The Simmons Brand (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 32, Ed. 1, Saturday, May 26, 1923 Page: 3 of 4
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On the Other Side
(Continued from page one.)
cistern wcro dark wet spots indicativo of
play that always accompanied tho chil-
dren's haste in getting a drink beforo tho
last bell. Tho ground was silent now
for it was evening tho last evening of
May and tho last evening of Knowlcs
school.
Breathlessly two riders drew up reins
at the back of tho schoolhouso door and
lighted from their horses.
"Spinks why won't you como tonight?"
Tho boy who spoke was young perhaps
twenty. His body was large his legs
slightly bowed. Ho had a broad tanned
face that seemed perplexed and gray
eyes a mixturo of mischief and stern
ncss. The girl was as tell as ho in stature
but slender. Her eyes were blue and
deep and full of dreams. She vas stoop-
ing to drink from the old bucket on the
cistern when tho boy spoke. She answered
with a half smile and half frown.
"I say what's the matter with you any-
way? You're not tho samo lately what
is it?"
"Morris" tho girl said almost sadly
when they had mounted and wcro riding
toward home. "If you could only under-
stand I but you'vo laughed so many
times"
"But Spinks whatever it is ou can
como tonight can't you? It is tho last
real danco of tho year "
"I can but I don't want to" she said
and they rode on for three or four miles
without any other word.
"You really mean to go away Lomali
this fall?"
"Yes."
"You'll be sorry Spinks. The other
side is liko tho great deccptivo mirage wo
saw yesterday. It is nothing!"
"No it is more than tho mirage. It is
real. There arc cities out there and
beautiful lands. Thcro aro gardens and
trees and flowers. There is learning and
culturo and great masters" her oico
grew tender "thcro is music on that
side wonderful beautiful music"
They reached tho small farm house of
Jim Day just as darkness came. Mr. Day
was a "ncstor." Al Malone's thousands
of acres almost swallowed his few hun-
dred but duo to Al's kind dealing there
had never arisen any enmity. Morris Ma-
lone stood at tho closed gate beforo the
little house holding both horses and
waiting.
"But there are reasons why you must
not go. Think of the herd that's to be
branded as mine next fall"
"That Isn't any reason"
"There is a reason though Lomah Day"
he Wd taking her hand in his own "and
that reason is that I love you that's why
I can't let you go! You must not go "
"You could go too though Morris. You
could go to that old university that your
dad has begged you so much to go to.
You would enter conditionally of course
as I will have to at Lcland College we
could both follow tho path that leads on
and up and then we'd come back
someday."
"Lomah" he laughed "won't you ever
get grown?"
"They would teach us there" she went
on "to find our real selves; to know hap-
piness even in sorrow; to not think of
life in material terms of justico but to
think of tho other side "
"How do you know?"
"Because l'vo Tead "
"Well?
"Wo'd write all tho while and we'd love
each other just the same until some time
then"
She paused lost in thought and he stood
quiet very quiet. They would love each
other just tho same! Those words meant
more to him than she intended for them
to mean for that was the first time she
had ever said she loved him. A hope
and yet!
"Lomah" ho said after a long long
time. "I'll do it for you." Tho enthus-
iasm of his oice fell with the last words."
"It means changing of all my plans. It
means Gosh! what doesn't it mean? But
dad will be tickled and say Spinks won't
one year be enough or two?"
"No lazy man" sho laughed in half
tease and half joy "we ought to do it
right and it takes four years."
And then standing close they looked up
to the niglitly sky and there in tho far
gray dusky sky was Venus tender ar-
dent.. "Lomah Day" he said and kissed her
lips "I hope you'll never be sorry. If
we ever are either of us we'll never let the
other know. And we'll never back out
after we're once in. And remember
Spinks that It's your dream we aro fol-
lowing and not my own" and ho was gone.
Three months later tho plains girl went
out under the prairie sky for the last
time that she might think once again as
she many times had done since sho was
a little girl. Sho burled her body once
again in the grass face upward. Her world
bounded around with a quivering hori-
zon and illimitable blue with only dwarfed
mesquites occasional cacti and yellow
blooms. Tho white billows of tho prairie
grass were to her like the white billows
of the tropic tea and tho fantasy of the
prairie silence and tho ardor of the bluo
azurcd sky.
