Bellefonte, Pa., October 9, 1914. The Story of Waitstill Baxter By KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN Copyright, 1913. by Kate Douglas Wiggin SYNOPSIS Waltstill Baxter and her sister, Patience Patty), keep house for their widowed, mean father. Ivory Boynton, whose fa- ther disappeared, is interested in Walitstill. | He takes care of his daft mother. Mrs. Boynton expects her husband to urn. Rodman, a young boy, is a-mem- of the Boynton household. Ivory’s father abandoned his family to ' follow Jacob Cochrane, a mystic. Pa! tience chafes under her father’s stern | rule. : i Patty has two admirers—Mark Wilson, an educated young man. and Cephas Cole, who is unlearned. Mark kisses her. Waitstill is spending her life in loving | oare of Patience. Aunt Abby and Uncie | Bart Cole are friends of the whole com- | munity. Cephas Cole, tending store for Baxter, proposes to Patty and is rejected. In his agitation he lets the molasses run all © over the store floor. Although they love each other, Waitstill and Ivory suppress their affection because of their household cares. : Patty and Waitstill go to church, al- though their father is too mean to give them fitting garments! Waitstill sings in, the choir. . : works in New Hampshire reports you as ridin’ through the streets of Allen- town last Monday with a young man.” There seemed but one reply to this, ' so Patty answered tremblingly: “He | says what's true. I was there.” “What!” And it was plain from the deacon’s voice that he had really dis- believed the rumor. A whirlwind of i rage swept through him and shook him from head to foot. “Do you mean to stan’ there an’ own up to me that you was thirty miles away from home with a young man?” he shouted. “If you ask me a plain question I've got to tell you the truth, father. I was.” “How dare you carry on like that and drag my name into scandal, you worthless trollop, you? Who went, along with you? T'll skin the hide off him, whoever 't was!” | Patty remained mute at this threat, but Waitstill caught her hand and whispered: “Tell him all, dear. It's! got to come out. Be brave, and I'll | stand by you.” . “Why are you interferin’ and puttin’ | in your meddlesome oar?” the deacon said, turning to Waitstill. “The girl would never ‘a’ been there if you'd at- tended to your business. She's nothin’ but a fooi of a young tilly, an’ you're an old cart horse. It was your job to look out for her, as your wother told ! you to. Anybody might ‘a’ guessed : Le ! she needed watchin’! | “You shall not call my sister an old | cart horse! [I'l not permit it!” cried Patty, plucking up courage in her sis- ter's defense and. as usual, comporting herself a trifle more like a spitfire than a true heroine of tragedy. “Hush, Patty! Let him call me any- thing that he likes. It makes no dif- ference at such a time.” *“Waitstill knew nothing of my going . away till this afterncon,” continued Patty. “I kept it secret from ber on purpose. because J] was afraid she would not approve. 1 went with Mark i Wilson, and—and I married him in A strange young woman in the Wilson pew, a visitor from Bosion, makes Patty Jealous. Haying time arrives. Waitstill decides to disobey her father by paying a visit to Mrs. Boynton. Uncle Bart discourses to Cephas on woman's ways. Mrs. Boynton confides in Waitstill, tell- | ing the girl she believes Rodman is not her sister's child, but she cannot be sure. To punish Waitstill for disobedience Deacon Baxter locks her out all night. Bbe spends the night in the barn. Pa- tience sympathizes. Patience Baxter is embarrassed amid a multitude of suitors. She thinks Mark is fickle. Trying to trace his father, Ivory writes to Waitstill a long account of Boynton's following of Cochrane, with which Mrs. , Boynton was not in full sympathy. ' trol of himself, and the temper, that The village gossips are busy with the names of Waitstill and Ivory. hut in a friendly and sympathetic manner. i In Ivory’s absence young Rodman min- isters to Mrs. Boynton. She is ill and sends Rodman for Ivory. Ivory receives proof of his father’s death and succeeds in convincing his mother of ft. Waitstill volunteers her help in the Boynton housekeeping. Despairing of winning Patty, Cephas turns his affections elsewhere. Patty and Mark are now sweethearts. Petty and Mark know Deacon Baxter will not consent to their marriage, so they plan an elopement to New Hamp- shire. Deacon Baxter is more than usually “difficult.” Patty runs off with Mark, is married and returns and tells Waitstill. The deacon turns Patty out into the | cold. She finds shelter with Aunt Abby and Uncle Bart. Waitstill rises against her father and tells him she will marry Ivory as soon as he is ready to have her. [Continued from last week.]} | “I’ve a good mind to go upstairs and | put on my gold beads and my wedding ring just to get used to them and to feel a little more married. No. I can’t after all, for there is father driving up : the hill now. and he may come into the | house. What brings him home at this hour?" i “I was expecting him every mo- ment,” and Waitstill rose and stirred | the fire. “He took the pung and went to the mills for grain.” “He hasn’t anything in the back of the pung—and. oh. Waity, he is stand: ing up now and whipping the horse | with all his might. I never saw him drive like that before! What can be the matter? He can’t have seen my wedding ring. and only three people in all the world know about my being married.” Waitstill turned from the window, her heart beating a little faster. “What three people know three hun dred are likely to know sooner or later. Tt may be a false alarm. but father is 4n a fury about something. He must not ‘be told the news until he is in a better humor!” © _.