Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

ell, 8. C. Thursday, August 22, 1935 iT'* , *6« .^' •• Forgiveness for Early Love ‘Slip’ Understandable in Writer’s View, but Not Easy to Forget \ SYNOPSIS At A ratherln* of cronlea In tha Tll- Uro of Liberty, Maine, Jim SaladHie llatena to the history of the neighbor ing Hostile f VAlley-»lts past tragedies, Its superb flSnlng streams, and, above all, the mysterious, enticing “Huldy,” wife of Will Ferrln.; Interested, he drives to the Valley for a day’s Ashing, though admitting to himself his chief desire Is to see the glamorous Huldy Farris. PROLOGUE—Continued He saw a solitary crow, silent, fly- fnr on swift-beating wings as thrragh even this dark. Ill-omened bird only crossed the Valley because it must, and was In haste to come to a pleas anter scene. And Saiadine was not cold; yet he shivered. Then he laughed at his own uneasiness, and loosed the brake, and between a double screen of tangled trees and underbrush on either side of the road, began the steep descent Into the unknown. Sometimes In the deep forest the adventurer will come upon a hidden pool, Ita quiet surface mirroring the trees and the clouds across the sky; and to cast a stone into such a pool Is to start a widening circle of ripples, so that every rock and root along the banks Is washed by the disturbed wa ter. Hostile Valley was like such a hid den pool. Whatever strong currents flowed beneath the surface, the lives here were nowadays outwardly serene; yet they hung In a precarious balance. Saladlne’s coming was the rock thrown Into the pool, sufficient to upset this balance, to loose deadly forces, to pre cipitate a climax long delayed. His simple coming would set all In motion, and by an Inevitable, process destroy two lives, or even three; while at the same time It enriched and perfected others. But Saladfne, though he was full of a lively curiosity, had no prevision of what was to come as he drove now down the hill. CHAPTER I The’ pot which boiled over that day fn Hostile Valley had been years brew ing; two years, or twenty, according to the point of view. Huldy Ferrln may have been Us chief Ingredient; but Jenny Pierce had also a major part in what ensued. Jenny had never lived for long In any other world than this deep glen. It was almost twenty years since her father died; and her mother sold their farm In Liberty and came, with Jenny in her arms, to lodge here with old Marm Pierce, who was Jenny’s grand mother. Marm Pierce, before their coming, dwelt alone, In one half of what had been a farmhouse of some size, on the old Haven place. The house Itself was built by her fa theft long ago. When he died, her brother Win, who had a wandering foot, and who had never apent more time here In the Valley than he must, wished to sell; but Marm Pierce would not * X “I was born In this house and* I’m a mind to die here,” she told him stout-’ ly. “Half of It’s mine, and halTs yours. You go on and sell yo'ur half If you want; but I aim to go on living in mine.” But obviously It was Impossible to ■ell half of a house; and Win Haven raged at her obstinacy. She remained unshaken, and the result was one of those quarrel? which become more bit ter with years, which grow and thrive on their own acrid Juice. The house and the farm they divided half and half, by a straight line drawn through the very midt'te of the house Itself; and since then, Marm Pierce kept rig idly to her half—and her brother ma liciously allowed his side of the house to molder and decay. He made no re pairs, gave the rotting boards ho pre serving touch of paint; and he re fused to permit his sister to remedy his own neglect. She hoarded off her side of the house; walled off her half bf the cellar; nailed up the connecting doora. Jenny, as she^rew older, for a while used to Imagine dreadful things lurk ing In the other side—Marm Pierce called It the Win-side—of this strange bouse divided; and when windows fell out and doors sagged on their hinges, she sometimes crept secretly Into the empty rooms to peer Into shadowed corners, and start and run at the sque k of a mouse. Till one morning, thus venturing, she found Win Haven himself in a drunken sleep on the floor, ar> fled In stark dismay, weeping with fl yht, to ber grandmother. *H3ood enough for you,” Marm Pierce tolfl her sharply. “You keep out of the Wla-slde of the house after this. Let aim lay there and rot In his ofrn dirt if he’s a mind." Thereafter, Jenny obeyed this in junction, though she eventually lost any particular fear bf VVln Haven. He ;wa» a restless man, appearing and dls Appearing at long Intervals, gone some- tinea for months, sometimes for years. But always the day came when Jenny and her grandmother heard some stir of movement In the empty fbotns so doao to those in which their own lives • were lived; and old Marm Pierce would ear tartly: -i' “Well, that Win’s back again!” Jenny sometimes encountered him. He was already an old man, who grew older; yet there was youth In him too, and a vigorous