Milford chronicle., 1889-07-19

that Carian shepherd who spent his damp
nights upon the hills, gazing as do on the
lustrous planet Who will revel with her
amid those old superstitionsl Who, from our
own unlegended woods, viii evoke their yet
undetected haunting spiritsi Who peer with
/ her in prying scrutiny into natures laws,
and challenge the whispers OF poetry from
the voiceless throat Of matteri Who laugh
merrily over the stupid guess work Of ped
ants, that never mingled with the infinitude
Of nature, through love exhaustless and all
embracing, as we havel Poor grill she viii
be companionless.
"Alasl companionless forever-save in the
exciting stages Of some brisk Irritation. She
will live hereafter by feeding other hearts
with loves lore she has learned from me, and
then, Pygmalion like, grow fond Of the
images she has herself endowed with sem
blance of divinity. How anxious she will be
lest the coroner shall have discovered any Of
her notes in my pocket
II felt chilly as this last reflection crossed
my mind, partly at thought Of the coroner.
partly at the idea Of Mary being unwillingly
compelled to wear mourning for me, in case
OF such disclosure of our engagement. It
is provoking thing for a girl Of 10 to have
to go into mourning for deceased lover at
the beginning Of her second winter in the me
tropolis.
"The water, though, with my motionless
position, must have had something to do with
my chilliness. see, sir, you think that tell
my story with great levity; but indeed
should grow delirious did l venture to hold
steadily to the awfulness of my feelings the
greater part Of that night. think, indeed,
| must have been most Of the time hysterical
with horror, for the vibrating emotions
have recapitulatcd did pass through my
brain, even as l have detailed them
"But as now became calm In thought ]
summoned up again some resolution Of action.
81 will begin at that corner said p, and
swim around the whole Enclosure. will swim
slowly and again feel the sides Of the tank
with my feet If die ] must, let me perish at
least from well directed though exhausting
effort, not sink from mere bottles weariness
in sustaining myself till the morning shall
bring relief
1.-THE sides Of the place seemed to grow
higher as / now kept my watery course beneath
them. Il was not altogether a dead pull
had some variety OF emotion in making my
circuit When | swan in the shadow, it
looked to me more cheerful beyond in the
moonlight When / swan in the moon.
light 1 had the hope of making some
discovery when should again reach the
shadow. l turned several times on my back
to rest just where those wavy lines would
meet. The stars looked viciOusly light TO me
from the bottom Of that we'll; there was such
a company of them; they were so glad in their
lustrous revelry; and they had such space to
move inl l was alone, sad to despair in a
strange element, prisoned, and a solitary
gazer upon their chorus And yet there was
nothing else with which could hold COM
munion
II turned upon my breast and struck out
almost frantically once more The stars
were forgotten; the moon, the very world of
which as yet formed part, my poor Mary
herself, were forgotten. / thought only Of
the strong man there perishing; of me in my
lusty manhood, in the sharp vigor of my
dawning prime, with faculties illimitable,
with senses all alert, battling there with
physical obstacles which men like myself had
brought together for my undoing. The Eter
nal could never have willed this thingl
could not and would not perish thus. And
grew strong in insolence of self trust, and
laughed aloud as dashed the sluggish water
aside.
"Then came an emotion of pity for myself
of wild, wild regret; of sorrow, oh, infinite,
for fate so desolate, doom so dreary, so
heart sickeningl You may laugh at the con
tradiction If you will, sir, but l felt that ]
could sacrifice my own life on the instant, to
redeem another fellow creature from such
place Of horror, from an end so piteous. My
soul and my vital spirit seemed in that des
perate moment to DO separating; while one
in parting grieved over the deplorable fate
Of the other.
"And then l prayed 1 prayed, why or
wherefore know not 1t was not from fear
It could not have been in hope The DAYS of |
miracles are passed, and there was no natural |
law by whose interposition could be saved |
did not pray; it prayed of itself, my soul |
within me.
WAS the calmness that now felt, tor. |
pidityl the torp4dity that precedes dissolu- |
ton, to the strong swimmer who, sinking |
from exhaustion, must at last add bubble to |
the waves as he suffocates beneath the Gle |
ment which now denied his mastery If it |
were so, how fortunate was it that my float. /
ing rod at that moment attracted my atten-
ton as it dashed through the water by me. ] |
saw on the instant that fish had entangled |
himself in the wire moose. The rod quivered, |
plunged, came again to the surface, and rip |
pied the water as it shot in arrowy fight from
toward the southeast corner of the reservoir,
the small end seemed to have got foul some
where. The brazen butt, which, every time
the fish sounded, was thrown up to the moon,
now sank by its own weight, showing that
the other end must be fast. But the cornered
fish, evidently anchored somewhere by that
short wire, houndered several times to the
surface before thoughtof striking out to the
spot.
"The water is low now, and tOlerably clear
You may see the very ledge there, sir, IN
yoAder corner, on which the small end of my
rod rested when l secured that pike with my
hands l did not take him from the slip
Moose, however, but, standing upon the ledge, |
handled the rod in a workmanlize manner as
flung that pound pickerel over the iron
'ailing upon the top Of the parapet. The
'od, as l have told you, barely reached from
he railing to the water. 1t was heavy,
trong bass rod, and when discovered that
he fish at the end Of the wire made a strong
nough knot to prevent me from drawing
ny tackle away from the railing around
which it twined itself as l threw, why, as
'ou can at once see, had but little difficulty
n making my way up the face of the wall
With such assistance
1.-THE ladder you see dashed to the iron rail
ng is in the identical spot where thus made
ny escape; and, for fear Of similar accidents,
hey have placed another one In the CORE
ponding corner Of the other compartment Of
he tank ever since my remarkable nights
overture in the lonesome waters Of the
eservoir. Charles Fenno Hoffman In Swim
on's Story Teller.
The author Of "Don Quixote" Is still re-
giously commemorated by ais countrymen.
very year on the anniversary Of Cervantes
cath, April D, the Spanish academy attends
mass TO bis memory in the Convent Of the |