Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 265, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1918 — The Girl Under the Hill [ARTICLE]

The Girl Under the Hill

By DONALD ALLEN

(Copyright, 1918. by McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) Travelers who came that way and ascended and descended the long hill, with the creek and the bridge at Its foot, always turned their heads to look it the old stone house built in colonial days..ln summer it was covered with vinAs and stood in the shade of the pear trees, and in summer the “girl under the hill” was oftenest caught sight of. Why the “girl under the hill” instead of Molly Thatcher? WeU, travelers would have it so, and nobody knew just why. She had been called so at sixteen, and she was still being called so at twenty. It onl y to inquire at'any house in the village beyond the creek to know she was the daughter of old Mart Thatcher, the pensioner, and a motherless girt Sometimes travelers saw the old man on the porch and the daughter reading to him as he smoked bis pipe; sometimes she was working among the flowers in the yard; iometimes from the open windows of the house, they heard her singing and paused to listen. When strangers met her on the road as she went to and from the village with her basket, they remembered that she had hair that shone like gold in the sun, and a mouth that smiled, and eyes that reminded them of those of a deer. Sometimes, when a too-ourious young man the postmistress for information he received the reply: - “She's smart and handsome and good, and it’s no use for yon to waste your time. Molly has never looked at any fellow twice.” ' One summer day the girl under the Mil carried an apronful of weeds from the flower beds out of the'gate and emptied them in the highway. Just as she did so an auto driven by a young man cfime chugging up the hill. She looked fairly into Ithe young man’s eyes, he into hers. The look did not last ten seconds, but It made her heart beat faster as she turned away, and his as he continued his Journey. / An hour later, the old father hobbled out on the porch where the girl rat with her chin on her hand, staring into vacancy, and said: “I thought you might have gone to the store. I haven’t heard yon singIng.for a long-time.”.- ' “I was just—just thinking,” she replied as she got up and ran away. Autos were not a rare sight on that highway. A dozen passed up or down the hill every day, and no one minded them. The girl under the hill had never gone to the gate out of curiosity. If seated on the pofch she had Tiot raised her eyes. All at once, now, she found herself listening, and was vexed. She found herself at the gate, . and stamped her foot as she turned \ rway. That - young man had black hair and dark eyes; he was youUg and handsome; he was surely a gentleman; he—. But to break the chain of thought, Molly seized the broom and began to sweep the porch mo vigorously that her father called out from the interior of the house: “Hey,. girl, what’s the matter with you today?* You swept the porch only an hour ago. Better save the broom.” Two days had gone -by since Mollie * t:«A.thrown the weeds in the road and the young manin the auto came again. The girl was training a vine at the Corner of the house, and she heard the machine rumble across the bridge and begin to climb the hill. Yes, It was the same young man, and he was looking her way. She was partly turned away, but she knew he was looking. She heard the machine almost come to a stop, but she would not look up. Then the power-was increased, the chug Went louder and faster, and she stood and listened until the sounds died away in the distance. • ’’s' “That fellow pretty near got stuck on the hill,” said the father as Molly came around to the porch. • It was Just as well for “that fellr.wf that he wasn’t there to see the toss of her head and the snap in her eyes. She believ.ed that he had almost stopped to stare at her, and she was rejoiced that her attitude had been one of disdain. That is, thinking It over, she didn’t know whether she was or not. Three days later, as she sat sewing and her father slept In his rocker, she heard an auto' ascend the hill and stop In front of the house. The rose hushes hid It from her sight but a moment later the dark-haired young man whs standing uncovered before her and saying: "I beg your pardon, miss, but could you lend me an ax while I make some slight repairs to my auto? So sorry to bother you. Ah, I see an ax over tlvere. Don’t get up, please. I shall return it directly.” In her confusion at his sadden advent and strange request the girl had simply looked at Mm. She gave her fnther n shake to wake him up, briefly explained matters and disappeared Into the house. When the lix was returned, and while the borrower was wondering where the lender had disappeared to, the old pensioner replied : ! “That’s all right. Always ready to obleege folks in trouble. So your auto tioke down, eh?” “Well—er—just a slight accident” "Lucky for yon that you wasn’t fccmtng downhill Instead of going up.” "Yes, It was.” i

feast year there were two or three accidents Along here, and it took the men half a day to make repairs. If they’ve got machines now that they o«n repair with an old ax In ten mlnr utes It’s a big gain. I guess there’s some buttermilk from the churning, this' mopping, and if—” bnt I ftiust be going. Very kind of you, Indeed.” If the old pensioner’s eyes had not been so dim he might have seen aj young man blushing like a. girl as he walked towards-, the gate, but he didn’t see, and in Ms hospitality he’ called out: . - ’ “Call again any time you breaks down. If I ain’t out here, take the ax and use it as long as you want to.” ■'“Father, how could you speak that way to Mm?” exclaimed the daughter at his elbow as soon as the latch of the gate had clicked. “Lordy, but what have.l done now? A young feller’s auto breaks down in front of the house and we lend him an ax and tell hnn he can have it again any time. You are always ready to give buttermilk to tramps, and I wondered why you didn’t come out and offer him a glass. I don’t want folks to think I’ve turned stingy in my old age.” 1 During thq next moqth Molly Thatcher heard from the gossips of the village that the young man was Connected with the hte new factory five miles away. She got sight of him and his auto at least every other day, but he peered In vain for her. ~ She had a maid’s curiosity, but she -also: had a maid’s timidity. At nine o’clock one moonlight night, as, the village lights were going out . and a strange silence was creeping over the land, she walked down to the gate and leaned upon it. She had not been standing there ten minutes when the hum of an auto came to her eats front the crest of the hill a quarter of a mile away. She had “heard that the dark-haired man sometimes rode about at night. She would wait until the machine came* nearer and then step behind a rose) hush. “Puff. Puff. Chug.” And then the girl heard a sharp snap, and something told her that the auto was coming down the hill uncontrolled. SBe sprang through the gate and saw it coming. There was only one person in the vehicle, and Intuition and the moonlight Identified him. The- course was fairly straight, but the brake was not working. Second by second the speed increased, and as the machine came whizzing past she raised her hand -above her head and - screamed to the man:

“Jump for your life! You will be killed at the bridge!” For the fraction of a second he looked Into her eyes and smiled, and she had to turn and seize hold of the gate while she waited for what must happen at the foot of the hill and the narrow bridge. And when the crash came she screamed to her father, dozing on the porch, and ran screaming down the path the wild auto had followed. When neighbor aroused neighbor and half a dozen men gathered at ! the wreck they found the girl under 1 the hill seated on the grass and the bead of the unconscious young man in her lap, “He Is dead!” some of them whispered after a look. “No! No! It can’t be so!” she almost fiercely replied. “He must be taken to the Inn and a doctor called.”

“No, take him to our house. Run for a mattress. Lift him carefully. If he hadn’t been coming down the hill In hopes—in hopes to see—to see—” “Cut and bruised and suffering from the shock, but no bones broken,” reported the doctor to young Marshall’s friends next morning. “Leave him right here and don’t worry about Mm.” - Two weeks later, as the young man was, able to ride away in the auto of' r friend he said to the old pensioner before departing: “I may not want to borrow your ax, but I should like your permisskm call agalh.V , “Why, of course, of course. I tell Molly we must bq, neighborly.” “And will you he neighborly?” was quietly asked of the girl as the gate was reached. He must have read the answer In her eyes, for he came again.