The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-01-23

glowing, joyous picture | could only dim
ly surmise. He went on:
when it was all over AMI went out
into the open air, | did rot see the sun
light. | carried the dusk ~ the theater
with me, and the gloom of GoIgotba
bro0ded over the sunny afternoon.
heard the nails driven in saw the
blood squirting from the wounds; there
was realism in the thing, tella you:
The peasants, accuStom Il ~ the painful
story, had quickly recovered their
gayety. and were pouring bcistcrously
down the hillside like a glad, turbulent
mountain-stream Embossed from the dead
hand OF frost. But was still ice-bound
and fog-wrapped. Outside the GasthaIs
where went TO dine, gay groups assem-
bled. an organ played, some stroling
Italian girls danced gracefully, and my
artistic self was aware Of warmth
and a rush. But the inmost me was
neck-deep i'll gloom, with which the
terribly pounded steak they gave me,
fraudulently oyerlaid with two SNOWY
friea eggs. seemed only i'll kepeing. st.
John came in. the Christ, and the SchoO.
master-who had conducted th9 choir
and the thick tenor, and some supers;
and / congratula ted them one and all
with a gloomy sense of dishonesty.
When, as evening fell, / walked home
with st. John, | was glOolnily glad to
find the valley shrouded i'll mist and u
stal1esS heaven sagging over blank
earth. 1t seemed an endless uphill
drag 10 my lodging, and though my bed
room was unexpectedly dainty, and Il
dear old wonan-St. Johns mother
metaphorioally tucked me in, slept i'll
that night. Formless dreams tortured
me with impapalble tragedies and ap'
prehensions of horror. In the morning,
after cold sponging, the oppression
lifted little from my spirit, though the
weather still seemed rather gray. st.
John had already gone off to his field
work, his mother told me. She was so
lovely, and the room in which ] ate
breakfast so neat and demure with its
whitewashed walls, pure and stainless
like country snow, that | managed TO
swallow everything but the coffee Oh,
that coffee! | had to nibbe at bit Of
chocolate / carried, to get the taste OF
it out of my mouth. / tried hard not to
let the blues get the upper hand again.
/ filled my pipe, and pulled out my
sketch-book. My notes of yesterday
seemed $50 faint and the morning grow
ing so dark. that l could scarcely see
them. l thought / would go and sit on
the little bench outside. As | was saun-
tering through the doorway, my head
bending broodingly over the sketch
book, like this, | caught sight out of the
corner Of my eye Of "a little white match
stand fixed upon the wall. Mechanically
put out my left hand to take "a light
for my pipe. A queer cold wetness in
my fingers and Il nttle splash woke me
to the sense Of some odd mistake, and
in another instant / realized with horror
that | had dipped my fingers into holy
water and splashed it over that neat,
elemure, spOtless, white-washed wall"
| could not help smiling. "Ah, I
know, one of those porcelain things
with crucified Savior over little font.
Fancy taking heaven for brimstonew
ut didn't seem the least bit funny at
the time. / just felt awful. What
would the dear old woman say to fIis
Why did people have white
washed walls on which sacrilegious
stains were luridly visible? | looked mp
and down the hall like Moses when he
slew that Egyptian, trembling lest the
old woman should come in. How could
] make her understand ! was so ignor-
ant OF Christian custom as to mistake
a font for a matchbox? And &c said