Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1890-11-20
CHAPTER ".
on TO THE FREE SEA.

You may roll upon the shore
With your pillows calm and deep;
But whether calm or frantic,
hear you calling low,
In voice unheard by others,
In words none others know;
And You bid me come unto you,
To calm rest far down below.
Khene'er you roll In In spIendor;
with long. majestic sweep,
Whene 'er YOU dash with fury
And up the high cliff leap.
know you want me, want me-
And long TO be at rest,
Beneath your storms, far down below,
In Lasting calm to rest.
And hope that death VIII come to me
On the river on the sea,
That the voice that lie calling me ever
Shall make my weary soul free.
They are calling me, calling me, calling me.
The waters so deep and swift,
That long to plunge into their current
And out on their bosom drift.
Immediately after the trial, as Mark
persisted in refusal to pay the fine as
sessed against him, he was taken in
charge by Constable Atlee and led away
to an unused log house in the outskirts
OF the village, where he was securely
bound and left alone. his guards taking
good care thatthe one door was well bolted
from the outside.
This was in the afternoon, toward sun
set, and as the cabin was growing dark,
supper was brought him by his taller
Then the long night set in.
Notwithstanding the vexations of the
day, Mark slept we'll, but, toward day
break he became restless andWas troubled
with dreams. He seemed to be back in
old England again. and his dear wife's
hand was upon his head. His life there
he lived over, half waking. half dream
ing. The causes which resulted in his
emigration to the new world passed in
review before him, and then he took up
his life in Sagnauck. Each event stood
out with startling distinctness. The per-
secution of the church. the death of his
loved W fe, the struggle for existence, all
came back as he lay bound upon that
cabin floor.
After a time his dream changed, or
perhaps he fell asleep. This time he was
IN old Englan again as before, and for
some reason had been cast into prison.
While lying upon his narrow cot, he could
hear tho foo steps of his jailer drawing
nearer and nearer until they stopped be-
fore his cell door. The bolts were
drawn aside, and, instead of his taller,
Achsah Granville appeared
He started and half awoke. Surely he
heard an unusual rustic about the cabin
door. He raised himself upon one elbow
and listened, but all was still, and, fall
ing back, he dozed again. He dreamed
that he was lying in the cabin sleeping,
and that Achsah, the min ster's daugh-
ter, came and entered the DOR. Every
Pc Mt in that dream passed with slowness
and distinctness. He -eemed first TO see
her coming up the path from the village,
then pause before the door of the cabin,
lift her hands and tug at the bolt until it
was withdrawn. then all, that was q
DIRE mi-enter, draw a knife from her
girdle and cut the cords which bound
him.
The strangeness of the dream caused
fn cfo ~ 4 A,,1E
was open. His bonds were cut, and he
was free.
For moment he stood in the cabin
collecting his thoughts. hen, with firm
step and nhesitating manner, he took a
direct course for the river. which wound
halfway round the village.
1t was mile away, md the woods were
dark, but he reached it j. half an hour,
He knew the country and the river we'll,
an IN a few moments came TO q rugged
old elm tree, to the roots of which a Ca
noe was tied. He cut the bark which
bound it to the root, We it a push out
into theNmiddle of the stream, and began
floating downward tow nd the free sea.
In all this there was not a moment Of .
hesitation.
The darkness of ni0ht began to fade
from the SIX. ami flint tin 20 of gray
spread over thy earth. The sun was
dra wing nearer, and the forest was wax
the trees on either >ide he could see long
stretches of blackness like the straight
branches of a pine tree, reaching out
from the river. He hoated on, and by
aud by these dark venues between the
trees grew lighter, and the forest ghost
ly. The stiffness OF the early dawn was
oppressive. In the dense darkness a
sound could be heard now nd then, but
as day began to approach there was
scarcely a rustic anon the limbs.
And thr Oh this the river wound,
flowing slowly but deeply to the sea, and
in the midst the fugi We fioated.
At times the bank WAS low. and sioped
down to the waters edge. and again it
arose above the water level, and left its
crumb1ng sides to wear away and fall
with thud and splash into the water be-
low. And sometimes g washed roots
of a giant tree stood out re and
re ,cheb down into the stream, a
resting-place for fish, hich the boys of
Sagnauck would have been & adj to find.
And then, again, the banks drew closer
together, the stream became deeper, The
limbs of the " ter elm oVsrlapped, and
the boats course was Though a leafy
roadway of fallen autumn le2tEes- A turn
in the river and the curr Mt rushed more
rapidly, the lea. es were hurled an
crowded back 10 the shores, a Gle T, swift
current swept onward, md the canoe,
with ITS solitary bodtman, with 1t.
Birds were sounding note here and
there from the de',ths of the forest. Gray
dawn WIS passing away and the skies
were growing lighter. The early ris. rs
of the birds had called 10 their com
panions, and the woods on each side
Tesounded with the matin song of New
Engiands unbound in sers-
The gray dawn passed away; the skies
grew lighter; the cool a itamn night be-
came milder; overhead The SKY clear;
c.frr I'd Iuh ha 81 Of
light were OF ening; nd SD dows were
sloping Westwari Tie morning d
come, aud the fugitive was drifting on
ward through borders of leaves, meath
WOO land archie, with sosg of birds in
the new day. onward TO the reat free sea-
The sea, the sea. the open sea,
The blue. the II sh the ever free.