Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 March 1914 — WHAT KITTY MEANT [ARTICLE]

WHAT KITTY MEANT

By F. H. SWEET.

As they walked shetoldhercompanien of new plans. That very day she had secured employment In the blanket factory, and would commence work the next morning. Six months before she had come home a broken wreck —her husband recently killed in a drunken brawl, her own life spoiled, as she thought, by the man against whom she had been ‘warned. But now, with renewed health and resolution, she was about to commence life again, to build up from the wreck. Halstead listened quietly until she had finished, then broke out: “You know there ain’t no need for it, Kitty. You know I’ve been waitin’ for you to get strong; so could say the same thing I did before —before you met him. It didn’t seem right to persuade you when you first came, you was so weak an’ tired. But now you’re strong again an’ know your own mind. An’, Kitty”— his voice trembling in spite of his efforts at been waitin’ a good many years. I've never felt to marry anybody else.” Her hand rose impetuously, to stop him. » “But you must think to marry somebody else, Halstead,” she said, earnestly. “You're too good a man to be wasted that way. An’ you must stop thinkin’ of me, for it can’t ever be, after —after what’s gone by. I ain’t much, but I couldn’t be so mean as to harm a man like that. Now,

Halstead, please”—touching his arm as She saw the grim amusement on his sac make me go on feelin’ I’ve ruined your life. There’s Nelly Bocup. She likes you, an —■” Halsted l&ughed-aleud, “No use talkin’ that way, Kitty,” he interrupted. “I want you, an’ if I can’t have you now, I’m willin’ to wait awhile. When it gets too hard 1 shall grab you up an’ run so fast an’ far you won’t be able to get breath to say no.”

“I’m sorry, Halstead.” There were tears in Kitty’s but her voice was firm. “I shan’t ever marry any man to hamper him. It won’t be no use for you to wait and ask me again, ever.”

There was much sickness in the , town that fall—a malignant spotted fever, highly- contagious —and one by one the poorer portions of the town were put under quarantine. Then one evening Halstead helped what he thought to be a drunken man to his home, and the next day the man came down with the fever, and within a week was dead. Within an hour after Halstead heard this he was on his way to the woods for what he said was to be a few days’ hunting. In reality, it was to watch himself. One morning before people had begun to appear on the streets, he staggered to the sidewalk outside the fence of his sister’s home, where Kitty boarded. “Mary, oh, Mary,” he called. Then when his sister appeared at the door. “Don’t come any nearer. You know that empty cabin up by the big rock, where we walk sometimes?” “Yes.” “Well, I wapt you to send some food and water there, soon’s you can. I’ve got the fever. Wait,” raising his voice a little bitterly as she withdrew hurriedly into the house. “There .ain’t a mite of danger this far, not for you nor the children. I won’t go near the cabin till you get the things in, so it’ll be safe. I’ll stay oft in the woods a couple of hours. But please hurry, for I’m beginnin' to lose sense of things."

“Halstead!" it was a quiet but peremptory voice from an upper window. Halstead raised his eyes and tried to fix his mind on what he saw there. “Kitty, Kitty,” he said, dreamily, “that you? Better go in an’ shut the window. Maybe the wind’s blowin’ that way.” -x “Halstead,” the voice said slowly and distinctly, "can you go straight to the cabin by yourself?” indignantly, “straight’s an arrow. But I’ll wait two hours.” “No,” peremptorily, “you must go at once, straight. I will see about the food and everything else. I’ll have a doctor there almost as soon as you are. An’ I’ll have a nurse. I’d make you come in here, but there’s your sister and her children, an’ there's children in both the next houses. So maybe it wouldn’t be best. No go, straight, straight to the cabin.” Halstead raised his hand to his forehead undecidedly. But the voice bad been clear and incisive, and just now it was easier for him to obey than to think. So he nodded vaguely and staggered up the sidewalk. Kitty watched him anxiously until she realized. that, in spite of his wavering steps, he was heading toward the cabin. Then she hurried downstairs. Mary met her at the foot. “What do you mean, Kitty?” she began, wildly; “you’re not going up there to him, an’ then come back to me an’ the children? Most everybody’s died of the fever so far.” “That’s all right, Mary," answered Kitty soothingly. “I’m not cornin’ back. You wouldn’t have Halstead be without a nurse, would you?” “But everybody dies most, an* you’ll sure take it,” remonstrated Mary hysterically. Halstead did not die, but it was more than three months before he was able to leave his bed and totter across the cabin floor to a seat in the doorway. There he sat for a long

time; gasping for breath and gazing moodily at the distant mountain tops. Kitty came to him there after she had arranged his bed and tidied the room. "Doesn’t it look good, Halstead?” she said. ■ He did not answer at once, but presently turned to her with a dreary smile. # "I—l don’t know as It does, Kitty,” he replied. "Ypu heard the doctor tell me it would likely be six months before I would begin to do any work, an’ that my eyes an’ bearin’ wouldn’t ever be quite so good again. That’s just the same as if . I was gettin’ to be an old man.” He was silent for some minutes, then added: “An’ that ain’t all, Kitty. It’ll take every cent I’ve got to pay the doctor. You see, before you came, I never saved anything. I didn’t feel any need. What I got I spent to help Mary an’ the children. I’ve only been puttin’ by the few months you was here, before I was sick. What Is it?” for she was now standing by his side, her hand upon his shoulder, smiling down into his face. “Will you marry me. Halstead?” He gazed at her stupidly for a moment then his lips began to quiver. “Don’t Kitty,” was all he said. “But I mean it, Halstead,” earnestly. “I said I would never marry a man to hamper him, but I’m strong an’ well now. an’ you’re weak, an’ the doctor says I can get all 'the work. I want nursin’. I can be makin’ money while you’re getting strong, an’,” lowering her voice a little, “I believe I’ve always loved you, Halstead, always. That—that other was only a crazy spell. , Why, Halstead!” her voice suddenly catching and then breaking into a sob. * For the tears were streaming down Halstead's face nowy But he held out his arms.