Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1901 — Page 7

The Doctor’s Dilemma

CHAPTER XlV.—(Continued.) “I am no phantom," I said, touching her hand again. “No, we will not go back to the shore. Tardif shall row us to the caves, and I will take you into them, and then we two will return along the cliffs. Would you like that, mam’selle?” “Very much," she answered, the smile still playing about her face. It was brown and freckled with exposure to the sun, but so full of health and life as to be doubly beautiful to me, who saw so many wan and sickly faces. “Doctor.” said Tardif’s deep, grave voice behind me, “your mother, is she better?” It was like the sharp prick of a poniard, which presently you knew must pierce your heart. The one moment of rapture 1 had fled. The Paradise that had been about me for an instant, with no hint of pain, faded out of my sight. But Olivia remained, ami her face grew sad, and her voice low and sorrowful, as she leaned to speak to me. “I have been so grieved for you,” she said. “Your mother came to see me once, and promised to be my friend.” We said no more for some minutes, and the splash of the oars in the water was the only sound. Olivia’s air continued sad, and her eyes were downcast, as if she shrank from looking me in the face. “Pardon me, doctor,” said Tardif in our own dialect, which Olivia could not understand, “I have made you sorry when you were having a little gladness. Is your mother very ill?” “There is no hope, Tardif,” I answered, looking round at his honest and handlome face, full of concern for me. “May I speak to you as an old friend?” he asked. “You love mam’zelle, and you are come to tell her so?” “What makes you think that?” I said. “I see it in your face,” he answered, lowering his voice, though he knew Olivia could not tell what we were saying. “Your marriage with mademoiselle your cousin was broken off —why ? Do you suppose I did not guess? I knew it from the first week you stayed with us. Nobody could see mam’zelle as we see her without loving her.” “The Sark folks say you are in love with her yourself, Tardif,” I said, almost against my will. His lips contracted and his face saddened, but he met* my eyes frankly. “It is true,” he answered; “but what then? If it had only pleased God to make me like you, or that she should be of my class, I would have done my utmost to win her. But that is impossible' See, I am nothing else than a servant in her eyes. Ido not know how to be anything else, and lam content. She is as far above my reach as one of the white clouds up yonder. To think of myself as anything but her “servant would be irreligious.” “You are a good fellow, Tardif,” I exclaimed.

“God is the judge of that,” he said with a sigh. “Mam’zelle thinks of me only as her servant. ‘My good Tardif, do this, or do that.’ I like it. I do not know any happier moment than when I hold her little boots in my hand and brush them. You see she is as helpless and tender as my little wife was; but she is very much higher than my poor little wife. Yes, I love her as I love the blue sky, and the white clouds, and the stars shining in the night. But it will be quite different between her and you.” “I hope so,” I thought to myself. “You do not feel like a servant,” he continued, his oars dipping a little too deeply and setting the boat a-rocking. “By-and-by, when you are married, she will look up to you and obey you. I do not understand altogether why the good God has made this difference between us two; but I see it and feel it. It wouid be fitting for you to be her husband; it would be a shame to her to become my wife.” “Are you grieved about it, Tardif?” 1 asked. “No, no,” he'answered; “we li#ve always been good friends, you and I, doctor. No, you shall marry her, and I will be happy. I will come to visit you sometimes, and she will call me her good Tardif. That is enough for me.” At last we gained one of the entrances to the caves, but we could not pull the boat quite up to'the strand. A few paces of shallow water, clear as glass, with pebbles sparkling like gems beneath it, lay between us and the caves. “Tardit," I said, “you need not wait for us. We will return by the cliffs.” “You know the caves as well as .( do?” he replied, though in a doubtful tone. “AJI right!” I said, as I swung over the side of the boat into the water, when I found myself knee-deep. Olivia looked from me to Tardif with a flushed face—an augury that made my pulses leap. Why should her face never change when he carried her in his arms? Why should she shrink from me? “Are you as strong as Tardif 1 . 1 ” she nsked, lingering, and hesitating before she would trust herself to me. “Almost, If not altogether," I answered gaily. “I’m strong enough to undertake to carry you Mthout wetting the soles of your feet. Gome, it is not more than half a dozen yards.” She was standing on the bench I had Just left, looking down at me with the same vivid flush upon her cheeks and forehead, and with an uneasy expression In her eyes. Before she could speak again I put my arms round her, and lifted her down. “You are quite as light as a feather." I said, laughing, as I,carried her to the strip of moist and humid strand under the archway in the rocks. As I put her down I looked back to Tardif, and saw him regarding us with grave and sorrowful eyes. “Adieu!” he cried; “I am going to look after my lobster pots. God biass yoc both!" He spoke the last words heartily; and we stood* watching him as long as he was In sight. Then we went on intb the caves. I had known the caves well when I was a boy, but it was many years since

