“While thus engaged he came to our humble home to board. I was just such a strip of awkward girlhood as any man might expect to find in a child of the rural district.
“I know I was the most unsophisticated creature that ever lived. I knew nothing of life outside the five-room house in which my parents had lived for twenty years and in which I had been born nearly seventeen years before I met Arthur Blake.
“He remained at our house for three months, and so refined and dignified was he that he won a place in our hearts that was hard to fill by any others. He was rather reticent and made few friends. My father was dumfounded when one day Arthur proposed that he, my father, go and buy a new buggy.
“‘What would I buy a buggy with and what for?’” asked my father.
“‘With this,’ said Arthur, as he handed father a roll of bills, ‘and for my use. I shall have to do a great deal of driving. I will hire a horse from you, but I want everyone to understand that the whole outfit is yours.’
“So it was arranged, and it was generally said by less fortunate neighbors that ‘Dawson must be makin’ money keepin’ boarders.’
“Then came a long series of drives over the broad expanse of the gas fields. My parents did not object to my going with him, for he was very considerate of my welfare. It was during these trips that I learned of the beauties of nature. I soon became thrilled with the songs of birds, the chirping of crickets and the humming of bees, none of which had held any charms for me before. Plants that to me had always been known as weeds now bore bright blossoms; the green leaves meant more to me. I saw beauty in the undulating fields which I had always known as plain hills. The whole world seemed to put on a new garment. You see that I was not experienced enough to know that I saw everything with different eyes than before. I did not know that a little word of four letters told all that affected me, in fact I did not know what love meant until he told me, and then I did not fully understand it until he was away from me for three weeks.
“He went home, back to Pittsburg on a visit, and while he was gone the brightness of the flowers faded. The frosts of October withered the foliage, and the brown of the leaves seemed to resemble the solemnity of my heart when I would walk along the well known paths with pleasant memories in my mind. Every bush and tree seemed to add to the sentiment with which my heart was filled and sobs choked me. The notes of the few birds that had remained tempting fate by braving the elements were even sobbing.
“Then he came back, and the glinting of the sunshine on the early morning frost was not brighter than my life. After that he made real love to me, and I have always thought he meant it. Our love was like that of many others and led to grave indiscretions, and in due time I realized that I was in serious trouble. I told Arthur and he said he would go back to his father and get some money and come and marry me. Instead, he went away and during those months of waiting my suffering was beyond description.
“I was finally forced to tell my parents. My mother wept herself sick; father became morose and said little; my trouble became neighborhood gossip; one old lady going so far as to say it was good enough and she guessed most anybody could have a new buggy for that price.