Hammond Times, Volume 3, Number 149, Hammond, Lake County, 11 December 1908 — Page 12

THE TTTXF.3. Fridav, -December 11, 1908.

umbleFolki

By C B. LEWIS.

2 Copyrlarhtad, 1908. by Associated 2 Literary Frees. r-

la a way they had been engaged for a year or more, Tom Salters and Linda Greea In a way; . I say, because the humble people living In the coves or scattered cabins on the sides and crests of the southern mountains ; do not syeak of "engagements." It is taken for granted that when a "young feller" "hangs around" the cabin of a mountaineer possessing a marriageable daughter he has matrimony in view, and when the nearest

neighbors are called in to see the

couple jump the broomstick or etand up before a traveling preacher to be

made one there is no surprise and lit

tle comment.

The father of Linda Breen had no questions to ask of Tom, Salters. He had known his father for years. Tom

bad as yet no questions to ask of Lin

da's sire. Neither Linda nor her moth

er had referred to the subject. Many

times when Joe Breen and the young

man were out hunting squirrels or

walking to the village together Tom

would suddenly say without preface:

"Beckon me'n Linda better git

hitched."

And the father of Linda would throw

way the old quid, bite off another ttod after chewing away for a eouple

of minutes would reply: Tea, I reckon."

That evening the father would have

a few words to eay to the mother in

prrrata, sod at a rater hoar she would

easmEy remark to the daughter:

"Tots Baxters wants yoa, and I reck-

en 70011 be gota fa a few days."

JTfcwteeei times out of twenty the

mazrtege would foBow. There would

be a new squat of land taken up, a

new pote cabin bufit, and another family wcaM go on making mountain history. But in this ease no marriage followed. It was all on aceotmt of the arrival of Tom Salter's uncle from a village in the lowlands. He was in business down there and wanted help,

so he bftd come for Tom.

Tom had no education, bat he had native wit. He was known, to be a "right smart" young man. The uncle

talked of a broader field, a chance for education and a rise in the world, Linda must wait At the end of a year or

two Tom could come back and marry

her and take her away.

And In the twilight of a rammer's

evening Tom and Linda sat on a log in front of her father's cabin, a space of

a foot between them. Both looked into

vacancy, and he told her of the plan.

" He talked in a jerky, disjointed way.

but she understood as well as if he had

been a silwer tongued orator. He had eeked for her hand. He meant to mar

ry her. He had no thought of disloy

alty. The road seemed straight and

plain to him, and he did not dream

that there was a knife at her heart as

Ehe listened.

Men will never understand how farreaching woman's intuition is. The

girl followed Tom's words, and yet she

saw momths and months and months

ahead oZ them.

Two or three times she-inetirfttivelv

reached out her band as if j& detain

him, bet drew It back without his having observed the action. Two or three times these were tears in her eyes, but she took care that he should net ttee

them.

"Well, what do yott reckon?" he asked aa he bad finished and the si

lence had? lasted for a kmg minute.

"Better go, I reckon,' was the reply

What other answer could she have

made, a tousled, barefooted, Ignorant

girl of toe mountains, and yet would

her wotoici'a pride seek to detain him

jwhen be-had proposed the separation?

They sat together for five minutes

longer, ami then the? separated, she to enter the cabin and seek its darkest corner to let her tears flow and be to

shake hands with her father and moth

er and bid them goodty.

It may be said of the lovers that

-'both, could "write a scrawl or two

aodiiboth- cooid read a scrawl or two,"

so seca-wls passed between them. They were weekly at first, and then there wre. longer intervals. IT Tom did m$-wflte, Linda- could not' answer. -Then one day there came a neig&bor

Who bad seen Tom In person in his J

Hew. fieSQ. ... The speaker d!& not mean to wound r bruise,, but he had seen a new Tom Salters, one who was no longer of those on the mountains. He had forgotten tfie crags and peaks for the streets of the town. 'When the man, had departed Linda's mother wanted to look her in the eyes. Linda wanted to do the same by her mother. Instead of so doing both turned their heads away. They said nothing of Tom. What happened was all simple and natural. Tom Salters had entered upon a new life. It offered numberless attractions to the young man who had never traveled ten miles from the cabin in which he had been born, and it was but natural that he should soon begin to forget the old Mf e and all that he had left behind. Ills scrawls were indited at longer intervals and finally ceased altogether.

