Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1890-01-10

that woman is nineteen years old and
pretty, airy, and graceful as the rain
bow with its seven colors. All, yes
gratitude may well be sentiment
too sober for a young woman, and
! justice-fairness-a uncomfortable
idea for II joyous imagination. These
virtues are borne of suffering, and
Carmen was almost quite happy.
Given these conditions, it was not
/ at all inconsistent that the thoughts
and interest OF the fisherman's wife
should turn to Don Jaime de Me-
quinenza, from the day that the news
of his return to his baronial halls
came to the village at the cliffs foot.
And in effect, when she set eyes upon
his worship, Carmen's butterfly brain
and her unloyal heart alike sung to
her that this was lord, fine gentle
man, and n hero-here was a man
worthy of beauty and charm like
hers.
As for the lord of the manor he
was already in love with her species,
and as the greater includes the less,
he was undoubtedly Amitten with
Carmen. 1t was not lonl; before they
told each other, by the telegraphic
code of looks and signals, their
mutual and respective sentiments,
but this platonic systsm became to
both alike insupportable.
In the meantime Damian went on
fishing.
Now, whether it came to pass that
the people of the hamlet, failing to
realize and appreciate their AFFECT
contemplating, came to criticise the
doings of their feudal master, or
whether the fisherman CHANGED to re-
member that his wife was n pretty
woman and Don Jaime n -blooded
gallant, and that the castle and the
cabin were not so widely separated
there came time when this worthy
husband displayed less than his usu-
al eagerness to make his frequent
rounds OF his eel-traps. He developed,
also, certain rheumatic twinges in his
left knee, that impaired his agility in
walking; and so he hired a strapping
lad whom he made his substitute in
conveying the eel-baskets among the
purchasers of the vicinity. The pro-
ceedure of the fisherman was far from
meeting with the approval ofCarmen
and Don Jaime.
One beautiful May evening the two
spouses sat at the door of their cabin
and watched the sinking sun--the
same sun in those days OF century
and q half since that we see now
above us. That evening it was sink
ing as slowly and majestically as if it
expected never to rise again. 1t was
one of those splendid and solemn mo-
ments in which it seems that the
world has reached for the first time
it's apogee of beauty; "a melancholy
hour in which the soul appears to
assist at the tragedy of the days
death as at a new occurrence, which
will not be repeated.
Carmen and Damian, regarding
that sun, whose rays dyed the hori.
zon with a strange prophetic light
felt their very souls stirred within
them. Uncultured and rude ofnature
as they were, they could but feel that
this was critical hour, full ofdoom,
of mystery, of fatality.
When the sun had set entirely
both breathed heavily, as those who
have completed long and severe
task. The tacit compact was signed
between them, each to his own crime
not to be renowned, but irrevocable
as the death of the day that was ex
piring. They looked at each Other
full and unreservedly. Damian lifted
his eyes to the castle, on whose top
most terrace stood the Baron o.
Mequinenza, whom he saluted. The
lord had his eyes fixed on Carmen
who also saluted him easily. Damiar
stretched his rheumatic leg, ant
turning to his wife, said, dryly: 81
think my leg is well again, fee
the pangs no longer, think l will
go down to the village and stay thu
night there. There is fellow owes
me some money; he will be il
p with his pay near midnight, and
will catch him before he spends it.
will come up in the morning in tim,
/, to take out the fish of tonight s fish
> Ea, Carmelita, God be with thee"
, "Good-by, Damian," said Carmela
mechanically.
! They had never before parted il
/ this way, but to both it seemed quit
{ natural. Damian took his hat an,
, his staff and crossed the walnut-woo(
bridge-way and the losses of the cas-
+ tie. The sun was still gliding tn
q peak of distant mountain.
, Twelve hours later the sun shon
over the cabin. All the sadness ant
: foreboding of the day before ha,
, been pure farce. There was the SUI
, again, red ndjoyous as ever, climb
. ing up the heavens as blithely as j
, this was his first journey there, an,
! shedding life and movement v'hereve
, his rays reached. This was the SUI
!. that, in those hours of absence, ha,
p crossed the ocean, had called tn
f MONDAY in the Americans, had served
! as n god for the idolators of the Pa
/ cific. had lighted the way for mariner
I in China, had gilded the spices ]
$ Hindostan. had kissed the stones o
/ the Holy Sepulchre, and had marke,
the hour OF death for some moderl
I Greeks; and now that sun was re
turning, full of curiosity to kno,
+ what had become OF two fisher peopl
$ of Upper Aragon, whom he had lief
f the night before seated at the door @
n their hut.
e AS to Daman, he, like the sun
n seemed in better humor than on tn
l 4 L IL