The Wrong Woman

al feature of life, the lazy Southern ocean which formerly brooded over these parts having deposited black, rich muck till it covered everything post-hole dee

r cowboy and taken home. Thus each of the several stones in those parts was engaged in holding open the barn door or the ranch gate, or was established in the back yard to cra

where the capital R began. At this point the barb wire of the prairie thoroughfare gave way, on the left-hand side, to the white fences of suburban estates with big front yards and windmills and stables; and on the right there came, at the same time, an unfenced vacancy, or "free grass," which, though it had a private owner somewhere, might be called a common. The estates along Claxton Road faced this big common, looking across it toward the co

e made a practice of hurrying up the others as she went along, she would usually have been the first to arrive. A short walk brought her to Harmon's, and here bringing to a hurried conclusion

ute, Kitty-

ur specimen," ca

rotracted minute, came out with

ssmaker two days-I thought I 'd take the opportunity while George was away at t

Always tell the truth,

out bright this evening,

pend upon the oth

respective homes empty-handed except for

ll. The thingumajig that is supposed to turn it off has got broken or something and it keeps pumping water all over where I don't want i

a day or two. If it had n't been for that he would n't have taken Fred along; for you know I

molo,-"I am su-u-u-ure that if we had all asked Mr. Hicks to get us a stone

ssurance, she had the gift of dwelling with songlike sweetness on those words in which the music lay. She was altogether lovable and quaint. On fine days she would still go forth alone, bearing her mother-of-pearl card-case, and she would leave her card here or

er what efforts she had been making and went more slowly still; and so, when they came to the Brown place, which faced the middle of the common

and there in the course of his travels and getting it home by balancing it on the horn of his saddle. During the last weeks of her illness, when her wandering mind went back to the hills of her girlhood, her imagination played continually around this mimic mountain of Steve's, and as it seemed to be the one joy of her prairie-spen

few of them!" sugg

like it," said the y

o get along without them? Here we have arranged for the Professor to come and tell us about them;

us to borrow a few stones," said Kitty Wrigh

nified Daniel Webster of the circle, and just the opposite of

do them. We should have done it or else found somebody like Jonas Hic

iness is everybody's bus

. Norton. "Where did

say it. I did it wi

-edged axiom," ob

ngly offer to assist us. Of course, we should never take-what does not belong to us, without the owner's permission, but I am

opinion of Stephen Bro

e a gentleman, ind

Wright, as usual, was the first to take action. Every set of women, probably, has its recognized clown, she who is just too cute and killing. And those who

rockery. "I do hope I 'll get one with felds

ce; Mrs. Dix, taking example from Mrs. Norton, came next; thus the motion was carr

n, and Mrs. Osgood and her sister Hannah-she was quite usually spo

be home to-night, and he is probably gone for several days. And Captain Chase

man left in the neighbo

Israel," add

as the Captain

costly bull that was going through the rigors of acclimation; and on more than one occasion it was the very man who was being depended upon to tell them all about civil war or civil government who would have to be excused by his wife for some such reason, upon which there would be a chatter of regret and the meeting would fall into a conference upon matters in general. While the gentlemen would "expatiate and confer" with one another as to what breeding would produce the most wrinkles on

out saying a word. A spell of utter silence ha

ati

es

what we studied

ain number of feet a thing

good as Sir Isaac Newton's. Every foot

t go. The boulders struck the road with almost as simultaneou

rly dead," sa

. Dix, sinking down o

gasped Mr

or two was devot

arly dead?" demanded Mrs. Harmon

say something?"

nquired Mrs. Norton. "I did n't know

e number, was evidently the hardiest; she had c

t all blame it on me,"

'll never forget," remarked Mrs. Dix. "Neve

keep on," said Mrs. Harmon. "And we certainly ca

of affairs. Being beg

going," said Mrs. Wrigh

ain the rock-laden ladi

ination, and when they were almost to it they rushed forward to get inside the goal before the rocks fell. They all

my life before that I am

er arrivals had not properly fastened, and she was the bearer of bad news. The Profess

Uncle Israel does not know very much, really, about stock. I am so worried. He held his head out so funny

"that if Jonas Hicks were back he could

he Chase's big sitting-room the earlier contingent was drawn together in conversation as close as chairs would permit, and as the belated ones entered they were greeted wi

it, Mrs. Osgood; don't tell anymore till Kitty is here--

they had no more than stated the bare facts when they became aware that there was a more absorbing topic in the air. Somebody had

thing about it, Mrs.

had herself heard of it

o; what

s. Osgood. You c

h person to whom it had been intrusted had sent it on its way richer and better; it became longer and truer. And so Mrs. O

it, Mrs. Plympton? You

en, I don't know whether a person ought

y out there where nobody is likely to com

just what one might expect. He has always been so steady and sober-minded. It is n't as if he had had a greater variety of interests and more social inclinatio

"He cooks and eats and sleeps out on that kitchen porch, and does n't seem to take

s disposition, a man is just ripe for the first adventuress that c

rton. "But to think of it being

her so much that Virginia went still deeper into the family treasury and finally brought forth a sampler and counterpane which her own grandmother had wrought. The examination of these things, together with reminiscence of her own early achievements, kept Grandma Plympton s

d when he was a boy, and gave his mother a great deal of worriment-especially, I mean, when he took his cattle up into the Territory. And in those days she could hardl

, valiant as she was in the social cause, could seldom stay up for more than the first few numbers of a dance, and she could never, of late, remain to the end of

rdly felt like saying anything befo

e!" said M

tting up with eighteen hundred pounds of sick bull. Aberdeen Boy, a recent importation, and one of the noblest of those who were to refine the wild-eyed longhorns of Texas, was having no

se. If the one they named was anywhere within range of psychic influence, it is safe to say her left ear burned that evening. And

d n't carry mine for any

l have Jonas Hicks come and