The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1925-12-11

ence, the more may be left to the i'm
agination. You are an intelligent au-
dience, Frank"
Through my absurd concern for, |
hardly knew what, her adorable tam
| talization seethed in me like an cleo
| trio current. And so selfish am +
and all men-that 1t was some minutes
before l realized that Jean had re-
ceived a knockout blow; that she had
| Inundated herself to this man Spool !;
that she had placed her wOmanhood
at his feet, and he had spurned it.
Just what it was for me to lose Jean,
just that same must it be for Jean
to lose Spool.
"And he refused you-refused you"
| repeated, when this thought had set
tied clearly in my mind "Jean,
don't see how-any man-couId do
that"
"He was kind-considerate," she
! said, quietly. "Said he was sorry !;
appreciated the compliment; any man
| might be flattered, he said, but it was
| quite impossible. So l am left dan
| Cling in space"
"Well, what next?" / asked, after
a long silence in which, consciously
or unconsciously, she was drawing her
finger tips slowly up and down be-
tween the backs of mine. "What
next?"
go home," she said, decisively.
Jack and Marjorie will be uneasy.
You will see me home, won't you"
Spool took an inordinately long
time to feed the oxen, but when he
| returned, with great blowing and
stamping before opening the door, we
were ready for the road. We took
leave without much in the way of ex-
plantations, but with his promise to
come and see us at least once a week.
Our long walk home was taken in
almost complete silence. Once | sug
gested to Jean that we should let it
be understood that she had gone to
Browns, not Spoof's.
Just as you like" she said. 81
don't care"
AS we neared Twenty-Five Jean took
my arm, although here the path was
good.
'Thank you so much" she said. 81
thought you would, perhaps-that you
would go back to what we talked of
yesterday. l couldn't stand that, just
now. Do you understand? You are
considerate; you are-an artist" and
her face smiled wanly into mine.
1 lied glibly about having found
Jean at Mrs. Browns; Mrs. Brown was
well, but one of the children had a
sore throat; Brown had slipped on the
ice and hurt his hip, not badly; they
were longing for English mail.
knew all this duplicity must be found
| out, but l was content to delay the
evil day. By some sort of telepathic
understanding we did not discuss
| jeans behavior. We were glad
enough to have her back safe and
sound; we were willing to agree that
| the stress of winter had perhaps been
too much for her. She would be all
right presently.
The days that followed were busy
times for me. 1 Immediately began to
CLEAN the neighborhood for books, and
the harvest was much more liberal
than l expected Spool lent me By
ron and the Decline and Fall; Brown
supplied a complete Shakespeare in
one volume; Bella Donna contributed
a Life Of Lincoln; Burke, much to my
hn1 Of
from which he quoted copiously, ges-
ticulating to me in an empty STALL
he was a deep pool where had looked
for shallow water; Andy Smith was
equally insistent upon rehearsing
Burns, and particularly to the effect
that the rank is but the guinea's stamp,
etc. 1 did not call upon Mrs. Alton,
| nor venture into the unguessed posi-
| bilities of Hansen's and Sneezit's, al
| though after my experiences l was
| almost prepared to find Ole Hansen
| buried in The Wealth of Nations, and
Sneezit porting over Carlyle. Neither
did l, at the time, enlist the good of
| fees Of the Reverend Locke. In
community that / had supposed des-
| titute of anything of the sort l had
unearthed more books than l could
read.
At first had to drive myself to it,
but presently / began to be carried
away in the spirit in the new world
which was opening before me. With
Joy l noted, suddenly, that 1 had
| forced my boundaries far beyond the
corner stakes of Fourteen, beyond
even the prairies, the continent, the
| times in which we live. My mind,
from sluggishly alternating for the
winter, became dynamo of activity
One day Jean came over to Four
teen, alone. / buried my Shakespeare
under a pair of old overalls and
| opened the door. Perhaps she saw
| me glancing about, as though looking
for Marjorie.
"Unchaperoned, today" she said.
"You don't mind?" She began to draw.
| off her gloves; new knitted gloves
! which l had not seen before.
New gloves, Jean? / queried.
| "Yes, just finished knitting them,
| from yarn mother sent. Feel them
Aren't they soft?"
II envy them very MUCH" 1 said,
and was much pleased with my sub
tlety.
Envy them-why? Oh, you
mean because they're-they're always
holding my hands," and happy wave