Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-06-26
The Nymph Of The Eddy.

ed shore near Pontiac. When the
river was high it had all the temper
of malestrom, but in the hot sum-
mer, when the logs had ceased to
run. and the river wallowed idly away
to the rapids, it was like molten
mirror which, with the regularity of
pulse. resolved itself into funnel, as
though somewhere beneath there was
a blowhole. It had look of hunger.
Even the children noticed that, and
they fed it with many things. What
it passed into it's rumbling bowels you
never saw again. You threw stick
upon the shivering surface, and saw
it travel, first slowly, then very swift
ly, round and round the sides, till the
throat of the eddy seemed to open
suddenly, and it ran straight down
into darkness, and presently the fun
mel filed up again. 1t was Swallowed
by a huge cedar tree. If you came
suddenly into the thicket above it,
you were stilled with wonder. The
place was different from all others on
the river. 1t looked damp, it was so
strangely green: the grass and trees
showed SO juicy; you fancied you
could slice the fallen logs through
with pen knife. Every sound there
carried with it peculiar distinctness,
vet the air was almost painfully still.
Through the stiffness there ran ever
sound, metallic, monotonous, pleasant
"a clear cling chung, cling chung. 1t
never varied, was the river high or
low. If you lay down in the messy
grass you we're lulled by that sing
song vibration, behind which you
heard the low sucking breath of the
eddy. The two sounds belonged to
patty of tone. The birds never sang
in the place, net because it was
gloomy, maybe, but as though not to
break in upon other rights.
There was nothing mysterious about
that unceasing cling chung, it was
you followed the pipe that led from
the ram up the hill, you came to a
large white house.
Many a summer day, and especially
of morning, young girl came dane
ing down to the eddy, to sit beside it.
She and it were very good friends;
she used to tell it all her secrets, and
she made up little song about it-a
simple, almost foolish little song such
as a clever young girl can write
Laurie had been to the convent in
Montreal, so she was not a common
village maid.
Green so green is the cedar tree,
And green is the moss that's under;
Can you hear the things that he says to me?
DO you like them? Eddy, WONDER
LIZ was very foolish. But she had
such soft, thrilling voice that you
would have thought it beautiful She
was young-about siXteen-and her
hair was so light that it fell about her
like spray But suddenly she ceased
to be quite happy.
Armand, the avocat's clerk, was
Protestant, and she had been meeting
him at the eddy secretly. What did she
care about the catech1sm, or the cure,
or an unblessed marriage, if Armand
blessed her? She was afraid of moth
ing, she would dare anything while
she was certain of him. But the cure
discovered something-she ceased to
go to confession, and, though he was
a kind man, he had his duty to do.
There was trouble, and the ways of
Laure's people were devious and
hard. 1t was Said that she must go to
the convent again, and they kept her
prisoner in the house. One day they
brought her letter which, they said,
was from Armand. 1t told her that
he was going away, and that he had
given her up. She had never seen
his writing they had trusted nothing
70 the village ost-office-and she be-