Wayside Courtships

spense with grace this morning, and till after the war is over." But Wallace bless

hese theological contests-she doesn't even referee the scrap. She never seems to care whether you are sparring for points or fighting to a f

ecated war, and that it was mocking. The fresh face and smiling lips of the young girl seemed to

. All about him the prairie extended, marked with farmhouses and lined with leafless hedg

l white church, and he walked briskly to

the doors, and found it open. Some tramp had broken the lock. The inside was even more desolate than the outside. It was litter

the young servant of the Man of Galilee, a blu

s resolution. He lifted his face and prayed that he might be the one

e united once more in this desecrated hall. He heard the bells ringing, the sound of song, the smile of peaceful old faces, an

his keen eyes seeking out every

prospect

his resolution still in his eyes.

ese people

I'd like to have the job of indicating which ones; I wouldn't

eckless thought, and so sat looking at the

ves about as near the schoolhouse on the other side, will take you in. I guess we'd better go right down now and see about it. I've said good-by to the old man-for good this t

ry strongly. For years he had lived far from young women, and there was a magical power in the intimate home actions of

ged mother. They lived alone, and their lives were curiously s

ded over them with slow intellectual movement. It was wonderful the amount of informatio

anger. He understood he was to teach the sc

ries of John Fiske and Edison, and then gave him up

His was a deeply religious nature, one that sorrowed easily over sin. Suffering of the poor did not trouble him; hunger seemed a little thing beside losing one's eve

toward the scholars and toward Mattie. He had forgott

r as he came up. It was all very American-the boxlike house of whit

ood morning

rtain power of primitive associations. In such a room he had studied his primer and his Ray's Arithmetic. In such a room he had made gradual recession

hildren came in, timorous as rabbits, slipping by with one eye fixed on him like scared chickens. They pre-empted their seats by putting d

passed quickly, and as he walked homeward again there stood that rotting church, and in his mind there rose a surging emotion larger tha