Pittston Gazette

              4 J I 4 "IV;x"v™o""» f Oldest Newspaper in the Wyoming Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., PA., FRIDAY. KH BKIJ vRY 12. 1SC)7. A Weekly local and Family Journal.  "ies, «ill UiUO Al ii. II: li;c others," Mrn Winfold kin i k in, putting a little, hot bund in Hob s. At tintouch of it Rob stoop. d and kissed the child. Then as the little one nestltd to her she lifted tbe small figuie, and, holding it to her breast, followed Alice to the bright, airy room that had been the pride of the dead woman's heart. As she set Annie upon the fbxir Luley gave ber a prim greeting, but baby Jinney checked her wailing and held up her arms. yourse'f. An yon br'er Bill he took an married one er dem gala er ole man Pickina', an all dee went off ter do free states. Wonner how come she yere? 'Tain't fer no good, I'm botmd. Wish dee'd talk np load some mo'. I like ter flue out what meanness Ben Topmark is up ter now, right at de las'." row, motherly woman, good ana sweet to the core, yet full of small, spiny, social prejudices. They were not those of caste, else she would never have tolerated the Winfolds. Old Mr. Topmark had been an overseer until, after tbe fashion of his sort, he invested his savings in negroes and set up for himself. He made a bard, driving master, and even after tho loss of his slaves bad a pretty penny in hand when be came to die. But the late unlamented Winfold made a holiday job of spending his wife's share of it. Then he had tbe good taste to die and leave bis wife and two daughters to Mr. Topmark's care. you hurried me a bit at my work as valet. But I find you without spot or blemish, and, as you always are, so very much the best looking man 1 know I wonder the rest don't hato you out- tban take hands with one who repelled her fine, subtle instincts, she lifted her eyes anil said clearly, with no trace of shy confusion: "Excuse me, please. I think my father would not like to have me dance with you, and I know I should not like it myself. " everytnnig troin tarlatan ana canay to plow points and pitchforks, with especial strength in plantation hardware. Jack wanted a keg of nails; hence had come in his buggy and had Timothy and Clover, his span of blood sorrels, in a white lather as he reined them in and shouted at/Teddy: That's a good fellow! I'm paying five darkies to do nothing antil I can get back and set them hammering now, in spite of himself, he shivered. Through the narrow batten window, which stood wide, he saw the black woman, with a live rat in her hand, bending over a table upon which lay some fresh wheaten dongh rudely molded in human shape. As he looked sha drew a knit* across the rat's throat and held it no the spurting blood dyed tha white effigy beneath, the while half chanting: right Mr. McGregor laughed cheerily. In the isolation of his darkness there had grown up a delicious small vanity over his appearance. Ho was not only blind, but helpless. There were nervous twitchings in the fine, thin hands, and when he walked it was a bowed, halting progress, painful to look upon. Then a shiver ran over her. Her teeth even chattered a bit. She muffled herself closer and slipped away, noiseless as a shadow, unseen as a spirit of the "Poor, misguided child 1 I wonder she is so unmannerly. Her mother was a lady if ever there was one," good Mrs. Talbot said when such speeches, distorted and magnified a hundredfold, came to her ears. "We must remember, though, Rob has almost brought herself up and judge her as kindly as possible. It is dreadful to be motherless." 'iLUAMSj again." air. Inside the talk was now carried on in whispers. The man with the horses yawned, nodded, swore, then settled himself well forward in the saddle and slept comfortably, with long drawn, resounding snores. "Tell us 'bout de bears an de ba-ad boys, Miss Wob," she whined, toddling to Rob's knee as she sat down in the chair (Ja'line drew forward. All children loved Rob. Aside from her bright kindliness she knew and told them tho most astonishing variety of nursery rales and rhymes. Very soon the three "Oh, hoi Cain't you wait till you hurry's over—long ernough ter hear the news?" Teddy demanded, winking at the rest. Jack laughed easily and shook his head, saying: "Death wua in dig ban. Death went wrong. Death hit de good, spa-ared de bad. Paaa on, death! Pass! Pans! Don' yon try tar Over tbe sight Mrs. Winfold shook her head, saying: "Yes; it is a real pity; but, then, mayby, too, it was well folks should see what comes of foolhardiness. I remember Mr. McGregor a strong man, good looking, too, but nobody could ever make me believe he had anv call ter go au dash in that burnin cabin jest ter git out a poor ole nigger that had nursed him when he was a baby. She didn't live but a year after all. An look at him—blind au crippled, that beam fallin on his back, besides the burns he got. He ought ter of thought ot bis own fam'ly. It would be really his fault whatever happened ter that girl of his." stay wld met" COPYRIGHT, i89€. Br Tut auThCJR Very excellent care it was. The most captious admitted so much. In fact, this care for his helpless kinfolk covered, with Mrs. Talbot and her like, a multitude of commercial sins. It was unlikely, they thought and said, that Benjamin Topmark would so look out for people completely at bis mercy if be were the hard, griping, unscrupulous man common report made him out to be. Mrs. Winfold herself so incessantly voiced her gratitude and thanks for all her mercies that even her near friends could not help but laugh over big Matt Taylor's saying: "Ah, yes!" Mrs. Winfold sighed in answer. "Mayby that does have a little ter do with it. But, Mrs. Talbot, I believe people act like they were born ter. I know ef Alice had lost me years ago an had grown up with jest nobody but brother ter look after her she never— never in the world—would have been a Rob McGregor. Do you know sometimes when I think of her—Alice, I mean—I git down an ask the Lord ter keep me from idolatry—ter make me jest humbly thankful over havin had such a daughter given me." With a long, hard breath, Jaok went noiselessly away. CHAPTER L "Leave 'em with me. I know he's been wantin 'em. He's sure ter give you all the licker you want for bringin 'em, Aunt Pbemy." Mrs. Topmark said kindly. "¥ou lay'em right thereon the steps. I'll tell him ter put 'em in the lumber house soon as ever he comes in. He wants 'em ter drive away rata. We're pestered ter death"— "Impossible, Teddyl I read all my romances; take them Sunday afternoons or rainy ones. I hate not to help exercise that imagination of yours, but today really I'm too busy. Do give me my nails." Rob was chattering like a magpie to her father when he oame up to them upon the back piazza. She was peeling peaches for the blind man, who ate them with great relish. Her voice was gay, but had a little Bhake underneath that set Jack's heart more than ever in a flutter. Topmark's store stood end on to the big road where it ran down bill to cross Walnut creek. The storehouse was a log structure, with a cringing frame addition across the back. In front there was a ramshackle shed porch, with a clattering floor, and some tottering steps at one edge, from which the women customers who rode got up or down from their horses. They were not overinany. For the most part the store got its trade from the abundant freedme^. Some part of the black* had rthall holdings of their own. A much larger moiety worked