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Show THE SAUNA N I bird. By ROBERT STEAD 8 Author of The Cow Puncher, CHAPTER XIII 12 -- slow-pacin- 1 a left-over- The Homesteaders WNU Serrica Copyright by Hobart Stead I had given Jean up, under protest, as the only thing to do. But having made my protest I meant to accept my fate with dignity ; I would take my gejitence. like a man, and serve It without whining. I had ben long In going' to sleep, and as a consequence had awakened late. The shack was bitterly cold; the only comfort lay under my heavy blankets. As the light Increased I counted the knobs of frost that had formed on the ends of the nails that came through the roof. I had never noticed that so many nails had missed the rafters. We were rattier bad carpenters. My mind leaped back to the time when we built the shack, clearing all the events crowded between, as the vision leaps front height to height across great valleys in the prairies. Ilow unreal and far away It all seamed! But another leap carried me to the bank of a river, and little children pluying in the sand, and a g water wheel that sprajed Its mist of diamonds in the sunshine. I saw her little calico dress, her little brown bare feet, the ringlets of yellow hair hung about her cheeks. That was Jean. . . . It was with The clock bad stopped terrific suddenness that I realized the clock had stopped and in my, barren shanty was the silence of the tomb. Its round, glassy face grinned an imbecile grin at me from its place on a shelf on the wall. Its hands showed a quarter to four. . . . Well, there was nothing very mysterious about that. In the excitement of the wed ding party I had merely forgotten to wind the dock. Only an overwrought nervous system could discern anything uncanny in that. I reasoned all this out, with absurd deliberation, as 1 rubbed my ejes and wondered why the clock had stopped. Or perhaps the frost had stopped it. My watch had fared better, and when I drew it from my pocket on the corner of the bed the friendly bustle of its ticking was reassuring to my ear. I could hear the companionable canter of its balance wheel galloping down the road of life by my Xext to a dog, I said to myside. self, "a watcli Is the best friend a man can have."' That set me thinking about dogs, and I wondered why In all these months 1 had neglected to provide myself with a dog. As a sort of Insur anoe, I grimly rejected. One always can fall hack on a dog. The hands of the watch said half-pas- t eight, and I suddenly remembered .that there were cattle to feed. It would he a decent thing to get up and do all the chores that morning, if they were not already done. So I drew my underwear from beneath my pillow, and sprang from the friendly shelter of the blankets. I hurriedly started a fire; watched It until it hud a proper draft; turned the damper in the pipe to guard against its getting beyond control after I left it. Then, after drawing on my peajafket, cap and mitts, I set out for the stables. The morning was gray, with a scattered sifting of small snowflakes, but the nip to the air was not nearly so uncomfortable as it seemed when conlempluted. fr.acu under blankets. I reflected that com fort and happiness are largely a matter of the point of view. But that doesnt help when the bottom has fal- n out of your particular universe. The stove lids were red hot and the kettle was belching forth a small gey ser of steam when I got back to the shack. My search for remnants from the feast of the qlght before was as toiiKhingly fruitless, until I remem bered that the young Hansens had s been turned loose upon the So I cooked a mixture of oatmeal and water, which I call d- porridge, boiled two fresh eggs, thawed out part of a loaf of bread, melted a piece of butter and sat down to a meal that was hardly calculated to make me rejoice in ray single blessedness. After breakfast I washed my few dishes, swept the floor, made my bed atrdgeneVally set the house in order Even then It was only ten oclock, with nothing more to do until noon. At noon there would he of the routine, end then nothing to do until night. At night there would he supper and the eening chores, and nothing more to do until morning. And the next day- - thb" same, and the same, and the same. It was when Jack hurst In upon me. Well, old Robinson Crusoe, how goes solitude? he demanded. Rotten, said I, "but I can always change my mind If I want to." Aha! he exclaimed. In return, clasping himself about the middle. A blow in the fifth rib! A subtle blow under the fifth rib! Jack was obviously In great spirits. Vut with a sudden soberness he sat flown beside me, and I felt his hand an i.y knee. Its not quite the thing old chap, he said, to cut us dead. Just became we're married that Is. some of us. I haven't cut you," I retorted Give me time. I know its a raw dear for you, he went on. disregarding my Interruption. and Id give Id give half of my happiness, if you like, If I could put it right. Its a little embarrassing for us all. But dont you think Jean is worth a fight a little more fight than you have made?" auwrstund English," 1 said, "par- - UTAH SUN.