Argosy: The Short Story Magazine — page 40: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ee A ee ee eee ee ee Sire a ee ee 7 Cae é 40 H. E. BATES the edge of a tide, between fields that were still fresh green with winter corn, and others smooth with the first thin white fall. . ‘““T got something to tell you,” the girl said to Mrs. Mortimer. **T don’t think I'll be staying here much longer.” ‘Not staying? ” cc No.’’ “Why not?” “T don’t think I will, that’s all.” “Ts it the snow? You don’t like the snow, do you? That’s what it is, the snow.”’ ‘“ Tt’s not the snow so much.” “Ts it us then? ’’ Mrs. Mortimer said. ‘“‘ Don’t you like us no more? ”’ “JT like you. It isn’t that,” the girl said. | “What is it then, Elsie? Don’t say you'll go. What is it?” “It’s the baby,” Elsie said. “The baby?”’ Mrs. Mortimer felt a pain of tears in her eyes. ‘**T somehow thought one day you’d want it back. I’m glad.” ‘Not that baby,” the girl said. “‘ Not that one. I’m going to have another.”’ Mrs. Mortimer felt a strange sense of disturbance. She was shaken over again by disbelief and pain. She could not speak, and the girl said, ‘In the spring. April, I think it’ll be.” ‘“ How did you come to do that?” Mrs. Mortimer said. ‘‘ Up here? With us?” : ‘“‘T know somebody,” the girl said. “ I got to know somebody. That’s all.” ““[ don’t understand,’ Mrs. Mortimer said. She spoke quietly, almost to herself. She thought, with the old pain, of her years of sterility. She remembered how, in distraction, she had so much despised herself, how she had turned, out of pride, into isolation, away from Joe. “I don’t understand,” she said. At night, she turned restlessly in her bed. Splinters of moon- light between the edges of the curtains cut across her eyes and kept them stiffly open. ‘““Can’t you sleep again? ”’ Joe said. ‘“Tt’s the girl,” she said. “Elsie. I can’t get her out of my mind.” ‘‘ What’s wrong with Elsie?” ‘“She’s having another baby,” she said. “In the spring.” “Oh no!” he said. “Oh na! no! You don’t mean that? No.” “It seems she got to know somebody. Somehow,”’ she said. She felt across her eyes the hard stab of moonlight. She turned and put her hand out and touched Joe on the shoulder. 7 < « * ews comiclooks.conn ©