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THE HESPERIAN.
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Vol. XXVIII.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, DECEMBER 16, 1898.
No. 13.
RAIN ON THE SEA.
The waves uplift their white, uneven heads,
The scattered spray
Like hair, all wild and torn to ragged shreds
Whorls down the bay,
And madly shouting on their coral beds,
The breakers play.
Along the loneless west the rain clouds loom,
Then scud alee, "
And quickly falls a gray, unwholesome gloom,
Beside the sea;
The rain comes splashing when the thunders boom,
With voices wee.
The brooding spirit of the cheerless hour
Has caught my heart,
And all my waning strength cannot o'orpower,
Its gloomy art
That makes one weak and sad, my spirit cower
Till it depart.
Ira Kdlog, Co. JB. 1st Nebr
A Sketch.
Mrs. Ransom came out of the back door of the big square
farm honso holding her black dress carefully away from the
fresh white paint of the walls. She picked her way between
the pile of board and brick that littered the yard to the one
tdry frame cabin, standing chimnoyleas just as the movers
kad left it.
,..- The October air had a nip of cold in it, and she gave her
brown shoulder shawl a twitch as she sat down in the doorway tap of the carpenter's hammer sounding behind them.
nor pail caught the sun as he stopped at the crest of the hill to
wave good-bye.
And, oh, the year of the drouth, when, day after day she
sat hero searching the blue Bky for clouds, waiting till the sun
went down a great yellow ball behind the hills and the sun
flowers across the road became only a nodding, beckoning
mass. And that night when her husband came out and sat,
his head in his hands, his eyes fixed on the shadow of the
pines lying straight and dark in the moonlight, and sho, look
ing at the bright, unblinking yellow stars, could only sit silent
and miserable, thinking of the winter to come and John and
the children.
And, ah, the moonlight, the night that John slept after the
fever left him, and sho leaned in the doorway catching the
clear breath of the night. Sho saw it yet the old familiar
yard and road laced in quivering light and shadow. The tears
came to her eyes now as they had then.
The lines about her month brightened again as sho thought
of tho blizzard that first winter they were married how,
alone in tho creaking, quivering house, she grasped the end of
that rope, waiting for tho pull that would toll her John was
safe.
She gave a little trembling sigh. Her hands dropped idly
in her lap. She saw again that afternoon before they were
married, when John brought her up to see the now house. The
fresh smell of new lumber was all about. They sat in the
doorway looking out over these same blue hills, the irregular
Then
a . a . 1 1
. v of the cabin. Reaching inside the doorway sho pulled out & they Had lallen into silence. Uur House! our nomei, norea
vric&er
basket fall of bright colored uarpel-ragB utid began to .through! her brain.
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wrinkled cheuks colored faintly and
OIIUIBTMAS TIDE
f aew, choosing her colors carefully. A breeze, coming through her hand softly touched tho worn door-post.
the open window of tho house blew a piece of wall paper
across the floor to her. Tho walls had boon shattered in mov-
ing and great holes in the plastering showed white stripes of
lath against tho siding. Tho red flowered wall paper hung loose
f in great sagging strips. Mrs, Ranson picked up tho bit near
her. The back was gritty with plaster and the red roses had
faded with tho damp. Sho smoothed it with her fingers. That
Was new tho very day thoy bought the organ. Sho reraem-
Jbered the day thoy had finished papering. Nettie had come
'bursting in from school and had gone to the organ and began
pishing "Home, Sweet Home," and Jack's childish voice had
taken up the air.
sti The woman sat tapping tho " rag ball with her thimble. It
-was from this very doorway that sho had watched Jack, hor
Grace I. Rushton.
baby, .'trudge off'toschodl for the first time.
, - .qff-. jn:
How'tho tin din-
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ItEGENT SHOES $3.50, UNI.
The Christmas tide draws on apace
And sheds its bomns before it,
To waken every kindly grace
And help tho heart restore it.
It bids us dream, though days are cold,
Of tropic vales and fountains,
Where Uni. pickets troad tho wold
Bosido volcanic mountains.
It shows a bridge across tho deep
And merges hero with yonder;
While down tho picket lines' wo croop
And absent ones grow fonder.
SHOES $3.00. 1080 O ST.
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