Year: 1867

1t was New Years Eve lie had been
out of prison month, waiting in a hope
less, dreary way for chance to earn
some other clothes than those he brought
out with him; 10 give his hair and beard
time to grow to wear off. as it were,
some of those motley stains of confine-
mcnt before he was seen by--by any one
who knew him.


lie was near his home all the while,
near his wile-for he had home and wife,
both, or rathor-he casped bis hands
hopelessly TO his head as the thought came
he had had them. lie crawled along
the edge of the oak coppice, stopping.
shaking, so that he held by the low
branches beside him, staring. in kind of
frenzy at wreath of smoke that rose
from house in clearing before him.
Ten years! The thought of them aged
him more than the years had done. The
chance Of what they might have forfeited
cloggcd his soul.


When Jules had come off shipboard,
he had followed his plan of going to the
far west had chosen his land, put up a log
house with the first fruits of his ak. and
begun the work which was to win Bertha
a period of sober digging and delving
followed. The slow winters slipped away.
and each spring there were the more
cleared acres for the summer sun to rpen
the grain in. The implacable seasons did
their work, and Jules his AT the end of
the fifth harvest, the farm was half paid
tAr nv1 nrg1 In L.
Jules had expended the energy of two
common men; he had striven carly and
late, had been even niggardly in his per.
sonal economies, ascctic IN his self den; als:
and notwithstanding that he was naturally
! pleasure loving and extravaganza he had
done it all easily, as he had afterward
done worse-for lSerthas sake.


Bertha had hardly been behind her
lover in thrift, during their probation.
Indeed, thrift was her principle as it was
Jules impulse. Beside the wealth of her
womanly management, she brought with
her furniture, which was to quite trans
form their rude home, and establish for
them pioneer aristocracy, in appear
ances. She had her six silver teaspoons,
"A substantial carpet for the best room.
patchwork quilts and linen sheets. with
muslin curtains deftly nowered. in old
n,ry style, by her own fingers. She
was comely little body; round white
skinned, active, evcn-tempered strong
and mastery with her work. punctual-.
so that the neighbors said that Bertha's
dinner bell was good as sun dial: and
jules watching wonderingly her haniiness
and economy, began to think he shculd
have been worth rs much again as at
present, had he been married five years
earlier.


His poor, tossed life luled itself with
happiness. Comfort was an apocalypse
to him, and Bertha perpetual study of
beauty and delight. lie no more believed
that there was another woman like her in
the world, another man as blessed rs him.
self, than he believed that one day his
own deed would put an impossible barrier
between him and her. lie forgot the
miserable suilcrugs of his childhood and
the almost superhuman toll of his youth.
and felt that his fate had been an exccp
tional felicity


The short winter days which followed
their marriage, slipped away like sand
through the fingers, and it was early in
April, when that delicious earthly smell
ILLS the air, and the ground seems to throb
with a warm instinct of production, and
the twiilghls are long, purple, and fra
grant The Griflins, who seemed. some.
how, professionally forehanded had new
mich COW in advance of their neighbors.
and Bertha had gone, after supper, 10
carry pail of milk to farmers wife,
whose children were sick. Jules-alwavs
uneasy II she was out of his sight, made
a pretenSe of looking through the wood
for stray heiier, and coming out to the
road presently, sat balancing himself on
the fence, and waiting for her return.
lie saw her coming soon. There was a
young moon hanging faint and silvery in
the sky, whose slant rays struck the little
tin pail she carried and nc waited. his
heart bounding viii. happy thoughts, for
her approach. lie was about to spring
down to meet her when he saw that there
was man close behind her, and, with,
SHa"ihS twlhSe oil Jealousy, that 1t was
Abel Garth. Garth was a neigh)or, AMI
n richer farmer than Jules, having had
more capital to work with, and more
practical knowledge. lie was young
man, also, Jules and he had been fast
friends formerly, consulting one another
continually. But since Jules marriage,
visitors had seemed half like intruders, and
he had not been over cordial to Abel par
ticularly as the young man had been pretty
tree in admiring his wife, and expressing
his envy of his friends good luck in get
ting such a one-complments Jules hot
blood did not relish and it gave him, as
| said, cold. numb feeling to see him in
}crha's compamy. \ moment. though.
showed him that sine was unconscious of
Garh's presence. She stepped lithely and
quickly along, a fragment of song ripping
across her warm, fresh lips. She wore no
bonnet, and the mir had grown suddenly
chilly. Just at that moment she unpnned
the little shawl that she wore, and moved
TO throw it over her head. As she lifted
her arms, Abel sprung a step forward,
caught her about the waist and kissed her