By Hesba Stretton

xl had been there. Now I was alone in ’them with Olivia, no other human being fn sight or sound of us. I had scarcely eyes for any sight but that of her face, which had grown shy and downcast, and was generally turned away from me. She would be frightened, I thought, if I spoke to her in that lonesome place. I would wait till we were on the cliffs, in the open eye of day. She left my side for one moment whilst I was poking .under a stone for a young pieuvre, which had darkened the little pool of water round it with its inky fluid. I heard her, utter an exclamation of delight, and I gave up my pursuit instantly to learn what was giving her pleasure. She was stooping down to look beneath a low arch, not more than two feet high, and I knelt beside her. Beyond lay a straight, narrow channel of transparent water, blue from a faint reflected light, with smooth sculptured walls of rock, clear- from mollusca, rising on each side of it. Level lines of mimic waves rippled monotonously upon it, as if it was stirred by some soft wihd mhich not feel. You could have peopled it with tiny boats flitting across it, or skimming lightly down it. Tears shone in Olivia’s eyes. _ “It reminds me so of a canal in Venice,” she said, in a tremulous voice. “Do you know Venice?” I asked; and the recollection of her portrait taken in Florence came to my mind. “Oh, yes!” she answered; “I spent three months there once, and this place is like’it.” “Was it a happy time?” I inquired, jealous of those tears. “It was a hateful time,” she said Vehemently. “Don’t let us talk of it.” “You have traveled a great deal, then?” I pursued, wishing her to talk about herself, for I could scarcely trust my resolution to wait till we were out of the caves. “I love you with all my heart and soul” was on my tongue’s end. “We traveled nearly all over Europe,” she replied. “I wondered whom she meant by “we.” She had never used the plural pronoun before, and I thought of that odious woman in Guernsey—an unpleasant recollection.

We had wandered back to the opening where Tardif had left us. The rapid current between us and Breckhou was running in swift eddies. Olivia stood near me; but a sort of chilly diffidence had crept over me, and I could not have ventured to press too closely to her, or to touch her with my hand. “How have you been content to live here?” I asked. “This year in Sark has saved me,” she answered softly. “What has it saved you from?” I inquired, with intense eagerness. She turned her face full upon me, with a world of reproach in her grey eyes, “Dr. Martin,” she said, “why will you persist in asking me about my former life? Tardif never does. He never implies by a word or look that he wishes to know more than I choose to tell. I cannot tell you anything abput it.” Just then my ear caught for the first time a low boom-boom, which had probably been sounding through the caves for some minutes. “Good heavens!” I ejaculated. Yet a moment’s thought convinced me that, though there might be a little risk, there was no paralyzing danger. I had forgotten the narrowness of the gulley through which alone we could gain the cliffs. From the open span of beach where we were now standing, there was uo chance of leaving the caves except ns we had come to them, by a boat; for on 'eachfside a crag ran like a spur into the water. There was not a moment to lose. Without a word, I snatched up Olivia in my arms, and ran back into the caves, making as rapidly as 1 could for the long, straight passage. Neither did Olivia speak a word or utter a cry. We found ourselves in a low tunnel, where the water was beginning to flow in pretty 1 strongly. I set her down for an instant, and tore off my coat and waisteoat. Then I caught her up again, and strode along over the-slip-pery, slimy masses of rock which lay under my feet, covered with seaweed. “Olivia,” I said, “I must have my right hand free to steady myself with. Put both your arms round my neck and cling to me so. Don’t touch my arms or shoulders.” , Yet the clinging of her arms about my neck, and her cheek close to mine, almost unnerved me. I held her fast with my left arm, and steadied myself with my right. We gained in a minute or two the mouth of the tunnel. The drift was pouring into it with a force almost too great for me, burdened as I was.

