The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1899-04-13

eIong Q2zxy aDyU8eo eo0 oIoe8 oDCe0p1
till night came upon him, yet gave him
co pause. He was grateful for being
now in the blessed land Of shadows,
Ere long luminous eyebslls CLEANED
upon him as he pushed onward, but the
madness in his veins repelled them.
and he could see them fleeing in an
imal terror from him. Writhing things
rolled in his way and Kissed vengefully
at him, but skunk away at his swift:
coming. Even the glow worms in
the grass paled at his presence. and the
songbirds Of the night were silent as
his feet went scurrying through the
grass. 1t seemed to his shivering soul
that all nature looked upon him as a
fearful thing-a thing exiled and &c
cursed.
Then the moon came up. and the
leaping cascades and angry mountain
streams glowed pallidly. Livid mists
Of green flame rose from tho earth
and suffocated the forest ways. But
the tortured man kept on, for rest was
not In his soul; only the passion for
fight. And all the while he was go
ing upward and toward the far line
that marked the mountain tops where
they met the sky.
Steep and rugged was the way, and
he knew not what was beyond. The
great trees fell off, and thin. starved
growth succeeded; then n wilderness Of
jagged stones, bare of aught save lichen
embroideries. But he passed on swift
y. racing shadow, knowing no IA
tigue, no pain, until he reached the
top Of the ridge; and there he paused
and looked ahead of him, at the stars
first, and then at what lay at his feet.
The mountain stopped down into what
seemed to him cloudy void; and now
the impulse that had taken him up
ward took him down the sides of the
hills. He felt that he had put bar
rier between himself and the Land Of
Rest, and gradually there stole upon
him sense of dreamy fatigue; yet he
proceeded downward, until he saw
lights cleaning at intervals on the
plain.
He stopped beside tiny rill Of water
to refresh himself A bank OF moss, un-
der large acacia tree, invited him to
rest. He kneeled down and quenched
his thirst from the clear trickling
stream; and almost as tired child, he
dropped upon the messy bank. Then
merciful sleep blotted out the crime
of the first murderer.
He slept until far into the coming
day. Once lion came to the stream
to drink, shifted at the heavily-sleep-
ing man, and then in a hangdog way de-
parted. Some noisy birds fitted about
him on a tour Of inspection, and with
drew. chirping excitedly. to their fa-
vorite tree. But he lay there, brawn-
lily, wildly beautiful, and slept as II he
had never slept before. Toward the
evening there came one, half affrlghted,
who put an end to his slumber. He
awoke ut the call Of voice, and looked
1p to find o woman bending anxious,y
over him.
"My mother" he murmured. half a.
dream.
NAY, not thy mother" answered the
sweet voice Of the woman, as she drew
back timorously, yet laughing shyly.
He raised himself and looked ut her,
looked anxiously, wonderingly at her
white and rounded beauty. Never had
he seen aught like her. though her
eyes spoke to him Of the brother whom
he had loved and slain. But q certain
sadness haunted those eyes and twined
itself In q shadowy way around her
mouth; and, at his eager gaze, blush
came into her face and spread itself
in pale rose waves over her face and
neck.
"Do not flee from me as all things
else fee. Bide here awhile that may
look ut one who seems kind. Let me
breathe this unknown sweetness and
help me drive this heaviness from my
heart"
Thou hast come from far country"
she ventured to say, reassured.
"Knowest thou such place as the
Land of Rest? Thence l came"
II know 1t not. Itmust be across the
Hills of the Sky, which none Of our
people have ever assembled"
II seek the Land of the Forgotten.
May this be it?"
"Nay. this is the Land Of Wander
ing"
Then it is here. perchance. that l
must spend my life"
He buried his face in his hands and
mused; and the woman. seeing him
thus in reverie, slipped noiselessly
away, as If she would escape his pres
ence: she had not gone far down the
stream when she gave cry that
brought Cain wondering to his feet. He
had thought that she was still beside
him, but to his surprise he beheld her
at some distance, and in deadly peril
A great bowlder, loosened by some
action of the wind or water from its
place higher up the mountain, was
rolling slowly downward, its passage
retarded now and then by stout sap
ling or an outcropping scrap of rock.