The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-06-02

SarSaparIlla
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her little plump hand for the planting.
With her there was as mate, q child of
the old red race, 1.-THE as yellow slip,
with hair and eyes like the night and
skin of the color of old wine when the
sun shines throughit. The two digged
with a stick in the mellow soil and COW
cred the seed up, and with their little
hands placed leaves over the spot and
rolled stones around in ring TO mark
the planting. And when their task
was done and they looked around, lol
they beheld woman of the old race
standing nigh, looking steadfastly at
them, as the old look on the young with
thoughts that go backward and go on
ward. She was old and wise, the
prophecies of the tribe-a witch, the
newcomers called her, for she knew the
virtue of herbs, the potency of roots, of
cranes bill, of sassafras, of spikenard,
and, above all she had the seeing eye
and forrsaw the future and knew the
issue of things. from their beginning.
She it was who stood by, leaning on her
staff of ghostwood, and she said:
"You have planted seed, little
ones, that grew over the sea. The
white and the red have planted it and
the forces of sunrise and sunset shall
foster its growth
"And then she waved her staff above
the fresh mould that covered the seed
and chanted a chant Thou shalt live.
Thou shalt grow. Flower and fruit
shall be thine. Birds shall nest in thy
branches, lay eggs and hatch young.
No snake shall disturb them. Thou
shalt live long and feed many and after
ever. l of many years, OF the seeing
eve, the witch of Totoket, have said itl'
$50 was the seed brought from over
sea that was the beginning of me
planted by little Grace Norton. 1t was
true seed and well sown, as the is
sue proved, for the sun shone, the rain
fell and the Spirit of Life quickened the
seed, the germ within became vital and
l was! Oh, thou of years and knowl-
edge, who hast seen and felt and
thought much; thou jewellers in cities,
thou ranger of woods whose head is as
white as my ashes will be, dost thou
know, canst thou tell more than of
life in its beginning, whether of plant
or beast or man?"
And 1, after silence and bordering,
said:
"Old log, know no more than thou
of life in this beginning"
"Thou hast we'll said" answered
the log. Thou hast come at least to
one certainty-the Limitation of knOwl-
edge. One fact, therefore, hast thou
mastered. Master one other and thou
shalt be wise as those who by wisdom
are ready for death. Five times thy
years have 1 lived. Do years count?
Does their coming bring aught or their
going bring aught. to what is more
precious than rubies? 1t may be-
When l am not, ask my ashes whittier
am, what am and what death brought
unto me-" For a moment there was
silence. Suddenly the cypress plat
form that ran around the old house
cracked like pistol shot. An unlocked
shutter, high up in the gable, slammed
against the sash, while an icy blast
struck the northern side of the old
house 80 fierce blow that the shingles
shivered and the tendons of the oaken
posts creaked in their age seasoned
mortises.
These noises l heard as one hears
without hearing, for all my mind was
centered on what the log had Deen say
ing. But no light came to my dark
ness, and l said:
Years bring much in their coming
and leave much at their going to him
who loves learning, and five times my
years should mean much, but what
death can bring of good or of i'll to q
log is beyond my knowing"
"Let me tell you of my life," re.
sumed the log, 4" for life interprets
death, and translates the mystery of a
hieroglyph to the vernacular of &C.
quence. We shall be as we are, MOI
shall change come to us save what may
come through growth. Life is splen-
dor. The position that defines it is
meridian. Declension is loss, acces-
sion is gain. As starting point, death
and birth are one. What is sunset To
one hemisphere is sunrise to another.
From two points of view come two in.
terpretations, but the splendor is the
same. From the standpoint of ignorance
death is sunset. From the standpoint
of knowledge it is sunrise.
"How well l remember my first
blooming! had not known until Their
what l was. How strangely l feltl
did not know what it meant--the swee
forces moving in my trunk and bougt
and twig. And when my buds begar
to form and swell was half frightened
But after little space through all my
fibers there ran sweet prophets
sense that l who had been but WOO
was about to become Fruit Oh, tho,
man of whitened head, thou who ha