Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1892-03-02

Brother"
Leo wished to lie down and brood
over the words of the Crab. The Girl
went away to talk to the cultivator's
wife and ably, and the afternoon
| plougLing began.
Help us now, " said the Bull. "The
| tides OF the day are running down.
My legs are very stiff. Sing if you
never sang before"
ITO a mud-spatiered villager?" said
Leo.
''He is under the same doom as our
selves. Are You a coward?" said the
Bull. Leo flushed and began again
with a sore throat ana a bal temper.
Little by little he dropred away from
the songs of the Children and made up
I a song as he went along; and this was
thing he could never have done had he
not met the Grab face to face. He re-
membered facts concerning cultivate rs,
and brllocks, and ricefields, that he
had not particularly noticed before the
interview, and he strung them all to-
gether, growing more interested as he
sang, and he told the cultivator much
more about himself and his work thai
the cultivator knew. The Bull grunted
approval as he titled down the fur
song ended, leaving the cultivntor
with very good opinion of himself in
his aching bones The Girl came out
of the hut where she had been keeping
the children quiet, and talking woman
talk to the wife, and they all ate the
evening meal together.
"Now yours must be very pleas
ant life" said the cultivator. ''sitting
as you do on a dyke all day..and singing
Just What comes into your head. have
you been ut 1T long, you two-gip-
| sies?"
"Ahr" lowed the Bull from his byre.
That's all the thanks you will ever
get from me, brother"
''No. We have only Just begun it,
said the Girl; "but we are gong to
keep to it as long as we live. Are We
not, Leo?"
.'Yes. said he, and they went away
hand-in-hand.
"You can sing beautifully, Leo"
said she, as a wife will to her husband.
"What were You doing?" said he.
81 was talking to the mother and the
babies" she said. "You would not
understand the little things that make
us women laugh"
.'And-aud 1 am to go on with this
this gypsy said Leo.
"Yes, dear, and / will help you"
There is no written record of the life
of Leo and of the Girl, SO we cannot
tell how Leo took 10 his new employ
ment which he detested. We are only
sure that the girl loved him when and
wherever he sang; even when, after the
song was done, she went round with
the equivalent of a tambourine, and
collected the pence for the daily
bread. There were times, too, when 1t
was Leo's very hard task to console the
Girl for the indiguity of horrible praise
that people gave him and her-for the
silly, wagWng peacock feathers that
they stuck in his cap, and the buttons
and pieces of cloth that they sewed on
his coat. Woman-lIke, she could ad-
wise and help to the end, but the
meanness of the means revolted her.
"What does it matter" Leo would
say, $50 long as the songs make them
little happier?" And they would go
down the road and begin again on the
old, old refrain; that whatever came or
did come the children of men must not
be afraid 1t was heavy teaching at
first, but in process of years Leo dis
covered that he could make men laugh
and hold them listening to him even
when the rain fell. Yet there were
people who would sit down and cry
softly, though the crowd was yelling
with delight, and they we're people who
maintained that Leo made them do
this; and the Girl would talk to them
in the pauses of the performance and
do her best TO comfort them. People
would die too, while Leo was talking,
and singing, and laughing. for the
Archer, and the Scorpion, and the
Crab, and the other Houses were as
busy as ever. Sometimes the crowd
broke, and we're frightened, and go
strove to keep them steady by telling
, them that this was cowardly; and
sometimes they Knocked at the Houses
that were killing them, and Leo ex-
. planned that this even more cowsrdly
than running away.
In their wanderings they came across
the Bull, or the Ram, or the Twins,
but all were too busy to do more than
nod to each her across the crowd,
and go on with their work. As the
years rolled on even that recognition
ceased, for the Children of the Zodiac
had forgotten that they had ever been
, Gods working for the sake of men.
, The Star Aldeboran was crusted with
caked dirt on the Bulls forehead, the
Rams fleece was dusty ard torn, anG
i the Twins were only babies fighting
, over the cat ON the doorstep. 1t was
then that Leo said: "Let us stop sing
ing and making jokes" And it wa
! then that the Girl said: "No--" bu
, she did not know why she said "No,
SO energetically. Leo maintained tha
it was perversity till she herself, at the
end of dusty day made the same sug
gestion to him, and he said "most GER
. tainly net" and they quarrelled miser
ably between the hedgerows, forgetting
, the meaning of the stars above them
, Other singers and other takers spranl
up in the course of the years, and Leo
forgetting that there could never b,
! TOO many of these, hated them fol
. dividing the applause of the children
of men which he thought should be al
! his own. The Girl would grow angry
too, ard then the songs would b,
! broken, and the tests fall flat for week
would shout: $50 home, you two
pipsies. Go home and learn something
, worth singing.
After one Of these sorrowful, shame
I full DAYS, the Girl walking by eos sid,
through the fields, saw the full mool
coming up over the trees, and sh,
clutched Leo's arm, crying: 9Th
time has come now. Oh, Leo, forgive
: nel'
! ,"What is it?' said Leo. He wa
thinking of the other singers
, "My hushandl' she answered, an
, she laid his hand upon her breast, an'
, the breast that he knew 20 well wa
+ hard as stone. Leo groaued, remem
, bering what the Crab had sad.
: ''Surely we were Gods once, b
cried.
"Surely we are Gods still, said the
girl. ''Do you not remember whel
you and 1 went to the house OF th