The Way of the Wind

ington, which was thirty miles away. It was not necessary. She lived in the g

my lady!" It seemed meant for her. The longing was strong within her to fly back to the old town she loved so well; but the train, roaring i

surroundings, she silently accepted the infliction, cowering into her seat without attempting to put the window down. When a man in the opposite

g to sleep, afraid of everything, of the staring eyes of the porter, of the strange fac

sullen Mississippi, then St. Louis, with its bustle and rush and more an

move, at twilight she reached Kansas City, a little town on the edge of the desert. Here,

next day

liant prairie grasses to earth, flinging them fiercely upward, crushing

dows with terrific force. It blew small grains of sand under the sill to sting Celia, moanin

ed out i

tree, a barren waste, different from the beautiful, still, green garden spot that she called home, a spot redolent of f

k within her

frame shanties dignified by that name, and Seth, tall, tanned and radiant,

ting the wind, but with his departure for the vehicle which was

! It tore at her skirts. It wrapped them about her.

she kept her hat on her head

ried to frighten her. It blew the shutters of the shanties open and slammed them to with a noise lik

icle, it proved to be a common two-wheeled cart drawn

he tears as Set

the Nowhere, listening to the wind chant, now requiems, now dirges, listening to its shriek and whistle, listening

onths spent in preparing her home. It was like an old friend that sometimes whispered in his tired ears words of infinite sweetness. He forg

ng Celia there beside him, going over the

imidly as if half afraid if he looked

rst was apparently jealous of Celia. It tore at her as though to toss her to unreachable dist

lue of her eyes; at the delicate taper of her small white hands that from her birth had done only the d

ul! Bea

eins both arms would have encircled her. As it was, s

nd became frantic.

the tumbleweeds, broke them fiercely from their stems, and sent them pell-mell over the prairie before t

nd was jeal

er from the cart and toss her to the horizon in company with the tumbleweeds. It shrieke

e prairie winds sough with the tenderness of lullabies, resting for a period, in order to prepare for the fury of

ang down over the high wheel o

aid, "let me we

repeated. "W

slight elevation in the eart

gout, looking gladly up at her, standing stilly there, a pict

" he s

nto the darkness of

the ground,

rose mirage-like in the window of her me

.. in ... the