The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1893-02-16
OLD ESON.

stranger within my gates, the man whom
in his extremity clothed and fed.
remember well the time of his COM
ing, for it happened at the end of five
days and nights during which the year
passed from strength to age; in the in
teryal between the swallows departure
and the redwing's coming; when the
tortoise in my garden crept into his win
ter quarters and the equinox was on us,
with an east wind that parched the
blood in the trees, SO that their leaves
for once knew no gradations of red and
yellow, but turned at stroke to brown
and cracked like tin foil.
At 8 o'clock in the morning of the
sixth day looked out. The wind still
whistled across the sky, but now with
out the obstruction of any cloud. Full
in front of my window Sirius flashed
with whiteness that pierced the eye.
A little to the right the whole constella-
ton of Orion was suspended clear over
wedgelike gap in the coast, wherein
the sea could be guessed rather than
seen, and travelling yet farther the eye
fell on two brilliant lights, the one set
high above the other; the one steady and
fiery red, the other yellow and blazing
Internationally; tho one Aldebaran, the
other revolving on the lighthouse top,
fifteen miles away.
Half way up the east, the moon, now
in her last quarter and decrepit, climbed
with the dawn close at her heels. At this
hour they brought in the stranger, ask
ing if my pleasure were to give him
clothing and hospitality.
Nobody knew whence he came, except
that it was from the wind and the night,
seeing that he spoke in strange tongue,
moaning and making a sound like the
twittering of birds in chimney. But
his journey must have been long and
painful, for his legs bent under him, and
he could not stand when they lifted him.
So, finding it useless to question him
for the time, learned from the servants
all they had to tell-namely, that they
had come upon him but few minutes
before, lying on his face within my
grounds without staff or scrip, bare
headed, spent and crying feebly for sue
cor in his foreign tongue. and in pity
they had carried him in and brought
him to me.
Now for the look of this man. He
seemed q century old, being bald, ex.
tremely wrinkled, with wide hollowa
where the teeth should be, and the flesh
hanging loose and flaccid on his cheek.
bones; and what color he had could have
emma op1u from ovpocv,ra fo thot h;+tav
night. But his eyes chiefly spoke of his
extreme age. They were blue and deep,
and filled with the wisdom of years, and
when he turned them in my direction
they appeared to look through me, be.
yond me and back upon centuries of sor.
row and the slow endurance of man, al
il his immediate misfortnnes were buj
an inconsiderable item in long list.
They frightened me. Perhaps they
conveyed warming of that which / waf
to endure at their owners hands From
compassion l ordered the servants t,
take him to my wife, with word that
wished her to set food before him anC
see that it passed his lips.
So much did for this stranger. Nov
AohTh uOW lo ToWdrutu ulo.
he has taken my youth from me, ant
the most Of my substance, and the Low,
Of my wife.
From the hour when he tasted food il
my house he sat there without hint O
going. Whether from design, or be
cause age and his sufferings had reall,
palsied him, he came back tediously t,
life and warmth. nor for many day
professed himself able to stand erect
Meanwhile he lived ON the best of ou
hospitality. My wife tended him, AM
my servants ran at his bidding, for h
managed early to make them under
stand scraps Of his language, thougl
slow in acquiring hours-I believe out o
calculation, lest some one should inquir
his business (Which was mystery o
hint at his departure.
myself often visited the room he ha
appropriated, and would sit for an hou
watching those fathomless eyes while
tried to make head or tail Of his dis
course. When we were alone my wifi
and ] used to speculate at times on hi
probable profession. Was he merchant
an ID mariner, tinker, tailor, beg
an, thief? We could never decide
an ne never disclosed.
Then the awakening came. l sat on
day in the chair beside his, wondering a
usual. Ihad felt heavy of late with
soreness and languor in my bones, as |
dead weight hung continually on m
shoulders and another rested on IN
heart.
Awarmer color in the strangers chee
caught my attention, and l bent fol
ward, peering under the pendulous lid
His eyes were livelier and less profound
The melancholy was passing from thel
as breath fades of pane Of glass. H
was growing younger. Starting up ra
across the room to the mirror.
There were two white hairs in my for,
lock, and at the corner Of either eye hal
dozen radiating lines was an ol
man. $500
Turning, regarded the stranger. H
sat as phlegmatic as an Indian idol, an
in my fancy l felt the young bloc
draining from my own heart and saw
mantling in his cheeks. Minute by mir
ute watched the slow miracle-the ol
man heautified. AS buds unfold he III
on lovely youthfulness, and drop b