Sho drew a nolo from her bosom and
read again:
"Don't laugh becauso it's mo present-
ing tho fanciful this time you sec it's
this Spinks I want a dato with you four
years from last Juno 1st Sabe? Remem-
ber Love Morris."
She smiled. Dear old Morris she did
lovo him a little. But her thoughts were
of tomorrow when sho would cross over
to that new land. She was happy and tho
skies wcro blue.
"Thcro will bo music " sho murmured
and her voico caught in tho low song of
tho wind was akin to music and its mys-
tery. Thcro were letters many letters. His
did not seem different from his own funny i
characteristics that sho knew and if he
was sorry even tho first months not a
lino indicated it. Tho frequency of his
writing however and tho warmth of tho
lovo in them made her know that ho must
bo lonely intensely lonely. But she knew
Morris; he never turned back. Ho had al-
ways been a dogged rider of Round-Up
days and he was never known to come back
without bringing back what he had gone
after.
The next year came and he did get to
come home heavy drouth in tho West
made it so. His letters now seemed full
of "awfully busy" "some lifo hero" and
"hastily." But tho letters always came.
Then it was that summer that he came
back to the old ranch. She was at home
too that summer and they rode together
oxchanged college talcs and laughed!
But one day Lomali rode alone for Mor-
ris had gono back to the East. The
prairies were parched and dry; the sum-
mer winds wcro fiery and thcro had been
no rain. The cattle stood languidly with
semi-fed forms and weary mien. Yellow
lcaics of mesquites and shriveled prairie
blossoms burned beneath a red sun. It
was still a desert stillness that became so
silent its voice screamed and brought an
undefined aching to the hearts of the
living.
Lohain stopped her horso and watched
the trembling waves of heat pass restlessly
along tho skyline. She looked up at tho
blue of the sky. Her soul ached her
heart was fiery liko tho sun. The ardor
of tho Prairio land at last could make
her understand.
"Morris" she groaned "come back I
love you!"
"But Your-mu3ic-and-.-lhe.lifebi
there " cried the parched flowers and tho
voice of thirsty winds.
"Ah I forgot"
Hurried lines of the last football trip
or entrance into some new field or per-
haps the term banquet filled his letters
when they came. Once he sent her the
college paper and on tho front page was
his picture Morris Malonc just ono of
the debaters. Tho face was tho same boy-
ish face except sterner with tho same
gray askant eyes. She looked long at it
then impulsively pressed it to her lips
while her roommate was not looking.
Sho smiled as sho thought of tho striped
collars he used to wear and the big hat
and most of all his dislike for school.
"If I had married you then what could
I have been to you? What could you have
been dear heart sweetheart!"
it wn ilinrouchlv dark when Lomah
Day became conscious of the present. Sho
hurried back to the hall for it was only'
a few moments until eight. Tho parlor
was empty. She sat down at tho piano
but did not play. The familiar old furni-
turo brought back memories again this
time of what college days had meant to
her. They had been all that sho had
dreamed for they had taught her the art
of living tho beauty of it.
Sho had succeeded. Although quiet in
nature she was tho best loved girl of the
senior class and sho knew it. The joys
of the literary life had been supplemented
by social honors. There was Clyde Lacey
who had well she must forget that. Sho
had tried to bo true. Sho had been true
pvon nt a cost. But most of all tho
dream that had led her on-on was tho
dream that had led her in her youth-
music! Tomorrow sho would tako her
last lesson from her master. Today he
told her that she was an artist; that her
talent was one that tho music world need-
ed. She might someday but no! Malono
was coming back to her. That was all
that mattered in the world now. She
struck tho chord of the piano and it caught
up her soul's song and turned it into a
deep lovo possessed voice.
But there was a sound on tho step-
distinctly. Her blood quickened her
cheeks burned. When Miss Lemmons
opened tho door and stood buck Morris
stepped forward tall giantlike straight?
she advanced to meet him pale and smil-
ing. Her vision of him seemed blurred.
