Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1922-02-02

By WILLIAM FALL.

firm, vet panied, and the Old woman
glanced keenly at the young face,
wearing care and sorrow. and
sighed, and then was silent, gazing
sadly. dreamily into the flickering
crate.
''Depr child.r crooned the old wom-
nm, as Elizabeth threw a cape across
her shoulders and fitted from the
room. Dear, poor child know! /
known
Just a year this very night. not chill
and sere, although September-like now,
but a star-spangled evening of sweet
sounds, stroll along the whispering
sands, and troth plighted under the
great, stately elm that had shaded the
old brook for over century. Then
under the great elm where each had
promised no matter what might hap
pen, to return there upon each ami
versary as to a shrine devoted to q
love undying, eternal.
1T was all my fault" moaned Eliz.
abeth, as slowly, sadly she started
down the edge Of the sand beach, d
watery moon casting dim, weird shad-
ows across her path. "Oh, why was /
jealous. why was so 'impulsive and
cruel 2"
She recalled the HAY day festival
at the village where she had been So
proud Of her lover, Randall Gray, and
then SO irrationally jealous Of him.
IN fit Of pique. melted by false
friend, scheming girl companion,
she had tried to punish her lover, en-.
tircly innocent Of any real purpose to
pain him, and she had lost him,
"And ! can never forgetl'' she
walled to the signing night winds, and
pursued her lonely path on a pilgrim.
age Of sorrow and penitence.
She faItered as she came In sight Of
the old elm.
Il thought it would comfort me to
come" she moaned, but it is break
ing my hearth"
AT last she reached the old trysting
place. She sank like wearied child
to the moss-covered trunk and cried
her heart out.
Hark!
Her pulses stirred at a cry Of alarm
1t was call for help.
Elizabeth started to her feet and
tremblingly listened. A new fear came
into her face as she traced the CALI
across the sloping expanse Of stunted
oak to where the brook run and the
whispering sands were the most
treacherous.
SHE WAS atrur deaglfter Of the wood
land, and she sped like a sprite along
the upper Lodges overlooking the
| brook.
Help I"
1t was closer now. that cry.
A human form was visible In the
swirling mass Of quicksands, appeal
ing wildly for help, with arms. out
stretched. sinking deeper and deeper
each succeeding moment.
How she managed to drag one Of the
great rough logs, the size oil a railroad
tie In thicknass, fully twenty feet, she
never knew. She managed to tilt the
end of the heavy timber across the
ledge OF rock and let 1t drop. Eliza
beth erept out on theslog.
Grasp the log firmly with one hand
give me the other
Then her voice, died away and her
soul seemed to go with it, for the man
she had saved was-Randel Grey,
It was like d hideous dream with a
golden awakening, as both reached the
soft ground and sank upon a messy
plat exhausted. their eyes met, and
then their hands.
"You have saved my lifev' he
breathed. Il owe 1t to YOU Eliza
beth p
| How sweetly, how fervently he pro-
nounced her name, the ring of a year
ago in 1t I
Il am glad" she said simply, and
| shrank back away very contriteiy and
with a sense of unworthiness.
III YOU had not been near" he be-
gan, and then asked: How came you
to be?''
Her eyes dropped and she rose to
her feet. He caught sight of her poor,
bleeding hands, and grasped them and
kissed them.
1T was Jest year ago-the old
elm ds you remember,
She bent her head ay,d ho s1,asse,l