upon neighboring plantations, either for wages or for a snare ot the crops. But, howsoever employed, they had a trick of coming to bay at all hours of the day and night Mr. Topmark, the storekeeper, bemoaned the fact no little. "It is the ill convenientest thing," he said. "Ef tbe niggers'd jest come either all by day er all by night, a man'd know when ter be thar an needn't bother an go ter expense keepin no aech trial as that thar triflin Teddy Barton, who can't be depended on more'n five days in the week." It was 11 o'clock and a white moon high in heaven before he was disturbed. The women came around the house, with Mr. Topmark in their wake. Mrs. girls had forgotten everything in a breathless following of the fortunes of Br'er Rabbit and Ole Lady Goo^e. ' 'May by you don t know ole Top's got er new buggy?" Teddy said, with another wink at his other auditors. Again Jack laughed. "What made Miss Mary Goose believe all Mr. Rabbit's yarns?" Luley asked, drawing a long breath as the story came to an end. "Come and settle this dispute of ours. Ton are just in time,'' she cried at sight of him. "Would you believe it? This wild parent of mine has been preaching that things have no intrinsic value at all; that it is all relative and depends on bow badly yon happen to want them." "Say! Don't talk erbout death wid de moon jest risin au she er-dwindlin," Aunt Phemy returned, with a little half shudder. But she dropped her lids lower than ever as she went on: "I'll lay nm right yere on de groun, Miss Louizy, an don't yon let dem 11*1' children er yourn play wid no pieces er um. Dee's—dee's bad 'bont makin sores on liT, tender "hands." "Yes, 1 do," he said. "I met him driving home in it and saw that he had 011 span new clothes as well. So, you see, your news is ncA news after all. Give me wliat I want or I shall drive on to the crossroads. " " 'Case she wus er gal, an gals de mos' all de time foolish," a sharp voice said from the door. 4s l-0'1 started ■lightly Aunt Plumy came through it mid bent at her side, 6aying quite in her ear: "H-m-m! I wonder what Miss Alice prays over having such a mother 1" Jack said irreverently when he heard of the good woman's orisons. Jack liked Miss Winfold so sincerely he had much ado to keep from hating her mother. In fact, he quite agreed with Rob. She said upon the rare times that she named the mother and daughter, laughing a littlo and with dancing eyes: "Oh, Jack, do bo good to poor stubby Alice! There is not a mite of harm in her. Indeed she is rather nice. And think what she must endure in being her mother's daughter!" "When Mrs. Winfold says her pra'ers, why, the Lord he ain't nowhar's at all compa-ared ter her brother." Rob's mother had died at her birth, and there were five little mounds beside the long one in the graveyard back of the orchard. All tho other children had gone before. With her latest breath the dying woman had whispered, "Call her by your name, Robert, darling, and bring her—with you—safe—across the "I'm sorry, ra-ale sorry, Jaok, but you'll have ter—we ain't got er kag in the house—(he right size, I mean," Teddy said; then as Jack set his hordes' heads again toward the road: "Hold on, though. I'm jest bound ter tell you what all them new things meant. Ole Top, he's dead in love with Miss Rob McGregor; went up thar ter see her yistiddy evenin, but she was out somewhars 'bout the place, so he's goin ergin, an soon." "H-m Why, there are not two sides to that question. He is entirely right," Jack said, with his most judicial air. Mr. McGregor laughed aloud. "I was proving it by a story"— be began. Walnut creek, yon see, ran through a middle Tennessee county where at the era of this chronicle the old social order was breaking and the new was net yet firmly established. For the most part its indwellers came of Virginia or Carolina stock, and among the uppermost of them there was a potent belief in blood and breeding. There was, too, the fine courtesy evolved by the old conditions, Jk sort of obligation of nobility to be kindly considerate of those less well placed in lifs. Innocent herself of social wiles as she was free of social guile, it never occurred to. Mrs. Talbot that any ulterior purpose lay back cl Mrs. Winfold's words or actions, not even when that lady said, as she so often did: "Chile, you better had git outer die. "Yes, I must be going," Rob said, putting Jinuey out of her arms. The child began to cry again, but Aunt Pberay hurried Rob away. At the stair foot Mrs. Winfold met them and said with :t snivel: As she hobbled away Mrs. Topmark smiled, then sighed deeply and put her arms above her head. "I don't know what is the matter with me," she said to herself. "I've got the most carious feelin, jest like I was afraid of somethin. I do hope Mr. Topmark will come back soon, bnt for fear he shouldn't I'd better put the p'ison yarbs where they can't hurt the childern. Oh, my, don't they smell!" as a strong, half fetid odor came to her nostrils from the weedy things she had taken up and was looking curiously over. "No wonder rats don't like the stuff. It makes me sick. But I'll put it in place before it loses strength." river." "Made to order," Rob interrupted. "Do you know, Jaok, he was trying to make me believe that we would never have had Roscoe but for—a spotted heifer?" So from the beginning Hob had been her father's comfort, companion, counselor. She had come to 8 years old when he was stricken and took her place as bead of the house with the quaintest childish dignify. Everybody said how pitiful it was to see her pattering about, keys in hand, to note her watchful care for her father in every detail or to hear her piping child's voice stumbling musically through chapters of the Bible. "Come an look at—the remains. Poo»- Louizy! She's jest as natural as life.' Rob shrank a little, bat followed her inside tho darkened chain her to the pres- Rob had a habit of regarding all things humorously, even herself. It was well that she had. Her laughing bridged many a minute of heartbreak. Roscoe had been tine and flourishing when its master last looked upon it. Now it was woefully desolate after 11 years of thriftless freedman tillage. Hillsides showed red and barren; gulliqs gashed the fairest slopes; the richest bottoms had overlay of sand and gravel, to say nothing of the tangle that yearly encroached farther upon the arable land or the raiii hedgerows waving where once there were trim lines of fence. Teddy did not intend that his speech should reach the ears of a strange customer—a tall, raw boned old woman, who was just then getting down from her horse at the steps. But she heard and said, with her foot still in the stirrup:"Wewould not, Miss Impertinenoe,'* her father said, still laughing. "I will tell Jaok the story. I had not thought of it in ten years until I fell talking day before yesterday with Benjamin Topmark"— Teddy, yon see, considered himself a society man of the giddiest type. He thought nothing of riding 15 miles and back to a party, which, in bis judgment at least, would be a flat failure lacking the light of his countenance. But he had the redeeming quality of ooming cheap to his employer, and the further meritof being humbly respectful to that person's faoe, though among his own mates he told wild tales of "the sass be give ole Top jest whenever be had a mind." Aunt Phemy listened beneath it. fjpf'' I M i»v* wfi *V -Dr Ann is stepped upon the porch without help, but as Magnolia set foot upon