The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1898-08-02

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sorry, and I'm envious at the same time
God! To be not yet 80 and in love. To
know the world-only in one pair of
eyes and comprehend heaven in the
touch Of five slim fingers. What would
not give to feel this, tell myself fond
ly I was a fool and be glad was Hug
your misery, my boy. Be such fool.
Some day, maybe, when you re like me
and not living thing is really neces-
sary to you, when you know only the
sleek and deadly level of practical self
content, you'll remember and wish the
longings which tear you now could
come again and hurt you. That man
only is blest whose happiness depends
upon another human being"
Donald looked at him in amazement.
He had never heard words like these
from Armitage. They touched him too.
Over his lean, brown face dreaminess
stole, and just as they crossed the fam
like shadow of the solitary palm upon
the roadway he moved his companions
hand from his wrist and gripped it.
"Armitage, he said, reused for the
moment out Of his self reserve 81 al
most wish, then, you could love wom-
an as miserably, as passionately, per-
haps as hopelessly, as do. She is the
desire of my life and its greatest good. I"
81 knew it. The signs never fail.
And now want to talk to you. We
might as we'll here as at the fazenda.
Why don't you sell out to mo or to
Morgan, take what you We made and go
home?"
"Home?" echoed Donald unable to
repress the note of hope and yearning in
his voice at sound of that sweet word
"Why?"
"Do you think this''-with con-
temptuous gesture toward the group of
low, tiled roof buildings and the bare
land-"pays for the pain in the heart?
AS for the money you make, it's not
much fog the struggle The days are
gone when big fortunes We're made in
coffee planting 1t doesn't matter much
whether my bones eventually lie under
this sun or Korea's, and it's the Same
with Morgan. But yoa--well there "a
woman you love far away from this
wilderness. For Gods sake, seize your
! happiness, sell out and go to her. -
81 WON'T" said Donald quietly
GIVE a task to accomplish. "
"Other than the averaging OF profit
of shillings and tuppence Oh bag CT
/ 60 kilograms?'
"Other than that. am content with
these medium profits. | came here not
only to conquer or at least disarm for
tune, but to conquer myself. I'll stay
the time intended.
They rode OH silently. An old negress
with a child on her hip stopped in the
middle Of the road, her palm outstretch-
ed, and, following curious custom,
I cried in Spanish:
"Bless me!''
"God bless your said Armitagc. ard
she went on.
A cart drawn by goats and filled with
firewood passed them. Black vultures
as motionless as if fashioned in basalt
looked down from the stun,i, OF dead
tree as they neare9 the fazenda
Close by the details of the place were
even more unlovely than tho misty
whole seen from the hilltop. Cattle
| grazed loose under the charge of an aged
negro squatting in the sun and slum-
| bering with his almost feshless face
against his knee. The gates through
which the two men passed were, like
everything else about the place, con
structed to do what was required of
them with the least possible exertion,
and having been swung back as if un-
n 4
against them they returned only half
way with q screech eloquent Of rusty
hinges and stuck fast in a tuft Of weeds
A large family of cats too attenuated tc
frolic strolled languidly around the
paved square or sat winling their halt
blind eyes i'll the glare. From some OF
the white laborers' cottages came the
smell of pork and frying bread. Over ii
all the sun famed hard.
Donald and Armitage alighted at the
factory, and from this came the low
grooming, the murmur of mixed song,
heard wherever the negro works.
"I'm dead for siesta. My clothes
seem weighted with stones, !" said Armi
tage, yawning. 81 was up before tho
sun this morning-long before it. Sc
were you" he broke off suddenly,
"and, by'George, you look dead beat
You'd better go little easier. Do as
do Sefain After your coffee lie down. >
"I'm going to- said Donald list
lessly.
Eyes but sleep Don't lie and think
Why Cont you 60 now and let Toma.
fetch Your coffee at once? It's almost 8. '
"After see Seraphine and find ou
what that rascal of an agent at the rail
way had 20 say in answer to my com
plant. Must we keep trusting his hon
esty in weighing the sacks? I'd as 500,
trust the devil
"Ah, what can we do? That's tho
leakage through which our profits drip
But because time and exertion are al
valuable as money in this enervatint
plague spot we must trust as we go ant
be cheated from the moment we leav,
the sacks at the station to the momen
they are shipped In Rio. Don't let mi
think of it, The he1nlessness of III drive