"Liebchen," he whispered, "it is divine."
"You vill gome mit me to mein gountry?" he asked presently.
She laid a finger on his lips. "Don't," she said; "I can't bear it."
"I vill not be a vagabond in mein own gountry; we vill be very happy.
Gome mit me, Liebchen."
He would not be a vagabond in his own country. The information that would have been worth much to her once was worth nothing now. She scarcely heard it.
"I can't do that," she said. "You must go, and I must stay here and do as I have promised; but I wanted to tell you that I know I have been very cruel, and that I am very sorry. It was hard for me, too, and I could not trust myself to be kind."
It seemed but a moment she had been sitting there with his arms around her and his head upon her breast, but the east was red and the sun was almost up. Lydia rose wearily. The sense of defeat, that was more fatiguing than the struggle, clung to her. "It's time you were gone,"
she said. He took her hands in his and asked, with searching earnestness,
"If you love me, vy vill you not gome mit me?"
"I can't," she answered, too tired for explanation.
"Is it your fader?" he asked.
She nodded, and said good-bye, looking up at him with a tender glow on her face. The hair streaming about her shoulders had caught the flame of sunrise like a torch. He stooped and touched it with his lips as reverently as he would have kissed the garment of a saint.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] Mrs. Geppert died at Scarsborough-on-the-Hudson, New York, February 23, 1913. Her remains were not brought to Kentucky for interment.
[11] Copyright, 1890, by the Belford Company.
HENRY C. WOOD
Henry Cleveland Wood, novelist and verse-maker, was born at Harrodsburg, Kentucky, in January, 1855. His mother was a writer of local reputation. In 1874 Mr. Wood's poems and stories began to appear in English and American magazines; and he has continued his work for them until this day. Seven of his novels have been serialized by the following publications: _Pretty Jack and_ _Ugly Carl_ (_The Courier-Journal_); _Impress of Seal and Clay_ (_New York Ledger_, in collaboration with his uncle, Henry W. Cleveland, author of a biography of Alexander H. Stephens); _The Kentucky Outlaw_, and _Love that Endured_ (_New York Ledger_); _Faint Heart and Fair Lady_ (_The Designer_); _The Night-Riders_ (_Taylor-Trotwood Magazine_); and _Weed and War_ (_The Home and Farm_). Of these only one has been issued in book form, _The Night Riders_ (Chicago, 1908). This was a tale of love and adventure, depicting the protest against the toll-gate system in Kentucky years ago, with a brief inclusion of the more recent tobacco troubles. Mr. Wood's verse has been printed in _Harper's Weekly_, _Cosmopolitan_, _Ainslee's Magazine_, _The Smart Set_, _The Youth's Companion_, and other periodicals. Two of his librettos, _The Sultan's Gift_ and _Amor_, have been set to music; and at least one of his plays has been produced, entitled _The Pretty Shakeress_. Mr. Wood conducts a little bookshop in his native town of Harrodsburg.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Blades o' Blue Grass_, by Fannie P. Dickey (Louisville, 1892); _Illustrated Kentuckian_ (November, 1894).
THE WEAVER
[From _The Quiver_ (London, England)]
The sun climbed up the eastern hills, And through the dewy land Shot gleams that fell athwart the rills That sang on every hand.
Upon the wood and in the air There hung a mystic spell, And on the green sward, every where, Soft shadows lightly fell.
And in a cottage where the bloom Of roses on the wall Filled all the air, there was a loom Well built of oak and tall.
All through the fragrant summer day A maiden, blithe and fair, Sat at the loom and worked away, And hummed a simple air;--
"Oh! idle not, ye leafy trees, Weave nets of yellow sun, And kiss me oft, O! balmy breeze, My task is but begun."
Still higher in the hazy sky The sun climbed on and on, And autumn winds came rushing by, The summer's bloom was gone;
Now sat a mother at the loom, The shuttle flew along, With whirr that filled the little room Together with her song;--
"O! shuttle! faster, faster fly, For know ye not the sun Is climbing high across the sky, And yet my work's not done?"
The sun shot gleams of amber light Along the barren ground, And shadows of the coming night Fell softly all around.