spirit and a wise old eye. Bleared sometimes, by the life he led; leering sometimes with an appre ciative glint as he watched Jenny’s young beauty passing by. But wise and keen for all of tfiat n man with mirth and malice In him. Sometimes, in his own side of the house, he sang far into the night drunken, ribald songs, for the sake of annoying Marm Pierce with whom so long ago he bad quarreled. - . ' - But as the Win-side of the house began to crumble, and the roof to leak, and the-windows to sag, he came less often. There was no decent shelter In the rotting rooms. Jenny and Marm Pierce might forget him for months on end. —- The farm was remote, approached by a byway which led off the road that ran up and down thfc Valley; but ev^n the Valley road Itself was little traveled^ As long ago as Jenny’s child hood, the Valley was already a soli tary place, with only scattered famil ies here and there. The farm wiat-Md- den within a belt of woodland, half way betw’een the Valley road and the brook. Some meadow land Marm Pierce tended year by year, hiring neighbors to cut back the encroaching under brush, and to harvest the hay; and she and Jenny made a garden sufficlent’for their needs. The meadows that were part of Win’s half of the farm were long since gone back to birch and pop ple and young hackmatack; a youthful wilderness. In this remote spot Jenny grew from a baby into childhood. She never viv idly rementbered her mother, who died soon after they came to Granny Pierce’s farm to live. Thereafter the old woman and the little girl dwelt here alone; and Jenny grew older. Marm Pierce was not a solitary, however; she had some skill with roots and herbs, and ascertain healing pow er In her, and since there was no doc tor nearer than Liberty village, folk hereabout were apt to turn to her to tend their lesser ills. So visitors came not Infrequently to seek Marm Pierce’s ministrations, or to cut and mow her hay, or plow her garden, or merely for the sake of passing by. The old woman's sharp tongue was kindly, too; her wit pleased more than it hurt. And either from friendliness, or from a de sire to keep her good opinion, neigh bors did her a favor when they could. If a man were going to Liberty vil lage for supplies, he w'as apt to stop by to ask whether there were any errand he might do. If a man had more apples than he could well mar ket, he brought her a barrel. The bins in her cellar were well filled with pota toes and other roots, every fall; and when her cow calved, there were help ers ready If the need arose. * Jenny, as she grew older, wore none of the shyness natural to farm chil- dren. She saw a surprising number of people, and met them in friendly fash ion, so that even when a stranger came Into her life, she could greet the newcomer unafraid. Also, as she grew older, she took. {£> herself the liberty of the fields, and the-deep woods ;and she knew every foot of the brawling stream that from Carey’s bridge came in swirls and cascades through a nar rowing gorge, to relax In wide sldg- gish pools as It entered the cedar bog a little below. Sometimes Marm Pierce went with her; or rather, sometinres when the old woman went searching here and there for the herbs she rMuired, she took the child along, and taught Jenny to recognize all those plants which comprised her "simple pharmacopoeia, (jiter, as she found It not so easy to get about, she sent Jenny herb-gath ering alone. The girl learned from her grand mother some of that infinite lore which the older woman had through the years acquired. Before Jenny was fifteen, she knew that If you wanted pullets, you must choose blunt-pointed eggs for the hatching; that a piece of red llannel wet twice a day with strong camphor will cure bumblefoot; that ground tobacco stems will keep lice out of the hens’ nests; that castile soap and tobacco ashes make the best dentifrice; that borax, or the yolk of an egg mixed with soda, will cure dan druff; that.a fence of heavy -paper will keep cut worms awa; from young plants; that wood ashes mixed with salt will seal the cracks In a stove; that sulphur Is good for mange; that a laudanum drench will relieve colic. She knew an astonishing number of things potentially useful to her day by day; and If there were other things she did not know, she felt no lack of them. One day In the spring of the year when she w’as sixteen years old, she saw Will Ferrln for the first time; and that day she ceased to be a child and was thereafter In her heart,, without herself whollf understanding the change, a woman. Will was at the time Just past twenty-one years old; and he had lived all bivlife on his father’s farm, sprawled up^he slope of the ridge above the brofok, on the east side of the Valley. The farm was a food one, even though its tilled acres were contracted since the old days when - Enoch, great-grandfather’ ‘of young Will, and nis three sons worked it well. It ran down to the brook, north to the road by Carey’s bridge, and east almost to the crest of the ridge. Will, when he could