He came to almost ignore the few mountain men he had known in other

. days. They looked at his new clothes,

. noted his speech and walk and went

away shaking their heads. In their opinion this was rank disloyalty to the

mountains. By and by there came another mes

senger to the cabin in the cove where

Linda waited. Again there was nodesire to wound or bruise, but simply to

impart news. Tom Salters was "shin

lag up" to a handsome young girl'

down there in the town.

He had become almost a gentleman.

No matter how right smart he bad

been before leaving home, he had

surely become right smarter after his life among townsfolk. He would never return. He would marry and settle

down where he was.

All this and much more Linda lis

tened to with her elbows on her knees

and her head in her hands. She sat

thus after the caller had departed, and

her mother dared not break the silence.

It was Linda herself who broke it at last by lifting her head and quietly

saying:

I never reckoned on his comm.

back. We hain't goin to speak of him no mo."

The mother crossed the room and

patted the daughter on the shoulder, and the incident was closed. Mr. Breen

was not even informed of the gossip.

Linda had not sung for months. She

began singing now. She had not rambled from the cabin for weeks. She

now began taking long walks. Laugh

ter came to her lips once more, and

when she stopped at the little poet-

office and was told that there was no

letter her smile was not replaced by a look of disappointment.

Linda's forgot about Tom and is git-

tin' perter than ever," remarked the father to the mother one evening as they sat alone.

The mother did not answer. She

looked at him in contempt As a moth

er she -knew that Linda was simply

breaking her heart The true woman suffers most when she laughs most She was watching Linda. There was an undefined fear that the girl's reck

less tplrtf B't-fPsssay. Weeks passed, however, and nothing happened nothing except that Linda grew pale cheeked and thin, and a note of defiance rang in her laughter. She was suffering and yet defying the pain. Then came a crisis. She was a mile down the mountain road one day, seated on a bowlder where she had often sat before watching the highway winding down into the lowlands and the busy world she knew not of, wbenfa human figure came into view half ; a mile below. She recognized it even at that distance. A blush came to her cheek, and her eyes flashed. Tom Salters was coming back at last

She saw that be was dressed as she ' had last seen him and that he walked with weary step and dejected attitude. Until he was within a quarter of; a mile the girl was blushing and trembling and ready to raise her hand and shout a glad welcome. Then she became a thing of, stone, except that she moved her eyes to note his progress. He did not discover her until he was within a hundred feet Then he dropped the satcher he was carrying and sprang forward, her name on his lips. The girl slightly inclined her head but there was ice in her look. ; - "And you won't shake hands! You won't howdy! You won't say" She motioned to him to sit at her feet and in a weary, hopeless way he obeyed. He waited a long minute and then in a husky voice began: "I have come back to stay. - I was a fool to go away. I was bo'n up yere, an' I might have knowed I wasn't fitten for down there. Mebbe somebody told you that I tried to be one of 'em. Yes, I did,. I. wore shoes. Iwore store

clothes. I tried to talk like 'em an' act like 'em, but I wasn't fltten. I thought I might be, but I never could be. Won't you speak to me, Linda?" "Go on," she replied, still without looking at him. "Mebbe mebbe somebody from up yere told you about about a gal down there. Yes, there was one. I fell in love with her, an she she made fun of me. She laughed at me. An, Linrda, the fellers mocked me an' put upon me an' made game of me. I dun couldn't stand it no mo', an' so I have ome back come back to you all. Won't you speak to me?"

For two minutes the girl sat and looked down the road as she had looked before. Then she rose, passed Tom and .went up the road went slowly up the road toward home and never looked back. . lH 7 Unlearned, unlettered and ignorant of the ways of $e world, she had the heart-of the highest woman in the

land, and she demanded expiation for

a lover's disloyalty. Her mother read In her face what had happened and simply put an arm around her and whispered: There, there, child by and by." One evening three months later-Linda sat in the moonlight on the same old log at the door. Again her elbows were on her knees and her face in her hands. By and by some one knelt before her and lifted her head and looked into her eyes and said: "Can't you do it now, Linda?" "Yes, I reckon," she replied as she gave him her hand. And that, too, was "just like a woman!"

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