-SAUN- ticularly Jeans English. If she wants shell have to say so." Oh, get off your high horse. lies a lame nag, anyway! Jean thinks she loves Spoof, but she doesn't. She's him. Shell grow Just infatuated out of that. might help her along a little. I'm not so sure. Spoofs a pretty Tne now But-yo- fore me. It once had been owned by Jacks father;, the first pages were filled with Items which apparently had to do with the purchase of the Lane farm, and with Mr. Lanes services In the woolen mill. 1 glanced over them with casual Interest and as I did so a loose slip fell from the pages. I picked it up from the floor and founil decent chap," I said, Inwardly giving a number of lines In Jean's handwritmyself credit for amazing magnanim- ing: ity. through the livelong day I sigh Of course he is," Jack agreed, When on my sad estate, And somewhat too readily, as It seemed to 1 would ponder my Nemesis defy And burst the bounding cords of Fate. me. But that has nothing to do with it. Jean Isnt putting you and Spoof Now would I tear each bond away; under the magnifying glass, so to Now would I risk your gad reproof; speak, and studying out which Is the Come, let us live and love who may: Come to me. . . . Spoof. more decent chap. It isnt done that way. And to save her life she couldn't So It has come to that, I said to tell you why,- today, she thinks she Love-sic- k I myself. doggerel! loves Spoof, and why, tomorrow, she crushed the sheet of in my hand paper will know she loves you. Reason in a rage, even while a hot flush of doesnt enter Into these things at all." color ran up my face at the realization That doesnt make it any easier for of the fact that I had read something me. Intended for other eyes for my And Maybe not, Jack admitted. of all. So she could tear least eyes as I have argued that reason doesnt the bonds away; she could risk his enter into the consideration, I suppose sad reproof'; she could do anything it is of no use to reason about It. hut find words to fill out the feet of Then let ns get onto ground you can the Inst line. Come to me. . . . understand. Cr.me on over for sup Spoof! With a sudden stabbing at per. my heart the question Interrogated nte. I accepted with more alacrity than Could Jean be Ingenuous enough to man a he might young expected of use those dots, after the manner of who was resolved that altlmugh tkd our modern writers, to suggest someto the stake he would not thrust his thing which she shrank from saying in feet in the fire. Marjorie kissed me when I went In a kiss for her dear plain English? old bachelor brother, she said, obviousI resolved to have It out with Jean. ly in fun, but I think there was a There was no sense In letting things pang of deep sympathy undergo on like this. Jean had happiness neath. Jean was cylm, poised, within her grasp, for the taking, but ; her eyes seemed larger she persisted In writing moonstruck than usual, and the white of them to a man who apparent! v showed that dear blue tinge that Is doggerel eared no more for hei; than for the found in some kinds of delicate china. post that marked the corner of his Either the lamp light was pecu- section. Spoofs continued and delibor Jean's complexion was erate liarly yellow I called it neglect now neglect below the mark. She chatted freely, admitted no other explanation, almost too freely, and laughed upon I spent a wakeful night thinking occasion, but there was no ring in about this, and toward morning I got her laughter. and retrieved the crumpled hit of Altogether, It was rather a difficult up which thrown Into a corpaper evening. We played cards after supner Qf the kitchen. I spread It out per, and tried, as so many others have and read the lines again. A night of done, to forget our troubles in the chance of a luiky hand. 'Even the reflection had worn the edge from my cards were against me. Jean and I indignation, and I admitted tlia from had always played together, but to- an artistic point of view, the verses were perhaps not so hopeless ns I had night Jack Insisted that it was not meet that a man should have his wife thought them. Indeed; they suggested for a partner at cards, so.our combi- a certain germ of poetic ability. A nation was broken. I may have had n little devil of conscience began an Insubconscious and disturbing feeling surrection In my sense of fair play, that Jeans hand, to my left, would demanding to know If I could write as have made better holding than any- well myself. But I am no poet. I took a pencil and put down the word thing I could hope