St. Landry democrat., 1888-12-01

passion that could neither be con
trolled or stemmed, and that defeated
itself. The thought IF a man himsel
possessed Of great riches living hare
and grinding life of poverty, the very
idea of him waiting day after day, yeal
after year, for the realization of 6
area1n was fancy so anonymously
ridiculous and pathetic that was glad
to have my last remembrance of him
associated with something SO tenderly
human IS the love of the stalwart young
mountaineer for the shy little maiden
and the picture they made as he walked
beside her up the mountain.
| [ thought had seen the last of them,
but happening q week or two later to be
fishing for black bass in the mountain
streams, I unexpectedly found myself
ct dusk in deep gap at whose further
end tloated welcome smoke from a
chimney. fhastened toward it, when, to
my surprise, / recognized in the man
sitting by the door, gazing up and down
the valley with a rapt look that had
something wistful and something almost
prophetic in it, the Cresus of Boomtown.
He came forward to greet me, and l
saw, framed in the doorway, the pretty
girl whom in my fancy | had likened to
d mountain pink.
It little matters how came to linger
on day after day. or how my host, won
out of his reserve, would talk for hours
IF his golden dream, and of how, some
day, he would see the great city built
within his peaceful valley and hear the
great trains as they Numbered by. lg-
norant, ill-taught, he had yet managed
to get some books, in which he had
spelled, out syllable by syllable and word
by word, the history of Chicago and
| Birmingham, the boom towns OF the
| West and South, and he believed they
were but auguries OF the fulfillment of
his own wild dream. The idea had
fastened SO on his poor half-crazed brain
that he could not live without it. He
hoped for nothing, believed nothing,
loved nothing save that golden future
in which lie lived.
They would have robbed me-" he
said one day, speaking of the auction,
''but l stopped 'em just in time en-
saved it ALL"
His wife and daughter not only did
not sympathize with his dream but
heartily disapproved Of it.
II don't take no stock in it, said his
wife, fat, easy-tempered woman, San
think Jim ought to be ashamed of his
self, an him perfesser, too! An
furthermo', he's breakin' of Ally's
heart count OF not a-favorin' of Reuben,
that is the likeliest young fellow on the
mountain ....
Hardly day, indeed, passed that the
young mountaineer did not find his way
into the dim valley, where his wooing
would have prospered happily enough
except for Jim's dream Of wealth.
''Let be, let be-" he would say queru-
lousy in answer to his wife's entreaties
and Ally's tears. ''Ally'll be rich some
day, an then she can pick an choose"
He could not be made to see that the
little maiden had already chosen, and
guided by loves divinest wisdom had
found that true and loyal heart is the
best thing any woman, be she princess
or peasant, can win.
And so left them. AS Preached the
head Of the little valley I paused and
turned to say farewell once more. Half
hidden by the vines upon the little gal
lery, I fancied [ could see Ally with
her head nestled against her lover, and
/ smiled, knowing the grief that weeps
itself out upon the breast of love is
already half comforted, and sees the
rainbow through its tears. Asolitary
figure in the growing dusk Jim stood,
looking down the defile with rapt ex-
preston on his face, and / knew his
thoughts were in the future he would
never see, and heard him say once
more as he had said to the jeers of his
companions:
1T will come. It's bound to. An
kin wait. IN. 0. Picayune.