St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-07-27

| WIFI uln paws uAcb lib Sycb upOu bHc
upper rim as if he would look himself
out of his watery prison?
II thought Of the miserable vermin,
thought of him as had often watched
thus his dying agonies, when cruel
urchin of or 10. Boys are horribly
cruel sir; boys, women and savages.
All childlike things are oruel-cruel
from want of thought and from per-
verse ingenuity, although by instinct
each of these is so tender. You may not
have observed it. but savage is as
tender to its own young as boy is to a
favorite puppy-the same boy that will
torture kitten out of existence. l
thought then, I say, of rat drowning
in half filled cask of water and lifting
his gaze out Of the vessel as he grew
more and more desperate, and flung
myself on my back, and floating thus
fixed my eyes upon the face of the moon.
1.-THE moon is we'll enough in her
way, however you may look at her, but
her appearance is, to say the least of it,
peculiar to man floating on his back
in the center of stone tank, with a
dead wall of some 10 or 20 feet rising
squarely on every side of himl"
The young man smiled bitterly as he
said this and shuddered once or twice
before he went on musingly
"The last time | had noted the planet
with any emotion she was ON the wane.
Mary was with me. had brought her
out here one morning to look at the
view from the top of the reservoir. She
said little of the scene, but as we talked
of our old childish loves I saw that it's
fresh features were incorporating them
selves with tender memories of the
past, and | was content
"There was a rich golden haze upon
the landscape, and as my own spirits
rose amid the voluptuous atmosphere
she pointed to the waning planet, dis
cernible like faint cash in the welkin,
and wondered how long it would be be-
fore the leaves would fall Strange girl!
Did she mean to rebuke my joyous
mood, as if we had no right to be happy
while nature whitening in her pomp
and the sickly moon wasting in the
blaze of noontide were there to remind
us of the gone forever?
They will all renew themselves,
dear Mary, said encouragingly, and
there is one that will ever keep tryst
alike with thee and nature through all
seasons if thou wilt be true to one of
US, and remain as now child of ma
ture.
" A tear sprang to her eye, and then
searching her pocket for her cardcase
she remembered an engagement to be
present at Miss Lawsons opening of
fall bonnets at o'clock.
"And yet, dear, wild, hayward
Mary thought of her now. You have
probably outlived this sort Of thing, sir,
but |, looking at the moon, as | hoated
there upturned to her yellow light,
thought of the loved being whose tears
l knew would flow when she heard of
my singular fate, at once SO grotesque,
yet melancholy to awfulness.
And how often we have talked, too,
of that Carian shepherd who spent his
damp nights upon the hills, gazing as
do on the lustrous planet. Who will
revel with her amid those old supersti-
tions! Who from our own unlegended
woods will evoke their yet undetected,
haunting spirits! Who peer with her in
prying scrutiny into natures laws and
challenge the whispers of poetry from
the voiceless throat of matter? Who
laugh merrily over the stupid guesswork
of pedants that never mingled with the
infnitude of nature, through love ex.
hausting and all embracing, as we have:
Poor girl, she will be companionless
"Alas, companionless forever, save
in the exciting stages of some brisk
Irritation. She will live hereafter by
feeding other hearts with loves lore
she has learned from me, and then,
Pygmalionlike, grow fond of the images
she has herself endowed with semblance
of divinity, until they seem to breathe
back the mystery the soul can truly
catch from only one. How anxious she
will be lest the coroner shall have dis
covered any of her notes in my pocket
81 felt chilly as this last reflection
crossed my mind, partly at thought of
the coroner, partly at the idea of Mary
being unwillingly compelled to wear
mourning for me, in case of such a dis
closure OF our engagement. 1t is pro-
voking thing for girl Of 10 to have to
go into mourning for deceased lover
at the beginning Of her second winter
in the metropolis.
"The water, though, with my mo.
tionless position, must have had some
thing to do with my chilliness. / see,
sir. you think that l tell my story with
great levity, but indeed, indeed l should
grow delirious did venture to hold
steadily to the awfulness of my feelings
the greater part of that night / think,
indeed, l must have been most of the
time hysterical with horror for the
vibrating emotions | have recapitulated
did pass through my brain even as
have detailed them.
But as I now became calm in
thought summoned up again some res.
olution of action.
II will begin at that corner, said I,
and swim around the whole Enclosure.
will swim slowly and again feel the
sides of the tank with my feet. If die
must, let me perish at least from we'll
directed though exhausting effort, not
sink from mere bootless WEAKNESS in