to draw from the deck. At any rate I played abomi- Jean, and then set about hunting for rhymes for It, but I could think of nably and went home early. lean and bean. Neither And so the days dragged on. I kept onry two a corner of my south window rubbed of these seemed to lend itself to clear of frost so that I might mainSuddenly a whiff of memory rushing tain a lookout for a visit from Spoof, for although he was my rival, or be- in from somewhere sent me scuttling cause he was my rival, I felt that I among old school books at the bottom had with Spoof something very much of my trunk. It was a whim of mine to keep my old school books, If only in common. But Spoof seemed sud that in after years I might read and have discontinued his to visits denly to Fourteen and Twenty-two- , and for appreciate the little gems of literature the first time in that winter the trail which, with the assistance of a phlegto his shack was entirely overblown matic teacher, I cordially hated when a child. IIere.lt was an old Ontario and obliterated in a waste of snow. Jack came over every day, and Mar- reader with a sensational story about jorie and Jean came two or three an Indian woman who killed a bear times a week and gave my shack the with a butcher knife, or some such weapon. My sympathy, I remember had always been with the hear, doubt less because of the picture which was made to represent the Indian woman I had road this story again and again when all other passages In tlie'book had failed to Interest me, and some n little cel! of memory said I would find a fragment of papei tucked between these pages. Stir enough, there It was! I drew It out eagerly, hut tenderly and almost rev erently, and held it under the lamp How that strange, childish scruwl seemed to run all over my heart and pucker It Into little gasping pockets' I could feel a thumping between in Inngs and the hard heating of un pulse 'went 'throbbing through the pa per in my fingers. - But the descent was steeper than she thought; her momentum overbalanced her, and in an Instant I saw her careerjng wildly down the slope, her arms outstretched, her hair flying loose from under the rim of her cap. Near the foot she disappeared entirely. Ferhaps I should have rushed after which I recorded In the aliening lines but I didn't. I sat down leisurely her, of this chapter. I would have it out nt the of the hill and waited for with Jean. I would put up another her to top reappear. Presently a mittened fight for all thijt made life worth the hand came up over the crest which living. I would not accept my fate; at hid her from view; then sometlTIng least, I would not accept the fate to something round and furry, like a which Jean hud resigned me. She sleeping kitten; then a forehead, two would seel . . . eyes, and a glimpse of cheeks. But this .was a battle which could "Arent you down to help not be fought In public, and racked me? she called.coming my wits for some way In which I Now I had meant to 6tand on my .might lay siege to Jean alone- I rights; to tell Jean thatshe had gone hardly could ask Jack and Marjorie to down the hill on her own accord, and getout of their own house while I might come back In the same way; subjected Jean to the main drive which perhaps to some quiet mirth at was to break down her resistance; her efforts poke to scramble up the slipmuch less could Invite Jean to Fourpery 'drift. When a man contemplates teen for the same purpose. The matrimony he may as well settle at prairies, with all their vast spaces, re- once whos who, und why. Now wus fused me Just that one little niche of my time to be firm. privacy 1 needed. As 1 turned the said. No, Im not coming,"-matter over in my mind a clever plan Jean looked at me for a moment, in unfolded Itself before me. 1 would surprise; then uttered not another make a sled und Invite Jean to long-forgotte- v When I am old And very tall I hope my name Will be Mrs. Hall. A mist came up out of the past and blurred the scrawly letters until they swam before my eyes and faded out ot sight. They had carried me hack to the dear dead days of childhood that Eden of life which comes the disillusionment which Is the Full; The years between hud gone out with "a gulp that filled my throat, and again we were little children playing to gpflier, solemnly mating ourselves for the future under the witnessing mur mur of the great pjjie. That had been one of lie great days In my 'life, and I had not .known It then. I wonder how often we know the great day when ii is actually upon us? But in that d tv I had drunk In something which had become part of my system ; part of my flesh and bone and brain ; part of m.v hope, my aspiration, my life. And now would I give it up? Never-nev- er! I pressed the precious missive to my lips and suddenly the dam of my overwrought nerves gave way. and on So It Has