“WAITING FOR THE PAUSE.”

But them was the pause of th* tldev when the waves rushed out again in white floods, leaving the water comparatively shallow. There were still six or eight yards to traverse before we could reach an archway in the cliffs, which would land us in safety in the outer caves. There was some peril, but we had no alternative. I lifted Olivia a little higher against my shoulder, for her long serge dress wrapped dangerously around ns both; and then waiting for the pause in the throbbing of the tide, 1 dashed hastily across. One swirl of the water coiled about us, washing up nearly to my throat, and giving me almost a choking sensation of dread; but before a second could swoop down upon us I had staggered half-blind-ed to the arch, and put down Olivia in the small, secure cave within it. She had not spoken once. She did not seem able to speak now. Her large, terrified eyes looked up at me dumbly, and her face was white to the lips. I clasped her in my arms once more, and kissed her forehead and lips again and again, in a paroxysm of passionate love and gladness. “Olivia!” I cried, “I wish you to become my wife.” “You—wish that!” she gasped, recoiling. “Oh! no, no —I am already married!” CHAPTER XV. Olivia's answer struck me like an eeletric shock. For some moments I was simply stunned, and knew neither what she had said, nor where we were. “Olivia!” I cried, stretching out my arms towards her, as thortgh she would flutter back to them and lay her head again where it had been resting upon my shoulder, with her face against my neck. But she did not see my gesture, and the next moment I knew that she could never let me hold her in my arms again I dared not even take one step nearer to her. “Olivia,” I said again, after anothar minute or two of troubled silence—- “ Olivia, it it true?” She bowed her head still lower upon her hands, in speechless confirmation. A stricken, helpless, cowering child she seemed to me, standing there in her drenched clothing. An unutterable tenderness, altogether different from the feverish love of a few minutes ago, filled my heart as 1 looked at her. “Come,” I said, as calmly as I could speak, “I am at any rate your doctor, and I am bound to take care of you. You must wot stay here wet and cold. Let us make haste back to Tardif’s, Olivia.” I drew her hand down from her face and through my arm, for we had still to re-enter the outer cave, and to return through a higher gallery, before we could reach the cliffs above. I did not glance at her. The road was very rough, strewn with huge boulders, and she was compell-

ed to receive my help. But we did not speak again till we were on the cliffs, in the eye of day, with our faces and our steps turned towards Tardif’s farm. “Sorry that I love you?” I asked, feeling that my love was growing every moment in spite of myself. The sun shone on her face, which was just below my eyes. There was an expression of sad perplexity and questioning upon it, which kept away every other sign of emotion. “Yes,” she answered; "it is such a miserable, unfortunate thing for you. But how could I have helped it?” “You could not help it," I said. “I did not mean to deceive you,” she continued —“neither you nor any one. When I fled away from my husband I had no plan of any kind. I was jus't like a leaf driven about by the wind, and it tossed me here. I did not think I ought to tell any one I was married. I wish I could have foreseen this.” “Are you surprised that I love you?" I asked. Now I saw a subtle flush steal across her face, and her eyes fell to the ground. “I never thought of it till this, afternoon,” she murmured. "I knew yon were going to marry your cousin Julia, and I knew I was married, and that there could be no release from that. All my life is ruined, but you and Tardif made it more bearable. I did not think you loved me till I saw your face this afternoon.” “I shall always love you,” I cried passionately, looking 4«wn on the shining, drooping head beside me, and the sad, face and listless arms hanging down in an attitude of dejection. “No,” she answered in her calm, sorrowful voice. "When you sec clearly that it is an evil thing you will conquer it. There will be no hope whatever in your love for me, and it will pass away. Not soon, perhaps; I can scarcely wish you to forget me soon. Yet it would be wrong for you to love me now. Why was I driven to marry him so long ago?” “Your husband must have treated you very badly, before you would take such a desperate step as this,” I said again, after a long silence, scarcely knowing what I said. “He treated me so ill,” said Olivia, with the same hard tone in her voice, "that when I had a chance to escape it seemed as if heaven itself opened the door for me. He treated me so ill that if I thought there was any fear of him finding me out here, I would rather a thousand times you had left me to die in the caves.” (To be continned.)

