"SPOTTY" AND THE SUNSHINE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14523, 19 August 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

"SPOTTY" AND THE SUNSHINE.

(By Sumner Locke), iuo giory of a purieet day filt&r<4 i-"^u a u m-o wt-o> ujju fcpiwyuu iu*> m aula 01 " I<U ou "«.• I'csbi 01 me vwdiuwi una ict u.ein lunj siuuiiiitii.ug »hib> iioss, ana :t rained a lixsn 011 bo -u-.ul s hair us silo came out oi tuc house bo iced the chickens in the yard liio golden Wyandotte roustcr mitm ti.si colour of uiy day ou hjs bark as no stopped about L*o a K rout Kama "ukf" aU<ii ' " cUul - ktK - " l -■ raiment oi in Ariel's face was the sunsh.no, too. oiio like part of uiq day, witn nor brigut hair and j lor SO it bnie eves Hor weil-wa.iied dross mt g„t Have'ifen a neeoy (..loud that had suddenly spun itsuii out oi somewhere to form a contrast to tho perfect colour scheme of sky and sunsiunc. '

Hut tho man near- the i'oiioe was in the shade. It was on h.s face and Ariel! M St ° od thore "'^huig "You've b&m feeding chickens a lan" tone now, ' ho said, dreamily, «ud Ariel aughed, and let the coin £ through her lingers like n ehower o? golden manna, to tho chickens, that quickly p, c ked it out of sight ■lou'vo boon at it more than I can remember," he said. » " ''Well," laughed Ariel, '"oonsidorJ n„rt, n°> ' i c f-' t -J«meiabei-you doin' notim else feed - u chiokons an poddy the calres ever was qtute little." The young, man von" to" " S Sh ° StJl *««^

She looted at liini from a pair of SUllslunf, eyCS. U

Tr* tl Jm samo chickens," she said TKZ, Cre ? aTe • been Vneratio^ of them over and again. Why that old lirahnia rooster over there is the great grandfather to the brown hen " Tho young nian at the wire fence became restive. . "You been at it far too long," he siud. with irritation in his vo.ee. "Your hair and them pink hngers wasn't.ever meant for only a towl run and a cow bail. Ain't you neijer gom' to give it over?" - Ariel just stared. '*"'." a l * said, "give over my ™ rk? ..,^hy—whoever would do itp" the j<ii?a of doing such a tiling seemed to the girl so ludicrous that she laughed outright. This only made the young man more irritable. "I mean " he burst out fiercely, "your father cant keep you here always, w.tb nothing -more than nil this for the rest of your life Didn't you know you was beautiful?" J

Again tho situation struck the o Idas so tunny that she went on laughW as though She would never stop ° "I never told you—an' no one* ] pre ever seems to notice it," said the younp man. "You ought to have a comfortable place of your own."

Ariel stopped to stare. "What, live by myself, all alone, just because y.-iu think me beautiful?" Here she grew very calm and came over to the fenoe. Phe young man was thoroughlv in earnest, and almost unhappy over the whole tiling. "You dear old Ted" she said. "Dou'l -you know that my father .is all I have got in the world? This is our life—the chickens and the cows. It's alright and it's peaceful, and the town—away, right away—doesn't need me nearly as much as the plabs out here doe 3?" She looked at her muslin overall, Ileckcd with the sun. "Whv. how could I ever go anywhere out"of tlie gold and green country I'd be most unsuitable to anything "else." "You'd hj? a beautiful princess rinywhere," said the young man, "but it ain't right or natural for your father never to give you a chance" to see the life that other girls hare. Why, you have never been to a theatre——" . "I'd rather stay* out of it all," said Ariel. "You see it would take so niu:h money, and I don't like to spend wliat father has been so many years trying to make. Ted," she leaned over the fence, and touched him ever so gently on th earm. "I'm all he's got to look after tilings since mother died. Can't you see that? He's a lot to me." "Counting, me out" said Ted sharply. Ariel looked aghast. "I—l never thought I was anything to you, Ariel; but—l'd er liked to be a bit of something out of vlie ordinary to you. A chap ain't awful happy when he's only as much as the —the spotty cow is to you." "That ought to be quite a Jot," said Ariel. "I'm very fond of the spotty cow; she's a very dear friend of mine." "I don't want to be a friend of yours," said Ted. 'l—l— want to ; Oh, Ariel, there never was anyone like yon. It's not a bit of uie only couutin' as much as a silly cow." '•Spotty's not a silly cow," said Ariel. "I think it is you that is silly, Ted." - Then the young man tried anoiher way.

