Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-03-01

base enough TO lay sacrilegous finger
on it.
cha, ha you are ridiculousw laughed
the carpenter when I.uc confessed his fears
and then he added contemporary; II
would not give you my daughter now on
any condition. You are too great an
idiot"
The young man shuddered and went
back to his own house.
A few days later Luc Laborde saw an
other man, cap in hand, enter Cazade's
house just as he had done, and he knew it
was rival sutton.
ole is asking for Louise" he said. glar-
ing ferociously at the pine tree. That
evening when the wind was saying tender
words to the branches Louise, pale aud
pensivc, looked imploringly toward Luc,
but he saw nothing but the patrinrchal
pine and went into his house shivering AS
ii snow had fallen upon his heart.
Jlc could no longer eat nor sleep, and he
grew thinner every day. lie neglected his
PROPS and gathered but poor harvests. He
became morose and spoke roughly to his
cattle. and when he Glanced to hear Lou
isc's voice he started rs if it were the sound
of cannon. The other young man con-
tinued to go TO Cazadcs house
"Perhaps | am an idiot" said luc.
One night he heard Louise weeping in
the orchard. Another time he plainly dis
tiuguished the sound of kissing. AT that
he spranH to his feet, his hair on end, and
on seeing his rival leave Cazade's house
he rushed in eXclaimng, "Cut 1t down.
give it 10 your and sank GREATNESS into
II chair.
1t was not too late. Louise could still
be Nine l.abortle, and she cried for JOY
The pine tree was Gus down n few days
later, CaZade experimenting the work.
Four great ropes were fastened to the tree,
and two men with barred arms attacked 1t
with alternate strokes of their heavy axes
luc stood near, trembling, watching the
murderOus assault, and at every stroke he
WINGED as though his own flesh had re
ceived the blow. But the great tree stood
erect without "a CULVER, while bits of red
and yellow wood spouted like blood from
its gaping wounds and spread ~ resinous,
health giving fragrance around its MUIR
dercrs.
An hour, two hours three hours passed,
and still the axes rose and fell, and still
the tree resisted Luc laborde was bathed
in cold sweat, foi, though he had wit
messed the death of his father and grand
father, he had never known such anguish.
All at once the pine tree began to muir
muir. at first with a vague, almost maud
bic sound. then more distinctly and with
ever increasing volume until its voice be-
came so sad and reproachful that it made
one shuddcr. The tree was weeping. Luc
stopped his ears Now at every stroke of
the AK it started convulsively, as if in ag-
ony. and began to- totter.
"Run, run, 1t will crush us!' cried Luc,
starting away, for he thought the dying
giant meant TO overwhelm III its fall the
pyGmies who dared to attack it. Utterng
a last long cry, il swayed grandly, then,
making great sound with its branches,
fell with "A noise like the breaking of bones.
"You see, simpleton, it did not hurt
you, ~ said the carpenter, with a heartless
laugh
On the day of the wedding the pine tree
lay where it had fallen, its trunk motion
less, its branches limp, and no disaster fol-
lowed A year later when l.uc found him
self the father of beautiful rosy doll
whose innocent glances were like sunlight
in his heart the corpse of the pine tree,
which lay drying up in the father-inlaw's
woodshed, gave no sign Of interfering.
Three months passed, the old tree was
sawed into huge fragrant ioists, and then
a strange rumor spread abroad. A Span
ing the cholera with him, and three per-
SONS of the village had fallen victims. Luc
felt his hair stand up with terror. Where
now was the guardian tree which had al
ways kept off baneful influences with its
broad, salubrious branches? Soon there
was a case of cholera close by. Heaven
protect Us from the pine tree svengeance!"
thought IuC, and he hurried into his ia
ther-in-law's workshop, eXclaiming;
"Givc me II few pl0nks Of the tree. l will
make n bedstead That will protect us. ="
81 have used up that wood, )" replied Ca
zade. Except these few pieces"
what are you making of themf" asked
the young man, and the other answered:
"Can you not sect is a coffin"
Luc uttered a cry and fell forward. And
"a hours later the last OF the La bordes was
laid in that long box.
p "Cholera, said the doctor. But no one
believed him, for every one knew better
down in that dear land where the Pyrenees
rise like Il wall of blue marble, Romance.