Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-11-06

no open door. Behind that wall ar,
written the things of which, perhaps,
he may he neither asham.d no,
any knowledge of which he yet " ill
admit only to his own heart.
Ericsson had known life, so it is
not strange that in his life was such Il
dead wall. Early in my ac .uaintauca
with the man it came 10 me to know
that there were certain things about
which must not question him. Al
though he was one Of the most genial
and a.fable of men, one whom, through
years of close compa lionship. | grew
to know and value rs Il friend and to
love as a brOther--to know as one who
placed more than an empty meanin,.
upon the word 'friend''--l foln,l
that he would not brook, even from
me, any prying query as t" the years
of his younger manhood.
We were gold-hunt II by profes-
sion. A fine, free, adventurous life it
l., which let's 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 as the darkness and disaster of
dread despair Rich today, and to-
morrow too poor to own place where
in to lay ones heal, it is not bad
life for man who is filled 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 I learned that Ericsson had a
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 wonld have
missed much by so doing. For the
freedom of that life gets into ones
blood, and man who has known it
cannot we'll brook restraint or be
hedged within narrow bounds.
But Ericsson was no longer master
of his fate, as was, and he could al
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 aud to establish her in quar-
ters made comfortable and enriched
with all that love and liberality coall
suggest. SO it WAS that sometimes il
the mining camps appeared little
oasis of civilization and in that oasis
a woman, who see ned little less than
an angel to the rough miners unaccus-
toned to the presence of femininity in
their environment.
If Ericsson was n strange man, reti-
cent and ever stoicnlly keeping prying
eyes from looking beyond that deal
wall in his life, his wife was q stranger
woman still.
I will not use empty, meaningless
phrases in describing her. 1t may he
said that she was beautiful. do not
know whether she was so by accepted
standards, and at best the word is Il
weak one to apply to woman such as
she. But she hal pure olive skin,
such as | have never seen upon any
other woman, except now and then
among the high-born danes of Anda-
lusia. Under it ut times was glow
of fire, as the blood coursed through
the veins an surged to the surface of
her oval face, that made me think Of
her as living OPAL. 1 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. I have
had speech with many nations of the
earth, but, rack my memory as ]
might, I could not tell what tongue it
was that gave her that soft, caressing
accent, that made every rough, hash
word of our uncouth English take upon
itself new meaning, that made ones
pulses throb as though she had callel
one by some endearing name.
We were ten days ont from San
Francisco, we three Ericsson, his wife
and myself--bound for the Solomon
islands. We had direct Information
(how il had been obt linel / need not
tell you) of the new discovery of yell
low metal in one of the smaller islets
of that group, and we were bound to
4. Oh, N.ok thorn nj,
never was laggard, and perhaps to
that fact was due the other one to
which l have already called your at
tention--that luck was never lar dis
tant from him. And l profited by
his wisdom, and by the kindliness
that this older aud mo:e earnest man
extended toward the youth whom he
had made his friend.
As we neared the line the weather
became intensely hot, and. we at
tempted little in the way of exercise Or
recreation except to 10 | all day under
the awnings, with pipes between our
lips and unread novels in our hands.
1t was too hot to read, too hot to talk.
The sea looked To us like vast ex-
panse of molten silver. Its surface
was unstirred by any ripple, absolute
ly quiet except for the long swell
upon which we rolled gently forward
No breath of air novel, no cloud
marred the sky Of b.u's above us. All
nature was inert, and man, following
her lead, but existed. For days we
had been too dull to talk. We but
waited, while the successive revolu-
tions of our wheels drove us speedily
nearer and nearer our goal.
Ericsson seemed even more inert
than any other. Usually active an
vigorous, he now scarcely moved or
opened his lips from the coming mp TO
the going down of the sun. except to
remove his pipe from between them.
or in the endeavor to drive away the
overwhelming heat by swallowing the
cooling mixture that his man brought
him from time to time.