Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1896-09-10

from the kitchen, with which she block
ed out every crevice through which light
could make its way
On her way to unlock the front door
she stopped, arrested, remembering there
was of course no key in it, then with
rush of JOY almost delirious she remem-
bcred that there had always been two
KEYS, one for her own one for her fathers
use, as he never suffered the place to be
left open. And if her own We're i'll the
usual place! She kissed the clumsy thing
when she found it, and set it in the
lock.
When she had brought candle into
that CHASTITY room, she disappeared
again, aud came back carrying a large
clothes basket, into which with light
ming rapidity she flung books and papers
till it was nearly full then stopping and
straining Us she lifted found that it was
too heavy for her to carry the distance
required and li9htened it grudgingly.
She would have liked the strength Of
ten men that III sht to do all her work
at one blow.
Soon she lifted it and went out at the
door across tho little garden, past the
silent cottages and up the climbing
way that led to the moor and another
place that she remembered. Long ago
sho had seen, and unconSciOusly noted
it, an old disuscd we'll or pit, close to
the cliff side, but she was spent and
breathless when she staggered to its
edge, and falling on her knees listened
Tor awhile to the laundering beats OF
her heart.
Another stop and she must have gone
over with her strange lead Better for
her perhaps If she had, she muttcred, as
she flung the books down with furious
haste so far that she could not even
hear when they struck the bottom.
The air was full of small. nocturnal
noises of the life that flows at its freest
when man. the opprcssor, sleeps, but
Hagur feared them not. 1t was only hu-
man interruption that She dreaded that
night
Six journeys in all did she make to
and fro, the last ones being the heavier
work, as the queer shaped bottles weigh
ed more than books, and she had hardly
strength to stand when at last, looking
round the bare room, she pushed her
hair from her brow and knew her work
was accomplished and every vestige OF
the DID, horrible life swept clean away
before that inquiry should come, which
in its results must have forever assocl-
atcd hor with her fathers pursuits.
Only the couch remained. She shud-
dcrcd as she locked at it with some
thought Of trying to break it in pieces
She had done 50 much tonight she felt
for all her weakness the power of doing
SO much more, but even if she would
there was no time.
She extnguishcd the candle and put
it in her pocket, climbed up to take
away the blanket, then replaced the
basket where she had found it, locked
the front door and put the key back on
the shelf
Afterward, when horror thrilled tho
townspoople and the meanest of them
all would not dwell rent free in the
house whence old Nick himself had at
dead of night removed the wizards
books, his potions, every sign of him
save his body, which even Nick himself
was afraid to touch, only one clear sight
ed person happened to notice that i'll the
scullery wooden stool had been drawn
up near the tiny window, just as no one
dreamed it possible that any but child
could have got through the aperture.
Night was giving place to dawn, and
shivering breeze blew over the sea,
extinguishing the light by which it
viewed itself and tuning the sea OF
waters to troubled gray, that changed
and changed again with the incredible
swiftness that is natures sole preroga-
tive, and moro instantaneous than the
noblest impulse of thought or swiftest
deed can ever be in the brayest human
soul
A leap, a culver in the east the king
is coming, the king is here! The miracle
of the world is now performed for saint
and sinner alike, and earth laughs and
awakes and begins all her merry bust
ness over for rich and poor again, for
merely to be alive is surely to have the
fee simple Of the world. Deaf and dumb
they lie, the weary dead, but if they
could speak would they not cry aloud
for but one hour of existence in which
to enjoy those treasures Of God from
which in life they turned away because
they would not lift their eyes from some
speck that festered III their egotism,
that made them regard onlv their iDdi-