And in the little cottage room From early dawn till night, A woman sat before the loom With hair of snowy white.
The hands were palsied now that threw The shuttle to and fro, While as the fabric longer grew She sang both sweet and low;--
"Half hidden in the rosy west I see the golden sun, And I shall soon begin my rest, My task is almost done!"
The spring again brought joy and bloom, And kissed each vale and hill; But in the little cottage room The oaken beam was still.
The swaying boughs with rays of gold Wove nets of yellow sun, And cast them where a headstone told-- The weaver's task was done.
WILLIAM E. CONNELLEY
William Elsey Connelley, historian and antiquarian, was born near Paintsville, Kentucky, March 15, 1855, the son of a soldier. At the age of seventeen he became a teacher in his native county of Johnson; and for the following ten years he continued in that work. John C. C.
Mayo, the mountain millionaire, was one of his pupils. In April, 1881, Mr. Connelley went to Kansas; and two years later he was elected clerk of Wyandotte county, of which Kansas City, Kansas, is the county-seat.
In 1888 he engaged in the lumber business in Missouri; and four years thereafter he surrendered that business in order to devote himself to his banking interests, which have hitherto required a considerable portion of his time. In 1905 Mr. Connelley wrote the call for the first meeting of the oil men of Kansas, which resulted in the organization of an association that began a crusade upon the Standard Oil Company, and which subsequently resulted in the dissolution of that corporation by the Supreme Court of the United States. This is set down here because Mr. Connelley is, perhaps, prouder of it than of of any other thing he has done. He is well-known by students of Western history, but, of course, his fame as a writer has not reached the general reader. He is a member of many historical societies and associations, including the American, Nebraska, Missouri, Ohio, and Kansas, of which he was president in 1912. Mr. Connelley has made extensive investigations into the language and history of several of the Indian tribes of Kansas, his vocabulary of the Wyandot tongue being the first one ever written. He has many original documents pertaining to the history of eastern Kentucky; and the future historian of that section of the state cannot proceed far without consulting his collection. The novelist of the mountains, John Fox, Jr., has sat at the feet of the historian and learned of his people.
Mr. Connelley lives at Topeka, Kansas. A complete list of his works is: _The Provisional Government of Nebraska Territory_ (Topeka, 1899); _James Henry Lane, the Grim Chieftain of Kansas_ (Topeka, 1899); _Wyandot Folk-Lore_ (Topeka, 1899); _Kansas Territorial Governors_ (Topeka, 1900); _John Brown--the Story of the Last of the Puritans_ (Topeka, 1900); _The Life of John J. Ingalls_ (Kansas City, Missouri, 1903); _Fifty Years in Kansas_ (Topeka, 1907); _The Heckewelder Narrative_ (Cleveland, Ohio, 1907), being the narrative of John G. E.
Heckewelder (1743-1823), concerning the mission of the United Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians from 1740 to the close of 1808, and the finest book ever issued by a Western publisher, originally selling for twenty dollars a copy, but now out of print and very scarce; _Doniphan's Expedition_ (Topeka, 1907); _The Ingalls of Kansas: a Character Study_ (Topeka, 1909); _Quantrill and the Border Wars_ (Cedar Rapids, 1910), one of his best books; and _Eastern Kentucky Papers_ (Cedar Rapids, 1910), "the founding of Harman's Station, with an account of the Indian Captivity of Mrs. Jennie Wiley." In 1911 Baker University conferred the honorary degree of A.
M. upon him. For the last three years Mr. Connelley has been preparing a biography of Preston B. Plumb, United States Senator from Kansas for a generation, which will be published in 1913.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Who's Who in America_ (1912-1913); letters from Mr.
Connelley to the writer.
KANSAS HISTORY
[From _History as an Asset of the State_ (Topeka, Kansas, 1912)]
Kansas history is like that of no other State. The difference is fundamental--not a dissimilarity in historical annals. This fact has been long recognized. A quarter of a century ago Ware wrote that--
Of all the States, but three will live in story: Old Massachusetts with her Plymouth Rock, And old Virginia with her noble stock, And sunny Kansas with her woes and glory.