Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-07-05
CHAPTER XIV.
TIE FRENcHMAN DIES.

However, if l expected my Frcnchman
to sit very long silent, he soon undeceived
me by beginning to complain in his tremu-
lous, aged voice of his weakness and aching
limbs.
"'Tis the terrible cold that has affected
me" said he, while his head nodded nerv-
ously. II feel the rheumatism in every
bone. There is no weakness like the rheu-
matte, have heard, and It's true, It's true!
1t may lay me along-yes, by the Virgin, It's
rheumatism-what elsep' Here he was inter
rupted by long fit of coughing, and when
it was ended he turned to address me again,
but looked at the bulkhead on my right, as if
his vision could not fix me. "But my capers
are not over, he cried, setting up his rick
ETY.. shrill throat; mo, no! Nivc ramourl
Vive 10 joie! The sun is coming; the sun is
the fountain of life; ay, mon brave, there
are some shakes in these stout legs yetv' He
shook his head with fine air of cunning
and knowingness grinning very oddly; and
then falling grave with a startling sudden
ness, he began to dribble out piratical love
story he had once before favored me with
describing the charms of the woman with
horrid leer, his head nodding with the nerv-
Gus affection of age all the time, while he
looked blindly in my direction-a hideous
and yet pitiful objectl
| could not say that his mind was gone.
but he talked with many breaks for breath,
and not very coherently, as though the office
of his tongue was performed by habit rather
than memory, so that he often went far
astray and babbled into sentences that had
no reference to what had gone before, though
on the whole | managed. to collect what he
meant. l was sure be had not power enough
of vision to observe me in the dim reddish
light of the cook room, and this being SO he
could not know l was present more particu-
larly as Re could not hear me; yet he persisted
in his poor babble, which was n behavior in
him that, more than even the matter of his
speech, persuaded me of his imbecility.
He made no reference to our situation,
and in solemn truth believe his memory
retained no more than few odds and ends
of the evil story of his hfe-like bits of tar
nished lace and a rusty button or two lying
in the bottom of a dark chest that has long
been emptied of the clothes it once held.
But my condition made such heavy de-
mands upon my thoughts that had very
much less attention to give to this surprising
phenomenon of senility than its uncommon
merits deserved. Ithas puzzled every mem
Der of the faculty that l have mentioned it
to, the superstition being that, given the case
Of suspended animation, there is no waste,
and the person would quit his stupor with
the same powers and aspect as he possessed
when he entered it, though it lasted a thou
sand years. But granting there is no waste,
Time is always present, waiting to settle ac-
counts when the sleeper lifts his head. There
may be an artificial interval, during which
the victim might show as my pirate did-but
the poised load of years is severed on a sud-
den by the scythe and becomes superincum-
bent, and with the weight comes the trans
formation; and this theory, as the only eye
witness Of the marvellous thing, win hold
and maintain while / have breath in my body
to support It'll
] left him Cabling to himself sometimes