Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1893-05-17

/ VIII return Wneu tue oTehlh vi suihhe'
comes from the south"
at shall be so that we co.
"Hush did you not hear
Il did not hear. | only see an eagle
and it flies toward Whiteiaced noun
tain"
And Shon McGann and Pretty Pierre
turned back from the end of their quest
from mighty grave behind to lone
" 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 mother TO his COM
rade, they had courage, without which
men are as the standing straw in an un-
reaped field in winter, but having which
become like the hoodeth pine that keep
eth green in frost and hath the bounding
blood in its icy branches.
And whence they came aud 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 to
discover the mine St. Gabriel. And be
said to the woman that loved him. II
will go with mules and much gold, that
have hewn aud washed and gathered,
to village in the east where my father
and my mother are. They are poor, but
/ will make them rich +; and then | will
return to Lonely valley, and priest
shall come with me, and we will dwell
here at Whitefaced mountain, where men
are men and not children" And the
woman blessed him and prayed for him
aud let him go.
He travelled far though passes Of the
mountains and came at last where new
cities lay upon the plains, and where
men were full Of evil and OF lust of gold.
And he was free of hand and light Of
heart and at place called Diamond
City false friends came about him, and
gave him champagne wine to drink and
struck him down and robbed him, leav-
ing him for dead.
And he was found, and his wounds
were healed all save one, and that was
in the brain Men called him mad.
He wandered through the land, preach
ing to men to drink no wine and to shun
the sight of gold. And they laughed at
him, and called him Pere Champagne.
But one day much gold was found at
place called Rect o Angel, and jointly
with the gold came plague which scars
the face and rots the body and Indians
died by the hundreds aud white men by
scores, and Pere Champagne, of all who
we're not stricken down, feared nothing
and did not flee, but went among the
sick and dying, and did those deeds
which gold cannot buy, and prayed
those prayers which we're never Sold
And who can count how high the pray
ers of the feckless go?
When none was found to bury the dead
he gave them place beneath the prairie
earih--consectrated only by the tears OF
fool-and for extreme JUNCTION he had
but this, "God be merciful to me, a sin-
ner !"
And Pretty Pierre the gambler and
Shon McGann the miner, who trav-
eIed westward, came upon this desperate
battlefield, and saw how Pere Champagne
dared the elements Of scourge and death,
and they paused and labored with him
TO save where saving was granted Of
heaven, and to bury when the reaper
reaped and would not stay his hand. AT
last the plague ceased, because winter
spread its wings out swiftly Ger the
plains from rigid ranges in the vest
And then Pere Champagne fell i'll again.
And this last great sickness cured his
madness, and he remembered whence he
had come and what belell him at Dia-
mond City 50 many moons agone. And
he prayed them. when he knew his time
was come, that they would 60 to Lonely
valley and tell his story to the woman
whom he loved and say that he was
going to a strange but pleasant land, and
that there he would await her coming.
And be begged them that they 90 at
once, that she might know, and not
strain her eyes 10 blindness and be
sick at heart because he came not,
And he told them her name, and drew
the coverlet up about his head and SEEM
ed to sleep, but he walked between the
day and dark and gently cried : "The
snow is heavy on the mountain-and-
the valley Is below. Gardez mon pere
Alb, Nathalie !" And they buried him
between the dark and dawn.
Though the winds were fierce and tray-