Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-12-05

Down in little glen where the trees
grew thick and tall, shutting out the sun,
and the loneliness was so intense that the
voice grew hushed, and the heart seemed
stirred with memories of other worlds, |
heard in broken phrases. uncouth and
roughly spoken, the story of Pierre the
charcoal
IL am the poorest man alive, said
Pierre; in all the world there's none
poorer or rougher In stying am Il char
coal-hurner, al's said in one word. I'm
an outcast of the woods, and know it,
and | rarely trouble a town, for there
feel myself alOne-not tuned, as il were,
to the tone about me. | love the wild,
free woods, and she loved the forest, too,
with all her heart. There wasn't a sound
in it she couldn't tell and interpret, from
the song OF the nightingale down to the
weakest cry Of the small insect on the
grass.
People said she was ignorant. She
couldn read and write; she couldn't say
'Pater' in Latin to save her life she was
untaught and ignorant as a bird or beast
I've heard the town-toks say this OF her
often, and I've smiled and wished they
were out in the woods with us for awhile.
Ignorant, was she F? Why she knew every
tree that grows; she knew every herb
that springs out OF the grass. She could
tell You where the greenest crosses grew,
There wasn't healing leaf in AL the
woods that she hadn't learned to under
stand and il you did bu, hurt your fin
ger, she would spring aside, aud come
back smiling, with some sweet-sme Ing
remedy in her pretty hand.
ka
like hers for flowers. She knew them all
and never gathered them as lown-ioks do,
to brow them away when they faded. No;
she dried them in the sun and KEEP them tor
the sickin winter. The rose and the gilly-
flower for colds, the lime b .ossoms for fe-
yer. Alb, what a store she gathered every
summer. And with what wreaths and
posies she decked out our little hut
We were brought up together SIR SO
know what am sayingwhen tell you she
was not ignorant. But like us all, she had
40 town-learning; her only books were
the forest and the sky; but out of these
she got wisdom that might have put
learned men to shame"
Pierre paused here and his eyes looked
out far away beneath the green gades, as
though he saw there some sight that filled
his soul with the unutterable longing of
sorrow.
Down there at that old gnarled tree,
she used to meet me every dav. Some
times, at sunset, think see her still :;
but | know it is only fancy. am
so afraid, as you listen to my poor talk,
you will think her rude and rough like
me.
You will think because she was char
coal-burner's daughter and because she
loved such man as | am, that her WAYS
must have been like my ways; but | tell
you, no. 1t is not in me TO have such
thoughts as she had, and to put them in
such noble words. And it is not in me to
learn things in sky, and herb, and tree,
that she learned. Every little leaf and
flower-cup told her its secret, and the stars
as they looked down on her, breathed in
TO her soul such thoughts of infinite love,
OF an ever yearning pity, and eternal glory,
that my heart would stop beating as list
ened to her.
"Was she beautiful you ask don't
know, sir. Her face was not like any face
have heard called beautiful in towns and
villages but once. in picture, saw a
face like hers. 1t was the picture of a
lay on the ground, with her hand resting
on book
"Mary Magdalen," said |.
ait might be, sir. Bot her name Won
know, was Elmire. I've made the woods
ring with her name many a time in the old
Joyous days, and in the sad times since.
I've whispered it to myself in prison, in
such bitterness as few men know. You
wouldn't think, sir, that she was a Girl
whom wicked man would dare to love
in wicked way. And yet that misery
came to her. If you were to climb to
the top OF that green knoll. and look west
ward over the slipping trees, you'd see the
smoke oil the village where he lived.
never go there now. The sight of the
place would set my brain on fire.
lie was farmers son, well to do: vile
and cruel as wolf; but clever. so the
scholmaster said, and rich, as all the world
knew.
lie erept into the wood, and came upon
her unawares, when she sat al work be.
meath the trees and lawned and cringed fo,
word from her. Or he threatened and
frightened her, when she came into ibe
village for fax and wool. All things. ALI
ways he tried, and he gained onlv her
quiet scorn, AID her untold oathing.
We wild children Of the woods have an
instinct which warns US ola hurtlul reptile
or poisonous plant, aud thus we avoid
them. though we know not their names
and though we could not, in our ignor lnce.
utter our reason for our fear. S, wtb
her; she hated this man from he first: and
one day, in our waDderngs, She tod me
she thought he would kill her. a, = snake
or wolf might when hungry or angry
l laughed at this. He dare not IN b-s
hand against thee, Elmire," said III
is Q coward. and he knows that | shonld
kill him IL he did but touch thee.n
"Indeed, my anger burned so fercely
against the william that ElnIire had with
iifflculty kept Us from blows. BIT for