White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1936-12-31

ldLutI! uOt OpaTIel. anu YET ueE III
ther among the, stones which were
both the stones at the upper ford
and those on Cranesnest Shelf. 1t
came over her in the daytime when,
forgetting it for time, she would
feel wondering unhappiness for
an instant before there. burst upon
her the full weight of the sorrow.
And yet the grief did mysterious
ly lose its Sharpness under the CON-
pulsion Of daily living and working,
the finality Of the past event, and
the gradual reassertion' of young
life. Jesse stayed on restlessly at
the house for a few days and then
went back to- his law. Jenny stayed
on for two nights, crying, and then
went back to Horsepen Branch.
Abral went again to Dry Greek
where the first March rains were
flooding the dam for driving the
logs Jasper rode over to town with
Jesse, and when he returned he
mentioned that he was marrying
Jane in a few weeks now. Lucy
stayed on through the week, but
Cynthia could not determine wheth-
er it was better or worse to have
her in the house talking.
She would hide herself away
from Lucy and go over it all in her
mind: the Joy Of the spring before
Shellenberger came, the foreboding
when Spared sold the land, the
wonder of Reuben Warren on that
afternoon with a compass on his
arm, the slow and sinister way the
outside world had pushed into Dry
Greek and then reached out for
Doug Mason, for her mother Julia,
for the father Spared, for the old
way Of life Wolfpen had known so
long. She thought Of the brutal ir-
revocability Of the blunt stone on
her fathers skull in the hands of
wicked men. And nothing to do
about it except wait for Sheriff
Halter to find the murderer and kill
him under the law while her father
met the dissolution on Cranesnest.
Now they were both gone and JAS
per would bring Jane Burden to this
place in Julia's stead. In Cynthia's
stead. Surely it was all done now.
She wondered whether Reuben were
still out in the hills and where, and
If he knew. 't--S'
And while she was yet wonder
ing he came. 1t was late afternoon
on a warm day in March a week
after the burial Of Spared. There
was moist wind in the hollow with
the breath Of spring in it, and the
sun almost ready to move the col
orless days out Of the hills, fore
seeing April on it's slow way up
from the south.
Cynthia was bending over a skill
ct with an iron spoon in her hand
when she heard the gate click. She
laid the spoon on the back of the
stove before she went to the door
to see who it could be. She stood
transformed in the doorway looking
at him, not daring to believe it was
Reuben, thinking he must be far
away at the other end Of the river.
She was wordless before him in
her JOY. For one brief instant she
looked down refectively at her
dress to make sure she was not re-
living those humiliating moments of
the late spring, hot, burned, Weep
ing, spattered with corn-meal But
she was cool and unhurried, and the
tan dress was clean and fresh. Reu-
ben saw at once that under the re-
sponsibility and sorrow of the
months she had grown in charac-
ter and loneliness. She was a wom-
an and not a child, but it was the
woman the girl of the summer had
portended.
They looked at each other in COM
plete silence and without move
ment. Then Cynthia stepped
through her TRANSPORTATION down