it Mr. Topmark caught both her plump arms and gave her an upward impulse, grinning as be did it. The girl turned and gave bim a slow, comprehending stare, but slid a little away from him toward the slouching sleeper. "Why, what brought him here?" Jaok interrupted. Rob looked away, but said gayly: "Poor Alice! Ef only she did have a brother ter take her about ter places! I oa»»'t go ter parties ail things, an even *1 Might; few of them knew what heroism the reading had entailed. To the day of her father's blindness Rob had refused to learn even her letters. "I hate old books. I won't learn and be shut up in school all day/' she had said passionately. But when she saw her father fingering the big Bible and murmuring snatches of its contents it made her throat swell, her lips quiver. Yet she said nothing then beyond telling him breathlessly of the little chickens and the teeny new calf. But three Sundays later she came, saying shyly, "If you like, pappy, I can read you some Bible now." And with that she began the Twenty-third Psalm and went through it without a break. "Youwjf man, I've beared tell as you lie mighty easy, but ef Ben Topmark has got any sech notion as that you tell him he better come an find out what old Sister Annis has got ter say ter it." Still holding the herbs, she got a lantern, lighted it and went toward a detached building in the yard. Some little time later she came back with only the lantern. She set it down heavily and almost dropped into her chair, calling to the black nursemaid as she did it: "Ca'line, you 'tend ter the childern. I'm goin ter stay in the air till I feel better." "The finest new turnout in the county ; at least Mam Liza says so. And, only think, I missed sight of it; was way out in the fields." "Wake np, 'Nooh, else the ba-a-ars'll come an git you," she said, shaking him roughly. Before he was well awake she had mounted and was galloping away. There was a long, open level just after the road crossed the creek. For all its moonlit distance the storekeeper's eyes followed tbegirl. To himself be was saying: "She's er handful, ef I mistake not, an er beauty certain an shore. The whole thing is mighty temptin, but thar's risks, too, an Ben Topmark ain't the man not ter look before he leaps." el I oould you know it wouldn't look well with no man along. Brother is jest as good as gold, but he has got so much on his hands of co'se we don't expect it of him. But nobody cain't be young but once. Really, Mrs. Talbot, I don't envy nobody, least of all you, but it is right hard that here you have got four boys an I none at all." "Yessum. Cert'nly, I'll tell him," Teddy said, ruRbing to tie her horse, the while looking significantly at the rest with the eye away from the old woman. Clearly she was crazy, as crazy as ole Phemy, who lived on the fears of the other niggers, who, poor fools, took her for a conjure woman. This was in Teddy's mind. His speech was so civil that without in the least intending it Mrs. Annis had spent $3 with him before she rode away. "He came to see me, " Mr. McGregor said, with dignity, "to say, poor fellow, bow sorry he was that he had not been in three years before. Now, in his own sorrowful desolation, he is learning"—,y t'A All the cropper* had belonged in the old days to Mr. McGregor. Possibly he fared better at tbeir hands than he would have done at tbose of strangers. But he had never got oat of the way of regarding himself as a sort of special providence to his black people. In sickness or trouble his hand was open to them always, and when it came to the matter of division and payment of accounts he always enjoined his daughter not to charge "little trifles of meat and bread and occasional money against the poor things." Nobody believed him. Nobody ever did believe anything Teddy said. Tbe bare fact of bis saying it indeed made against the acceptance of anything unless there was mighty good outside proof. "That thar boy—he'd ruther lie than ter drink whisky er eben dance," big Matt Taylor, the blacksmith, said of him, with a kindly, oontemptuons laugh. There were not lacking people to say, though, that it was Teddy's faoile untruth which had got and kept him bis place aii Mr. Topmark's general representative. Someway she did not feel better. The herbs had been bound together with a long, thready cat brier. Her bands bad got more than one prick from the thorns. Each of the wounds began to throb and send darting pains through her. Her sight dulled. At last she saw only flaming circles before her eyes. She tried to cry aloud, but could only moan thickly, though she heard with preternatural clearness through the open window overhead Oa'line singing her flock asleep with: ' 'Excuse me, dad, but what has his grief to do with a spotted heifer—and Roscoe?" Rob asked saucily. Her father patted her hand. "Ah, but I have no girl, and Alice makes up for a great many boys, not counting little Nina," Mrs. Talbot usnully responded. Then before the next neighborhood merrymaking she set her Itentle wits to work so successfully that Miss W infold appeared at it under her nwn chaperonage and with Jack's earort. Thus people had got so in the way of seeing the two together it was regarded as settled that they would make a match as soon as the Talbot debts were paid to the last cent. Jack would not need to wait for making a home when there was the Wiufold place aching for a master. K **• ' ' "You shall hear in good time," ha said. "Jack will pardon an old man's rambling. The story is not much, after all. You both have heard me tell about coming out of Virginia, a boy of 17, riding at my father's elbow. He had not bought land before coming out, and as soon as we chanced upon this plaoe he made up his mind that be wanted it It belonged to a man named Pickins then, one of the poor white sJ But, oddly enough, he had a good title, though most of his sort merely squatted where they chose. He wanted to sell and move to one of the prairie states, but his wife was against it She would, in faot, have brought the trade to naught had she not fallen in love with"— But Hhe waved him back "Do you like it, pappy? Does it round Rood and belp yon?" she asked very low when alio hud done. Mr. McGregor could not speak. He pnt his arms about bis child and unswered lier with a rain of kisses. Jack Talbot drove home at a slapping pace. He woald have been amazed but that he was so fnriouely angry* There must be something in Teddy's tale. And why should that old virago prick up her eyes and scowl at the mention of Rob? The Annises he recalled as distinctly disreputable folk. He knew his father aud Mr. McGregor had said "Good riddance!" when they went west 15 years before. He recalled, too, that he had heard of them anew within the last month. Somebody at the courthouse had said the old man was dead, and his wife and son had straggled back an 3 rented the Nolan place, a poor, lean farm in the edge of the hill country ten miles away. Why should the old beldame ride all that distance to do her trading? There were at least three stores nearer than Topmark's, and in either of them she might look for better bargains. Clearly her concern was with Topmark. It could not be with Rob—his Rob, whom he would go and see at once. CHAPTER II. eD06 of something white and still and straight. As they (topped beside it Mrs. Winfold said with a fresh gush of tears: "Dyinl De good Lo'd Ermighty! Mist' Barton, you ain't tellin me dat fer trufe erbout po' Miss Louizy