Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1897-12-17

VI oNoly utu WHO Ttully has KnOWD
the true meaning of life-will be
found dead wall in which there is
no open door. Behind that wall are
written the things Of which, perhaps,
he may be neither ashamed nor
afraid to have the world know, but
any knowledge Of which he yet will
admit only to his own heart.
Ericsson had known life, so 1t is
not strange that in his life was such o
dead wall. Early in my acquaintance
with the man it came to me to know
that there were certain things about
which l must not question him. Al
though he was one Of the most genial
and affable of men, one whom, through
years OF close companionship, L grew
to know and value as friend and to
love as brother-to know as ono who
placed more than an empty meaning
upon the word "friend"-I found
that he would not brook, even from
me, any prying query as to the years
OF his younger manhood.
We were gold-hunters by profess
sion. A fine, free, adventurous life it
is, which let's one see every nook and
corner of this round world, TO know
its hopes and fears, it's joys and sor-
rows, the enthusiasm of hope and the
rapture of expectation fulfilled, as
well as the darkness and disaster of
dread despair. Rich today, and to-
morrow too poor to own place where
in to lay ones head, it is not bad
life for a man who is filed with the
wine OF youth; but it is not life for
a married man, unless one is born
under fortunate star that makes him
certain Of luck wherever he goes.
1t was early in our companionship
when learned that Ericsson had
wife, and it was at once matter of sur
prise for me that he did not abandon
such rowing career as our occupation
forced upon us and settle down to the
quiet life of the home. 1t is true,
from my point of view, he would have
missed much by so doing. For the
freedom Of that life gets into ones
blood, and man who has known it
cannot well brook restraint or be
hedged within narrow bounds.
But Ericsson was no longer master
OF his fate, as was, and he could If
ford the home, for he was the luck
lest gold-hunter ever knew. But
this same luck made him able to take
his wife with him wherever he Jour.
neyed and to establish her in quar-
ters made comfortable and enriched
with all that love and liberality could
suggest So it was that sometimes in
the mining camps appeared little
oasis of civilization and in that oasis
woman, who seemed little less than
an angel to the rough miners unaccus-
toned to the presence of femininity in
their environment.
III Ericsson was strange man, reti-
cent and ever stoically keeping prying
eyes from looking beyond that dead
wall in his life, his wife was stranger
woman still.
will not use empty, meaningless
phrases in describing her. 1t may be
said that she was beautiful. l do not
know whether she was so by accepted
standards, and at best the word is a
weak one to apply to woman such as
she. But she had q pure olive skin,
such as L have never seen upon any
other woman, except now and then
among the high-born danes of Anda-
lssia. Under it at times was a glow
of fire, as the blood coursed through |
the veins and surged to the surface of
her oval face, that made me think of
her rs living opal. have never
seen other eyes so deep as hers. In
their depths one lost himself and won.
dered If it were not the very soul he
saw looking out at him from those
deep black living wells. Nor have |
seen other hair so black, nor in which |
vitality seemed to so abound.
Nor was this all her charm. / have
had speech with many nations of the
earth, but, rack my memory as /
might, could not tell what tongue it
was that gave her that soft, caressing
accent, that made every rough, harsh
word of our uncouth English take upon
itself new meaning, that made ones
pulses throb rs though she had called
one by some endearing name.
We were ten days out from San
Francisco, we three-Erbeson, his wife
and myself-bound for the Solomon
islands. We had direct information
(how II had been obtained / need not
tell you) of the new discovery of yell
low metal III one Of the smaller islets
Of that group, and we were bound to |
be among the first there. Ericsson
never was laggard, and perhaps to
that fact was due the other one to
which 1 have already called your at
tention-that luck was never far dis
tant from him. And l protited by
his wisdom, and by the kindliness
that this older and more earnest man
extended toward the youth whom he
had made his friend.