The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1893-03-31
OLD ESON.

JuuBe UctWceu LHo auQ my RuSSt, TIE
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
terval 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 MS,
with an east wind that parched the
blood in the trees, so that their leaves
for n c knew no gradations of red and
yellow, but turned at a 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 a whiteness that pierced the eye.
A little to the right the whole constella-
ton of Orion was suspended clear over
u 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
a fiery red, the other yellow and blazing
internationally; the one Aldebaran, the
other revolving or 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 a strange tongue,
moaning and making a sound like the
twittering of birds in a 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 a 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 hollows
where the teeth should be, and the flesh
hanging loose and faccid ON his cheek
bones; and what color he had could have
ONE only from exposure to that bitter
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, as
if his immediate misfortunes were but
an inc~onsiderable item in a long list.
They frightened me Perhaps they
conveyed a warning of that which | was
to endure at their owners hands. From
compassion | ordered the servants to
take him to my wife, with word that /
wished her to set food before him and
see that it passed his lips.
So much did for this stranger. Now
learn how he rewarded me.
He has taken my youth from me, and
the most OF my substance, and the love
of my wife.
From the hour when he tasted food IN
my house he sat there without hint of
going. Whether from design, or be-
cause age and his sufferings had really
palsied him. he came back tediously to
life and warmth, nor for many days
professed himself able to stand erect.
Meanwhile he lived on the best of our
hospitality. My wife tended him. and
my servants ran at his bidding, for he
managed early to make them under
stand scraps of his language, though
slow in acquiring hours-I believe out of
calculation, lest someone should inquire
his business (which was a mystery or
hint at his departure.
myself often visited the room he had
appropriated, and would sit for an hour
watching those fathomless eyes while |
tried to make head or tail of his dis
course. When we were alone my wife
and / used TO speculate 1t times on his
probable profession. Was he a merchant,
an aged mariner, tinker, tailor, beg
garman, thief? We could never decide.
and he never disclosed.
Then the awakening came. | sat one
day in the chair beside his, wondering al
usual. had felt heavy of late with a
soreness and languor in my bones, as il
q dead weight hung continually on nv
shoulders and another rested on nv
heart.
A warmer color in the strangers cheek
caught my attention, and | bent for.
ward, peering under the pendulous lids
His eyes were liyelier and less profound
The melancholy was passing from them
as breath fades off a pane of glass. HI
was growing younger. Starting up Irar
across the room to the mirror.
There were two white hairs in my fore
lock, and at the corner of either eye hall
a dozen ~radiating lines. was an OLD
man.
Turning, | regarded the stranger. HI
sat as phlegmatic as an Indian idol. ana
in my fancy | felt the young blood
draining from my own heart and saw Il
mantling in his cheeks. Minute by min.
Cir a I--1 =.