"Ariel—them curtains at my place ain't ever been put up since my aster went away. 1 never had the heart to do aotliin' nowadays. The last slave sete of eggs got spoilt in the thunder, and the new coife-pot what I got two years ago ain't never b.en us.-d yet." Ariel smiled, and her white teeth ghstensd} and the diinpie that the young man watched opened and shut m hir ciieek.

"I'll come along some day and rut up the curtains," sho said, "and wc will make the coffee in the new i ot, and I'll biing you some of my moss roses." "But I'll want you to say," said Ted, like a great child. "I'll hvant you to stay awful bad—not to feed the chickens and do the milk, . but just to look beautiful and sing'about the place, and —make it scmeth.ng like the heaven a fellow can have when he loves a girl—oh, Ariel —you ought to come and " But Ariel pushed him from her -across the fence, so the w.re began to vibrato again and again, with the sudden movement. "Dear me," she said, "I'm afraid I ought to be two people in the c-amo place.." ' Then there was quiet .between the two. "Seams to me," said Ted, "that up here .t is always sunshine—an' blue. Down there at my bit of a run—well, I'm always grumbling at the clouds j an' perhaps I make 'em all myself." Then he pulled his hat ov-:r his face, and walked away, and Ariel, with tears in her eyes for him- went into the house. The next two days were born in the same glorious way." Sunshine and nine wore on everything, but after that the grey set in, and things w-er. e shadowed. Ariel's father, a thick-set man, with a keen business-Ike calibre, and a heavy tread, moved about the place all one day in a. mood that the girl could could not understand. At dinner time he spoke. "Ariel—see hero, you are bothering The girl opened her wide eyes and said. "I'm sorry, dad." "It's this way. You're, big, and it's not the same keenin' vou as when vou was little." Ariel stood witlrthe empty plate, ar.d said uothina. "T know it's iiain for you to go." said the man. "hut other'girl? lias to fiurl their livin' pretty much any"I —I—nvuht easily man nee ." began A'r'el. "I mi."lit easily mnn»'"C to eat ]«„. nll;1 i w ' on - t v , ;, - 0 , 11n ,/\, new dre s = this yen,-, so tint™ could have ail tne egg money "

"That's no good," said tho man. "You're good, and solid, help—but I can not keep you and a. family." The girl went, a trifle sieki an/1 fliep placed her hand pn his hair, tenderly, '"Yea—dad> aad» —* ' '|Well--I'm mwryis'"—'' ( Not . The memory o? h^r mother was too sacred to the girl to bo discussed, while she knew her father might resent it; go she became very nujti, and did not fin-sh her wd. "¥<=s, I'm not over old—and I'm morryin'. You know Miss Abberley, who runs the school up there. She's business built and suits me." "Will alio love you?" Ariel said, witli fear in her voice.

"Well, 1 don't suppose she'll, just come out as a boarder," said her fathor sharply. "1 —I hope sbe : U understand about the calves and tho kitchen garden," said Ariel, again disturbed, "and how you like the treacle boiled separate to tho pudding. It would be awful, if .she couldn't manage, dad." 'The man got up from the table. . "She's good enough for me," lie said, "and you arc all right. You'll lit in jsoßKnvhKsto, imaybe, soft land easy. I'll pay your faro wherever you like to settkV Ariel throw lier arms around his neck. "You'll send for me, dad —you'll .send for mo if she can't manago won't you:-" ' ; "Slw's got to manago," said the man. "I don't think much of a woman as can't keep things up to the hour of day in her own house." And Ariel wont out with the words in her head. They hurt more •hnsi anything that hxd fiver come into her life before. "Her own house." In her room she picked out lwr wardrobe. A ready-made skirt and blouse to match, a pair of strong boots, and a lew ribbons, held sacred to her mother. Her little heart was heavy. It seemed as if somo new element, foreign to hci whole nature, had suddenly got between hor and her father.

