The Portland daily press., 1894-01-24
base enough to lay sacrilegious finger

base enough to lay sacrilegious finger
on it.
tia, ha, you are ridiculous" laughed
the carpenter when IIuc confessed his fears,
and then he added CONTEMPORARY: 81
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 a rival sutton.
He 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 and
pensive, looked imploringly toward Luc,
but he saw nothing but the patriarchal
pine and went into his house shivering as
1t snow had fallen upon his heart.
He could no longer eat nor sleep, and he
grew thinner every day. He neglected his
crops and gathered but poor harvests. He
became morose and spoke roughly to his
cattle, and when he CHANGED to hear Lou
ises voice he started as if it were the sound
of a cannon. The other young man con-
tinued to go to Cazade's house.
Perhaps 1 am an idiot" said Luc
One night he heard Louise weeping in
the orchard. Another time he plainly dis
tinguished the sound of kissing At that
he sprang to his feet, his hair on end and
on seeing his rival leave Cazade's house
he rushed in exclaiming, "Cut it down.
give it to your' and sank breathlesa into
. chair.
1t was not too late. Louise could still
be Nine. Laborde, and she cried for Joy.
The pine tree was cut down few days
later, Cazade experimenting the work.
-Four great ropes were fastened to the tree,
and two men with barred arms attacked it
with alternate strokes of their heavy axes
Luc stood near, trem bling, 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
derers.
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, for, 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 vague, almost maud
bic sound, then more distinctly and with
ever increasing volume until it's voice be-
came SO sad and reproachful that it made
one shudder. 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, rum 1t will crush usl' cried Luc,
starting away, for he thought the dying
giant meant to overwhelm in its fall the
pygmies who dared to attack it. Uttering
last long cry, it swayed grandly, then,
making great sound with it's branches,
fell with a noise like the breaking of bones.
"You see, simpleton, it did not hurt
you," said the carpenter, with 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 Luc 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-in-law's
woodshed, gave no sign of interfering
Three months passed, the old tree was
sawed into huge fragrant joists, and then
strange rumor spread abroad. A Span
lard had come across the mountains, bring
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, sa1ubrious branches? Soon there
was case of cholera close by. ''Hcaven
protect us from the pine trees vengeanceW
thought Luc, and he hurried into his IA
ther-in-law's workshop, exclaiming:
Give me few planks of the tree. I will
make bedstead. That will protect us. :"
II have used up that wood, 7" replied Ca
zade, "sexcept these few pieces.'
What are you making of them?" asked
the young man, and the other answered:
Can you not see-it is coffin"
Luc uttered cry and fell forward. And
"a hours later the last Of the Labordes was
laid in that long box.
Cholera" said the doctor. But no one
believed him, for every one knew better
down in that dear land where the Pyrenees
rise like wall of blue marble.-Romance.