be spared from the farm work, sometimes came down to fish the stream; and be had thus come on this day when Jenny first saw him. Although It w^s no great distance froft the Ferrln farm to old Marm * Pierce’s narrow acres, the straight line ran*through thick woods; so till this day Jenny and Will, though they had lived for a dozen years with- tn s mtte or so of one another, trad never met at all. Will came to fish a few of the deep holes In the gorge; and Jenny wardered through the woods to the streamslde, seeking here and there the springing herbs which Marm Pierce liked to gath.er In the flood tide of June. Jenny by old habit moved through the forest silently, finding pleasure In surprising the birds at their pleasant occupations, in catching quick fleeting glimpses of small creatures unawares. Sometimes deer drank warily at the streamslde. and once or twice she had encountered in the border of the cedar swamp a great moose, black and bulky In the shadowed wood, huge and faint ly terrifying. She was no more a dis turbing element In the forest than the creatures which lived there, and Will, his ears filled with the rushing song of the water as he fished, heard nothing of her coming. He had crossed to the west side of the stream for his fishing, so that his back was toward her when she first discovered him. She saw a tall, strong figure In bfue overalls and blue shirt She Watched Him for a Moment, and a battered old hat the overalls tucked Into rubber boots, that ended just below his knee. She saw him. and paused a little way off, standing utterly still, leaning with one hand against a tree, motionless and yet not rigid, beautifully at her ease. She watched him for a moment; Ad he lifted a fine trout out of the stream. It fell flopping by his side, and he dropped the rod to pin It with bis hands. So doing,. be turned sidewise to her, so that she saw his face, and the shock of straw-colored hair under his hat, and his delighted grin. But as he |>iiined the fish, he uttered an exclamation of pain, and snatched one hand away and looked at It; and Jenny, with that quick sympathy which all women have, came toward him. She was six paces off when be heard or felt her presence there, and turned and looked up at her; and his eyes widened in quick surprise, and then he said something, laughing. And he got up, the trout In one hand, his rod ip the other, and held the fish for her to admire. “Handsome, ain’t he?” he said. She asked: “Did he stick the hook Into you?’ would be, by and by. It needs only a little tracing and retracing of the same way, In wild land where no foot has trod, to leave a thread of trail along the ground. And—Jenny would come often by this way, In the years that were to follow; would come thus to the brook and wait here on the chance that Will might find time for the-flah- tng; would even cross the brook and climb the steep path beyond, and so go up through the orchard to the Per rin farm for a glimpse of him. But now the way was trackless, and Will followed on her heels. He said: “Guess yo’re Jenny Pierce. I never see you before.” T.«?s. I be,” she assented; and she added,'aglth a glance over her shoul der; “Nob I never see you.”' “I’m Will Ferrln,"* he explained. She stopped a* though In surprise; she turned, and Tram at hiihrainr her eyes were wide with wonder. “Will Ferrln? You live right up there?” She pointed. “Certaln. n He was puzzled by her surprise. But she made no explanation, only nodded; yet It seemed to her Incredi ble that he could have been, all her life, so near without her knowing. There was already In her heart auch certainty, and poignant bliss at btAvg near him now. When they emerged into the back pasture behind Marm Pierce’s barn, he came to walk beside her. The woods had been dark with shadow. There Is a peculiar Intensity and thickness about all the foliage In the Valley, which lends the forests a strange som ber gloom. But when they came out Into the open and the sun, It was with a lift of spirit in them both. Jenny, for no reason, smiled. Her head was high and proud; she brought him home to old Marifi Pierce like a trophy, like a prize. They found the old woman In the kitchen. “Granny,” said the girl. “This here is Will Ferrln, and he's got a felon on his fihger. I told him you could cure It for him.” A Marm Pierce, brisk, black-eyed. “When I waa away visiting my slster-ln-law In another city recently I had occasion to see a rather un usual little play that opened there. It was called ‘The Perfect Marriage,’ and showed two people who had been married fifty years who were beloved by everybody and really be lieved themselves to be an example of a perfect marriage. “Lovers over seventy, they were. And In reviewing the years they had spent together theirs seemed really to be an example of what all who start out on a honeymoon hope their marriage will be. “And then, by one of those quirks of circumstances that take place In plays, like the one pulled stitch that starts to unravel a whole Job of knitting, there Is unraveled the story of an extra-marital ’affair’ on the part of both. Both the husband and the wife of this perfect marriage once had a lover. Neither find out until now, after fifty years of ideal’ marriage. When they do the revela tion nearly' upsets* their sturdy little citadel of love—but not quite. With the philosophy of their years they forgive each other, and—live hap pily ever afterward. “Now we hear a good deal la rea' life, too, qf forgiveness of Infidelity, and at a more hot-blooded age than that of the golden-wedding couple, Can you understand It? I pride my self on being modern, and all that, but I think this Is a question of hu man values that does not change with the age. What do you say?’ Broadminded, and with the under standing of human nature that Is her marked characteristic, the fa mous writer to whom this query was addressed thus answers It: *T say this—the old saying; ‘You can forgive—but not forget!’ Though marriage may, Indeed many mar riages have survived discovery of In fidelity on one or both sides. In my opinion there Is always something killed. The fabric of marriage may be patched up, but the warp and woof and soul of the thing must surely carry the mark. “On the other hand, to my mind, It la ttot at* all beyond understand ing, as my correspondent suggests, iow such a couple, or either one, can be willing to ‘take back’ the un faithful one, or make the effort to forgive. “While I certainly do not mln- jnize the hurt, the wrench, the im pulse ,to the contrary that would naturally be Involved In continuing J :o live with a husband or wife who ■as been discovered unfaithful, the richer and the happier the marriage has been the more possible It la t« understand such a forgiveness. For a really true marriage is a house of many mansions. Beside the physical’ love there Is the understanding, the companionship, with which, as I like _ to say, one never walks alone. In that companionship there Is mntual suffering, tadtugl struggle, mutual joy—mutual understanding. With people of quality—the human, not the social kind—those are things to make life rich Indeed. With such,,/ people, you may say, Infidelity does not happen. And yet. It has been known to. And Ip such a,case for giveness, while a bitter enough cup —and while the drink can never be the same as when It was taken at the spring of untatntgd belief—Is, nevertheless, understandable.'* C Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service. white-haired, with a quick-thrusting tongue, said sharply: “Take It In time and 1 could. Howdy, Will Let’s see It If you’d had any sense, you’d have come before now!” Jenny cried softly: “You already knowed him? You never told me, Granny I” Marm Pierce looked at the girl with swift probing eyes. “Told you?” she echoed. “Why should . .She checked the question unasked, reading her an swer 4n the girl’s warm color and soft tones; and she spoke briskly to Will again. “It’s a bad one,” she said. “I dunno as I can do It a mite of good, but you set down and weil see!” Will obeyed her, and the old woman, with another wise glance at Jenny, turned to the cupboard above the sink where many of her stores were kept, and rummaged there. J Jenny ‘ said: “I couldn’t remember what ItMs you do, Granny.” “Take a piece’ of wild turnip,” Marm Pierce explained. “There’s somewhere somewheres.” She found 1L ‘Til grate It up, and mix‘It with turpentine, and put^It on that finger of yours, Will. It’ll kill the pain right away; and If It works the way it’s s’posed to. It’ll eat the felbn out, too. Be a hole there tomorrow morning, clear in to the bone.” (TOt BE CONTINUED)' Get Ridof Malaria! Banish Chills and Ftver! To conquer Malaria, you must do two things. (1) Destroy the infection la the blood. (2) Build up the blood to over come the effects and to fortify against further attack. There is one medicine that does these two things and that is Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic! The tasteless qui nine in Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic de stroys the malarial infection in the blood while the iron builds up the blood, Thou sands of people have conquered Malaria with the aid of Grove’a Tasteless Chill Tonic. In addition to being a noted rem edy for Malaria, it is also an excellent tonic of general use. Grove’a Tasteless Chill Tonic is pleasant to take and con tains nothing harmful. Even children like it and they can take it aafely. For aale by all drug stores. Now two sires—50c and $1. The $1 sire contains times as much as the 50c sire and gives you 25% more for your money. ¥ There’s the Rub Trouble with an income Is to get It to come In.