Yes it was Malone. Her eyes were still
honest but they seemed more than that
now-noble. His collar was not striped.
"Lomah-Splnksie!" ho spoke and
crushed her hand in his.
Tir miked until the night grew late
brokenly and under much difficulty at first
If tho picture of tho western boy and girl
of four years ago came back to their
minds they did not speak of it. She
waited for him to remember tho other
side.
It was late when they stood by tho largo
window facing a June night. He looked
quietly for a moment into deeper depths
than she could sec and thcro seemed to
bo sorrow in his eyes. He turned to tho
white figure at his side not so tall now
as he and into the bluo questioning eyes
that glowed into his liko lights of tho
night.
"You aro beautiful in body and soul
more if it can be than when you were a
littlo western girl."
A blush burned licrfaco but sho laugh-
ed and sought to hide her happy confusion.
"And you Morris you are not tho same
yourself."
"Not tho same" he repeated "not the
same no " Then tho deep something
came to his face and he stood very still
looking into somewhero of tho night. She
was silent too but tho silence hurt
somehow.
"It was you" ho said suddenly in a
voico so low that was husky. "You mado
my life. You saved mo from blindness.
You taught me the beauty of knowing tho
bigness of truth. You dared mo to take
the great path I was too weak to follow
God gavo me my form and soul but you
taught me how to uso them to live
God-"
Sho heard a sob an inexplicable sob
that must have escaped from a man's soul.
Vaguely sho realized that ho had dropped
crumpled to a scat on tho couch witli his
head buried on his hands then she
heard: "God knows I'm not ungrateful "
Tho night was too still. The room seem-
ed to whirl and grow dark. A thing stab-
bed her for sho caught indistintly his
last words "Lomah I love another."
Sho stood rigidly tearless. Sho looked
down at tho dark hair she had loved; at
tho hand that was hers once. She re-
membered that it was her choice Ion;;
ago remembered with a dull senseless real-
izationthen pain. But this sido had
taught her to bo brave; it had mado a de-
sire blaze In her heart to bo noblo and to
forgive but no thcro was nothing to for-
give. Sho touched the hair then laid her
trembling hand heavier. This was not at
the old home gate nor tho Morris who had
kissed her. This was the other side. This
was not the lovo's justice in the material
world; it was a lifo gained at heart's
cost but it was life's beauty thinking in
tho great truth of the other side. At last
when her voice found itself it seemed low
and not her own.
"Malone Morris Malone" her lips
merely formed the words without feeling.
But tho woman's strength of her soul
found voice gentle kindly: "Morris I
bless you and her."
Sho still felt tho warmth of the pres-
sure of his big hands the fire of his kiss
that he had left on her forehead. With a
faint realization of his great face and the
kind words that sho knew ho meant sho
reached out her arms blindly as if to find
the fullness that had gone to be answered
by the empty voico of night.
"Malonc Morris Malone."
Sho heard music. It came as a song of
men who have won . It camo as a great
breaking tide that has found new shores.
Sho knew tho touch. It was her master.
Sho knelt at her window to pray. The
soft sway of whito curtains brushed her
pallid faco and cloven lips. Tho music
from the conservatory grew softer deeper
and the cold mist-covered moon came out
beneath tho clouds with a flood of new
light.
In tho gray and shadowed nightly sky
of the west just above the far distant
horizon glowed the last fire of Venus;
its ardor not dead but gono only as tho
God of men willed that all things must
eventually go to tho other side.
mmmmsmmmmmmmmm
GET IT TUNED.
kept
Suburbanite: That cat of yours
me awake all night with its yowling.
Neighbor: Sorry; but you don't want
to kill it do you?
"No; but couldn't ou get it tuned?"
AS YOU GO HOME FOR YOUR SUMMER VACATION WE
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The Simmons Brand (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 7, No. 32, Ed. 1, Saturday, May 26, 1923, newspaper, May 26, 1923; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth96599/m1/3/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hardin-Simmons University Library.