The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1896-12-26
A LIGHTNING BUG.

they were walking hand in hand
~ in the park. Both were young
and beautiful. The girl was leaning her
head on his shoulder. he STOPPING from
time to time for the purpose of pressing
his warm lips to her light hair, plainly
ecmbed above her forehead. Around and
above them the branches formed dark
wells and thick arches, through which
penetrated the rays of the golden eyes
of the stars or a light breeze of the even
ing, bringing with it the bright aroma of
jasmine and lilies.
They were walking silent, with the
slow and lazy step of the enamored,
who would like to have the promenade
in the pleasant summer night prolonged
indefinitely. Each was thinking for him
self or herself, and their thoughts, without
words, met each other invountarily, ac-
complished by warm pressing of hands.
Suddenly in the thickets among the fra
grant jasmines a vibrating light APP
peared, followed by another, and then by
a third, still clearer, and finally winged,
green'sh swarms of sparks surrounded
them.
Look, the lightning bugs!'
How pretty, mysterious and light"
''They are vibrating as an inexplicable
word of love, and they are burning as
passion breaking its ties
forehead; that one is as your guiding
star
And the other above shines greenish,
like your eyes when you are cross. L
would like, my only one, to make of these
stars an aureole above your light head"
A silvery laugh spread itself in the Sc
cluded path.
"And it seems tc me that it is the third
act of Robert the Devil!' The peni-
tent souls are burning; we are walking
in the cemetery"
mo, this is not a cemetery. 1t is
the summit of life and earthly happi-
ness. love your and he stopped in
order that in the dark he might read
from the light of her shining eyes a
cordial answer.
They were much in love with each 9th
er, faithfully and sincerely. Their young
hearts and desiring mouths were Joined
together, not merely by momentary eX-
element Of passion or by hallucinaton of
feverish imagination. She, in order to
come down to him, overcame a great
many prejudices and the Judgment of
caste; he captured her by a strong and
persevering will; she endeared his ideals;
he made known tQrher all his beliefs, and
while she, from her eyes and mouth,
guessed and became acquainted with the
truth of life, he, following on her face
the effects and emotions, became closely
united to her in thought and feeling, and
gently whispered:
You are MINER
Both were young, yet had gone through
fierce trial of separation and PAIN she
loving with her full, sweet humility of a
woman who would bury herself in ashes
under the feet of her lover; he with heart
overlooking with manly pride, that in this
passionately desired being he found
thought and soul in entire sympathy
with his own.
They went farther, silently, in the snys-
FERROUS shadows of the walk but involun-
tarily the memory of the cemetery, as it
were, caused between them a shadow of
sorrow and thought, the cloud which,
even under the melting influence of the
words, IT love you," did not want to dis
appear. Death is stronger than love- and
loneliness deeper than happiness. They
went further, looking at the phosphoric
sparks
The girl suddenly lifted her head and
whispered softly:
do you know that this moment the
Renaissance of a woman whom you have
| loved once stands between US? Is it not
uue?'
She OWNED. She was accustomed to
thinking and feeling in harmony with
him. At once, by intuition, she came
upon the face of a person unknown to
her, a stranger of rival thought. He
| shivered, embraced her more tightly, and
stood still for a while
| Lets go farther" she said.
Listen. I will tell you ALL"
| why, love you and believe"
Listen. Between us there is this one
last secret-troubling, annoying my mind
as a nightmare, and 1 shall not rid my
| self of this pale ghost of the far-away
past unless tell you ALL
Did you love herr" she asked with g
nervous vibration of voice.
"She was handsome as a Greek cameo
| and always smiling as a goddess of hap
| piress; she was curious, proud passion.
ate, of an artistic nature; she fascinated
| me, drew me to her. intoxicated me
| When she took in her white, cold hand:
| my head my temples burned. and wher
she sang in the voice of a siren 1 fell
that my will and strength were falling
Did you love her?" asked the girl
nervously.
at seemed to me that her love mus
be the greatest happiness on earth, anC
that l would then give my life to guess
the conuadrum of her deep, black eyes.
Look" said he, after a while, as i
gathering his thoughts and showing he
the lighted, shining and moving mass il
the thicket, land listen to the remin
iscences of the long gone years of m!
childhood. 1 was for the first time II
the country and for the first time, on
warm evening, 1 saw lightning bugs shin
ing with a sharp, greenish light in tn
dark thicket of the park Child of tn
city. excited by the unaccustomed sight
1 chased the moving light and wishes
to possess such a star, to look at i
while It was near, and to take it for m.
; own. A chase was made, and one Of tn
handsomest bugs was tightly shut In
glass. Charmed, I took my treasure
placed it in my room near my bed, an
in the night 1 dreampt of a gigantic sun
throwing light on all the paths and thick
cts of the garden.