Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-03-15
NO.. 6S.
Gales ano Skcttbes.
TAKING A MEAN ADVANTAGE.
Continued from Yesterday }

The light of early morning is reputed to
be most trying to beauties whose faces be-
gin to show the ravages of time. and sure
ly never does the face of earth look so sad.
so worn, so pathetcally faded as in the
twilight Of dawn. As one bv one its famil-
lar features emerge from darkness, how
commonplace how flat, how .homely they
appear. 1t is as ifthe imagination, piqued
by the veil of darkness. had over night in
vested the earth with beauty not its own
Even so a doting fancy sometimes touches
the faces of absent friends with an ideal
grace not truly theirs. How sharp the
sudden disappointment mt meeting, and
how poor the heart. if the eyes do not
well over with a self-reproachful impulse
of more tenderness for the very disap-
| pointment sake.
! But, sooth to say, the young people with
whose doings we are now concerned took
less sentimental view of the matter.
Their criticisms upon the appearance of
Mother Earth As she emerged from the
bedclothes were rather sharp than SYM
pathiZing. One of the Young men. com
menting on her seedy appearance, said
she looked as if she had heen on an all
night spree, and another offered to bet
something that she had . bad headache.
What contrast there is between the
two twilights of evening and dawn" said
Sade Allen, to whom will take the lib
erty of replying, since no one else did,
that it is just like the difference between
the warm dimness of reminiscence and the
iearsome obscurity of anticipation. that is
in the minds of those who are old, like the
earth.
GLOW terribly close men do stick to the
l. l. n
that ant going out to his field 1t makes
one feel dreadflly unsympathizng and in
human to be up so high. Men do seem So
absurdly small"
"Why you're only thousand feet up
reioined another. "lt's lucky the people
in heaven don't get heightened at that
rate" '.
viii and Violet had wandered away
from this group off, testers and philosophers,
and were standing on the extreme north
ern edge of the mountain-top, where the
cliff descends almost plumb to the mead
ows eight hundred feet below
What ails you Violet !? What makes
you so sad this morning?" he asked.
"Don'tyou know ?n she replied, without
turning her eyes from the landscape.
whose dreariness was reflected in her
young face at that moment.
The tactics of bargainers, each seeking
to make the other commit himself to the
first definite proposition, are not more GU
rious than those of friends who have Il
grievance between them, each trying to
make the other be the first to define it.
81 suppose you are fretting over the Cos
sip about my drinking" he said finally.
She made no reply beyond slight
m N
his statement and tenderly reminding him
that he must not think it was himself but
his fault that she was at odds with. What
subtle alchemy is that of love, that can
always separate in its wondrous crucible
the offense from the offender, although
they seem never so closely identified.
Perchance never yet was a soul so evil
and besotted but that to some eye. blinded,
or shall we say supernaturally endowed,
by love, his depravity seemed Incidental,
unessential and his real self loveable.
Il don't know what the stories about me
are pursued Will. but I've no doubt on
general principles that they are twice as
bad as the facts.
Very likely" answered Violet listless-
ly.
II know you regard these things differ
emily from what | do" continued Will,
feeling that he was having unusually up
hill work making Il smooth plea, but I
can't profess very deep sense of guilt
merely because I've taken something with
a friend now and then
To this she made no reply at all. He
confessed himself nonplussed. She had
always before been eager to discuss the
/ subject of his habits with him and to ply
him with arguments. and that she was not
angry the way she leaned on his arm told
him Had she intended to excite his con-
science she could have chosen no better
tactics. but in truth tactics of any sort
were far enough from her mind. Her
listnessneSs was simply the result of des-
pondency and Encouragement as to any
prospect of his reform, which had come
over her since his recent performances.
She loved him as much "a ever Nothing
was likely to make any difference with that.
but her love was pitched in the lower oc-
tave of sorrow.
They joined the rest Of the party anil
Violet being claimed by Mary, who want
ed her to assist in botanixing little, Will
wandered off and getting under the lee of
a big rock puzzled compunctiously over
Niolet's queer resignedness of manner.
He did not generally relish overmuch hav-
.
inc her preach teetotalism to him, but he
would ten times rather listen to the most
violent diatribe on that subject than have
her assume this new style with him..
4 half hour dragged along and the East
was already streaked and dappled with
reds and yellows. when he was startled to
his feet by Il shrill scream, sounding there
on the mountain top as if it came from the
air around. A dozen steps brought him to
the spot where he had last seen the girls.
resting amid bivouac of shawls. As he
rushed in from one direction Mary and
Violet had appeared from another. 1t was
Mary who had screamed. Violet followed
her more slowly. apparently excited but
very pale.
''She was reaching into a crevice for
some moss and rattlesnake stung her"
gasped Mary and instantly her horror
stricken expression was reflected in four
blanched faces. There was pause in
which nobody said anything. Then SADIE
Allen exclaimed.
I'VE must take her home instantly and