Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-06-02
PERE CHAMPAGNE.


"Is it that we stand at the top of the hill
and the end of the travel has come, Pretty
Pierre? Why don't you spakeY"
eve stand at the top of the hill and it is
the end"
"And Lonely valley is at our feet and
Whitefaced mountain beyond?"
Zone at our feet and the other beyond,
Shon McGann."
'It's the sight of my eyes l wish had in
the light of the sun this mornin. Tell me,
what is't you see2"
II see the trees on the foothills, and all
the branches shine with frost. There is a
path-so widel-betweeR two groves of
pines. On Whitehead mountain lies
glacier ield-and all is still"
"The voice of you is far away like, Pretty
Pierre-it shivers as a white hawk cries.
It's the wind, the wind, maybe"
"There's not breath Of life from hill or
valley"
But l feel it in my face"
ut is not the breath of life you feel"
"Did you not hear voices coming athwart
the wind' Can you see the people at the
minesY'
Il have told you what | see."
LOU bOlu NE Vi lIt pine Trees anu Uue
glacier and the snow
"And that is all, Shon McGann."
But in the valley, in the valley, Pretty
Pierre-where all the miners arer'
IL cannot see them"
"Ah, for love of heaven, don't tell me
that the dark is fallin ON your eyes too"
mo, Shon McGann, l am not growing
blind"
"Ahi will you not tell me what gives the
ache to your wordss"
II see it in the valley-snow-sno
'It's laugh you have at me in your
cheek-whin I'd give years of my i'll spent
life to watch the chimney smoke come
curtin up slow through the sharp air in
the valley there below"
''There is no chimney and there is no
smoke in all the valley"
Before God, If you're man, you'll put
your hand upon my arm and tell me what
trouble quakes your speech"
"Shon McGann, it is for you to make the
Sign Of the cross-there, while | put my
hand on your shoulder-soP'
Your hand is heavy, Pretty Pierre"
This is the sight Of the eyes that see
Shon McGann. In the valley there is snow;
in the snow, of all that was, there is one
poppet head of the mine that was called
the figure of woman"
"Ah"
She does not move''-
''She will never move, Pretty Pierre~
''She will never move, Shon McGann."
THE breath of my body gives hurt to
me. There is death in the valley, Pretty
Pierre3"
There is death in the valley"
lit was an avaIanche-that path you
spake Of between the pines2'
And great storm after"
blessed be God that cannot behold
that thing this dayi Aud the woman,
Pretty Pierre-the woman aloftf"
''She went to watch for some one coming,
and as she watched the avalanche came
and she moves not"
do we know that woman"
"Who can tellp'
"What was it you whispered to yourself
then, Pretty Pierrei"
81 whispered no word"
''There, don't you hear it, soft and sigh
int Nathalier'
mon Dieu. 1t is not of the world"
"It's facin the poppet head, where she
stands, I'd he"
"Your face is turned toward her."
"Where is the sum-"
'@The sun stands still above her head"
with the bitter over and the avil past
come rest for her and all that lie therer
''Eh, bien, the game is done"
IF we stay here we shall die also"
''If we go we die-perhaps."
Don't spake it. We will 20, and we
will return when the breath of summer
comes from the south"
SIT shall be so that we 60"
"Hushl Did you not hear''-
81 did not hear. | only see an eagle, and
u flies toward Whitehead mountain"
And Shon McGann and Pretty Pierre
turned back from the end of their quest
from a mighty grave behind to a lonely
waste before And though one was snow
blind and the other knew that on him fell
the chiefer weight of a great misfortune
since he must provide food and fire and be
as a mother to his comrade, they had cour
age, without which men are as the stand
ing straw in an unreaped field in winter
but having which become Ike the hooded
pine that keepeth green in frost and hath
the bounding blood in all its icy branches
And whence they came and wherefore
was as thus:
A French Canadian once had lived in
Lonely valley. One day great fortune
came to him, because it was given him e
discover the mine St. Gabriel. And he
said to the woman that loved him: 81 will
go with mules and much gold, that have
hewn and washed and gathered, to n vii
lage in the east where my father and my
mother are. They are poor, but | will
make them rich; and then l will return t.
Lonely valley, and a priest shall come
with me, and we will dwell here at White
faced mountain, where men are men anC
not children" And the woman blessed
Il far D. and 1eztl
He Travelled far through passes Of tht
mountains and came at last where new
cities lay upon the plains, and where mer
were full Of evil and Of lust Of gold. Anc
he was free of hand and light Of heart; and
a r.l.a..n cnllnl hin Lnnnd City falae frinId.