"I'll tell her, presently, just how he likes things done, and" if- iShe seems anxious about them I'll come back for a bit and put them right " Then she sighed, "Poor, darling dad —lie couldn't keep tho whole lot of us—it's not a very big farm after all. ' Across the paddocks the spotty cow was languidly lying in the shade. Ariel saw her, w.th a pain in her heart "I won't say good-bye," she said. 'l'll novor say good-bye to her, because 1 shall oonxe back often, and she won't have time to want me then-" ' Just as she had strapped her basket, ready for the time to decide Where was to go, a woman from a run adjoining hor father's farm came into tho kitchen, and called to her. "I heard from the old man," -she said, "an' I come in to say that I want ai girl like you at /my place. You might find a better one, but I thought you'd niaybe, care to be near the farm as you is used to. I can give you six diillin's and livin', as you're - a icat settled girl, and not after loukin" sideways at my boys when I'm out of the way." "Ariel smiled very slowly. "You're awfully good," she said. ' 'Are you 'sure than you oan afford to have me." • , "I'm goin 'to try," said the woman. "I got two of the children down now with the measles, and I'd be glad of your help as soon as you can get ready." ' Ariel hurried, with a thankful heart, that her next abode was so convenient to her father's land, and that she oould' get over sometimes to give a hand with the jam and the fruit.

j When the woman had' gone tut, having given Ariel instructions to follow as fast as she could, as there was a tliree-M-eeks' washing to bo got through, .and everything was left on account of the sickness, Ted put his head through the window; of -the kitchen.

"I—heard—" lie shouted. "I heard all about it ,an' I near bust myself tryin' to get here wlule I was warm on it. You ain't uo.'n' to that Mrs Gardener or any other Mrs anything," Ariel was very quiet. She fipoko like one thoroughly w-oak. ' "Why, Ted, she's going to give me six shill.ugs a week, and it's near to the farm, and " "You'ro eomin' to my place," said the young man, "you're coming to marry me." "Nonsense," said Ariel; "How can I when Mrs Gardener has all the washing to do and two children down -with measles?" '•' ' . "I might hare measles," said Ted, with disgust in his face. " Who is to watch that I don't die with them, too?" "You're only one," said Ariel, ''and the Gardeners are five, and there sre so many things to be', done that poor "I won't listen to that," said the young man, nearly climbing through the window in his hurry ; "Ariel., you pot to come along, I just spoiled the new stove with a pot that boiled right over while I got the dogs away after a rabbit.l saw in the cultivation paddock . . . and I clean forgot to wash the kerosene tin, an' they boiled dry as leather an'—l say Ariel—l'm that lonely I slept out with old Barker the dog, several nights, cos I began to ' th.nk that I was gettin' looney for company." Ariel sat thinking, and the young \ man picked up one of her hands very i gently, ••1 don't want you to come along, Ariel, if you don't want to, an' I don't want you to come along just cos th.ngs is all wrong—but I guess I'd j do the wash a whole lot better an' I might learn cookjn' and how to do | things without swearin' every time 1 they turn dog on you was somewnere handy just to look up and say it was all right." i Sfr.ll Ariel looked out of the window, I thinking of the creeping shadows of mauve and grey as they had been to her every night in the summer of her life. "Mrs Gardener's got her husband," said Ted, "an' you an' me's just got—ourselves. I'd like to show you what you can do for nis; it's more than .;ny"body in the whole- world could do, Ariel, if you'd only come along." Then the girl smiled. She got up and shook him very gently by _ the shoulders. "You wicked, boy, Ted. You've made mo think about what I want more than what I ought to do, perhaps. But never mind, I'll help Mrs Gardener and you at the same time. So com© along, .-.nd we'll put iro • those new curtains first of all." Then the„ sunshine went from one hoHse to another.