FARM AND GARDEN

Value of Irrigation. The universal use of irrigation in the West has practically revolutionized farm values in many regions. These methods of supplying the crops with water are many, but they all show an amotmt of adaptation to conditions that proves the existence of Yankee genius here yet. There are more varieties of windmills for pumping up water than one could describe in a week. These windmills are not expensive affairs, but in most cases are built of ordinary articles picked up on the farm or in sec-ond-hand shops. They perform the work required of them satisfactorily, and that is all one can ask of them. The construction of a good working windmill on any farm, and a pumping attachment, with irrigation canals and reservoir, adds a hundred or two per cent to the value of a farm in a region where summer droughts are heavy drawbacks to farming. With a little extra work during the winter season it is an easy matter to make such improvements on almost any farm. The system can be enlarged and extended season by season, and the farm gradually enhanced in value. A farm that has a fair home-made irrigation plant is practically independent of the weather. The farmer is then sure of his crop no matter how hot or dry the season may prove. The great benefit derived from an irrigation plant is so apparent that it seems strange that so tew are in existence. It is not always necessary to build a windmill for Irrigation, for there are often natural advantages which any farmer can avail himself of. When brooks flow through farms they furnish in the winter and spring seasons an abundance of water, but when summer advances they often dry up and prove of no earthly good. The question of importance is how can such a stream be converted into use for irrigating the plants. It would not be so difficult if a reservoir was dug and built on the farm, so that the water could be stored. Such a reservoir could easily be increased in size each year, and with the water stored in it, what would prevent digging ditches to carry the water to the fields when needed? Some will say that such work represents an immense amount of labor; but if the farmer intends to live permanently on his farm, will it not pay Tiim to do a little toward the improvement each year, even though it may take ten years to complete the job? He can rest assured that he is increasing the value of his farm fully 10 per cent every year, a fact which he will realize when he comes to sell it—Professor James S. Doty, New York.

Poultry House for Large Chicks. When the chicks are about one-quar-ter grown and have left the mother hen they should be provided with some sort of a shelter for night use and for use on stormy days. A coop for these chicks may be built for very little money. One side of the coop is formed by the side of a building or a fence, and at the lower end comes within two inches of the ground. The roof of rough boards is covered with tarred or waterproof paper. An opening is cut in one side next to the fence or wall. Inside, roosts are arranged, and in one corner is placed a dust bath. The roosts will have to be put in before the roof is put on, as the house Is not designed

GOOD POULTRY HOUSE.

in any way so that one can even reach the inside except through the small hole provided for the entrance of the chicks. Protect the Farm Well. Tests made at experiment stations show that water from farm wells is frequently contaminated with some impurity drawn from surrounding stables, pens, etc., and a lack of drainage to carry off surface water. Wash and dishwater, both filled with animal matter, Is thrown around the house, year In and out, until the ground is alive with the poison, which eventually finds Its way Into the well. The fields are tiled to produce healthy and abundant crop life, but seldom Is a tile or ditch put down around the bouse to protect the well. When the water begins to run low In the well that Is not driven below rock. Is the time to begin to boll it for drinking purposes. Heat of water or sun destroys the typhoid bacillus. Enough water should be boiled at a time to allow It to stand several hours before drinking. It Is the heat driving the air out of it makes it so sickening to taste. In a few hours the air will again get into U and restore the taste. Put it in jugs, and set the Jugs upon the cellar floor, or In a cave prepared tor this purpose. If you have ice, put it around the vessels, but never in them. There are high and specialized forms of life that ice will not kill, and some of the lower

forms it preserves in all force, It seems. The contents of slop bowls from the room of the patient sick with typhoid had, if the sun is shining hot, better sty far be thrown upon the ground than buried. A log heap is the proper disinfectant in these cases, kept burning night and day as long as there is anything from the sick room to throw into it.—lndianapolis News.

