The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-01-27

uiiu piufWJ uhnus WtTt fttttHtu out W uit
men with friendly pressure. His face was
covered with those wrinkles which are got in
open air. and which, rightly looked at, are
no more than sort of permanent mnburn.
ing such wrinkles heighten the stupidity Of
stupid faces, but to person like win, with
his clear eyes and smiling mouth, only give
another charm by testifying to a simple
and easy life. His talk was full Of wise say
ings. He had taste for other people, and
other people had taste for him. When the
valley was full of tourists in the season, there
were merry nights In wills srbor and his
views, which seemed whimsical TO his neigh
bors, were often admired by learned people
out Of town and colleges, Indeed, he had
very noble old age, and grew daily better
known; 80 that his fame was heard Of in the
cities of the plain; and young men who had
been summer travellers spoke together In
cafes of Will o. the Mill and his rough phi
iosophy. Many and many an invitation, you
may be sure, he had, but nothing could
tempt him from his upland valley. He would
shake his head and smile over his tobacco
pipe with deal of meaning. "You come
too late, he would answer. II am a dead
man now; have lived and died already
Fifty years ago you would have brought my
heart into my mouth; and now you do no,
even tempt me. But that is the object Of
long living, that man should cease to care
about life" And again: There is only one
difference between a long life and good
dinner; that, in the dinner, the sweets come
LAST Or once more: "When was boy |
was bit puzzled, and hardly knew whether
it was myself or the world that was curious
and worth looking into Now, know it 10
myself, and stick to that"
He never showed any symptoms of frailty,
but kept stalwart and firm TO the last; but
they say he grew less talkative toward the
end, and would listen to other people by tn.
hour in an amused and sympathetic silence.
Only, when he did speak it was more to tile
point, and more charged with old experience
He drank a bottle of wine gladly; above all
at sunset on the hilltop or quite late at night
under the stars in the arbor. The sight of
something attractive and unattainable sea-
soned his enjoyment, he would say; and he
professed he had lived long enough to admire
candle all the more when he could compare
it with planet.
One night, in his I'D year, he awoke in bed
in such uneasiness of body and mind that he
arose and dressed himself and went out to
mediate in the arbor. 1t was pitch dark,
without star; the river was swollen, and
the wet woods and meadows loaded the air
with perfume. 1t had thndered during the
day, and it promised more thunder for
the morrow. A murky, sitting night
for man Of 72. Whether it was
the weather or the wakefuiness, or
some little touch of fever in his old limbs,
Willis mind was besieged by tumultuous ami
crying memories. His boyhood, the night
with the fat young man, the death or his
adopted parents, the summer days with Mar
jory, and many Of those small circumstances.
which seem nothing to another, and are yet
the very gist of a mans own life to himself
things seen, words heard, looks misconstrue'
arose from their forgotten corners ant
usurped his attention. The dead themselves
were with him, not merely taking part il
this thin show of memory that defiled befor-
his brain, but revisiting his bodily senses as
they do in profound and vivid dreams. The
fat young man leaned his elbows on the table
opposite; Marjory came and went with an
apronful of flowers between the garden and
the arbor; he. could hear the old parson
knocking out his pipe or blowing his resonant
nose. The tide of his consciousness ebbed
and flowed he was sometimes half asleep and
drowned in his recollections of the past,
and sometimes he was broad awake wonder
ing ut himself But about the middle
Of the night he was startled by the
voice of the dead miller calling to him out of
the house as he used to do on the arrival OF
custom. The hallucination was so perfect
that VIII sprang from his seat and stood
listening for the summons to be repeated; and
as he listened he became conscious of another
noise besides the brawling of the river and
the ringing in his feverish ears II was like
the stir of the horses and the creaking of
harness, as though carriage with an i'm
patient team had been brought up upon the
road before the courtyard gate. At such an
hour, upon this rough and dangerous pass
the supposition was no better than absurd
and Will dismissed it from his mind, and re.
sumed his seat upon the arbor chair; and
sleep closed over him again like running
water He was once again awakened by the
dead millers call, thinner and moro spectral
than before; and once again he heard the
noise OF an equipage upon the road And SO
thrice and four times, the same dream, or the
same fancy, presented itself to his senses;
until at length, smiling to himself as when
one humors a nervous child, he proceeded
towards the gate to set his uncertainty at
rest.
From the arbor to the gate was no great
distance, and yet it took VIII some time; it
seemed as if the dead thickened around him
in the court, and crossed his path at every
step. For, first, he was suddenly surprised
by an overpowering sweetness of heliotropes
it was as if his garden had been planted with
this flower from end to end, and the hot
damp night had drawn for,A all their per.
fumes in a breath, Now the heliotrope had
been Marjoly's favorite flower, and since he,
death not one of them had ever been planted
In Wills ground.
81 must be going crazy" he thought. "Pooi
Marjory and her heliotropesn
And with that he raised his eyes towards
the window that had once been hers If Ii,
had been bewildered before, he was now al
most terrified; for there was a light in tn,
room; the window was an orange oblong q!
of yore, and the corner of the blind was lifted
and let fall as on the night when he stood ant
shouted to the stars in his perpexity. TIT
illusion only endured an instant, but it lef
him somewhat unnamed, rubbing his eye
and staring at the outline of the house anC
the black night behind it, While he thu
stood, and it seemed as if he must have stooS
there quite long time, there came a renewa
of the noises on the road, and he turned II
time to meet stranger, who was advancing
to meet him across the court There wa
something like the outline of great carriag
discernible on the road behind the stranger
and, above that, a few black pine tops, lik
30 many plumes.
"Master Willn asked the new conner, il
brief military fashion
THAT same, sir,n answered VIII. "Can
do anything to serve your
81 have heard you much spoken OF, Naste
VIII, T" returned the other, "nuch spoken o
and well. And though | have both hand
full of business / wish to drink bottle o
wine with you in your arbor. Before go
shall introduce myself"
Will led the way to the trellis and got
lamp lighted and a bottle uncorked. He Wa
not altogether unused TO such compli
mentary interviews and hoped little enoug
from this one, being schooled by many dis
appointments. A sort of cloud had settle
on his wits and prevented him from remen
bering the strangeness of the house. ii
moved like person in IFS sleep, and
seemed as if the lamp caught fire and tll
bottle came uncorked with the facility O
thought Still, he had some curiosity aboi
the appearance Of his. visitor and tried I
vain to turn the light into his face; either
| handled the lamp clumsly or there was
dimness over his eyes, but he could max
out little more than shadow at table wi
him. lie stared and stared at this shado'
as he wiped out the glasses and began to fe'
cold and strange about the heart. The S
ience weighed upon him, for he could hea
| Nothing now, not even the river, but Il
drumming of his own arteries in his ears.
| Heres 10 you, said the stranger rouShl,
Here is my service, SIR replied VIII
| slipping his wine, winch somehow tasva