The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1925-02-13
CHAPTER Continued

1t was, perhaps, because of this that
the matter was pretty well hushed UP,
The publishers paper-which was Chi
Cages foremost-scarcely mentioned
the incident and purposely mlsspelled
the name. The lady, thinking her task
accomplished. had taken truer aim
with her second bullet, and had saved
herself the trouble Of trial by human
jury.
Simeon Peake left his daughter Sc
lima legacy of two fine clear blue
white diamonds Che had had the gam
bfer's love of them) and the sum Of
four hundred and ninety-seven dollars
In cash. Just how he had managed to
have sum like this, put by was a
mystery. The envelope containing it
had evidently once held larger sum.
1t had been sealed. and then slit. On
the outside was written, in Simeon
Peake's fine. almost feminine hand !:
rFor my little daughter Selma Peake
In case anything should happen to
me-" 1t bore date seven years old.
What the original sum had been no one
ever knew.
To Selma fell the choice of earning
her own living or of returning to the
Vermont village and becoming with
cred and sapless dried apple, with
black fuzz and mold at her heart, like
her aunts, the Misses. Sarah and Abbie
4Peake. She did not hesitate. M
"But what kind of work?" Julie
Hempel demanded. 'What kind of
work can you dog' Women-that is.
the Selma Peakes-did not work.
"I-well. l can teach.'
Teach what?"
"The things / learned at Miss Fis-
ter's."
you have to do something first-go
ito Normal, or teach in the country,
don't you?-before you can teach in
the public schools They're mostly old.
Twenty-Five or. even thirty-or more y
with nineteen's incapacity to imagine
an age beyond thirty.
'NThen I'll just teach country
school. I'm good at arithmetic. You
know that" Julie should have known
it, having had all her Fister sums
solved by Selma. Country schools
are just arithmetic and grammar and
geography"
you! Teaching country school p
She looked at Selma.
/ She saw misleadlngly delicate
face, the skull small and exquisitely
formed. The cheek bones rather high
or perhaps they looked so because
of the fact that the eyes, dark, soft
and luminous were unusually deep
set in their sockets. The face, instead
of narrowing to soft curve at the
chin. developed unexpected strength
in the jaw line. That line, fine, steel
strong, sharp and clear, was of the
stuff of which pioneer women are
made. Julie, inexperienced in the art
of reading the human physiognomy
did not decipher the meaning of it.
Selina's hair was thick, long and fine,
so that She piled it easily in the loops,
coils and knots that fashion demand
ed. Her nose, slightly pinched at the
nostrils, was exquisite. When she
! laughed it had the trick of wrinkling
just little across the narrow bridge
very engaging, and mischievous She
was thought rather plain little thing,
which she wasn't. But the eyes were
What you marked and remembered
Perhaps it was this velvety softness
of the eyes that caused one to over
look the firmness of the lower face.
When the next ten years had done
their worst to. her, and Julie had sud
denly come upon her stepping agilely
out of truck gardeners wagon on
Prairie avenue, a tanned, weather
beaten, toil-worn woman, her album
dant hair skewered into a knob and
held by long gray hairpin, her full
calico skirt grimed with the mud of
the wagon wheel, pair of mems old
side-boots on her slim feet, gro
tesquely battered old felt hat Cher
husband's) on her head, her arms full
of ears of sweet corn, and carrots, and
radishes, and punches of beets, wom-
I'LL Will ulu tCCtitp idt DICdSlS, say
ging pocket In his capacious skirt
even then Julie, staring, had known
her by her eyes. And she had run to
her in her silk suit and her fine silk
shirtwaist and her hat with the plume
and had cried, sob. Selma My dear
My dear with a sob of horror
and pity-"My dearl" And had
taken Selma, carrots. beets. corn
and radishes, in her arms. The
vegetables lay scattered all about
them on the sidewalk in front of Julie
Hempel ArnOld's great stone house on
Prairie avenue. But strangely enough
it had been Selma who had done the
comforting. patting jules silken
shoulder and saying, over and over
"There. there! It's all right, Julie
It's all right. Don't cry. What's there
to cry for! Shi It's all right"