Gulf Coast breeze. [volume] (Crawfordville, Fla.) 1897-19??, 1897-12-17
TOWARD PARADISE.
by JAMEs KNApP REEVE.

found a dead wall in which there IL
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 il is
not strange that in his life was such q
dead WALL Early in my acquaintance
with the man it came to me to know
that there were certain things about
which | must not question him. Al
though he was one Of the most genial
and afiable of men, one whom, through
years Of close companionship, | grew
TO know and value as friend and to
love as n brother--to know AZ 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 lets one see every nook and
corner of this round world, to know
its hopes and fears, its joys and sor-
rows, the enthusiasm Of hope and the
rapture Of expectation fulfilled, as
well az the darkness and disaster of
dread despair. Rich today, and to-
morrow too poor to own aplace where
in to lay ones head, it is not bad
life for man who is filed with the
wine OF youth; but it is not life for
q 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 n
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. II 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 a man who has known 1T
cannot we'll brook restraint or ~bo
hedged within narrow bounds.
But Ericsson was no longer master
of mis- fate, as was, and he could af-
ford the home, for he was the luck
lest gold.hunter / ever knew. But
this same luck made him able to tako
his wife with him wherever he jour
neyed aud to establish her in quar-
ters made comfortable and enriched
with all that love and liberality could
suggest. So il 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 n stranger
woman still.
will not use empty, meaningless
phrases in describing her. 1t may be
said that she was beautiful. do not
know whether she was 80 by accepted
standards, and at best the word is n
weak one to apply to n woman such as
she. But she had pure olive skin,
u
other woman, except now and then
among the high-bo danes of Anda'
lusia. Under il 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 as living opal. l have never
seen other eyes so deep as hers. III
their depths one lost himself and won
dered il it were not the very soul h,
saw looking out at him from thos,
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. hav,
had speech with many nations of thu
earth, but, rack my memory as
might, / could not tell what tongue /
was that gave her that soft, caressint
accent, that made every rough, harsl
word of our uncouth English take upoi
itself a new meaning, that made one
pulses throb as though she had called
one by some endearing name.
We were ten days out from Sai
Francisco, we three-Erbeson, his wifi
and myself-bound for the Solomon
islands. We had direct information
(how il had been obtained need no
tell you) of the new discovery of vel
low metal in one of the smaller islet
of that group, and we were bound I
be among the first there. Erbeso
never was laggard, and perhaps I
that fact was due the other one I
which I have already called your a
tention--that luck was never far dis
tant from him. And I pro6ted b
his wisdom, and by the kindlines
that this older and more earnest ma
-4a.dad toward the youth whom h