Topmark!" Luce Allen, the black gossip and market woman of Walnut Greek, said next morning, soon after sunrise, upon the porch of the store. Teddy stood frouzy, but alert, behind the counter, bis eyes red and heavy, bis whole frame tremulous with the news be bad to tell. Early as it was, there were three other customers within hearing. To them more than to Luce herself he said, nodding between each two words by way of emphasis : Still there were limits to Teddy's usefulness. Mr. Topmark knew him too well to trust him with any matter too parlous for general gossip. Possibly that was why he said affably upon a July evening: "Seel She's in her weCklin dress. She always km id she wanted ter be buried in it unless she lived ter see LulC y married in her veil. Tho buryin's ter be at 6 erclook this evenin. An, oh, Hob, woou't you please bring some of your white tea rose buds ter put in hC r poor hands an her hair? She wore 'em when she was mairied, an there ain't a single bloom on her bushes ner on ours." For he knew nothing of bow his land was served. Rob was eyes to him, and when in the beginning she saw how it pained him to hear of rack and ruin she made up her mind to paint all things in the rosiest colors. Y early she had told him tales of growth and blowth, pathetic in their uutruth and sublime in the motive that underlay them. No matter how bare she went, he lacked notbiug, not even gold to jingle in his pocket, and she agreed dutifully when he said: "You must not dress extravagantly, dear child. That is always bad taste in so young a woman. But sometfting is due your position as mistress here. It is my wish that you be well clothed, though. So be sure you have always plenty of good silk gowns, with lighter frocks for home wear and neighborhood visits." "Can you read, really?" he asked after awhile. "It seems too good to bo true. How did you learn?" "Birdoye lady, sooner in de mornint Birdeye lady, sooner in de xnornin! Birdoye lady, don't yon try ter stop me! I'm (twine crway when 'tin sun up In de morn in!" "I don't kuow—only that much. Jack Talbot is teaching me. Ho comes Sundays when yon are asleep. I most know the letters now, but they are hard, and I did not want you to wait so long for your Bible, so he read this over and over till 1 knew it nil. I am glad you like it But, oh, pappy, don't cry I Rob will take care of you until—until we both can go to the green pastures and the still "Teddy, ain't thar no frolic nowhar's in strikin distance ternigbt? You ain't beSh ter one in ten days, an I do reckon a heap of the fair sect is pinin fer the sight of you." Everybody, almost, agreed that it would be a mighty fine thing. Jack was easily the best chance, as Alioe was the finest girl in the countryside. They seemed made for each other indeed, and then the properties fitted so well. But here or there a dissident shook the head and looked wise. The sound became blurred, like tbe light In vain the listener tried to rise. Her feet were leaden, her hands weighed so she had no motion in them, yet there were flue twitches flying momently through and through them. With a last glimmer of consciousness she clinched them upon th* chair arms and tried to lift herself to a standing postnre. Cold sweat ran from her face, but there was fire in each vein. Blind, stifled, deathly faint, she could only propel herself far enough from her seat to fall a gasping, twitching heap upon the floor beside it. "I will bring all I have gladly," Rob said low and tremulously as she turned toward the open door. Something beside it caught brr eye and filled her with nameless boj-ror. Auufci'Leuiy stood outside, her hand over her eyes, her face drawn and twitching, her whole bent frame shaken as by a tempest of sobs. Teddy giggled and admitted that "may by two or three gals over at Squire Bynum's would chuue np an cry ef be didn't git thar'fore 10 o'clock." So, after a bit more chaff, be went galloping away, waving a laughing goodby to Luley, the eldest of Mr. Topmark's three small daughters. She was a prim miss of 8. Annie and Jinney, tbe others, were respectively 6 and 8. They were all miniatures of their mother, who was of tbe softly curved, plump, white rabbitty type. Sbe sat a little way off, watching her children tumble and play on the piazza floor. There were no lights outside, but a broad yellow radiance fell from a hall lamp on the huddled heads, making plain all the intricacies of their touseled gold "The spotted heifer. I see. But how oameyou to have that valuable animal?" Rob asked, her eyes twinkling. Her father gently pinched her ear as he went on: "Yes. The dootor, he's done said be cain't do notbin fer ber. Sbe must er "Alice Winfold—yes, she is a line girl," they said. "The fellow that get« her'll be lucky, bat bin name won't be Jack Talbot. Yon may depend it won't, not by a jugful, unless, that is, somebody comes along to carry off that wild girl, Rob McGregor." "My darling, my precious child 1" the father groaned, burying his faro in her silken hair. "1 think it would be a signal mercy of God if we might go to him now.'' waters.' bad er fit; was well as anybody las' night, but when ole Mr. Topmark went up thar ter the house he finds her all of er heap an speechless, jest bar'ly breathin. Of oo'se he sent fer the dootor. I went after 'im myse'f—had jest (jot home, you see, an Topmark says ter me, he did, 'Fetch tbe doctor in time, Teddy, ef it kills your horse an hisn,' an I knowed he meant it too." "Why. she was my pet. I had raised her baok in Virginia and had refused to ■ell her with the rest of the cattle. She was broken to the baiter, so I led her »«ar the mountains into Tennessee. Mrs. noxins itiea nrsi to Duy ner toroagn somebody else. She was a sharp old lady, bnt not too sharp for me. I let it be known to her that my May Bloaaom was not for sale, bnt that I was ready to make her a present of the animal the minnte she wonld sign a quitclaim deed to the land. Even then she hung baok a day and night, but ended by coming round. And so, Miss Bob, yon will one day have Rosooe." CHAPTER in. Roscoe, the McGregor plantation, lay np stream from Topmark's in the valley of Walnat creek. There were a thousand acres of it, morn by half than the storekeeper's area. Luray in thu tablelands above abutted about equally upon both the water front places. I.nrav was not for sale nor likely ever to bo. It was the same with lands upon the stream's farther side. Henco for any broadening of his borders Mr. Topmark could look only toward Roscoe. The mood passed, as snch moods da In the sunshine of Rob's presence her father learned to half forget bis blindness. Sho grew end strengthened and became wiso beyond her years. With love us the incentive nothing came hard. Though she still forswore school, once the letter learning was over she grew so fond of books that by mousing in the library she got a sufficient if unusual education. Theu, too, she could sew, knit and look after housewifely affairs, to say nothing of riding, dancing and shooting to equal perfection. Pretty soon she had a silk; it was ber mother's wedding gown refurbished. Theu it was tho easiest thing in the world to make it ofniew shapes and colors. It was the same with all else. The girl was so gallant, so loyal in her love, the sternest moralist might have condoned her sins against fact. Mrs. Winfold did not condone them. A fine soul may 'gauge with sympathetic) accuracy one of lower fiber. A coarse one invariably puts into