The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-06-23
Stories Of an inland State.

whirled its hOwery verdant side into the
starry cloud of night.
A victim to the mistake that early to
bed brings quick sleep. he had tossed rest
lessIy from side to side and turned the
hot pillow over and over.
The absence of light began to Cypress
him. He must sleep. But as he closed his
eyes, he did so with voEtion, and hold
ing them shut. knew that his determination
to sleep itself cruelty prevented sleep from
coming. And then-through the agency OF
that strange pervers.ty which gives IN
desired sight to fright-his eyes opened
widely in the stare which fearing the sight
of something steels with horror over the
appearance of nothing. HIS sensltized fear of
hearing something and his horror at hear
ing nothing, plunged him into an abnormal
world-the world Of minute sounds. the
booming crackle OF a freshly-ironed coun-
ter-pane; the roaring rustic of curtain;
the penetrating, unnerving conclusion of
those noises of the night, which lacking
regularity, volume or similarity to anything
known of sunlight, defy tim;d research and
battle solacing explanation.
He turned his eyes to the floor, to the
ceiling, around the room. He felt him
self Observation-Disclosures by the dark
ness of the night out of which he feared
ner face would come as he had seen it
last, dough-ike in death, and so staring
wildly into the night and seeing her not,
his apprehension came TO be his desire and
in the despera ton of his stricken conscience,
mentally he called upon her TO put him
through the torture of ghostly vista
ton.
And with that thought. his old spirit of
antagonism fought a moment for life and
John Wright began to breathe again, and
repeat with the fervor Of a witch in an
ncantation: Thirty thirty. thirty
But black sense Of utter condemnation
hurled the audacious consolation OF the
funeral he had given her-the splurge-
back into the gulf of shame and remorse.
Old John Wright had looked upon death
as a long valley leading to a narrow pass.
a rocky, weary, trail, deep in groove of
beetling crags, with sinister clouds shudder-
ing on their icy he:ghths, and snakey va
pors dank and dark. and poisonous in the
depths below. This was the trail of death.
He fancied he saw her now, gone forth
alone feeble of foot, naked Of aid, plodding
down into yawning solitude. And a cry
to stay her, a cry to bring her back,
cry to ask forgiveness, a cry to wish her
well On the journey, sounded from his
heart. down the darkling road into the
depths of the silent gorge. But as his
signal clattered down among the jagged
rocks and into the tumbling mists of the
desolate chasm, its own echoes seem to
mock it, and out of the cavernous fissure,
no answer came.
How he craved that answer. He arose
and dressed himself mechanically. joey,
the hired man, was out somewhere. He
was in the house alone. He went into
the front room and looked about, holding
the little glass lamp above his head, to
get d better light. The arrangement Of the
chairs, with an Intelligent capacity for
grouping which attaches to chairs, was
Just as the people attending the funeral
mad left ii when they arose and followed
the casket out, followed the casket with
her poor body in it, and him who had sent
her away or the long journey with a cruel
thrust. He looked upon the chairs ar
ranged towards each other in every angle,
from the closest social intimacy, to that
of tine most Arctic social contempt, with
a slight return of his normal fretfulness
over the foibles of the world. The recollec-
ton of Mrs Goodwin, a neighbor. wearing
a new bonnet, and weeping HISTORICALLY
during the service, aroused him. Did he not
know, and did she not know, and could
the dead woman help from knowing that
the bonnet was the sole reason for her
participation in the services. His deceased
wife had not spoken to the vain Mrs Good
win for years. She hated her. All. What
comfort in that worldly word he took
then. Yes. His wife had hated her. She
had used the very word herself. Hated
her.
He went out Of doors and looked up to
the sky with the word hate still IN his
heart, and feeling, in most restful man
ner. justified in his wickedness. From the
black chasm there was no answer.
He pushed on down the country road
The cool, night air was blowing in his face.
the summer insects whirred their shrili
chorus merrily, while the birds, perched
unsteadlly, tapped and fr:sked in the
hedges. He felt that he was in the world
again, obstinate, headstrong, bitter as ev-
er, facing with heroic tirelessness world
OF unjust, cruelty unjust conditions, which
had not yet, thank God driven him back
into unprotesting. silent subsection. Ay he
would fight them, fight them TO the END.
=,
mufflinG vapors OF the black chasm, 10
reach him. And its echo came to him:
How hard il is for them that trust In
riches to enter the Kingdom of God"
He did not have riches. But his struggle
had always been for the possession OF
money: the d.ssens.ons of his life, the fret
against conditions which did not bar him
nr-ah S+fa ~ h-,.
from accommodating a fortune. Without en-
Wy, he could not have known OF econou,-
ical discrimination. Without covetousness,
he would no, have rebelled against the d. |
vinely directed differences of society. With |
cut the slavish love OF money. he could |
have seen the periious perch OF those who. |
Owing money. accumulated it.
With an influx OF sudden mental Eight |
rs soul turned against gold for the first |
time In his lfe.
A voice YES crying down the long, dark 1
valley. aIIo he heard Il.
He lad stumbled on along the country |
-oad until he hal passed by the home OF /
he Mstll-s. and ROW he stopped. eglow
It the ringing faith in voice that foated /
ut on the rUstiinC evening air.
He hardly G:siipe u.shsd the voice as that /
Il tie beautiful yourg woman who had |
sung that day at his wife's funeral But |
he magnificent faith OF the music and |
he hymn seemed to i'll the sky about /
lin and IA thrill and expand. almost bust
WIKI deep Inspiration of supreme spiritual
'eace his poor, old. contentious heart
With the intonei spirit o. ciinging faith
ame the wor,ss:
ABIDE with me.
Fast falls the Evea-uie,
The Darkness GeePens.
''Lord. with Tie abide
''When other helpers
''ral and comforts fee,
4