The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1888-06-22
THE TERRIBLE TREE.

Twas studying, smoking and gener.
ally running my constitution IN the
little college town OF N, one fierce
winter when a settled apathy took
possession OF me. Host my interest
in everything, Frequently, to rouse
my dormant energies, | walked down
to the beach and plunged in the icy
surge; but it awaited nothing. Books,
cigars-aIl were Intellectual. Life look
ed a dresry waste. The cold, object
less fields, covered with snow, seemed
TO me to image forth the future. Like
most very young men Ihad exhausted
sensation. AS l sat by my little table
one evening in January | ran over in
my mind the possible stlmulants l
could use to lash my dormant sersi-
bilities into life. ! could not take to
drinking, because, like Dick S~wiveller,
had taken to that before. could
not take opium; that made me deadly
sick, and subsequently sleepy. Was
there any mental stinulent, such as
love, hate, remorse, that / had not
tried2 No. l hated everybody. ]
had been in love with all the college
widows" and several besides. "Man
pleasured me not; no, nor women
either" Remorsel / had disobeyed
my father and grieved my mother.
Ifelt, / suppose, suitable remors for
these things, but they we're peccadil.
loes and did not answer.
Remorsel-the word pleased me.
should | stick a knife into the fat
sides OF my landlady2 Would her in.
noeent blood crying to heaven and
Der last gasp calling me "Murdererl''
make my pulse beat quieker2 No,
she was old, cheating, asthmatic. She
would have had no innocent blood to
cry with. She could not have cried
@MurdererR audibly, on account OF
the asthma, and / think she would
have welcomed death as IN agreeable
exchange from a life spent in taking
boarders. Where o the victim
whom / could offer up to my dying
~sensationY What Iphigenia knelt be-
fore the dull CLEAN Of my languid
knife? Where-Tap, tap. tap! as If
= ghostly finger touche say window
pane.
started Yes. | actually started.
The ocean IN January had greeted my
numbed frame as ii it had been q
warm yapor bath. Thoughts Of MUIR
der. 81 poison, OF love, of fame lad
crept through my veins as languidly
Is q thought OF paying an old debt.
What these things had not done a tap
did.
1 looked out-nothing there. The
cold noon looked down on the cold
sarth; the cold snow surrounded the
cold whKe house; the leafiess trees
outlined themselves on the cold sky,
the cold charity student, shivering in
his thin coat. went BY. making cold.
ness visible.
Tap, tap. tap
k0r tho first time ! saw-would
that bad never seen it again-I saw
the tree An old, lightning-strnck,
dead sycamore. with two branches
LETT, and a charred top with one hoie
burned 10 it BY the lightning. There
u stood. i horrible cyclop, tossing its
two skeleton arms in the air, and
looked 1t me with its one eye. One
arm LEANED oyer towards nay window
and q skeleton sorsfnzsr tapped on
the class.
knew what It was. A demon lived
"a thaf tree and wanted to make my
acquaintance. nodded 20 the tree.
should b happy 10 make the gen
flenaan's acquaintance. a grst oil
wlnd surged through aud through ths
tree and n horrible lila hap died
away ID the aie.
had seen the tree before, o. course,
There II had stood q year before my
ghanbar window. but / had never
seen II a. saw Il "a night. Former
" to me IL WAS d bngaed. dead tree
Now Y wna & FAMILIAR. companion
Aele demon. determined to gel
sethethink out 81 that tree.
just as had admitted the trae Il
M ~gonAdepee the door bell rang
Loud aportunae TO 81 iat in. th'
ake thtoueh the qaivafin
Waa convinced WAS