all things the taint of itself. She said, casting up her eyes: "That po-ore littlo minxl Ter think how she does lie ter her old blind father, makiu him believe they're well off when we ail know thev haven't more'n got bread ter eat an mayn't have that long. Bet, that used tor belong ter us, is mighty thick with ole Liza, that uooks fcr Rob, an Bet says Liza says ef things ain't changed she don't see how in the world they'll keep ole marster from ftndin out another year. I must think they don't manage. Why, brother says I live well on what another womau'd half starve on. But then I have him ter help, an Alice too. Besides, I don't really think the Lord can bring himself ter prosper the McGregors, with Rob griin on like sho does." His Rob, his own true love! Now he faced the knowledge with which for three years at leust he had fenced and played. Before that he had told himself she was his little sister. He had even tried to keep up that pleasing figment after be came to find his heart beating like a trip hammer at sudden sight of her. Of oonrse he had known in the depths of consciousness what it meant, bnt love, marriage, were not for bim nntil he had straightened all the tangle of home affairs. He had a sort of chivalrous idolatry for his parents, and, though he rejoiced to know that his father understood Rob and loved her as she deserved, he knew, too, what his mother felt. If only she bad been harsh in indsment. he might have thought of defiance. U was the gentleness of her disapproval that gave it so much weight with her son. Aunt Phemy hobbled off mattering under her breath. As she passed through the trim, green painted gate in the white fence she half turned and looked back at the woman she had left She even halted as though she would go back, but after a second shook her head and hobbled on, muttering more vigorously than ever. "Wait, Phemy," she said half aloud as she came near the store. "Don't you go bulgin in dar. Mubby you ain't wanted. Time fer you ter go in when dem whut is in comes out." So there was a craning of necks upon the store porch when a slim creature, sitting as light as thistle down, came galloping along the creek way and halted at the big front gate which led into the Topmark lawn. The girl wore a clean waist of faded print, a rusty black riding skirt and a big rough straw hat. Her hands were bare and tanned a berry brown. So was her lower face, yet the tan but served to aooent its vivid charm of scarlet lips and dark, liqaid eyes and mobile witchery of elfin smiles. "Is dee sent fer Miss Sairey an Miss Mice?" Luce demanded. Again Teddy nodded. "You bet they're thar, large is life," be said; then, with a sudden tnigger, "I oughter not say it at sech er time, but Joe's dead ef it don't console Mrs. W infold er heap fer her grief ter know that now she can see all that's inside Louizy's bureau drawers." "You childern better not make so much fuss. Pappy'll send you off ter bed. It's time you were there now—way after 8 o'clock," Mrs. Topmark said, with a slow, indulgent smile. Jinney disentangled herself and toddled across to her father. He sat easily in a big splint rocker, but there was no ease in bis face. Instead it wore a (trained look, yet be smiled obviously upon the child, catching her up and making a great ado of standing her upon her bead. At once he set her down and rose precipitately, saying: Everybody knew he wanted the place, and nearly all said he would get it when Mr. McGregor died, or earlier if there were not some miraculous change in the McGregor affairs. But no thought of that came to Rob as sho home at speed. For more than a mile her way was over her own domain, along a mill road that ran through Roscoe's ramshackle gates. So it did not surprise her to encounter by the roadside three riders, who stared bard at her as sho came up with them. But she was all taken aback when, in answer to her civil good day, she got only a stony and hostile silence. And she was still more aniazt d to hear, as she rode on, the elder of two women say stridently: "That's her Magnolyer! The proud piece wouldn't wipe her feet on the likes of us. But mavbv"— "I think—yea, I must look up that quitclaim," Bob said saucily. Her father'! face clouded. Naturally the good folk whose ideal of young womanly perfection was Miss Wiufold looked half askance at poor Rob. It was the shooting which most condemned her, albeit the root of her reprehensible proficiency was tho wish to keep her father supplied with game when ho craved it. There were frequent intervals when he relished nothing else. Mrs. Winfold in such case would have appealed successfully to tho chivalry of her neighbors. Rob took up her father's gun, as she had taken his other burdens, without whining or moaning over tho necessity which laid them upon her "S-hh! Here comes Miss Alice," one of the white customers said as Luce smothered a giggle. The store's back door stood wide, and through it be bad seen Mr. Topmark's nieoe, the daughter of his widowed sister, walking across the grass, with her handkerchief to her She was a plump, pale girl, with big, appealing eyes, who had no claim to beauty, thsugb she was never less than good looking. She bad soft, fine hair, thick and of a pale flaxen brown. The eye color matched it exactly, and there was a tone of the same uncoloredness in the thick, smooth skin. Her hands were soft and small, but had fingers that forgot to taper. If her figure was full of soft curves, it lacked the graoe of pliant motion. Bending lithely from the saddle, she unlatched the gat«, drew it open and wheeled her horse through it, closing it softly after her. One of the men on the porch had stepped forward, but she waved him back with a smiling nod The smile died as she set her horse toward the house. Her face grew gravely sympathetic. She checked her mare to a slow amble, and at the smart green gate slipped noiselessly down and made her way to the piazza. "You will not find it," be said. "Twenty yean after it was given my father sent it to a lawyer in Illinois who wanted It to help the old woman's children in some legal matter. He promised faithfully to return it, but never did. That does not matter if it Is recorded. It was, I know. But ao many books were burned in that fire at the courthouse. Benjamin Topmark spoke of that and said he would find out for me. He was going to search the books on his own aooount and would be glad to look for me." With that she moved to seat herself upon a remnant log of the wood pile some five feet from the door. But before ■be was down she caught a sound that drew her irresistibly to the small window around the oorner. It was open as to sash, but bad thick wooden shutters, now tightly barred. A minute Aunt Phemy listened beneath it, then gave a ■mothered snort and hobbled back to tbe door, outside whioh she stopped to ■ay to herself: "Knock, Pbemy. Ef dee kills you fer it, you better bad find out ef dat ole Miss Annis er her ghost in dar talkin wid Ben Topmyk." There was the question of money too. Meager as was the return it brought, Roscoe was unquestionably a valuable estate. A man needed to think well of himself or have little of manly independence to go courting the heiress of it with empty bands. Jack was proudly independent. He wanted his wife to owe to bim comfort and cherishing. But what ought he not to put aside to save his love from the insult of Ben Topmark's wooing? "Ain't that jest the beat of luck? Ef Teddy was here, wouldn't a soul