The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-09-11
HOW He BECAME YOUNG.
from the soanish.l

/ met, at the outskirts of Berunegui, in
the San Bias mining region, not far from
the town of Legutiano, company of vii
layers who were following the body of a
child to the cemetery. The little corpse
reclined upon a cushion surrounded by
flowers, and, as is customary in that coun-
try, was borne upon the head OF an old
woman. Moved by idle curiosity, I in
quired whose child it was.
''No one knows, sir" replied a villager;
sit was found, alive and naked, there in
the glen some two years ago was taken to
the house OF Gussurrandi and continued,
little by little, shrinking, shrinking, and
falling away, until it became like new
born infant, finally ceased to nurse, and
died. Stranger still, its face wrinkled like
an old mans, and its fingers are burned
and stained like those of one in the habit
of smoking pipe"
The details aroused my curiosity, and l
joined the party in order to obtain view
of the strange corpse. Before it was de-
posted in the grave, while the women
wept and prayed, / examined it. The vii
lager was right; the body certainly pre-
ance. Imagine a newly born child, the
forehead and cheeks marked with hard,
callous wrinkles, the half-opened eyes re-
tanning an expression of marked intelli-
gence, and the upper portion OF the thumb
and index-fnger of each hand yellow and
discolored like those of an old smoker.
The child being buried, l returned with
1.-The party to Berunegui to pass the night
with the Gussurrandi family, being well
acquainted with them.
"What did that child die OFF" l asked
my hosts.
must have been a case of witchcraft, for a
stranger thing never happened. When
we first found the child it ate bread, meat
and pottage; afterward the four teeth it
had fell out, it quit eating, seemed to lose
all knowledge of persons and things, and
we were compelled to suckle it, and in the
last DAYS OF its life it lost even the power
TO do this. When first discovered it
seemed well-sized child, but it gradually
shrank to half its original size. The ex-
preston of its eyes was remarkably intel
ligent; it acted at times as If 1t wished to
speak, seemed to understand perfectly all
that was said, and appeared continually la
boring under some mysterious and terrible
agitation"
'And you have no idea as to where it
came from ?'
"Not the slightest. One day, on return
ing from work we found it, quite naked,
amidst heap of old clothing. 1t aroused
our pity, we took it in and cared for it.
Among the clothing there was bundle
OF papers and an old pipe"
where are these Objects?"
81 have them all in a box" replied my
shrrt / I
examined them closely. One day showed
them to the priest, but he told me
they were written in Biscayan, and he
could not understand them"
Bring them! Bring themw l cried
excitedly.
Il will bring them, but will you read
them all, every bit, to us?"
Yes, friend Gussurrandi, all, and will
make all as plain as possible"
SO, after supper, lamp was lighted and
placed at my side, and, after the men had
filled and lighted their pipes and all taken
seats around me, unrolled the bundle of
papers given me by my host. 1t was com
posed OF many leaves of different sizes,
ages, and styles OF writing. | arranged
them in order, and, with ever-increasing
establishment and curiosity to myself as
well as my listeners, read the following:
The Goth of August, 1875, completed
my eighty-fifth year, and | found myself
in the kitchen OF my beautiful home.
seated at the table with Don Juan Man
uel de Ursubil, famed empiric, man
OF great ability and reconcile knowledge.
whom L had known intimately from
youth. Nv children and grandchildren,
after celebrating the anniversary of nv
birth, had retired to their homes. The
empiric, myself, and an old serving-wo-
man, who waited upon me- were alone in
the house. 1t was l o'clock in the
morning, we bad smoked thirty-four pipes
of tobacco and drunk five jars of cider,
and, though at that time / was rugged as
an oak tree and OF an exceptional consti-
tuition, so much smoking and drinking
caused my head to spin.
The empiric was even worse than nv
self. For more than an hour ne talked
increasingly of humors, clavicles, systems.
plasters, and other things of which l un-
deTstood not word. | listened silently.
"You do not answer me-" he finally
said
What can l answer ."
you might say something, man. What
are you thinking DIP"
''That am very old and shall not last
much longer"
Juan Manuel struck the table with his
fist, and, with loud laugh, exclaimed:
Not much longer'-what folly Why.
you can live as long as the fancy strikes
you"
Truly"
"Surelv. I have a secret of everlasting
life; but | fear the inquisition and the
priests, if they learned oft. | would be
taken for sorcerer and it would go hard
with me-"
"Juan Manuel, are you telling me the
truth p
The exact truth. All, if could but
find one who did not wish to die"
"You could easily find many"
"You are mistaken. Men are peculiar
in their modes OF reasoning; they fear
death, but they fear more the operation
they must undergo Il escape death. They
would rather die than suffer for few
days"
Ny brain reeled. This learned man ex-
pressed himself with such positive con-
viction that it already seemed to me that
death no longer existed. There was an
ineffable satisfaction in the thought
We drank several more glasses. The
old servant was sound asleep The stock
ing she had been knitting had fallen from
her hands, and the cat was playing with
the warn.
"Why do you not make proof OF your
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