The midland journal., 1946-04-12
CHAPTER 1

MlSS MeggleI IL was Annle'0
voice lifted above the roar Of q
truck in the backyard. Hits de feed
man."
"All right, Annie" Megan looked
up from the desk where she was
writing labels for the latest batch Of
canned goods. "The moneys In the
old brown teapot"
"Ain' no money In de brown tea
pot, Miss Meggie," shouted Annie
after moment. "Cep't jes' a dime
an two pennies"
Megan sat very still for moment
and felt her heart 60 down into her
worn shoes. Dad had found her
secret cachel That was why he
had been SO eager to take advan-
tage of Mr.. McCurtie's offer to
drive him into the county seat that
morningl
Annie, vast and black, loomed in
the doorway. Her eyes were gentle
and warm with affection.
miss Meggie, yo' reckin yo' Paw
-" she began impulsively, but
Megan silenced her with a glance
and reached for her checkbook.
Annie accepted the unspoken rebuff
good humoredly and said helpfully,
consulting a slip of paper in her
hand, Hits fo'teen dollars an six
ty-fo' cents, Miss Meggie."
Megan nodded, wrote the check,
ripped 1t out, and signed the slip
Annie extended. Annie padded out
and the door closed behind her.
For a moment Megan sat still.
her elbows on the desk, her chin
propped in her hands. She could
have wept, and yet she tried hard
to laugh at herself for the wave of
encouragement that swept over
her.
She had been carefully boarding
the egg money in that old brown tea
pot to pay for feed. She had been so
sure that her father knew nothing
about its being there. He must have
prowled-or else he had spied on
her. Neither thought was pleasant.
Megan finished the last of the
labels and Strengthened wearily.
AS she went out Of the small sit
ting room that was her "office" she
glanced across the road and saw
the glimmer of lights in the shabby
little cottage well back from the
road, that was her nearest neighbor.
So Alicia Stevenson had returned
from her visit to Atlanta. She knew
a moment Of sharp envy for Alicia's
ease and freedom from the grueling
farm labor that was the lot of prac-
tically all the residents of Pleasant
Grove.
Busy with milking, a task which
she had done so many times that
it was purely automatic, she found
herself thinking about Alicia. The
shabby little old cottage across the
road from the MacTavish place had
stood vacant for years, ever since
Old Man Brigham had died, six
months after the death of his wife.
Then, late one June evening, the
New York Limited, which ordinar-
lily raced through Pleasant Grove
with merely derisive toot OF its
whistle, had stopped and a woman
had alighted, woman of perhaps
forty, smartly dressed according to
Pleasant Grove standards, and sur
rounded by sea of luggage.
She had announced herself in
Burns Mercantile, Pleasant Groves
general store, as Alicia Stevenson,
only child of the Brighams, and
stated that she had come to live in
the old Brigham place-at least
''for the duration"
From the first, Megan had been
established as Alicia's best friend,
although Megan was ashamed to
admit to herself that she neither
liked nor trusted Alicia. There was
something about her that was, to
Megan, almost sly; perhaps the rel
ish with which she pounced on the
smallest morsel Of gossip and rolled
it about on her tongue and found
exactly the moment to mention It
when it would do the most harm.
Occasionally Alicia departed on a
trip. She was quite closemouthed
about where she was going and
why: Megan suspected that Alicia
liked being "a woman of mystery"
and that it fed her sense of impor-
tance to know that people wondered
where she went, and why.
Annie Megan finished the milking
and she and Amos took the brin-
ming milk pals to the spring house,
cool and dark, where the milk
would be left over night and where,
In the morning. Annie would churn.
Coming back across the back
yard, almost completely dark now
that the sun had gone and twilight
was deepening, she saw a man
standing waiting for her at the
steps and was startled. He was a
stranger, and strangers-especially
masculine strangers - were suffi-
ciently rare in Pleasant Grove to
arouse a bit Of surprise.
Miss MacTavish?" he came
towards her, smiling, and she saw