come a-nigh th« »to' fer two days mayby, yet thar'a somebody hollerin now, an I've got ter go 'tend ter him er else lose my trade ter that feller at tbe crossroads." . "It is aggravatin; but, then, folks most always come erbout this time in the week—Thursday nights, you know," Mrs. Topmark returned placidly. Her husband beard only tbe first words. He was half way across the hundred yards of turf that separated tbe store from the ■mart new bouse, brave in cream walls and scarlet window sash, that lately bad replaced his father's squat log-dwelling. Some one was calling sharply from the road. Tbe bail was insistent, but cautious. To one able to read faces it was plain Mr. Topmark had been listening for it in spite of his elaboration of surprised vexation over it. But nothing of that came to tbe woman sitting placidly on tbe piazza. Except within tbe narrowest personal limits, she had no penetration. Besides she would sooueif have questioned tbe ways of diving Providence than those of her husband. As she set foot on it Jack Talbot came through the ball door, his face shaken, his eyes so blurred and misty the sunshine was dim to him. But he knew the girl at the threshold and caught her hand in a warm clasp, saying a little unsteadily: shoulders. "Mr. Topmark is—too kind," Rob ■aid, with the faintest ourl of the lip; then, with a qniok change of mood: "Jack, do you want to be useful? Then oome help me feed my chickens. They are spoiled, almost aa badly as thia dad of mine. They eat nearly their own weight in meal every day, yet to hear them quawk and oomplain you would think they were starving. " Long before she to 19 she was a personage noted, gossiped over—if the truth must be told often belied— throughout the length and breadth of Walnut Creek. Sho was so bravely, so unconventionally truthful at all points— save one—it was not strange the air was filled with tales of her social daring. For example, sho said openly she loved to dance, best of all to waltz, "when She had Jack Talbot for a partner." Mrs. Winfold found that speech simply shameless. Dear Alice never went beyond the basket cotillon and had scruples even as to that. Waltz! Not she! She had beon too well brought up and knew too entirely what a modest girl owed to herself and society. Then she gave a thundering rap. When the door was set cautiously ajar, ■he thrust her foot within and pushed It wide, saying, with a sniff: Distance cut short her listening. She had purposely set the old mare at her best pace. "Ah, if only I had my dear Lightladyl" Rob murmured. "Bonnybel, 1 know you do your best, but your daughter was ten years younger aud as wild as her mistress." The good woman speat opinion once too often. It happened to be where Jack Talbot heard her. He flung up his head and said pointedly: Everybody liked ber, she was so neat and smooth and had such a way of stroking you right. Her mother, Mrs. Winfold, had a tongue and temper of her own, but her daughter was the cream of amiability. As such she was first in tbe neighborhood's heart, especially tbe feminine and elderly masculine part of it. So there was respectful sympathy in all eyes when she said between sobs: "I am glad you have come, Rob, though none of ns can do any more than to show respect and sympathy." "Maybe the land is what he's after, confound him!" Jack said to himself as he strode across fields to Rosooe after be had set bis black hirelings at another task. "Heaven knows the place needs a master badly enough, but not that master! Rob, any dainty girl, had better be dead." " 'Tain't des nobody but me, Teddy Barton. You needn't ter be 'fraid. Why, de lawsy, Morse Ben I How come you yere in de sto' dis time er night?" "I don't think Rob sets up for a pattern of all tho virtues, but I know she is above gossiping with servants about her neighbors' affairs. As to her truthfulness, I'd take her word for gospel. I've almost brought her up and never knew her to vary an inch from it, except to her poor old father. Truth would be only torture to him. I'd feel like shooting the man that told it. Rob simply could not lie maliciously or falsely, but I am sure she could and would keep silencoif she knew anything that would wound another person in feeling or in reputation." "Oh, Mrs. Topmark cannot be dead. Why, only yesterday I saw her—with tho children—driving—and they were so well and happy," Rob Baid, her voice, too, breaking from its soft, vibrant cadence, the quick color paling in her olive cheeks. Sho was as dark as Jack was golden fair, and, though she was more than common tall among womankind, be stood a good head higher. "Oh, that you, Aunt Phemy? Oome In," Mr. Topmark said, stepping back a pace. There was a sr-uttling of feet behind him. Two figures moved to tbe ■tore front, which lay almost in darkness. But Aunt Phemy had seen enough —a beak nose nearly meeting a sharp rhin, a pair of beady eyes and a thatch of coarse gray hair surmounting a tall figure that wore a woman's garb, albeit there was nothing womanly in the face. She had seen, too, a handsome, sullen girl, black browed, red lipped, tall and voluptuously rounded, moving at the old woman's elbow and evidently trying to keep in her shadow. But there was no hint of such seeing in her face as she made known her wants, nor did she more than check her hobble, when, upon passing outside into the big road, ■he saw, further, a lank, bullet headed fellow sitting a horse as lank as himself and holding the reins of two others which wore sidesaddles. By this she had come in sight of the bouse. It was wide and square, with tall, red outer chimneys. Once the walls had been white, the blinds a vivid green. Now both had weathered to deliciously soft tones of gray and drab. Tall Lombardy poplars stood sentinel either side the yard gate. Nearer tho house there were thick spreading trees— elms, maples, tulip poplars and oaks. The shade of them was so thick and .cool there was still a hint of dew on the sparse grass at their roots. "They are deoeitful, like their mistreaa," Jaok said aa he followed her to the feed coop, a tent shaped affair of rough alata, whioh waa aet some 60 yards from the baok steps. Rob had a big baain of wet meal. She flung It by generous handfuls within the coop, then leaned upon it, watohing her pets at their greedy feeding. One of them, a pretty, tame, aah blue oreature, flew upon her outstretched hand and perched there, preening herself and giving out soft littla sounds aa ahe pecked daintily at remnants of dough in the basin. Roscoo fields were truly a pitiful sight. Weeds stood as high as stalks in the scant breadths of corn land, and crab grass made a thick, tufty maze between. If tobacco had cleaner tilth, tall blossoming stickers sapped the richness of the leaves, and fat green worms in multitude ravened at will. "And not a nigger in sight!" Jack said to himself angrily. "Yet if they don't do some tall wrestling with these fellows," ornshing a fat worm as he spoke, "the whole crop won't pay the taxes, much less half of it. Something has got to be done, my little darling. Maybe I'm a presumptuous fool, but I shall ask you to marry me out of hand." "She's—gonel Poor, poor, dear, good Aunt Louizy! Ob, what shall we—dowithout her? Oh, Mr. Barton—I can hardly—think—but—Uncle Ben sayswill you please send for—Colonel Talbot? Somebody must—see after things —and poor uncle is so heartbroken"— "Oh, howdy, Rob? So good of you to come. But—but how did you hear of— of our gr-ea-at