Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-07-20

QOOutuc, were ticiS W 4clAii4 10 ~ NAo
gone foreverF
They will all renew themselves, dear
Mary said l. and there is one that VIII ever
keep tryst alike with thee and nature through
all seasons, if thou wilt but be true to one OF
US, and remain as now child OF nature
"a tear sprang to her eye, and then search
ing her pocket for her card case, she renlem-
bered an engagement to be present at Miss
Lawson's opening Of fall bonnets at o'clock
''And yet, dear, wild, wayward Mary, L
thought OF her now. You have probably
outlived this sort of thing. sir; but /, looking
at the moon, as ! fioated there upturned to
her yellow light, thought of the loved being
whose tears / knew would flow when she
heard of my singular fate, at once SO gro
tesque, yet melancholy TO awfulness.
And how often we have talsed, too, Of
that Carian shepherd who spent his damp
nights upon the bills, gazing as do on the
lusrous planet! Who VIII revel with her
amid those old superstationsf Who, from our
own unlegended woods, VIII evoke their yet
undetected haunting soiritsi Who peer with
her in prying scrutiny into natures laws,
and challenge the whispers q poetry from
the voiceless throat Of nlatterl Who laugh
merrily over the stupid guess work OF ped
ants, that never mingled with the inffuitude
OF nature, through love exhaustiess and all
embracing as we havel Poor girl! she viii
be companioniess.
LAS! communicates 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 NE, 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
Il felt chilly SIS this last reflection crossed
my mind, partly at thought OF the coroner,
partly at the idea Of Mary being unwiilingly
compelled to wear mourning for me, in case
of such disclosure of our engagement 1t
is a provoking thing for a girl Of 10 10 have
TO go into mourning for deceased lover az
tho beginning OF her second winter in the me-
tropoliS.
1.-The water, though, with my motionless
position, must have had something to do with
my chilliness- l see, sir, you think that l tell
my story with great levity; but indeed |
should grow delirious did I venture TO hold
steadily to the awfulness of my feelings the
greater part of that night. l think, indeed,
! must have been most of the time hysterical
with horror. for the vibrating emotions /
have recapitulated did pass through my
brain, even as have detailed them.
SBut as l now became calm in thought
summoned up again some resolution Of action.
Il VIII begin at that corner said Il, and
swim around the whole inclosure. Twill swim
slowly and again feel the sides of the tank
with my feet IF die I must, let me perish at
least from well directed though exhausting
effort, not sink from mere bottles WEAKNESS
in sustaining myself till the morning shall
bring relief.
The sides Of the place seemed to grow
higher as now kept my watery course beneath
them Il was not altogether q dead pull. !
had some variety of emotion IN making my
circuit When l swan II the shadow, it
looked to me more cheerful beyond in the
moonlight. When | swan in the moon
light l had the hone Of making some
discovery when / should again reach the
shadow. 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 well; there was such
a company of them; they We're so glad in their
luStrous revelry; and they had such space to
move in! 1 was alone, sad 10 despair in a
strange element. prisoned, and solitary
gazer upon their chorus And yet there was
nothing else with which l could hold COM
munionl
Il turned upon my breast and struck out
almost frantically once more The stars
were forgotten; the moon, the very world of
which l as yet formed part, my poor Mary
herself, were forgotten l thought only of
the strong man there perishing; of me in my
Iusty manhood, in the sharp vigor of my
dawning prime, with faculties llirnitabe,
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 thing !
could not and would not perish thus And
grew strong IN insoience 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 desoIafe, q doom SO dreary, sc
heart sickerlingi You mey laugh at the con-
tradiction if you viii, sir. but | felt that
could sacrifice my own life on the instant, TO
redeem another fellow creature from such
place of horror, from an end 50 piteous. My
soul and my vital spirit seemed in that des-
perzate moment to be separating; while one
in parting grieved over the deplorable fate
of the other.
And then / prayed l prayed, why or
wherefore l know not. It was not from fear
1t 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 SOU
within me.
as the calnnness that | nov felt, tor
pidity2 the torpidiJy that precedes dissolu-
ton, to the strong swimmer who, sinking
from exhaustion, must az last add bubble &c /
the waves as he suffocates beneath the ele- |
ment which now denied his mastery II il /
were so, how fortunate was 1t that my float |
ing rod at that moment attracted my atten-
ton as it dashed through the water by me. ]
saw on the instant thaoa fish had entangled /
himself in the wire moose. The rod quivered, /
plunged, came again 10 the surface, and rip /
pied the water as 1t shot in arrowy fight from 1
side 20 side of the tank. At last driven /
toward the southeast corner Of the reservoir I
the sInalfend seemed TO have got foul some
where. The brazen butt, which, every time /
the fish sounded, was thrown up 10 the moon,
now sank by its own weight, showing that |
the other end must befHst. But the corneged |
Ash, evidently anchored somewhere by that
short wire. fiouniered several times 70 the |
surface before thought of striking out 70 the
spot.
The water is low low. and toharably clear
You may see the very ledge there, sir, in
yonder corner, or which the small end Of my
'od rested when Esecured that pike with my
lands. l did not take hun from the sip
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