he had the cabin put to
rights, his mother in her easy chair.
and supper on the table: bass, taken
from the nets only that morning;
fruit from the woods; baked pota-
toes toast, crisp and brown; and tea,
which she had left her chair long
enough to draw.
In the contented silence that often
falls after the evening meal, the man
sat coyertly studying her face. r.
fever had gone. 1t was face almost
serene. She appeared. as he watched
her. to be listening to the sound of
the waterfall floating in through the
open window upon the pulse Of the
night. The move had done her good.
He thought how beautiful she must
have been-how beautiful still.
Her words that afternoon came
back to him-the only word that had
ever come to him out of the past. The
desire 10 learn more grew in him, and
vet he dreaded to speak. The Iron
Gray-woman was not one to invite
commences. And yet a man ought to
know something of the manner Of his
coming, into the world.
The cabin had settled to deep quiet;
the lap Of the waterfall had sweiled
to full strength upon the silence;
when the cabin door banged open and
a man stormed in. The Pearlhunter
wbirled up out OF his chair and faced
him
The intruder was man Of forty,
possibly more, lacking somewhat of
the Pearlhunter's height and massive