t-t-troub-le?" Mrs. Winfold said, darting out upon the porch, with Annie in her arms. "Bad news always travels fast," she went on. "Oh, do all yon, our frien's, pray fer us! Ef you don't, an the Lord don't hear, I know it'll kill brother—yes, jest kill him—losin that sweet, dear woman, without no warnin at all." Yet—such is the depravity of tho human mind, even in WaUut Creek— there were not w anting people who said that Miss Winfold'« scruples were a fine "I'll send right off," Teddy began briskly, though there was a choke iu his throat. Glancing up the road, ho hurried on : "Oh, no need ter send. Thar's Jack now, an he'll do better'n the colonel."Hob felt the attitude of her public, but never Rpoke of it, uot even to Jack. She knew how slight was her father's hold 011 life. It might snap any day. At the best the end was not far. And to his last hoar she would ease and spare him all she might. He was her world and love of him her religion. In the strength and light of love she could stand blameless before a multitude of accusers. The at ore's bark door alone was opened after dark. As Mrs. Topmark beard it clang behind her husband she settled herself afresh, took Jinney in her arms and began softly to croon a fragment of an old love song. Bat after a miunte she fidgeted uneasily, then sat suddenly upright saying, with a touch of authority: "Now, you all must go right ter bed, every one of you. You hear that? Gome on an let me see who gets up stairs first I expect there'll be some •andy in my pocket fer the one that does." One hand lay the garden, gay with all manner of flowers. Upon the other a wide tangled orchard space overran with fruit trees in full bearing. They spread, indeed, all down the side of the sunny lawn and on to tho road. for her possible partners. She waft so springless and wooden they mnst needs have carried her. Then, too, contrast with Rob might evoke comment to ruffle even her amiability. Things were best aH they were. Jack and Rob might dance their fill together and be none the worse of it when he was safely married to Alice Wrtifold. "Poor Bluebird!" Rob raid, stroking the soft feathers. "I am afraid, sweetheart, next winter you will be hungry uoleas I oan bring myself *o kill you or give you away. Do you know, Jack, I have come to wish, almost, that everything I love may be dead when winter oomes?" "It was so kind of bim to come," Miss Winfold said, wiping her eyes. There was a gleam of satisfaction at the bottom of them. Perhaps that was why she held them decorously downcast, while a tall, slim young fellow crogsed the porch, hastily clasped her band and ■aid busk ly. She was a shrunken woman, with a flattish, commonplace face and a voioe that had a rasping tang, though now she tried to make it subdued and full of grief. Her eyes were deep set, sharp and restless. In spite of grief and worry they took equal note of the faot that Jack had held Rob's hand maoh longer than courtesy required, and that Rob, tho reprehensible, now out of her rusty riding skirt, had on a calico frock bought from the store full two years back. Evidently she had come to them just as the ill news found her. She was so different from dear Alice, who in the faco of calamity had the forethought to make herself neatly smart in ruffled pink lawn. "We shall begin to have heaps of company. Early peaches are getting ripe," Rob said to herself, with a little whimsical smile, as she unsaddled Bonny be 1 and set her at graze. Then she ran on to the shady front porch, saying, with a perfect negro accent, "Marse Roliert, you don't want nobody ter do nothin, does you?" He had come to this proper and reasonable conclusion just as he came likewise upon Aunt Phemy's cabin. It stood npon a rocky knoll, with acres of tangle abont it. A cold spring boiled up at the knoll foot and sent a vein of bright water through the fields to the creek, a mile away. Aunt Pbemy had chosen the site herself. She was Mr. McGregor's foster sister, and, though saving her mother had cost him so dear, showed little of open affection for either himself or his child. "Hush!" Jack began imperatively, bat she went on reoklessly: Rob went to much less than half the errymakings. Though she was ceriinly mure in need of friendly counteniice than was Walnut Creek's para- But when the outer dusk had swallowed her so far that she could move unobserved by the man, who was evidently on guard, she put down her stick parcel, took off her white turban, muffled herself by flinging her black skirt over her head and crept noiselessly back to stand beneath the window, listening, listening, to the talk within. When Mrs. Topmark had been dead six weeks, Walnut Creek was discussing her burying with un interest but the more lively that it was so decorously subdued. Such a magnificent coffin as she had! And a minister from town to preach the funeral sermon, instead of old Brother Macpounder, who, for all bis religion, did unquestionably lack polish. Then, too, the widower's grief had been so notable, his tears had fallen liko hail, and Mrs. Winfold, sobbing upon Mrs. Talbot's shoulder, had begged those about not to let him fling himself into the grave with poor, dear Louisa. Afterward she had shaken her head, sighing out that nobody knew in the least what might not happen. "If it wasn't for them pore little orphans of his, 1 really don't believe brother'd care ter live another day." CHAPTER IV. "It ia the only way out You see how things are—the crop going to destruction and not a hand raised to stop it. Uiicle Ned's wife's brother's mother-in-law is dead. To show respectful sympathy with him every soul here quit work and went to the burying. It was bad enough before. Now 1 have quite lost heart Pappy has lacktd nothing so far. I hud rather die a hundred limes than let hiui know the truth. How could I even biut to him that we must sell part of the land we both love so well? Yet that seems* the only way in wfaioh I can save him from actual want unless—unless God were good enough to let us die together." "I see it is true—the ill news we heard. Father bade me come at once. Tell me, please, is there anything we— or anybody can do for poor Mr. Topmark?"gon, in some way nobody took acrount of the fact. The reason was perhaps that she was too tine of fiber to bewail her unprotectedness in the right quarter. Her few outings were all in the shadow of Mam Liza's ample person. Perhaps their very rarity gave Rob's pleasure a keener edge. As she made to follow the children who went tumbling one over ;b«, other somebody spoke from the dusk outside: The man she spoke to was blind, with a scarred, mobile faco and thin hands almost as translucent as old porcelain. His hair was like silver floss and lay carefully brushed upon the collar of his fine black coat. His linen, too, was spotless, his neckerchief carefully neat and his soft, low shoes of flawless new gloss. He sat among soft cushions in a wicker chair, his head thrown back, his eyes closed, his whole frame drinking in the scented softness of the summer morning. "Oh, Miss Louizy, woon't yer dest be so good as ter tell me ef—ef, de sto' is done shot up fer de night? . wants HT whisky powerful bad. Sech «r mis'ry in de back I been bad all day long"— "You can do everything," Miss Winfold said, her sobs breaking out afresh. "Do come to the house and see poor uncle. Oh, it is so terrible! To think only yesterday poor Aunt Louizy"— But then conjure women never cared for people, and all her