Woman's enterprise., 1922-10-01
MENDING MANDY
o 'ne Fine Wood Stories by the late Mrs Ad McGath Iee1
CONTINUED from last issue J
CHAPTER III.

ne'os were whitening with cot
'on' the trees had assumed the gol,
ana crimson heraldry of Autumn; tn,
fed sumach was blazing along tn
roadside and in the corners of the raj
FENCES. A heavily loaded wagon creak
ca along the road, but Amanda, seat
Cd by old John Alsen on the sprine
seat, looked out with unseeing eve!
upon the gaily colored woods and sun
SHINY road. Her pink calico sunbon
net threw a delusive glow over he1
pale cheeks, but her lips were parchec
and dry, her eyes sunken; every nerve
was strained and thought had become
a torture to her. She had started
on the journey with no definite plans
When she learned John Alsen was 20.
ang to c. with his first bale of cot
con she asked him if she might 90
With him, and he consented without
any troublesome inquiries. All day,
rs they journeyed towards the little
town, neither spoke of the subject
that lay heavy upon their hearts.
Otd John, who had sincere affection
Tor Buck Edmonds, having known him
since he was child, affected a cheer
tutness he did not feel in that un-
spoken sympathy for his companion.
He realized more clearly at the time
chan Amanda what she would have to
undergo, no matter what course she
pursued. xn..<.
She, in that tenderness that exoner-
Ates the dead, looked upon Ike as
blameless, and reproached herself as
being the cause Of the tradegy. She
thought Of her lover with that pity
that is divine emanation, clothing
the object, how ever unworthy, with
dat charity which is the very essence
Of spiritual rather than Of our ma
terial love.
Amanda had no definite plans when
she left home, but she depended on
old John Alsen, whom she knew was
her friend, as we'll as Of her lover, to
aid in carrying out determination on
her part. She scarcely knew that it
meant a complete immolation of self,
a1d that it was height Of moral
heroism to which weak human ma
<ure, rarely attained.
She weighed the step she was about
70 take in the long hours Of the night
following the arrest of Buck Edmonds.
That night witnessed her souls travail
and the dawn but found her with V
courage to take the step and separat-
ed her from the past, hallowed by
memories of childhood, bound up by
earliest affections. She realized that
her family loked upon Buck as the
murderer of her brother, 1ke's dying
statement to the contrary notwith-
standing. She had been questioned
closely in regard to what she had seen
on the night Of the tragedy, but she
stolidly maintained silence. The step
she contemplated shut out all associa-
ton with the past, and the future only
presented lonliness, self repression,
and the sternest discipline Of heart
and mind, but Amanda did not hesi-
tate to make the sacrifice.
She knew that public opinion was
IN favor of Buck Edmonds, and it
was probable that the plea of self
defense would clear him, that is, if
she was not put on the witness stand.
Amanda shrank from that ordeal with ..
4 terror that blanched her cheeks and :,
made her limbs feel suddenly aged.
A thought came to her like an in
spiration. She recalled a case, in the
neighborhood where she lived, of a
man who had killed another, and
though circumstantial evidence was
very strong against him, there was +
no witness, his wife being the only !
person supposed to have seen the
shooting. Poor Amanda knew moth
ing Of the law, it seemed only for
midable thing to crush and rend and I
sever, with only one assuring fact, in J
connection with it, that a prisoners +
wife did not have to testify against {
her husband. F
This grew into a mighty incentive d
to her to marry Buck Edmonds be- 0
fore the preliminary trial, that was d
set for the Monday following. 1t c
seemed the only loophole of escape S
for him, to her tortured mind, and it k
was with this intention she was going c
to c. with John Alsen that Oc- v
tober morning. They were going up t
one Of those long red hills, on which r
the road turns and twists as if seek d
ing better foothold, when she turn e
ed to her companion and said in sharp o
staccato accents: s.
"Uncle John, have they got him d
Jailed ?" a