The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1899-04-01

perry, moss-covered basins. Nothing
held him. nothing frightened him
nothing daunted him. 1t was what wa.
left behind that caused that terror il
his heart; the dangers and darknesse.
ahead were a joy to him.
Deeper and deeper he went into the
unknown ways of the hills, farina
along dizzy abysses and sleek ascent.
till night came upon him, yet gave hin
TO pause. He was grateful for beirs
now in the blessed land of shadows
Ere long luminous eyeballs CLEANED
upon him as he pushed onward, but the
madness in his veins repealed them
and he could see them fleeing in an
imal terror from him. Writing things
coiled 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
bis 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 ac-
cursed.
Then the moon came up, and the
leaping cascades and angry mountain
streams glowed paIlidly. Livid mists
of green fame rose from the 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 of, and a thin, starved
growth succeeded; then wilderness of
jagged stones, bare of aught save lichen
embroideries. But he passed on swift
ly, racing shadow, knowing no fa-
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 sloped 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 hangdog way de-
parted. Some noisy birds fitted about
him on tour of inspection, and with
drew, chirping excitedly, to their IA
vorite tree. But he lay there, Drawn
lily, wildly beautiful. and slept as if he
had never slept before. Toward the
evening there came one, half affrighted,
who put an end to his slumber. He
awoke at the call of a voice, and looked
up to find woman bending anxiously
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 at 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 |
lie had loved and slain. But certain
sadness haunted those eyes and twined |
tself in shadowy way around her |
mouth: and, at his eager gaze, blush |
anne into her face and spread itself |
n pale rose waves over her face and
ieck.
DO not flee from me as all things
Use fee. Bide here awhile that may
ook at one who seems kind. Let me
'reathe this unknown sweetness and
lelp me drive this heaviness from my
cart"
'Thou hast come from far country"
he ventured to say, treasured.
"knowest thou such place as the
and OF Rest? Thence came
II know it not. 1t must be across the
ILLS OF the Sky, which none of our
eople have ever assembled"
Il seek the Land of the Forgotten.
lay this be it?"
Nay, this is the Land of Wander
n.y."
Then it is here, perchance, that
Just spend my life"
He buried his face in his hands and Il