—Florida Times-Unlon. Firat Peruvian Flag Is of Red, White and Green Shortly after landing with his vic torious army in Paracas bay (since then known as Independence bay) the Liberator San Martin saw the incom patibility of the old insignia of Spain with the Independence of Pern, and thus, on October 21, 1820, he- issued In Pisco a decree providing that, pending the establishment of the Independent government, the flag x>f the country should be white and red, divided by diagonal lines Into four triangular fields, the upper and lower white, and the lateral red; In the center was a Will was puzzled. “No!” “I could see you hurt jour hand, ®° a t a rnl * formed by an oval crown when you grabbed him." “Oh," he remembered; and he ex tended the hand which held the fish, turning It so that she could see an inflamed and swollen finger joint. “Got a felon,” he said. “It’s sore as time!” She took his hand in bier two hands, gently, looking at the felon. “Granny can cure that,” she said. “If you’d come on home with me.” “Sol” he ejaculated, in pleased sur prise. “Can she now? I’ve heard fell that Marm pierce Is a mighty hand at curing Ills; but I thought a felon you just had to take And stand It” She frowned in thought, with an amusing affectation of matnrity. “I’ve just forgot what )t Is you do," she confessed. “But Granny, she’ll know." And she urged: “It ain’t only a little ways through the woods to our’place.” Will said heartily; “Why, let’s go along, then. Like trout, does she? I’ve a couple here. You’ll have to show me the way/ She nodded^ and he fetched his fish from a moss bed where he had laid them under ferns; and the two young people went together through v the woods back toward Marm Pierce’s farm. There waa no path; but there of laurel with a sun within, rising from behind a range of mountains bor dered by a calm sea. Tbfs was like wise the first coat of arms of Peru. The first Peruvian flag, states a writ er In the Washington Post, Is the re sult, of a sublime conception, in which were embodied the local traditions, an Indomitable patriotism and a lofty po litical aspiration. Red symbolized the blood of the patriots, and white right and Justice. The laurel crawn was the military, representation of triumph and glory. The mountains symbolized the new Andean nation, emerged from the tranquil waters of the Pacific, the green of which expressed the hope of the Peruvians striving for a noble ideal The sun was the deity of the Incas, awakening from a sleep of three centuries. Famed f° r Festival* Japan’s classical city la’ Kyoto, once capital of the country.^ It was here that culture and art flourished, and In and around fee city are hundreds of temples and hlatorlcal sites. Althoogh the effects of fire and massacres have marked Kyoto, still It la here that Japan's emperors are crowned. Correct Use of Land to Stop Erosion Peril Vegetation on the earth is likened to the skin on our bodies by federal erosion-prevention workers. Remove a large portion of the skin and ter rible sores result Reckless denuding of millions of acres of the richest land In the country has resulted In erosion; huge sores upon the earth. “Recovery from the disease of ero sion Is not a simple matter,” says H. H. Bennett, of the soli conservation service. “Obviously we cannot return to presettlement conditions. The na tion has its roots In agrlcultui and. if the nation Is to continue, agriculture must continue. We cannot raise corn, tobacco and cotton Iq the woods. We cannot harvest a wheat crop from the unbroken prairie. But we must make some concessions to nature, whose laws we cannot repeal even if they are irksome. “Protection and production are not necessarily Incompatible, With a sys tem o'f correct land use we can farm much of our soil and k$ep it, too. W^ cannot safely farm all of It to clean- tilled, erosion-producing crops. Some of the steeper and more erosive land mast be In trees or grass. These crops anchor the soil. Like the skin on our bodies they protect the earth from the disease of erosion.” BILIOUSNESS Chafing«xi tching Rash easily soothed by the L bland medication of Resinol HELP KIDNEYS W HEN kidneys function badly and you suffer beckache, dizziness, burning, scanty or too freiquent urina tion, getting up at night, swollen feet and anklet; feeMijaset and miserable end mi sera ... use Doen'i Doan’s arc especially for poorly working kidneys. Millions of boxes are used every year. They ere recoin- ■ended by users the country over. Ask your ncighborl Doan spills Smokers! Try one I It makes the next smoke taste better 4 ■very Day CONSTANT SMOKER Most men that smoke a lot have what we call “fuzzy tongues’* and don’t know it! Smoking stops the flow of saliva in the mouth and you get too much acid in your system. Makes you feel sluggish and loggy. The best way to lick the acids and still keep smoking is by taking Milnesia wafers twice a day. Your mouth will always feel clean and fresh and you always have your usual pep. MILNESIA Wafers neutralize the excess adds that cause indi gestion, heartburn and sick headaches Each Wafer is a full adult dose, children—one-quarter to one-hal£ Pleasant to take. Recom- EnT-Mmch Sm+tT-Mach No Extrtiu Lot* Uomrt mended by thousands of physicians—Good Druggist*. ■■^MILNESIA WAFERS felLX OF MAGNKSIA WAFIRS leaaamleab tael Bath MOmatUpmk- mmo coMtormt mart Mspmkm Hydro*- id* than mil othor Si -- r A a st0sm rwrms* + ' ; , \ \