The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1938-06-09
CHAPTER I

not going anywhere; running in a
sort of rounded square, running with
q desperate delight in running, in
motion, in smooth and lovely speed.
In the morning there would be
mountains above and beyond, be-
lifting them, but in the intimate
dusk the hills had their hour, large
and mild and kind, brooding the
earth below them. Sometimes the
girl looked up at them, but the dog
kept her eyes on the dimmed, i'm
mediate foreground. There was a
certain similarity between them
both young, fleet, with thin, strong
legs and fiat TANKS and excellent
wind, and both of bronze brindle-
brown. There was, likewise, kim
ship of spirit, or at least of deport-
ment, for each was shy, secret, dis
dainful. Presently they stopped rum
ming and stood still, breathing deep
" and easily, happily tired.
The greyhound pressed delicately
against the girls knees and slid a
long muzzle into a slender hanging
hand.
Lightning :" the girl said
absently. lightning, dear :"
She turned toward the one open
edge of the field. "Come!"
The Santa Clara valley rolled out
beneath them, twinkling and trem-
bling with lights, golden and GRIM
son like a carnival, but just below
them the windows of Danavale
glowed gently. Danavale was not
a town.
Ithad over a dozen residences gen.
erously spaced in gracious land
scape, with orchards and vineyards
and gardens, stables and oak groves
and tennis courts and swimming
pools, which formed a sort of archi-
tectural chronology from the Great
grandmother Dana house, with its
needless early-seventies skimping of
porch and hall, down to that
La Mont Dana.
The girl and the greyhound halted
before the pioneer house. It was
narrow-chested, narrow-hipped, out
NODDED as a calico wrapper or a
boot-jack, behind its low picket
fence and its cinnamon pinks and
china asters and candytuft.
She opened the gate and went up
the dim path and rang the strident
bell, and waited.
The great-grandmother opened the
door herself. 'Sairy Lynni Come
inI"
81 can't stay, Great-granny. I'm
late for dinner now"
"My stars, I should say you arei
after seven. Where you been,
child?" She peered up at her out
of eyes like embers.
walking"
''Didn't you know your beau's
back"
"I knew"
The old woman laughed a shrill,
mpish cackle. "And a dinner party
and a new dress spread out on the
bed-and here you DE, traipsin' over
the hills in the dark You better
march yourself home, quick's ever
you can step on it! There'n be the
devil to pay"
The great grandparents had
crossed the plains in covered wag-
on and Great-grandmother Sarah
Ann Kittredge Dana was, to all in
tents and purposes, still in it, well
up in her nineties, content to potter
about her house and dooryard and
wait for the dutiful droppings-in of
her daughters and granddaughters
and great-granddaughters.
''I know" Sarah Lynn said SOM
berly. 81 can't help it."
A voice came down the narrow
sudden stairs. ''Hi! Sarah Lynn!"
'tHello, Uncle Lynn! I'll come up
for moment. I can't stay" She
ran up the precipitate steps.
Lynn Dana lived with the ances-
tress on the upper floor of the old
house. He had been sitting in a
chair for more than half his life
approximately since the day he had
made the winning touchdown for
Stanford and failed to scramble up
with his yelling teammates.
''I can't stay" Sarah Lynn said
again hating on the threshold of his
door.
"I should think not!" he looked
at the clock. "You can't even be
here! My eyes deceive me. At this
very instant, in the habiliments of
high festivity you sit at the festive
board" He regarded her linen
shorts, her pull-over, her brown,
bare knees. Duncan arrived?"
''I suppose so. Lightning and
have been up in the hills
He laughed. "Well, you're due
down in the valley now, young wom-
an, and you'd best be on your way"
"Rather stay with you and Great
granny" she said sullenly.
Sand we'd rather have you'll But
it isn't on the cards this evening.
Hop it, my dear!"
Sarah Lynn leaned in the doorway
for long moment. Cali right; I'll
go. But I won't do it! Nothing can
make me-not even Mother" She
departed swiftly, without farewells.
A small figure was waiting in the
shadows of the big house of her
father.
Hello, Penny!" Sarah Lynn said.
Miss Ethelinda Pennington had