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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1889)
THE WE8T 8H0RE. C7 i She stepped noisily about the room, after banging the door, and soon waked the baby, whose indignant cries roused Silas, who groaned inwardly. He had six daughters of his own, and he knew that women were whimsical and incomprehensible beings. Chal cy, never still, lounged before the one small window and drummed on the pane with ten lean fingers. 8e rena lifted her eyebrows, but with wonderful self command for so thin a woman, said nothing. " D'ye know Tom 'ad come? " asked Chalcy pres. ently, of no one in particular. " I wonder! " exclaimed Serena. " Clarissy mint look at 'im now." " Tom's got a minty good house to take a woman to," observed Martha, with a ruminating air. " I 'low thet ole man Baker'll set a heap by Tom's wife, an' they do say Mis Baker left no end 0' quilts an' dishes. Law, ef Clarissy was my girl" " They wouldn't be no trouble then," sneered Se rena, with a wicked side glance at Chalcy, " any girl but Clarissy 'd jump at the chance 0' marryin' Tom Baker." " I kin tell ye one thing," flashed Chalcy, "ef I aint smart 'null to be a fust wife I won't go stickin' myself where nobuddy thinks uv me enny more'n ef I wuz the dirt under their feet" Serena's cheek flushed. Silas looked from one to the other. " Shet up, Chalcy! " he said sternly. " You'd best make Sereny quit a-tantin' uv er then," thus Martha entered the conflict " Oh, hev yer jaw out," he exclaimed, starting up and going out Experience had taught him the wisdom of flight at such times. Silas Dean's was one of those natures made up of opposing qualities, so often found among those sects whose peculiar principles set them apart from the majority of their countrymen. Ho wm an American, from the south originally, and had drifted to the uncertain region which is neither north nor Bouth, the great middle west, where he had married a woman who was his superior in every respect, save one-she loved him. Her love made her yield weak ly to his whims, and at last follow him to Mormon ism; but when it came to the question of plural mar riage, she refused to accept it, defied the church, and died a broken-hearted woman. All this had but set tied Silas more firmly in the wild and vinionary fan cies which had taken hold of his narrow, credulous mind. He fed his imagination with lofty bop 0 what the Lord might yet call him to da He read and re-read the marvelous record of the Isrartiti-s, with a strange feeling that he bad Un with them id their journeying He would like to have gone bk to the nomadic wandering life of that time. He with delight the steady growth of God. M We're a-makin' a noble history right straight along," was his favorite saying, as ho reviewed the founding of the desert city. At all times his righteous wrath was hot against the Gentiles, who heard and believed not One ambition ho cherished in secret a hopo so dear that he had never profaned it by utterance, If only the call would come to him to go out among the misguided heathen, he felt that tho Lord would touch his lips with holy fire and make many a wasto place blossom with the fruit of tho true word. But this night his soul was iu darkness. Tho hope which had come to lo a part of him lay so chill and lifeless in his breast, that he almost wishod ho had never kuown it; yet ho could not give it up. Like many a wiser man, ho had inado out of his longing a Nemesis which gave him no peace He thought of Clarissy half angrily, and of her mother, never a pleasant subject for him. "Pos sessed of tho devil," that was what bad been said when she stubbornly set herself against his tnarriago with Martha. Ho had done his duty then, and ho would do it now. Ho would go to-morrow and soo Bishop Yelkton about it; perhaps ho would talk to her. Tho light swish of a woman's dress made him turn, and this brought him in front of Clarissy as sho camo down from tho hill. " lien takiu' a walk?" ho askod, not unkindly, his gnarled and suspicious heart yearning over his daugh ter, whom ho trembled for as ono in danger of wan dering out of tho ono way to eternal life, " Yes, sir," sho repliM civilly, standing dutifully, as sho saw ho hail something to say. " Clarify, what makes yo so diffrunt from tho rest uv us?" ho spoke, almost appealingly. " Am I different? " There was a glad ring iu her voice. " Mebbo I'm like mother." " I 'lowed you'd mot forgot her." " 1 won't never forgit her. I try to remember everything 'bout her I kin," sho said, earnestly. " Hho wur a unregenerato woman," began Silas, gloomily. " Hho wuz a Christian an' a saint," broko in his daughter, " an' sho's an angel in heaven now, a heap nigher to Christ than wo'll ever git, I'm afeerd." Hho went on into the house, leaving her father in a state of dubious wonder as to whether her devil, if iho really was jjoosessM of one, was as dumb as ho thought Imido tho Loom Serena's red eyes were evidenco that her sharp tongue had not ! a match ' for her beavier.wittel, but coarnr, antagonist. Clar. j iftiy's sore heart sank as sho felt tho jar of conflicting natures that would never w at jacv M Com 'ere, Clarissy," called Chalcy, as sho fiat tened her noso against tho window. M 1 kin a