Peach Yellows. Occasionally we see statements from some one that the peach yellows is not at all a contagious disease, and that there is nothing gained by removing trees in which it has appeared. Some State Legislatures have enacted laws making such destruction of trees compulsory on their owners, while in other States there has been so much opposition to such laws that they could not be passed. The best authorities are agreed, so far as we have seen, that it is contagious. We remember that a (few years ago, Mr. J. H. Hale, the largest peach grower in Connecticut and in Georgia, said to the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture that in 1890 he found one affected tree in an orchard and he rooted it out. The next year he* had to take out the four trees next to where it stood, and the next year he had about forty to take out. Possibly if he had taken the affected tree and four next to it, as soon as found, it might not have spread to the other forty. If it shoWs on one tree, there are many chances, that- it has reached others near that one, though it may not harve reached a stage where It can be detected even by close observation.—American Cultivator.,

Four Horse Evener. A correspondent sends to lowa Homestead a sketch of a four-horse evener for a binder which, he says, Is in almost universal use in his section of the country. Take a common evener off from your disk, buy a 15cent pulley and about ten feet of stout rope or chain, which will cover all the expense. Take a piece of 2 by 6 and bolt on tongue

A FOUR HORSE EVENER.

with one bolt where the evener goes to serve as prop for the evener, pass the rope through the pulley and tie on each end of the evener. This gives free play to both sides of the evener. There Is no side draft, but put the heaviest team on the outside. This device can be used on either a right or left hand binder and gives perfect satisfaction. The illustration is self explanatory. There should also be a clevis from the center of the evener to fasten Jhe evener to the outer end of the prop.

Imperfect 1 lum Hlos,om». Fruit growers have met with a difficulty in the successful cultivation of the native plum in the fact that some varieties are self-sterile; that Is, they do not fertilize themselves. Isolated trees and large orchards of Wild Goose and Miner have proved shy bearerg, while when planted intermingled with other varieties blooming at the same time and furnishing an abundance of pollen they have borne many crops. Hence it is Important to determine the most suitable list of varieties for an orchard so as to insure the most perfect pollenation of all the blossoms. Newman is considered a good pollenizer for Wild Goose? while De Soto, Wolf, and Forest Garden are regarded as good fertilizers for Miner. Isolated trees of the self-sterile varieties may be made fruitful by top grafting some of the limbs with suitable varieties, or by planting trees of these sorts adjacent. Mixed planting of self-fertile and important varieties In hedge-like rovrs or In alternate row’s Is now advocated and practiced by our best growers. Some growers prefer to confine their choice of varieties to those that are self-sterile. —Farmer’s Review’.

Indigestion in Horse*. It is difficult to give causes of indigestion in horses, for it may come from improper water, as from improper foods, although the latter are usually at the bottom of the trouble. A proper variety in the foods will do much to keep the digestive organs in good condition, particularly if In the variety there Is considerable green food of a succulent nature, as most root crops are. When Indigestion is caused by Improper water, it is usually the case that the water Is foul In some way, although very hard water often produces indigestion, or, what is worse, stone In the kidney or bladder, the latter being a disease quite common among horses In districts where the water is hard. If the food Is of the proper kind and hard water is being used, attention should l>e given it before a valuable animal Is lost. If possible, give rain water, but If this is not convenient, add a small quantity of caustic potash to the hard water, which will materially Improve it. Dairy Thermometers. A good dairy thermometer costs less than sl, and tons of butter go Into the grease vats every year because thousands of farmers’ wives do not use a thermometer In churning. A noted dairy Instructor once told the writer that he firmly believed that the average prlceof all the butter sold in the United States could be Increased at least 2 cents per pound In two years if the thermometer was used at every churning and the cream churned at the proper temperature. -*•Land and a LI Ying.

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY TOLD. Sleeps on Train and Loses a Bride— Shot Dead by an Enraged Mother— Fatal Battle in Kokomo— 'a Woman Driven Crazy by Acid Burns. Charles Arnold, of Rockport, has retained attorneys. to bring an action for $20,000 damages against the Clover Leaf Railroad Company. Arnold and Mrs. William Stillwell, a widow, were betrothed. two days were occupied by the groom in getting a license and in a vain attempt to reach the home of his intended bride. He told the Clover Leaf conductor that he wanted to gpt off the train at Melott and then lapsed into a sound sleep. He was carried miles beyond his destination. Meanwhile the angry bride canceled engagement by wire. Arnold holds |he railroad company responsible for his failure to secure a wife. Killed by Enraged Mother. William Gray, a contractor and builder, was shot and instantly killed by Mrs. Mark Frieze at the 'Red mills, ten miles northwest of Shelbyville. Mrs. Frieze, in company with her husband, drove .from Franklin, where she resides, to the place where Mr. Gray was working. She whipped out a revolver and fired, the ball taking effect in his right side and passing through his- heart. He struggled, stepped two Steps and fell, when she placed the revolver near his head and shot him through the neck. Gray had .been keeping company with Mrs. Frieze's daughter, but unexpectedly married another girl, which enraged Mrs. Frieze. She and her husband are in jail and refuse to talk about the crime.

