The Belding banner-news., 1922-02-01

\
W be right, than you. Now III tell
you how you came ny those fine runi-
tiles and the hot t.headedness--"
Elizabeth Littleford sat wile-eyed,
tense, half breathess If he meant 10
tell IL, why didn't he tell IL! Why did
he beat about the bush like thati
"Bill. this Is hard for me. II brings
back terrible thing You know about
David Moreland. 49,. When ! awoke
that morning and found him lying
dead AT my crazed. drunken hands,
wished tha: l, too. were dead.
That great and silent wilderness
smothered me | imagined that | could
hear voices calling 10 me, saying
Gain! Cain!
"They 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 a 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 l went back and
got the baby. and all its clothing, and
took il away with me. left il AT
farmhouse down in the rowland, and
went 10 another city, and started life
afreSh .
But later i married. and shortly
| after thar | went To the farmer and
! persuaded him 10 let me adopt the
child. ! brought it up as my own, and
educated il, as "A sort of compensation.
! And | came to love it, But il was
years before my wife loved it. 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 understands
There was choke In his voice to-
ward the last. Bill Dale went to his
/ feet. His eyes were wide. but he did
not seem unhappy; and for that Eliza
beth was grateful. John Moreland sat
as still. with his bearded. viking face
as expressionless as though he had
known ii all along.
And so | really am I'm my own
country :" cried Bill Dale. 81 am a
Moreland, and the Morelands really
are my own people !"
Yes. you are In your own country,
and you are a Moreland-and your
baby name was David" said John n.
Dale.
1t was then that John Moreland
spoke.
"Bil. when fust 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 Morelands boy
knelt beside the old sheepskin-lined
rocker. took the old coal kings hand
i'm both his own and bent his head
over IL.
Its all right" he said thickly. Its
sl 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
heap In the snow and cried, and
cried.
Twilight was gathering rapidly, but
she did not notice II. 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 In Q
bright blue vault; to her the spirit Of
summer was everywhere; in her ears
there was the liquid song of a meadow
lark the sweet twittering Of wood
thrushes, the low humming of wild
bees. The pouring of the crystal wa
ters between the two boulders above
the pool made music to her, and blend
ed with II she seemed to hear the voice
of a big, clean, strong man
II was thinking of the difference be
tween you and some other women
know"
i Then a ray of hope shone into hei
heart. Bill Dale was really a More
land and, therefore, of the hill bloot
even as she was of the hill blood, ant
that should make them more nearl,
equal. She told herself that he wouldn'
be so apt to condemn her for beini
able to take a human life easily a
one Of another blood would be; h,
would be more apt to understand. Ant
yet, the women ne had known wer,
gentle. tender and refined like. for In