world knew Aunt Pbemy for a conjure woman, though only the bravest ever even whispered sc much. She lived alone, spending much time in the woods or swamps. Sooia) visitors she had none, yet there was not a house high or low roundabout that would not have made her eagerly welcome, for, said popular belief, she was one to be conciliated. If one had a mortal enemy, he need only go in thick darkness and whisper his grudge to a certain hollow stone in her chimney. Then he must put money in the hollow, wait three days and go back. If the money was gone, he might be sure of the wished for vengeance, but if the coin lay untouched he must take it and make off with all speed, never telling anybody bow he had been balked, upon pain of having ttoe witch throw hei spells upon him. She caught only fragments. Most times the voices were too low. But now and again they were raised as in anger or exultation. The girl said little. The old woman was indeed the chief speaker throughout the conclave. "Yes, I do want all that belongs ter me, an mo'— ef I kin git it," the black woman beard her say olearly. She heard, too, a sniff from Mr. Topmark, though she could not catch his answer. Then the girl said in the slow, drawling speech that is the characteristic of the poor whites: "You can get it, Aunt Pbemy. Mr. Topmark's there right now—jest went. You better hurry an ketch him. Like as not the man that called him didn't want nothin much—ter ask the way er buy 6 cents' wuth of stuff.' Mrs. Topmark said, walking to tbe piazza steps, Just outside of which stood a weazened old black woman, leaning upon a crook handled stick and holding curiously aloof from herself a big bunch of a strange looking herb. It was ragged and drooping, yet the glimmering light showed here and there amid the tangle of stems knots of bloom balf withered and of a livid, reddish yellow. The bearer of it bad thin, clawlike bands and shut, strong, yellow teeth upon the stem of » cob pipe. Setting one foot on the middle step, she said meditatively: Usually upon sueh occasions she danced the night away with Jack—Jack, whose height and step suited hers to a nicety; who was, after her father, her very best friend. Of course she liked him more than any other of the boys, more than all of them indeed, and why should she not say so, especially when it made Mrs. Winfold look so angry and horrified? It was the highest possible tribute to her undeniable charm that, in the face of a frankness so desperate, she never lacked a partntr for tho numbers that Jack was constrained to share with Miss Winfold. Jack's eyes grew dim. He came of a strain too brave not to be tender. His father, Colonel Talbot of Luray plantation, the rich man of Walnut Creek before the war, had come home from the fighting with oniy life and honor. As bravely as ho had fought he tried to face the new conditions, but for that ho had not strength. Debt had piled on debt. He must have been swamped but for his son Jack, who gave over all thought of college and at 17 took upon himself the management of affairs. That was eight years back. Now Luray was full of prosperous thrift, very nearly tbe model place it had been under the old regime. "Mammy Liza told me. Aunt Phemy brought her word," Rob said simply. ' 'And pappy bade me come at once. Ever since his own trouble, you know, his first thought is to try and help"— ' 'Ah, there is another Way, almost as bad maybe—still a way," Jack said, with unfeeling levity. "You—yon can marry me, Rob, though I am not half so good a chance as you deserve." "I want some one very much—that mischievous daughter of mine," he said, affecting not to recognize her voice. "There are just the two of us, and I miss her dreadfully, though she is so full of pranks. You see, we have not "Yes, I know—but nothin—cain't be done," Mrs. Winfold said, with a gush of ready tears. Her emotions lay shallow. She could cry almost when ■he had the nlind. But neither of her companions suspected that; their own eyes sympathetically overflowed. Without a word Jack strode away, mounted and galloped off. Rob stood breathing hard and wishing Iterself well at homa Before she could put the wish in action Alice came out to them, fell upon Rob's neck and wept a decorous minute, then took her hand and said: "Do come up stairs to the poor children, Rob. Yon have such a way with them, an they are cryin fit to break their little hearts." _ „ Rob flushed a lovelier scarlet. "Take that back. Yon must!" shecried. "Oh, but I am ashamed of you—myself—everything! I did not think you would misunderstand. I was blue and miserable and began to whine—yes, actuallf' to whine. So yon offer to—to help mo' in the only way you can! My name ought to be Winfold. I did not think I could behave so. Do, please, take back everything and forget all I said. If yon tlo not I shall never be able to look myself in the face, not for a whole year.** "O-ool Shurks, Ann' Nan! Jest ask that thai ma-an ef he'll pay money, as we kin tote erway. Gord ktio-ows I don't want no land. I ain't fit ter wu-urk it, an you know 'Noch woon't "wu-urk nothin"— Widowers have been, time out of mind, kittle cattle. Bevund question Mr. Topmark mourned his wife. Why, throughout the six weeks ho went to church every Sunday and sat inside with bowed head, listening to the sermon. Still some of the more irreverent noted a sober smartening of his rarb. ni-f to mention wandering ami rurtive glauces about the assembly. But oven they were wholly nnready for that which came to pass. Teddy Barton told it to a group of lounging customers upon the store porch just as Jack Talbot came there in hot haste. The store kept oeen much apart ever since she was born." "Nor ever will be, daddy," Rob said, dropping a kiss upon either eyelid. Then she stood back a pace, clasped her hands behind her, closed one eye and looked him critically over, saying: "Upon my word, daddy, you are simply stunning this morning! I've been haunted by the fear that I had not got the part of your hair quite where it Rhould be nor the bows of your neckcloth matbanwtinllT nnilar Tonr r.'nin You know It set the dullest tingling to have her floating beside him, her eyes starry, her cheeks the clearest rose, her lithe slenderness vital, vibrant, swaying responsive to the music, as the wind harp to the wind. Besides, there was distinction in taking her out. She h&l the courage of her antipathies no IcWthan her convictions. Quick and fulWJf ready courtesy as she was, tbore were times when subterfuge was vain. Then, sooner "No! You oughter not work; that's a fac\ Miss—Miss"— It lay upland from Topmark's and adjacent to it. Mrs. Wiufold's little farm, which her brother managed along with his own, sat suugly in tbe angle of the two wider holdings. The Winfolds wers indeed the nearest women neighbors of Mrs. Talbot, ft gentle, nar- "Magnolyer Tubbs! I said her name oat plain," the old woman interrupted ad Mr. Topmark hesitated. Aunt Pbemy started a little at tbe words and muttered under her breath: "Huh! Dat ml kin er vourn. den. You wus Tubbs "I 'lowed ter fine Marse Ben right yere on de po'ch wid you. Dat how come I fotched him dis yere passel er truck. He say t'urro day be want er bench er dem swemo yarbs"— All this Jack had heard at piecemeal from his frightened black people. For the most part he had laughed at theii tales. He was too young and open in tK. hDa*b ut Vat Jack caught her hands, not roughly, bat in a firm, masterful grasp* "You Cimthtutd on PaQr Fovr