San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-07-23
THE WHISPERING TREE.

In the city of Cairo there once dwelt a
Christian merchant named Hanna who had
amassed a considerable fortune, so that envy
often turned its glances toward him. As is
usual, however, in this world, Hanna found
cause to complain of his condition. 1t was
true that he had fine house in the street of
the saddlemakers. that his furniture was
costly, that his slaves, pipes, mules and asses
were of the first quality. One thing was
wanted-a Son and heir to inherit his wealth
and continue hisname
Now, in an eastern story no sooner is this
difficulty mentioned than we can, as gen
eral rule, foresee that in some manner more
or less ingenious the much desired addition
to the hero's family is nhraculously made.
Sometimes pilgrimage is undertaken to
the tomb of a saint; sometimes prayers are
addressed directly to heaven; sometimes a
magician makes his appearance and gives
two children, on condition that at q certain
age he shah be allowed TO claim one and STAY it
for the purpose of some horrible incarnation;
it following as matter of course that he
chooses the favorite, and leaves the discon-
solate parent to cover his head with ashes, to
cl@the himself in sackoloth and to perform
all the heart breaking ceremonies of an
eastern mourning. The difficulty in the case
of Hanna was that he had no wife and was
determined never to get married, and, con-
sidering that he was past his seventieth year,
the determination can scarcely be called TN
wise
There was a mystery, however, in the life
of this Christian, which will explain in some
measure why he did not give himself up to
absolute and sullen despair. About half a
century before the period of which we speak
he had been traveller, had visited Hind and
Sind, with many other wonderful places, had
resided in Persia and sailed upon the Caspian
He would tell to one or two intimate friends
that when at lspahan he had loved and been
beloved by lady, whom he married and
lived with for nearly a year. A child was
born to them, a boy, on whom both showered
all the treasures of their affection. But it
happened, ons day, that they were in the
gardens IN the nelghborhood of the city, and
Hanna, feeling weary, went under some trees
to sleep, while his wife sat with the CHILD by
the side of a stream of water that danced
along through a grass fringed bed The
young mans slumber lasted some time. The
shadow which had protected him when he
lay down had moved away when he awoke.
Indsed, it was the sun playing upon his eye
lids that recalled him from the land of dreams.
He rose from the warm turf and called Ian.
guidly for Lisbet; but though be could sec
all across the meadow where he had left her
under a locust tree by the side of the water,
his eyes discerned no sign of life.
He went forward slowly, stretching his
arms and yawning, until he came to the
spot where the young mother had been sit
-, ha Of hn
of many feet, both of horses and men, and
ribband that had adorned the wrist Of the
child lay ON the ground. Fear of a calamity
came upon him. He gazed more eagerly
over the meadow, and beheld a track through
the grass as if body of horse had rushed
rapidly along. One loud cry of "Lisbetr'-,a
cry that burst in anguish from his lips, but
30 which he did not expect an answer-showed
that he understood what disaster had befallen
him. Hesprang on the track of the ravishers,
crossed the meadow, burst through little
screen of trees, and saw, on the extreme
limit of the plain, just fading from his view,
as it were, little moving cloud with a
cluster of sparkling rays of light above it.
The Turcomans were shaking their spears in
triumph as they entered upon the desert
with their prey.
Hanna nau never OBTAINED any reasonable
information as to the fate Of Lisbet. Per-
haps he did not do all that some heroic ma
lures would to recover her and the child he
sent messengers with offers of money to the
tribes; he even undertook a journey to the
stronghold of Jaffir Khan, but without sue
cess. The Turcomans hnted that perhaps
the charms of Lisbet had smitten some indie
pendent chief, who had carried her far away
into the wilderness After some years of vain
waiting, the extreme manifestations of grief
disappeared. Hanna resumed his commercial
enterprises, and at length became established
in Egypt, where he remained, buying and
selling, until wealth surrounded him. But
fifty years passed away, and he did not take
unto himself another wife,
So far he easily confded to the few whom
he called his friends and when these would
condole with him as to his childless position
he used TO smile strangely and insinuate that
there might yet be found an heir 10 inherit
what he amasSed. Yet he never admitted
that his hopes lay in the child of Lisbet, and
that he had some faint reason for believing
that he was not feeding upon a delusion.
The truth is that Hanna, who was a good,
Kind maR-made better and kinder by all his
miSfortunes-as he was travelling between
Bagdad and Damascus, several years after
the loss of LiSbet, fell in with a man who
begged for succor from amidst some bushes