The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-05-04
A CHILD'S WORLD.

the garden, 10 times as old, was on the Is
land. The house also was on the same Is
land and was the place where the child ate
and slept and obeyed. But its life was in
the garden.
The house faced pond, and two bridges
bound 1t and the garden to the world. By
the lower bridge stood the old mill, and
when its gate was raised food of water
boiled and twisted down to q smooth gravel
bed below and then foated quietly to the
gardens foot. Over against the upper
bridge mighty dam held the island from
destruction. When the pond back Of ID
was full, the water poured in smooth,
green stream over 1t and was dashed into
spray and foam and torn to shreds on the
jagged rocks below.
In summer time when there had been
but little rainfall the great timber Of the
dam was bare, and the child, when no one
was looking, could walk fearfully across,
between the line Of water shelving to the
right and the black mass Of sheer rock at
the left. Then 1t was that the child could
climb over the low stone wall that kept
the garden in and go down among the
Jewelweed and stramonium and clawing
blackberry vines that took toll of gown
and apron, and explore the pools and bot.
tomless pits in the river bed. The water
always stood in these, dark and still, how
ever severe the drought, and no stick ever
sounded the depth of the largest of them. =
So 1t must have been bottomless, like
some of the fearful things one heard read
on Sundays in Scripture. And, though
fha with tha hot ne No n
ing up, dropped In stones, and even reach
cd down an arms length and brought
longer sticks, and tried them again and
again, the deep pool was kind of sacred
mystery forever. If the child had not been
alone, If it had had brother, one fascina-
ton of its seventh year must have been
lost.
There were holes without number in the
bed of this stream and sharp pointed rocks.
So that when tho pond above was full 1t
was grand torrent that foamed roaring
to the harbor, where 1t found the quiet
millstream curling around the gardens
foot. A steep bank at the right shut the
river from the world, and go made 1t the
child's own forever.
On the pond, made classic as Winder-
mere by song, geese loated double in the
long summer days, and lent encbantment,
and birds nested in the elms that dipped.
their branches in the water, and bees hum
med In the clover. Then the expanse mar
rowed, and simple river met 1t, creeping
along by the highway, floating between
two guardian churches with tall steeples,
under long bridge, and SO through tho
town to the mill and dam.
The child's thought went backward with
1t, always starting at tho foot of the gar
den. The stream bore an Indian name,
and might have had its source in the midst
of campflres and wigwams, and birch bark
canoes, and frightful warwhoops and TOM
ahawks, perhaps mile, possibly two
miles away, Miles were vague measures
like time
There were two lesser things in tho
child's life-the mill and the dame school,
The first belonged to an old, old man, like
those persons who lived before the flood;
whose hat and hair and coat and eyebrows
were always white, yes, and his boots, and
whatever else he wore. There was q soft,
rumbling kind of silence always within
the mill, where the hoppers made little
whirlpools of dusty grain, going down and
down and down, and the child leaned over
with thrill tingling its whole body, and
knew that itself could be drawn down and
down and down into the wide, floury bags
oeioW, choked ana lost forever. Inc soft
dust lllled the air and softened the sun
Hgh5 ana Whltehea Ghe copweps among the
ralters ana IL al something apart from
the world and the garden.
Inc second thing was the Dame school,
where very old lady-years older than
the mlller.kept ten prisoners on an up
per iioor OF her own mouse from till u
ana IRON till every DAY but saturday.
Inc chiiu uia NOT theh know that liberty |
was only SWEEP when pought with great
price.
Every morning as the CLOCK paused on
the s'foke OF inc dame Iolded her hands
ana prayed sltting upright like Buddha,
WINE her captlVes Khelt, each In It's place.
Az inc rlght hand OF the image stood the
nest giri OF the school, years old, perfect
IN WORD ana deed and called monitor, who
waiked around on tiptoe and raped on
1he mead WIN the ierrule any cuiprit who
pe.Peu ou'' ~ was uiaDohc plot, not
iuliy Appreciated az the tilne by the prison.
efs' lof VINO eouiu near the stealtny ap,-
proach Oh caiamlty ana Dhndly walt, not
khoWing Which way 10 dodgeF 80 heaven
alone hau the peheiit OF the morning prayer
All aay long, winner ana summer, sum
iner ana WihIer' nke etornlty, the child
tnougnt, ii6tle hahus knltteu ana seWeu,
with DOCK always IN lap. Tho daily