The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1895-04-19


till rather late period Of bachelorhood,
he had climbed savage mountain in
an isolated corner of what he considered
an uncivilized country, to fall in love
with wild girl with a wild name,
who lived upon potatoes in hoyel un-
der a rocki
And he did not feel ashamed of him
self Contrast and inconsistencies had
always possessed fascination for him.
Did not the spotless white flower Of the
bog flourish there as purely as though
it had not sprung out of the black Shiny
substance that held its root? And Macha,
with her shining bare feet and arms,
and her face like poets dream, was
all the more enchanting to his imagina-
ton because she had sprung with her
spontaneous loveliness, out of the noun
tain and had been nourished and per-
fected between the wind and the sun
without help from Civilization" or a
lesson from ''art. -
He was going back to the inn that he
might have further opportunities of see
ing this girl, and yet he told himself
that his admiration for her was merely
an abstract idea; that after he had seen
her a few times and studied her excep-
tional beauty and iaracter he would
go on his way contented, rejoicing to
have perceived that nature can be still
so lovely and unspoiled in her own Sc
cret fastnesses, beyond the ken of the
world. His rest was broken that night
by new excitement, and he wakened
in the dawn to fancy he saw Macha
walking with her bare white feet in
the rosy light round the margin of the
lake. He wanted to hear her voice again
and feel the touch Of her hand. 1t
struck him as remarkable that she had
shown no shyness of him, speaking to
him as naturally as if he had been her
brother, and he OWNED that this was so
because she knew nothing of ranks and
classes. Only the supernatural had pow
er to awe her, and she had felt safe and
happy as soon as she had assured herself
to the attentions of women, he would
have felt less attraction toward Macha
had she shown any desire for his return.
The absence of all coquetry in her de-
lighted him.
The girl thought of him, lying on her
straw bed in the dead of the night.
There was hole in the roof above her
head, hole that would be thatched over
| with heather for the winter, but at
! present it was good to let in the air of
heaven. Through it Macha could see a
star shining in the sky, like little is
| land of splendor in an ocean of dark
blue, and the rugged twigs of the broken
heather made rough frame for the bit
of glory. The beauty of Macha's face
lay quenched in darkness beneath, but
| her soul escaped through the opening
| up to the kindred mystery Of the star,
carrying with it the memory of the
| event Of the evening. Her mind rested
with placid wonder on the occurrence
of her meeting with the stranger. She
had not fallen in love with him, as he
with her, nor did she dream of such a
thing.
Roundabout her lay her mother, her
grandmother, her little sisters, sleeping
soundly, with the love of Maeha asleep
in their hearts. She loved them passion
ately and had no thought or hope for
herself apart from them. To work with
them, hand and foot, that they might
all have enough potatoes and turf to
enable them to live together without
more pain than they could endure-this
was the one object of her existence.
| Vague splendors and delicious rest and
| joy Were, she knew, awaiting them all
beyond the gates of the sun. The only
thing to be desired was that they might
not be parted meanwhile in their pur-
| gatory on the lonely mountain. AS the
night crept ON and the stars waxed
brighter Macha owned to herself that
the Giving man" might have been
"him who lives down in the lake, I" after
all, Ppndering this doubt, she fell
asleep.
The stranger reappeared next day and
for many days afterward haunted the
mountain. Macha had leave from her
mother to accompany him in his search
for the wild flowers which, he explained
to them, he wanted for scientific pur-
poses. The little sisters frisked about
them and took their share in the search,
dancing like young kids on the edge of
precipices, with wild bright eyes aud
| flying locks. Potatoes boiled in the
cabin were eaten ON the heather, and the
long summer days went past like the
beads ON a golden rosary, told brightly
through the fingers. The man was broth
erly and kind with the little girls and
the elder women, but he recognized
gulf between them and Macha.
Their speech, translated literally from
the Irish, though poetical and musical
enough, was not delicately correct, as
his ear imagined hers to be. Their
swift feet were not white, nor was their
clothing spotless. Macha, who bathed
in the lake every morning and hung
out her yellow hair to dry in the first
beams of the sun, and who wore her
we'll bleached draperies like a princess,
could not keep young nor old from dye
ing theiF skins and garments in the bog
holes, An instructive personal delicacY
had come to Macha with her exceptional
beauty. At tho end of fortnight the
stranger told himself that this noun
tain flower was worthy of being trans
planted into the brightest parterre ever
cherished by man, And what month
ago would have appeared to him only
madness seemed now most sensible
Macha came into the cabin one even
ing in the cleaning with face Of dis
may.
"Motherr' she said, grasping her
mother's arm