Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-07-15

/ o.
is well-informed, pleasant young gentle
man. "For my part, have never yet got
ten rid of the idea that if one would really
find the end of the bow he would also find
! the treasure"
eyes, certainly" says Aunt Tina with a
smile, eff one could find the end of the
| bow"
"Mr. Monk" questioned sharp high
pitched voice at this moment, 'swhere do
you think that the end of the rainbow
is?"
Mr.. Monk turns his head to follow the
direction pointed out by the nervous
brown hand.
'That?" he repeated, with a mischiey-
Gus twinkle in his eye. "Why down Tur
ner's Point, to be sure.'
81 believe, Mr.. Monk said Aunt Tina
again, shat you told me that many beau
tiful stones of rare value had been found
in the rugged cliffs of the cannon"
eyes," returns Mr.. Monk. several fine
rubies, saphires and emeralds have been
picked up though none of late. / have
never been SO fortunate as to find one
myself" with a smile, ''but the guides who
were here before me stumbled upon an
exceedingly fine emerald in the gorge be-
low Turner's Point"
| All the way down to the the hotel the
words "Down Turner's Point to be sure?"
kept beating time syllable by syllable
through SWANS busy brain. ''Of course
it is" he reasons. where else could it
be? Why, hasn't he seen it with his own
eyes, resting against the biggest bowlder?
He has marked the place well. There is a
stunted pine at one side and a great
clump of laurel bushes, rhododendrons, as
Aunt Tina calls them. On the other there
is great rock that shines as if it is
streaked with silver, with here and there a
cluster of beautiful ferns and MOSES and
a tiny cascade trickling down its sides;
Ribbon cascade, Mr.. Monk calls it. Of
course the treasure is there and how he
does want it! Not so much for himself as
for Aunt Tina-whOm he loves as dearly
in spite of the thought that sometimes
she is a little too hard on him. But at
others how she does pet and humor him.
And oh, they are SO happy together. Hap
pier still, perhaps, because in all the
world they have only each other. And
there is Aunt Tina's book. How hard she
has worked on it, day and night, and how
much she does want it published! But the
hard-hearted publishers, to whom many
pages Of the snowy manuscript have been
sent have declared that they can't touch it
till partial least of the money is forthcom-
ing to pay for some sort of plates. Swain
wonders what kind of plates they can be
| and what in the world dishes have to do
with printing. He has Ventured to ask
Aunt Tina once, but, being absorbed in
her work she has only answered ''stereo-
type plates" and so he is as much in the
dark as ever.
If he could only get that money for
Aunt Tina, which she has never yet been
able to get herself, for Aunt Tina is only
a poor teacher with a meager salary
At o'clock this same afternoon, when
every guest of the house is enjoying his
or her siesta, shut in the seclusion of
their rooms, slight figure clad in flannel
knickerbOckers, with a sailor waist, of the
same, issues, stick in hand from side
entrance.
Ten minutes later the same figure
makes its way along the railroad track to
where small footpath turns off to the
/ left, with stunted pine near at hand
! labeled: 'To Turner's Point"
''It don't look SO very awful" exclaims
Swain, as the path followed. He stands
at length beside clump of dwarfed
pines, and looks down upon the river,
much more peaceful here than 100 yards
above, where its fury seems to have been
finally expanded in the last of the great
cascades.
But i'll spite of this peace and quiet
the scene formed by the stupendous
masses of granite upheaved on every
side with their bare and frowning lodges
and the sheer PERCEPTIONS fall of their
rocky sides for nearly 1000 feet, is
enough to inspire even the boldest with
fear.
A strange feeling of awe and dread
steals for a moment into the child's heart,
and he partially turns as though he would
go back. The next, apparently ashamed
of even this faint show of cowardice, he
grasps his stick firmly and begins to
climb downward.
There is no regular path, but he catches
sight here and there of a trodden tuft of
grass and the shredded twigs of ash and
laurel, that show plainly where the foot
and hand of the daring climber have left
their prints.
Very cautiously Swain picks his way at
first; then, as he finds 1t easier than he
has thought, he grows holder. Finally,
when about three hundred feet down,
projecting ledge stops his further pro-
gress. Kneeling down, he crawls to the
edge and looks over.
THE very place!" he cries excitedly,
"and just know it is down therer'
But the ''down there" is fully $50 feet
beneath him, and is another projecting
ledge, but much larges, and thickly COW
cred with ferns and MOSES, over which
thread-Hke cascade trickles.
AS he leans farther over tiny some
thing that glitters in the suns rays
catches his eye,
It is imbedded in the soil of the ledge a
foot or so beneath him.
Reaching down he quickly grasps it,
and then with an exultant little cry
! springs to his feet. But the next mo-
ment the cry of exultation is changed to
one of supplication and terror, for in the
sudden spring his feet have come in con-
tact with treacherous tuft that is barely
hanging to the cliffs edge. As they
press against it it gives away, and the
next moment he goes headlong over the
ledge.
Up at the hotel all is confusion and ex-
citement, for he has been missed, and the
mother aunt, in her agony OF terror is |