- CHAPTER XXIV. Patty ls Shown the Door. EACON BAXTER drove into the barn and, flinging a blank- et over the wheezing horse, closed the door behind him and hurried into the house without even thinking to lay down his whip. Opening the kitchen door and stop- ping outside long enough to kick the snow from his heavy boots, he strode into the kitchen and confronted the two girls. He looked at them sharply before he spoke, scanning their flush- ed faces and tear stained eyes; then he broke out savagely: “Oh, you're both here; that's lucky. Now stan’ up and answer to me. What's this I hear at the Mills about Patience — common talk outside the store?” The time had come, then, and by some strange fatality when Mark was too far away to be of service. “Tell me what you heard, father, and I can give you a better answer,” Pat- ty replied, hedging to gain time and shaking inwardly. used it years ago you might bave been I say?” -you'’ve made her afraid of you ever «Bill Morrill says his brother that New Hampshire because we couldn’t do it at home without everybody's | knowledge. Now you know all!” i “Do you mean to tell me you've gone an’ married that reckless, wuthless, ! horse trottin’, card playin’ sneak of a ! Wilson boy, that’s courted every girl in town? Married the son of a man that | has quarreled with me and insulted ° me in public? By the Lord Harry, I'll crack this whip over your shoulders once before I'm done with you! If I'd an honest woman today instead of a”’— FFoxwell Baxter had wholly lost ¢on- | “Put down that whip, father, or rm take it from you.” | had never been governed or held in! check. lashed itself into a fury that | made him for the moment unaccounta- ble for his words or actions. Waitstill took a step forward in front of Patty. “Put down that whip, father, or I'll take it from you and | break it across my knee!” Her eyes blazed and she held her head high. “You've made me do the work of a man, and, thank God. I've got the muscle of one. Don’t lift a finger to Patty, or I'll defend her. I promise you! The dinner horn is in the side entry and two blasts will bring Uncle Bart up the hill, but I'd rather not eall him unless you force me to.” The Deacon’s grasp on the whip re- laxed. and he fell back a little in sheer astonishment at the bravado of the girl, ordinarily so quiet and self con- tained. He was speechless for a sec- ond and then recovered breath enough to shout to the terrified Patty: “1 won't use the whip till I hear whether you've got any excuse for your scandalous behavior. Hear me tell you one thing. This little pleasure trip o’ yourn won't do you no good, for I'll break the mar- riage! 1 won't have a Wilson in my family if I have to empty a shotgun into him, but your lies and your low conduct are so beyond reason 1 can’t believe my ears. What's your excuse, “Stop a minute, Patty, before you answer, and let me say a few things that ought to have been said before now,” interposed Waitstill. “If Patty has done wrong, father, you’ve no one but yourself to thank for it, and it's only by God’s grace that nothing worse has happened to ber. What could you expect from a young thing like that, with her merry heart turned into a|. ‘lump in her breast every day by your cruelty? Did she deceive you? Well, since she was a baby in the cradle, drawing the covers over her little head when she heard your step. What- | ever crop you Sow iS bound to come up. father; that’s nature’s law and God’s as well.” i “You hold your tongue, you. readin’ ' the law to your elders an’ betters,” . said the old man, choking with wrath. | “My business is with this wuthless sister o’ yourn, not with you! You've got your coat and hood on, miss, so you jest clear out o' the house, an’ if you're too slow about it I'll help you along. I've no kind of an idea you're rightly married, for that young Wilson sneak wouldn't pay so high for you as all that. But if it amuses you to call him your husband go an’ find him an’ CASTORIA. stay with him. This is ai honest house : an’ no place for such as you!” Patty had a good share of the Bax- ter temper, not under such control as Waitstill’s, and the blood mounted into her face. “You shall not speak to me so!” she said intrepidly, while keeping a dis- creet eye on the whip. “I’m not a—a caterpillar to be.stepped on. I'm a married woman, as right as a New Hampshire justice ean make me, with a wedding ring and a certificate to show if need be. And you shall not call my husband names. Time will tell what he is going to be, and that's [Continued on page 7. Col. 11 & CASTORIA The Kind You Have Always Bought, and which has been in use for over 30 years, has and has been made under his pers borne the signature of lr sonal supervision since its infancy. 5 4%, Allow no one to deceive you in this, All Counterfeits, Imitations and ¢ Just-as-good >’ are but Experiments that trifle with and endanger the health of Infants and Children—Experience against Experiment. 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