Myself. Come to Love-Sic- Said to Doggerel That," I 1 womanly touches of which It was beginning to stand in need, but Jean never came alone. I began to understand that the prairies give solitude without privacy; if one seeks privacy he goes to the city for it. In this way a couple of weeks had passed when one evening It occurred to me that I could kill a dull hour or two, and discharge a somewhat neglected filial duty, by writing a letter to my father. Investigation proved that I had no writing paper, so 1 went over to Jacks to borrow some. They Had none, e!thert but Jack produced an old account book with some blank sheets In It, which we decided would do quite well. In tl ose days we weren't particular about stationery. Jean was in her mo-i- i while I was there, and did not come out, so in a few minutes I returned to Fourteen. There I set the lamp on the table and spread the old account hook oat be- - tears rushed down upon nte. man's shame I would have With n cln eked them If I could, hut the flood would not be stopped and there was non to see. I fell on my bed and let the storiu sweep over me. After a wldle came calmness, and with that calmness the resolution SICK WOMEN BENEFITED By Taking Lydia E. Pink hams Vege table Compound for Their Illness I have found that Detroit, Mich. Lydia E. Pinkhams Vegetable Compound does me a lot of good. One dayl saw your advertisement in the News and told mjr husband I was going to try it. I had bearing-dow- n feelings and was very w eak. After 1 1 go coasting somewhere along the banks of the gully. Then we would wander on and on, the farther the better. Fortunately some boards remained of the table which had supported the wedding feast, and I went to work with a will. The reaction from Inactivity was In Itself a tonic to my and I found myself whistling spirlt-s- , an Improvised June which I fitted to the first bottle I began to feel better and I took six bottles. I feel like a new woman and have recommended it to others, and they say the same. I keep a bottle of it in trie house all the time for sometimes I have a backache and I take the medicine and am all right Vrs. Wm. Kkaft, 2833 Vinewood Avenue, Detroit, Mich. I have had Rockford, Illinois. nervous break-down- s many times, but not since 1 started to take Lydia E. Pinkhams Vegetable Compound. I was weak and hut the Vegetable Compound has helped me and I feel better now. I recommend it to all women who need more strength. Mrs. Gust. Green, 401 Lincoln Park Blvd, Rockford, Illinois. word. But from her hand she drew her woolen mitten, and raided her fine, firm fingers In the air., Ona of 'those fingers crooked, with the knuckle bent tow urd me, and the finger pointing to her face; then, with a little seductive flicker, she beckoned me to her. . , . It was too much. 1 sprang on my sled and shot like 'an arrow to Its run-dow- . target. Isnt It wonderful, wonderful I" she All this white wilderness exclaimed. to play In, to shout In Listen! And she helloed at the top of her voice. Only un echo, heating back from the hanks of the gully, answered. See, wa are all alone alone In all the world. Why didnt you bring me out here fore?"- Cuticura Soap Pure and Wholesome Keeps The Skin Gear - Are you glad to be alone with me, Jean? I asked, drawing her hand Into mine. Are you glad to he here, ulone, with me?" Why, yes. You are my friend. Only your friend? ttOhr see, theres a place where perhaps we can slide right over the pitch I d poetic-treatmen- TWO MORE Lets Soon Greens August F!ower for Constipation, Indigestion and Torpid Liver Relieves that feeling of having eaten unwisely; 30c and 90c bottles. AT ALL DRUGGISTS. I She was on the sled In an Instant, und I behind her. I kicked It loose. With a gentle crunching sound the runners started scraping through the ; then, as the speed increased, the sound rose to a whine which mingled with the rush of air In our ears and the spray of snow In our faces. . Jeuus heels were just above the snow surface, and when, as happened once they dropped too low, they showered us with lying icy c7UU. Then, Just at, the dtp, one heel drove in much too deep too deep to he accidental the sled trembled, turned sideways, und went over. We disentangled ourselves, laughing, But the Descent V as Steeper Than hut we did not immediately reclimb'the She Thought; Her Momentum Over- hill. I found a sheltered spot In the balanced Her, and in an fnstant I pitch where we might sit on the sled Saw Her Careening Wildly Down with our bucks to the great drift while -our faces caught the slanting warmth tlre'Slope. sun and our eyes could range the words, When I am old and very of the the field of tiny- - rainbow signals etc." as tall, Hope rebounded, hope thrown up from the ripple at our feet. will, from Its dip Into despair, and I broke up the crusted snow with Jean Fouron to the shack began picture teen as It would he under the loving the heel of her overshoe; then burled Ires-entlcare of Mrs. Hall," and the Joy that her feet in the powdery mound. eume a toe up wiggling through we would find In Its seclusion. The winter months, which had been drag- it Jean, dont" I cried. You take me ging so unutterably, suddenly threathack to those old days I We underened to be all too short. stood everything then; then everything I completed my sleigh and presented was supposed to be settled." Twenty-two.