Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1895-11-07
THE PIT OF ALLACHY

! the Witch > hilaock. 1t IS mound
] Of blown sand. rising a little above
+ the level OF a beach Of naked shingle
and waite, rolled stones. held togeth-
/ er BY the tough roots and the sage
i green blades Of the bent. The sea
is close ny, but the din Of its perpet-
nal warfare with the shore is faint
| IN heard in the hollow behind the
mound 1t scarcely reached the
ears of Adam Ogilvie as he leaned
/ his back against the warm sand,
/ and. half sunk in day dream, look
! ed into the book whose pages he had
almost ceased to turn.
The wind must have shifted or
risen, for tho spears of the win
/ dlestrae shook and rustled overhead
I The leaves of the book fluttered and
a pinch of sand was cast on the page
/ Adam was reading, as if by some
impish hand. Rising, he climbed
the dune and glanced seaward. The
i waves curled and broke ON the beach
in regular flies, shooting out long
tongues of foam which slid smooth
4 ~ over the sand and gravel, and. at
{ the moment of being withdrawn. re-
turned into claws that clutched and
toreat the ground. Outside the calm
/ surface Of the northern sea had
criSped into infinite wrinkles with
here and there a broadening point of
white Never in after years did
adam know salt water SO clear, so
deep blue. as this, within a stones
/ throw of his fathers door Today
to look forth upon it was like gazing
into the pure depths of space fretted
with the stars.
On the western horizon were
! family penciled the shapes of far
away hills The sail of a fishing
boat, heading for home, was disap-
/ pearing round the Scar head On
i the verge of the sea line was blur
of smoke-some steamer making for
Thule of old There was nothing
else in that direction between the
| Witch hillock and the ice about
the north pole.
As Adam looked, the voice of the
sea seemed to gather volume and
meaning. The freshening breeze
/ plucked the froth from the lip of the
way es and chased it along the beach
and shook the dry wisps of seaweed
and the long swathes of wreckage
/ that marked the high level of tide
/ and storm Ogilvie turned his face
! to the land Itrose and fell in sue
/ cession of even swells like the sea
itself. The sea, indeed, had made
it and had shaped it after its own
image. The swift river near by was
| restlessly at work, dragging down
/ the sand and the pebbles, and the
waves piled them upon the shore
and then tore and ragged at their own
! handiwork 1t was labor worse
than that of Sisyphus. this endless /
1 rolling of stones that slowly but
1 surely circumscribed the province of
the sea and enlarged that of the
land. The stain of the earth was al
I ready on the landward side of these
I seabeaches before they We're half
! raised. In the troughs between
punches of hardy sea pinks stood
| brilliant amid green gray patches
of wiry grass The yellow stalks
of the blackberry struggled up be-
tween the loose stones; the crow
berry and the creeping juniper
clasped them and EMBODIED them as
1 II, a sy.aa-, MANTLE
Further back heather and close
cropped whins covered them COM
pletely, and here and there were
few wind planted furs and birches,
which the sheep and the salt breezes
kept from rising above the estate of
shrubs. Behind these were the
green patches of croft land rescued
| from the links by the salmon fishers
! in those intervals of leisure from
working the water" which they
gave to toiling the earth. Then
/ large and we'll groomed farms, and
| further back, two or three miles
away, the woods round the Great
| House, ali now in full leaf. AS a
/ background to the scene, the darker
from contrast with the light tints of
the trees and meadows below, rose
/ the somber screen of pine forests,
crowned on the sky line by bare and
| brown moors.
In that northern cline spring lin
gers on to the longest day. The col
ors of the earth seemed rs fresh and
pure as those of the sell. with inf
nitelv more warmth and variety
Ogilyie turned once more to face the
salt breath of the Firth A quarter
Of a mile to tic westward a crew OF
| fishermen were Bleaching their cable
r.,nd ,,,.cr,n ,.i,,r. - r.as,, l., fair. salr,l