The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-04-27
TOO MUCH FRUIT.

OF bluin llJJlc MfllScn player on tnc wall.
why don't you eat it, asked Polly.
The idea of internally absorbing the
beautiful had n strange charm. 1t was
very large pcrsmmon, but ate it all, and
then | went To bed.
From ceiling that crawled and crinkled
watched cherry colored mandarin swing
slowly down on to my bed. From the spot
from which he dropped came another and
another, all no longer than a pea pod and
as dry. Solcmnly they squatted on my
chest and lifted their hairy arms, in which
were twisted rods with carven, grinning
faces
Crash They broke into shrill, discord-
ant song, beating, beating, beating on my
ribs. One, near the apex of my heart, would
not keep time, and that was worse than all.
How the blows hurt and how their curled
up knees sank deep into my heshl The
words of the song seemed to leap forth
like little cubes and hop over my skin,
burning as they rolled The pain was I'M
endurable. l drew great gasp of agony
and was free. They were gone.
A long vista of grayness resolved itself
into strange perspective. l was seated
in a fragile jinrikisha, but instead of the
lusty runner blue skirted and handy legged,
between the shafts was a monstrous horse,
tall to heaven with stridings that devour-
cd the road A voice, warning, portentous,
sounded in my cars:
"Be thou careful, o careless one, for
thou hast that in charge that is precious. +"
looked down, and beside me crouched
a bit of brown baby, naked and unafraid
whose knob of hair, tied in u tiny brush
painted hieroglyphcs in the air with every
leap of the iurching vehicle
BY some swift intuition I knew that
this prancing, gigantic horse was the pride
of the mikado's stables and the brown
baby the hope of the empire, and that &C
cident to either meant u punishment to fit
the crime. l looked ahead. The white
slopes of Fusiyama the sacred mountain,
lay before us, up which none may pass
alive.
On either side our way impenetrablc
pines, in whose dark branches COLLINS sat
and grimaced horribly. On we rushed.
The great fore feet of the horse struck the
slope of the forbidden hill. A sudden shock
ran through all his body l stood alone
in the road On the SIDE his blood dyeing
the scanty sod, lay the horse, deep hole
in his quivering side, while in my arms
the child lay leaden, gasping
Crowds of other people gathered about
us and looked upon me ominously, silently.
Kill this wretched creature in mercy, "
L begged They stood unmoved, silent,
still, while the horse gazed at me in more
than human anguish. Clasping the child,
hurried away, falling stumbling, crying
aloud for help in vain.
Suddenly l stood in vast room. All
about its sides were ladders of bamboo,
fragile and hung by slender threads. In
the corners, overhead and swinging corpse
like, were bundles, shapeless, unspeaka bic.
The air was filed with "a sickening odor,
as of mingled decay and strange spices,
pungent and sweet. Slowly the swinging
bundles took form, and beneath appeared
the outline of II body in Il dim and Devil
dering individuality, ludicrous and horri-
| BILE.
Again voice cried-a voice of authority
| not to be gainsaid-" ScIrchr' Again
knew that somewhere in this formless i'm
mcnsity the little brown baby was hid
still alive, and could / but find him ere
too late l might save our souls alive from
l knew not what. Instantly he was nc
longer the heir of the house of San, but
mine, my own, that had lived and loved
and lain on my breast, and whose life ]
would die million deaths to save, whose
L
| How 1 tossed the dreadful bundles
about! How tore them open ruthlessly,
only to sec II sunken eye or gaping mouth
How l chung to the spiderlike ladders and
leaped across chasmlike spaces. At last
among n heap of squald rags, in corner
where snakes writhed and ran, a little
foot pceped out. 1t moved. 1t was warm.
l tcp away the clothes as dog tears AT
the earth that covers his quarry and snatch
ed the child to my heart. On his bare
breast gaped IL wide wound, it's edges al
ready purple and receding, and as l looked
l saw the fatal flush spread up and up
Water! Oh, if there were only water!
saw dull pool ut my feet, and, STOPPING
dashed the icy drops upon the wound. In
vain. One chance remaincd-to call back
the fleeing soul by name in desperate en-
treaty. Surely my baby would listen.
The word died on my lips, for the child
on my heart changed again as l would
have spoken, and what knew of the namC
of the mikado's heir? Let me think.
must think. Did not some one of that
CRUEL crowd that stared and grinned speak
it? l strive; / groan; / cry aloud. TIL,
heavy air sends back my cries holloway
and as l choke into silence / see the lids
flutter and fall The hope of the empir,
has gone all too soon to the sacred shades
of Fusiyama, and l, l alone, must answer
Alone in the silence and darkness of
cell l could put out my hand and fee
that the wall was made of some rough
woven grass, about which chung a pcno
trating odor. In this grass l could hear
the movement of millions of minute in
sects, l knew not of what detested shape
and kind l began to pass my hands over
these walls in | know not what barren
hope of escape, Carefully l crept on and
on, measuring, comparing, testing. Their
l went back and began again. My hand,
kept slipping OFF strangely into space. Tn,
cell had no shapc-simply dimension.
Alas! l was no simple onlooker ut some
splendid revel of primeval nature All
that was in this stupendous scheme was
me, sentient, suffering soul.
The helpless, tortured ego was part OF
the whole. 1t frozc on those cold, piercing
peaks, baked on those plains of arid sand
was tossed In that human sea, was blown
on those tempestuous winds. All this
was, all this i inflicted, all this bore fol