Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-11

the gradual approach of the ardently de-
sired harvest-time. During whole after
moons he rambled through the fields ex-
amining the oats, barley and rye, plucking,
stripping, feeling the blades, brushing
away carefully the caterpillars, going into
raptures over any unexpected vigor,
equally depressed by any apparent etiola-
ton, scrutinizing necessarily the sky and
the direction of the wind, and suffering
the greatest uneasiness at the slightest
equivocal symptom of a. change in the
temperature. A little later, towards hay
lng-time, his companions found him one
day seated on the bank of pond, gazing
ecstatically on the rank vegetation which
announced Individually the Immediate ap-
proach of summer. Amid the large leaves
OF the water-iilies emerged the head and
back of an enormous frog, which turned
its greenish eye lazily to the sun. Divide
had at first taken pleasure in watching the
stupid repose of the animal in the warmth
of the water, inasmuch as it was an infal-
llble sign of constant fine weather: but,
little by little, as he gazed on the drowsy
scene, the glaucous eye finally fixed his
own, till ne sank into a profound condition
of hypnetism.
His companions, arousing him from his
magnetic slumber, bore him away forcibly
to the clearinghouse to celebrate the
happy issue of all his sufferings, and his
certain and complete recovery.
But, alas for the prophetic assurances of
animate and inanimate nature! A hurri-
cane on the coast, a sudden change of the
wind to the north, the genial warmth of
summer giving place Unexpectedly to icy
GOODNESS, with alternatives of terrible
showers, struck a mortal blow to the
health and hopes of the unfortunate bow.
With unheard Of rapidly he relapsed
into his former condition, accompanied by
alarming symptoms of quick consumption.
In less than week his loosely-hanging
garments betrayed the havoc which the
dread disease was making in the emaciated
form, and the cough, which had returned
at first weak and periodically, became
more frequent, continual, rough, and rack
ing, till he fell once more Evid and ex-
hausted on his narrow couch.
Yielding obediently to the treatment
prescribed for him, he swallowed unmur-
muringly all that was ordered, but shook
his head with pathetic gesture which
seemed to ask whether, even though they
overcame temporarily the implacable dis
ease which was sapping his life, they would
be able to protect the threatened harvest.
At his request, instead of the delicacies
ordinarily carried to the sick, they brought
him sheaVes of wheat, and finding it small
and slckly looking, ne despaired of ever
seeing it ripen.
Then, although the wounded pride OF
the peasant had held out thus far against
petitioning ''the old people" to shorten the
period of his absence, in the constant de-
cline of his forces and the increased deiec.
ton OF his spirits he was tormented by the
| desire OF finding some means of inducing
his parents, whom he loved in spite OF
their seltShness, to send for him of their
| own accord.
lie conceived the idea of sending them
his picture, purposely bringing out in
CHASTITY relief his sunken cheeks, cavernous
eyes and spectral appearance, so that his
| mother would hasten with bleeding heart
| to take him home at once.
But, IN consequence of the inclement
weather, the ltinerant artist who had been
operating IN the courtyard had folded his
tent, and Divide abandoned his project as
the unbelievable agony began.
Failing into resigned melancholy,
which gradually deepened into a weary
somnolence and then into constantly in.
creaslng numbness, he ceased to struggle
| against the current of the River of Death,
but with torpid faculties and dulled senses
glided gently along, drawing nearer and
! nearer each moment to the silence and
darkness of the tomb.
Although his sight was dimmed and his
| ears humming, although blind and deaf to
the exterior world, he still perceived in
the vestiges of his expiring thought and
memory the distant voices of the loved
ones in his dear native land, and lived
| over, In imagination, as in the first stage
OF his illness, the daily routine of his
home-life.
The hallucination was ineffably consol-
ing, for he saw at length, with supreme
JOY, the yellow sea of grain, undulating in
the breeze and flashing with a million
sparks of light in the blaze of the noon
day sun, stretching away to the farthest
edge of the blue horizon. And one morn
ing, just at the break of day, after having
dreamed all night of the long expected
harvest-day, he heard in his sleep the
sharpening of the scythes and sickles, and
al bhS luhuit VI the busiest 0dy OF the
season.
The harvest TRANSPORTED, he leaped
from his bed and rushed from the room,
chanting in delirious enthusiasm the sonor.
Gus song of the reapers as they march
gayly to their task. Bending over the soil
he saluted that which, in his delirium,
seemed TO him the crimson splendor of a
magnificent sunrise, although in reality
torrents of rain were pouring on his culver
ing frame; and, swinging aloft his bony
arms, he reaped, without rest or relaxa.
ton, until, clasping the imaginary sheaves
with rapture to his breast, he sank ex-
hausted on the humid earth
"A letter from the boym Setting down
the foaming pail which she had Just
brought in from the milking, the farmers
wife ran TO meet the postman, breaking
with trembling haste the seal of the large
envelope which the carrier held out to her.
and on which she did not recognize the
skillful hand of her son Divide.
And as the farmer from his haymow
called out in his usual laconic fashion:
!" Is the gunner well?n
With one great sob of remorseful anguish.
the mother answered:
"He is dead"