The Girl From Kellers | Page 8

the North-west sweep
the sky, the snow vanishes, and after a week or two, during which the
prairie trails are impassable, the bleached grass dries and green blades
and flowers spring from the steaming sod.
Moreover, the country round Long Lake has some beauty. To the east,
it runs back, bare and level, with scarcely a tree to break the vast
expanse; but to the west low undulations rise to the edge of the next
tableland. Sandhills mark the summits, but the slopes are checkered
with birches and poplars, and creeks of clear water flow through the
hollows in the shadow of thick bluffs. There are many ponds, and here
and there a shallow lake shines amidst the sweep of grass. The clear air
and the distance the view commands give the landscape a distinctive
charm. One has a sense of space and freedom; all the eye rests upon is
clean-cut.
It was a bright morning when Charnock drove up to the door of Keller's
hotel. The street was one-sided, and for the most part of its length,
small, ship-lap-board houses boldly fronted the prairie. A few had
shallow verandas that relieved their bareness, but the rest were frankly
ugly, and in some the front was carried up level with the roof-ridge,
giving them a harsh squareness of outline. A plank sidewalk, raised a
foot or two above the ground, ran along the street, where the black soil
was torn by wagon wheels.
There was nothing attractive about the settlement, and Charnock had
once been repelled by its dreariness. He, however, liked society, and as
the settlement was the only center of human intercourse, had acquired
the habit of spending time there that ought to have been devoted to his
farm. He enjoyed a game of pool, and to sit on the hotel veranda,
bantering the loungers, was a pleasant change from driving the plow or
plodding through the dust that rolled about the harrows. For all that, he
knitted his brows as his light wagon lurched past the Chinese laundry
and the poolroom in the next block. The place looked mean and shabby
in the strong sunlight, and, with feelings he had thought dead
re-awaking, he was conscious of a sharp distaste. There was a choice he

must shortly make, and he knew what it would cost to take the line that
might be forced on him.
It was with a certain shrinking he stopped his team in front of the hotel.
The bare windows were open and the door was hooked back, so that
one could see into the hall, where a row of tin wash-basins stood on a
shelf. Dirty towels were scattered about, and the boarded floor was
splashed. The veranda, on to which the hall opened, was strewn with
cigar-ends and burnt matches, and occupied by a row of cheap wooden
chairs. Above the door was painted /The Keller House/. The grocery in
the next block, and the poolroom, bore the same owner's name.
When Charnock stopped, a man without a coat and with the sleeves of
his fine white shirt rolled up came out. He as rather an old man and his
movements were slack; his face was hard, but on the whole
expressionless.
"Hallo!" he said. "Late again! The others have pulled out a quarter of
an hour since."
"I saw them," Charnock answered with a languid hint of meaning.
"Didn't want to join the procession and thought they might load up my
rig if I got here on time."
Keller looked hard at him, as if he understood, and then asked: "Want a
drink before you start?"
"No, thanks," said Charnock, with an effort; and Keller, going to the
door, shouted: "Sadie!"
A girl came out on the veranda. She was a handsome girl, smartly
dressed in white, with a fashionable hat that had a tall plume. Her hair
and eyes were black, the latter marked by a rather hard sparkle; her
nose was prominent and her mouth firm. Her face was colorless, but
her skin had the clean smoothness of silk. She had a firmly lined, round
figure, and her manner was easy and confident. Sadie Keller was then
twenty-one years of age.

"I thought you had forgotten to come, Bob," she said with a smile.
"Then you were very foolish; you ought to have known me better,"
Charnock replied, and helped her into the wagon.
"Well, you do forget things," she resumed as he started the team.
"Not those I want to remember. Besides, if you really thought I had
forgotten, you'd have been angry."
"How d'you know I'm not angry now?"
Charnock laughed. "When you're angry everybody in the neighborhood
knows."
This was true. Sadie was young, but there was something imperious
about her. She had a strong will, and when