Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-07-27
7EDNESDAY EVENING, july. .27, 1870.

watching the inky waves slide up ant
down the beach, while the full moon ros'
over the superb mountains where tn,
clouds were heaped like WOOL and ths
very air seemed full of utterance that
you could almost hear and understand
but for something that made them all
a mystery. ] tried then, if ever tried
in my life, to make Joe little less bad
than he was naturally, and he seemed
nearly inclined to be better, and would,
| i think, have been so, but for the thou
sand temptations that graviated to him
when we got on solid earth again. He
forgot my precepts then, and / am afraid
forgot them myself Joe remembered
that night wildly. / was touched to
hear him confess it; and l pray earnestly
in the last day; if, indeed. he needs any
special plea other than that Nature has
published for her own.
Sing for me, Joe" said l. and Joe,
still crouching on the other side of the
lattice, sang some of his old songs. One
of them, a popular melody, was echoed
through the little settlement, where faint
voices caught up the chorus and the
night was wildly and weirdly musical.
We walked by the sea the next day, and
the day following that-Joe taking pains
to stay on the leeward side of me-he
was so careful TO keep the knowledge of
his fate uppermost in his mind; how
could i dismiss it from my own, when it
was branded in his countenance? The
desolated beauty of his face plead for
measureless pity, and ! gave it, out of
my prodigality, yet felt that could not
begin to give sufficient atf
Link by link he was casting off his |
hold on life; he was no longer a COM
plete being; his soul was prostrated in
the miry clay, and waited, in agony, its
long deliverance.
In leaving the Leper village, had con-
cluded to say nothing to Joe, other than
the usual aloha at night, when / could
ride of, in the darkness and, sleeping at
the foot of the cliff, ascend it in the first
light of morning, and get well on my
journey before the heat of the day. We
took last walk by the rocks on the
shore; heard the sea breathing its long
breath under the hollow cones of lava
with noise like giant Leper in his
asthmatic agony. Joe heard it and
laughed little, and then grew silent;
and finally said he wanted to leave the
place-he hated it; he loved Lahaina
dearly; how was everybody in Lahaina
"a question he had asked me hourly
since my arrival
When night came on | asked Joe to
sing, as usual; so he gathered his mates
about him, and they sang the songs /
liked best The voices rang, sweeter
than ever, up from the group of singers
few yards off, in the dark
ness; and while they sang, my horse was
saddled, and | quietly bade adieu to my
dear friends, the keepers and mounting
walked the horse slowly up the grass
grown road. | shall never see little Joe
again, with his pitiful face, growing grad
ually as dreadful as a cobra S, and al
most as fascinating in its hideousness.
| waited, little way off, in the darkness
waited and listened, till the last song
was ended, and l knew he would be look
ing for me to say goodnight. But he
didn't find me; and he will never again
find me in this life, for | left him sitting
in the dark door of his sepulcher-sitting
and singing in the mouth of his grave
clothed all in DEATH