Fatal Affray tn Kokomo. - Ex-Councilman Jerry McCool was shot by Edward Van Hart, a bartender, in Kokomo. Hart’s wife and McCool’s wife had quarreled. The men took it up in McCool’s yard, McCool striking Van Hart with a fence picket and Van Hart shooting McCool through the right lung. The latter Will die and Van Hart has surrendered. i , ■. ? V Jilted Lover’s Cruel Deed. Peter Tillbury, an ironworker, called at the hotne of Kate Phinney, in Muncie, and threw the contents of a small bottle filled with carbolic acid- into the face of Mrs. Mary Torrey, a guest, burning out the woman’s eyes and burning her neck, breast and arms frightfully. The man has pleaded with the woman to marry him for years. She is now a raving maniac. Excursion Beat Sinks in Lake. The steamer Ethel, on Webster Lake, twelve miles north of Washington, struck a sunken log at midnight, and in two minutes the boat sank from sight. Twen-ty-nine excursionists were rescued, some of them in an unconscious state. The boat sank in forty feet of water. State News in Brief. The Frankfort postofflee sold 498,000 stamps last year. Burglars exploded and mutilated the safe in the Angola steam laundry and got $5.51. Mrs. Jennie Minor, aged 44 years, committed suicide at Richmond by hanging herself. , The Lake Erie and Western Railroad has been compelled to advertise for men to work on construction trains. While crossing a field, George Humerick'house, a farmer of Wells County, was attacked bya mad bull and killed. William Watt, son of a prominent Benton County farmer, was killed at a • Panhandle crossing near Goodland. Alvin Qeyton waa drowned in the Eel River at Brazil while bathing. He was 22 years old and leaves a young wife. George Brown, a workman at Tippey’s sawmill, near Marion, was killed by a fall against the saw. His body was cut through. The Shoals gas, oil and prospecting company drilled into a strong vein of gas at 363 feet, about 100 feet of which was through solid limestone. Joseph and Edward Prather, brothers, were killed by lightning on a farm near Martinsville. They had taken shelter under a walnut tree during a heavy storm. Jacob M. Chillas, the owner of one of the leading dry goods houses of South Bend, filed a petition in bankruptcy, The liabilities are given as $34,963, assets $25,286. May Falter and Ella Stine of Mifflin quarreled over a lover and fought with knives and flatirons. Miss Falter was badly cut on the face and arm, but Miss Stine was probably fatally injured by a blow on the head with an iron. The Kokomo Steel Nail and Rod Company, organized with $1,500,000 capital, purchased an eighteen-acre site at Kokomo. In consideration of a bonus of $15,000 the company agreed to remain outside the trust for five years. It will employ 1,000 men. During a family quarrel at Reed’s station, Christopher Fritsch shot and instantly killed John Pfrcister. M illiani Fiddler, who participated in the genera) fight which preceded the killing, was badly injured by a hatchet in the hands of Pfreister’s wife. Pfreiater was about 45 years old. Fritsch was arrested. The building of the Lake Michigan harbor at Indiana harbor will begin at once. The project has been financed. The site will be that proposed for the mouth of the Calumet canal, had the legislature passed the bill authorizing this project. A site for the proposed town has been donated. About $200,000 will be spent constructing the harbor, and it is hoped to divert large shipments of grain and oil from Chicago. The harbor will accommodate vessels drawing twenty feet of water. George Snyder, aged 24, son of William Snyder, near Domestic, has then taken to the eastern Indiana insane asylum and is the ninth member of the family to become insane. A black tiger in a cage with Robin son's circus succeeded at Logansport in getting far enough through the bars of its cage to lay open to the bone the flesh on the top of the head and face of a 6-year-old son of John Rush, an indulgent father who held his boy to the upper window of the animal's cage that a better view might be obtained before the side boards were let down.