Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1927-12-30

I've lOu6uI YOU anu 4OuBuL yOu-pa
4"
And why did you fight mep"
For answer he tried to draw her closer
but she drew back sharply, the
wrenched herself free.
you don't have to tell mel" she said
you've had a good time. haven't you
despising n insulting mel And now
Oh. you're disgustingl"
"Annabell For Gods sake"
She would not listen. II suppose 1T
my cue to melt into ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
But II I could only tell you what I thinl
Of you'll"
She told him, all right; she fayed hin
very competently, indeed. Her very fur,
might have told him something, but b
had been hurtled into a confusion tc'
deep and dark for any use Of his reason
ing faculties. Lovers seldom use thei
reasoning faculties, -anyway-that Is,
you might call these two lovers"
Anyway, II she was counting on Ben tx
override her onslaught, he was far be
yond catching the twisted cue. And II
by any chance, these cruelties twisted ny
out of her own twisting heart, we'll, a.
all events Ben never suspected 1t, which
to a woman is a considerable compensa'
ton; and she knew that she was making
him suffer. too-which was another. 81
what the odds If her heart secretly twist
ed and broke?
And probably it didn't at that Who
can tell?
Life, as has been remarked, is devious
complex and queer; that 1t, those who
live 1t make 1T that way.
After Annabel returned to her home
from this climactic visit the two were tc
go their separate ways without sight OF
each, other for many. many years; Miss
Severn made no more visits to Pleasant
Hill.
However, the news Of her engagement
and then Of her marriage, arrived. The
lucky sutton was reported substantially
rich. and had been for several years q
prominent figure in congressional circles
at Washington. He was booked for dip
lomatic service abroad-well, that kind
Of life offered Annabel a niche which she
could adorn.
So tina Ben Huf's dire prophecy re-
garding her failed to come true. 1t was
about this time that Ben CHANGED upon
a bit Of verse in a newspaper which ran
like this:
your name to me is like a chime
That echoes through the Halls Of Time.
A melody blown down the years,
Woven OF laughter, love and tears. .
1t spans the dark with spires of flame,
The singing fire that is your name"
People who knew Ben Huff would have
been amazed to III he clipped that
sentimental bit and put 1t away In his
wallet.
AS the years wen on with Ben they
served to make him only more Ben-Huf-
isL-which is to say that, eventually, he
stood in Pleasant Hill for all that was
Grabbed and our. Aside from his lacka-
daisically conducted business, he became
more and more solitary. He inhabited,
finally, a strange little place on the out
skirts of the town; 1t had mystiied the
town when he first bought those lots
and started identifying them, for he
planted endless varieties of things which
blossom to loveliness-and incongruous
sight to see saturnine Ben Huff at work
admist his flowers. At first people used
to spool him and tried to question him,
but they didn't get very far.
Somewhere along at the start he had
built a sizeable stone basement. as if
the beginning of a ~pretentious house,
and curiosity had burned over what Ben
Huff was up to.
Up to nothing. apparently. The house
had never been built; and the town grew
SO accustomed to the low rooted rock
basement. hiding picturesquely in its
bower, that gradually it forgot it had
ever expected a house to be built there.
1t grew SO accustomed to Ben's oddities
that even the fact that he dwelt among
flowers finally lost it's incongruity.
If he ever got lonely in his hedged off
basement home nobody knew. In the
course of time nobody greatly cared. Even
the most picturesque recluse begins to
lose his appeal after sixty.
For Ben was sixty-five years old, no
less, hen on q June evening there hap
pened to him the most startling thing
which had GUAR hannanad
He was working in his shrubbery row
which fringed the street. In his Shirt
sleeves his stopped shoulders were no.
ticeable, and he had worked up a per-
spiratioil, and as he bent %grubbing at
the roots OF a budding althea q voice
through the hedge: Good evening
and how does your garden grow?"
1t was a gay voice, very alive n hui
man, but old Ben HUFF jumped as If shot
to his feet and then gazed through the
aperture in the hedge as II 1t framed a
ghost.
l suppose 1t would be folly to try to
Annabe romantically, for any
of you who can count know that now
she was N old lady. But she was not
an 'old lady" And that doesn't mean
she was dressed out OF keeping or acted
out OF keeping. either-well. not pro-
When old Ben came back to earth he
was SO glad to see her that he couldn't
hide he was glad-or maybe he was older
now and less foolish. At any rate. he
shook hands with frank delight through
the hedge, n invited her to come in
side. and she accepted his invitation;
and he showed her his blossoming treas
ures; and presently they were sitting side
by side on a bench under the vine which
canopied Ben's basement door.
This is NICE" murmured Annabel.
the scents and CHANGING round
at the drowsy bloom. Then: TITS thrill
ing to meet an old beau-you're sort Of
an old beau, aren't your"
I'm tell the world" replied Ben. Eyes,
an old beau"
Perhaps 1t wa at this 1uncture, or
perhaps 1t was at some other-for their
talk WA so disjointed. albeit so easy and
that it's hard to place Just
where this came in and where that-that
asked: THAT trip to Venice, that
did you keep tt?"
That WAS to be when I'm sixty" re-
piled Annabel. and I'm only f%fty-nine."
And perhaps 1t was at this juncture,
or perhaps another, that q motor load OF
young people went by singing. BY an odd
1t was a certain old time air
Or perhaps 1t was not 30 old, for the
song emains perennially popular; but
old Ben smiled queerly.
That song-they were singing 1t one
night when we were boating on Bull
creek. OF course you don't remember"
But she nodded. Yes, I seem to re-
member"
sIt's a beautiful old aonp" said old