The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-12-12
OLIVE scHREtNER t.RA1pH IRONY.

OLIVE SCHREINER (''RAIPH fRON''l
led up to the loft the moonlight cast
kind Of dreamy beauty and quite ethe-
realized the low brick wall that ran
before the house and which inclosed a
bare patch of sand and two struggling
sunfowers. On the zinc roof of the
great open wagon house, on the roofs
Of the outbuildings that jutted from
its side, the moonlight glinted with a
quite peculiar brightness till it seemed
that every rib in the metal was Of
FURNISHED silver.
Sleep ruled everywhere, and the
homestead was not less quiet than the
solitary plain.
In the farmhouse, on her great wood
en- bedstead. Tant' Sannie, the Boer
woman. rolled heavily in her sleep.
She had gone to bed, as she always
did, in her clothes, and the night was
warm and the room close, and she
dreamed bad dreams-net of the ghosts
and devils that SO haunted her waking
thoughts. not of her second husband.
the consumptive Englishman. whose
grave lay away beyond the ostrich
camps, nor of her first, the young
Boer, but only of the sleeps trotters
|. she had eaten for supper that night
She dreamed that one stuck fast in her
throat, and she rolled her huge form
from side to side and snorted horribly
In the next room, where the maid
had forgotten to close the shutter, the
white moonlight fell in in a flood and
made it light as day. There were two
small beds against the wall. In one
lay yellow haired child. with low
forehead and face of freckles, but
the loving moonlight hid defects here.
as elsewhere. and showed only the in
nocent face of child in it's first sweet
sleep,
The figure in the companion bed be-
longed of right to the moonlight. for
1t was of quite elfnlike beauty The
child had dropped her cover on the
floor, and the moonlight looked in at
the naked little limbs. Presently she
opened her eyes and looked at the
moonlight that was bathing her.
"Emy' she called to the sleeper in
the other bed. but received no answer.
Then she drew the cover from the
floor. turned her pillow and, pulling
the sheet over her head. went to sleep
again.
Only in one Of the outbuildings that
jutted from the wagon house there was
some one who was not sleep. The room
was dark. Door and shutter were clos.
ed. Not ray of light entered any
where. The German overseer to whom
the room belonged lay sleeping sound
ly on his bed in the corner. his great
arms folded and his bushy gray and
black beard rising and falling on his
breast. But one in the room was not
asleep. Two large eyes looked about
in the darkness, and two small hands
We're smoothing the patchwork quilt
The boy, who slept on box under the
window. had just awakened from his
first sleep. He drew the quilt up to
his chin, so that little peered above 1t
but a great head of silky black curls
and the two black eyes. He stared
about in the darkness. Nothing was
visible, not even the outline of one
worm eaten rafter, nor of the deal ia.
BILE. on which lay the Bible from which
/ his father had read before they went
to bed. No one could tell where the
tool box was and where the fireplace.
There was something very impressive
to the child in the complete darkness.
AT the head of his fathers bed hung