The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1875-07-08
From I.ippencott's Magazine for July.

there is 4 narrow opening in the surround
ing woods, permitting Just = glimpse Of
green meadow and the mossy root of u
low farmhouse. This is the only point
where the water-lilies will not grow.
The outlet opposite is a little jungle OF
alders, rank grass, cat-tails and muskrat-
mounds. Through this may be seen
another distant roof. Il shabby one OF
slabs. Along the two shadoWY semicir-
cles between one may find Il bittem med
itatlng confusion to tadpoles, or y king
fisher endea' oring to sit on Il dead bough
until it shall decay entirely, or q wild
duck turning his suspicious little head
this way and that while gliding from the
shore, or at least y devils needle flicker
ing above the pickerel-weedS. But there
hangs about all an atmospheric influence
through which the barrencst forms and
colors yield an effect that battles the anal
ysis Of art, and enables the dullest OBJ
server to feel as would the subtlest seeker
after truth There is a relationship be
tween the light and shadow that must be
interpreted by the inhabitant OF more
ethereal world than this
Under the shabby rooi of slabs hali y
mile away is a crazy old mill The read
en- must not be disturbed by the knowledge
that it is u saw-mill. The miller has busy
wrinkles round his eyes, but the slow, wise
smile which curls about his dusty forehead
seems to Indicate a subtle knowledge not
of the world and its ways, but Of tail-races
and tlutter wheels and logs that ''sutler
when they are not ripped into
Mr.. Hcrsey pretends not to be aware
that his hair is whitening very fast, his
Joints stiiiening and his muscles shrive-
ing. In the busy season Il man OF thirty
is the real worker. always taking the
heavier end Of Il log, Vet so managing
that it seems to fall into place by the
strength of the old man alone The
younger il a silent. patient man. He
will grow old prematurey. In try ING
circumstances he would be almost, and
yet not quite, a hero. Enter the mill,
and there is one remark that Mr.. llcrsey
viii find an opportunity to make TO YOU
ii yon retreat too soon, he Will follow you
mysleriously to the fence, cant hook in
hand, and there enlightcn YOU with one
foot on rail lie has been known to
stop total stranger in the highway that
he might impart the information. Wher
ever he is, To- WhomsocNcr he talks, he
Will say it "'Forc Dawes arm was broke
sir, he could handle anything OF bis inches
in this neighborhood--'io his arm was
broke" Mr.. llersey's conscientiousnesS
in repeating this is not affected by the l-
relevant fact that David himself has 10
knowledge Of the breaking of his arm
1t has not been necessary Tor their rep
utation for ',and' that Mr. Ilprsey should
continue breaking David's arm. But the
idea took up Il residence IN his head. and
when common Grief drew them closer in
friendship, he set the small fiction atloat.
AS time wore on and compassion grew,
he repeated it oftener. And when his
friendship and compassion deepencd into
affection ior David, then he rather over
did it. No doubt the little lie, like Uncle
Toby's profanity, has long been blotted
out for ever because of the charity be
meath it. 1t is still whispered among old
acquaintanccs that "licrsry hasn't been
the same man sence.n
Some years ago, on a bright June morn
ing, when the woods rang with music,
and the invigorating air was eXquisitely
pertumed, and the sparkling water mir
rored a delicate white scud which hoated
like an exhaled lily in the blue heavens,
as If pond and sky We're holding each
others treasures-a snowy blossom above
and transient cloud bcloW--l woman
stepped from the low farm house to make
horticultural discoveries. As she stopped
to slit a handful Of fresh soil carefully
about q tlourshing little pig-weed under
the pleasing delusion that it was a tomato
plant, her son David stopped his plow in
the field beyond the garden and pushed
some damp earth from the shining mould
board while the glossy blackbir1s ilockcd
nosily about and waddled greedily after
him in the tnrrow. Ere his mother had
satisfied herself that there was u difference
between rhubarb and burdock he startled
her by asking vacantly for the bait-boX
Smgular,' said the good woman
you used to bring home such good ones !
What'n the world makes you 90 round 50
fur? It's better place on this side
'Perch like to lie around the lily-pads'
''Somebody besides perch likes it, and
somebody besides perch'll get hooked
there too and she unwound the apron
from her head and entered the house.
David threw in at various good places
with n carelesSness and haste that offered
no temptation to II fish not stepped in ig
norance until he reached Il secluded point
ovcrshadowcd by birches and naples
Here was usually moored the only craft
that had disturbed the pond for years--a
dug. out canoe, so old that its ownership
was lost in tradition. Certain it was, that
one man had been drowned from it, and
no one claimed it atterward. 1t had drift
ed and been water-logged and east up to
dry and drift again, uncared tor, the div
ing base of idle boys and shining turtles
and lugubrious frogs-regarded with tear,
an ill-tated, treHherous, restless thing.
that in all its drifting never tloated over
the deep place where its victim had gone
down. David was the last to clear it of
sand and mud He considered it his own
until the day when he first detected Ellen
Iiersey padding il tearlessly among the
lilies.
The lower regions of a saw-mill had no
terrors for her. and she would risk her life
for a floating trond AS for that resultant
| which we agree to call culture," one
neither missed it nor found it, but simply
forgot all about it in her presence Her
father, who was externally a shaggy hick-
ory, internally white pine, appeared to
love his daughter next after his tlutter-
wheel and tailrace, and never failed to
smell all the flowers she brought home
from the pond, or to use her vase next
day for a tobacco box
David's rod lay half in the water. and
the cork which his mother supposed was
protecting her jug from the winged and
creeping ills that molasses is heir to,
trembled and dipped and rose unnoticed
till the hook was bare The breeze sub
sided and the pond became gradually like
glass.
From the circling shadow of the woods
far out into the sunlight rocked the snowy
fleets. Ellen, with straw hat clinging
to the sunny side of her golden head, her
rioht arm uncovered to the shoulder, bend
ing lithely from the stern of the crumbling
canoe, as if to embrace the image Of her.