-Jac- k at door of the myself The toe settled to stillness In Its looked mon the vehicle with evident misgiving. 1 may have built it burrowing; Jeans sensitive lips, too, rather stoutly, but tliut was no reason settled to a stillness firm and sud. Tellne. Jean," 1 pressed at length; why he should suggest that 1 hitch an x to It. why cant we go bnek ; why cant we "An ox ! 1 retorted. This Is built start over again like that? We have always been good friends," 'or speed. I am going to ask Jean to she murmured. o coasting. God friends yes. Must it stop at "I "Aha!" said Jack, significantly. that?. vish you till possible speed." "And neighbors," she continued. Jean showed no reluctance about go- have always been good neigh"We a on woolen sweat r ng. She drew and a short, cloth winter coat, with a bors. Ferhaps that Is the trouble. Ilow the trouble? collar of some llulTy kind of fur which Well, Its like tliis, " she said, and had originally grown on a cat. She mahad a little fur cap of the same again the toe began to gyrate In the We've known each other, so terial, which she pulled down snugly snow. n her head, and we were off. well, and so long, there. Isnt anything h ft to know, is there? Could niueli We followed the crest of the gully for some distance in the direction of you stand t lie lion (Join of a person -'neezit's farm, ostensibly in sean h of who has no ne.v thoughts, no strange i good coasting spot, but actually mm h ideas, no whims nothing that you ngaged with our thoughts und the real haven't already seen and known a hunpurpose of our outing. That Jean dred times?' There never, could he boredom with understood It perfectly I was convinced, and under such circumstances you, dear. Just to have you with me,, the fact that she had so readily ac- to feast on you. to know you were cepted my invitation wus at least a mine, would be enough for me," For about a week. Youd soon tire hopeful omen. Walking on tle unt rucked snow In of a feast with no flu v or to It. 1 midwinter Is an uncertain business, would, at any rate. . . . Oh, I see and the prairie people rarely make use It working out already. I don't want of snow shoes. For the most part to gossip, and Jack and Marjorie have there was frozen crust that bore our been everything they could to me, but weight, but this crust has an unfor- already I can see them .settling down tunate habit of giving way at unex- to the routine the deadly routine. pected moments, particularly when one Bad enough anywhere, but on these has Just taken a big stride forward. prairies, with their Isolation, tlielr ImI unbearable. There Is an effect very much like mensity couldnt coming upon the head of the stairs In stand it. 1 studied her for a moment In sithe. darkness when you think you are still safely walking along the hall. It lence. Jean might know all about me; with great might have no new thoughts, new precipitates suddenness, hut fortunately snow Is ideas, new whims, hut It was quite a good thing to fail in. We sera mhled plain I d.dnt know all about her. to our feet, laughing and In li'gh Still, tin re are many couples on spirits. It was a wonderful thing to these prairies living happily, 1 suppose, I ventured. laugh again, and mean it. (TO BE CONTINUED ) At last we found a place where the snow had curved in a grout white e Old Geographical Term gully. For plume over the bankIt iberia wus thp mime given by the dropped away in fifty or sixty feet un absolutely smooth descent; then ancient Greeks to the territory Includcame a sudden id .. h, as though a great ing Spain, Portugal, and southwestern ladle had scooped out the drift; then a France; but It Is now used ns poetic The word succession of little billows whipped term for Spain only. was also "Iberia" currents at cross foot of the the by the employed by up Greeks and Romans to designate the the hill. Let me southern part of Georgia, a eotmtrv in It looks good," said Jean. Asia, south of liie Caucasus mountains, see If It is firm." With that she ran out upon the drift, between the Black and the LVpie her dainty feel tripping down it like a sees. y arrrwhrt. Oiahnnt, Talctim PARKERS HAIR BALSAM Removes Dandruff StojuHau hailing Kettore Color and Beauty to Gray and I aded Hair $1 00 hoc IM and Th n Vi k at Diogstuta gi,N Y. 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