The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1900-04-05
THE TEST OF LOVE
Barba-a Merriden Came Near Civ
ing Up = Brave Man For
Coward.

~ So"Aros %
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
OF all the noble rivers that go bound
ing to the sea none is more splendid
than the Columbia. Its pine clad banks
give a majestic setting for its silver
stream. But why should it be called
silver? At times it is the deepest green,
deeper and more luminous than the
heart of a jewel There are hours
when its cascades have thousand col
ors. ike mother of pearl. There are
dawns, after the mist has lifted. when
the cascades is actually saffron or bur-
nished gold.
Barbara Merriden knew it in every
mood and loved it whether it was SOM
Der with storm or sullen in the harsh
autumn days or scintillant under the
July sunshine. She was as much at
home upon the river as on the land,
and the firm earth, with all it's comfort
and beauty. could never give her the
joy that she felt when the current took
her boat in it's strong embrace.
She went to the river in her sorrow
full moments as well as in her happy
ones. She fed to it as to a friend.
When George Caxton told her that he
loved her. she ran to the river to tell it
of the blessing that had come into her
life. But some way she did not feel
the ecstasy she had expected to. The
pleasure in her heart did not rise to
meet the splendor Of water and sky
and shore. She had often looked for
ward to this hour as the browning. joy
of her life. But with grief she discov-
cred that the song of nature had a
higher note than the love lyric of her
heart. ~,
Perhaps it was because the hour had
been too long expected. George Cax-
ton and Barbara Merriden had gone to
school together. They knew every
event Of each others lives. They had
always been attached to each other.
George had never thought Of any other
girl with emotion, and Barbara had
long felt that she was destined to be
his wife. She had said yes to his ear
nest question with gratitude and hap
piness. yet now in the mystic hour by
the river. with the sun shedding its
last exquisite glow upon an unreal
world, she felt a WEAKNESS Of spirit at
the moderation Of her Joy.
She was turning from her beautiful
river, Inundated at the inadequacy Of
her own emotions, when she saw walk
ing among the pines. with eyes fixed
upon the distant glory Of the sky.
young man whom she had never seen
before. He did not see her till she was
close by him, and then he looked with
a start at the face of the girl, spiritual
and exquisite with its deep emotional
experience. He stopped and looked at
her, rapt. as IL she had been some re-
Gently embodied soul created for this
enchanted by the eloQuence of his face.
When he spoke, 1t was to say some
thing remarkable:
as 1t always mysterious and fear
fully beautiful in these woods" he
asked.
"It is always beautiful here" she
said. speaking as If in a dream. And
sometimes 1t seems unreal and like
like a phantom world. as it does to-
night"
Never before In her life had she spo-
ken in the way that she desired. It
was her habit to frame her speech in
commonplace words.
"I should like to walk out on that
golden water" he went on. TT seems
as If it might bear one up, does 1t not?'
Barbara had fancy and INDUCED
herself in 1t.
cit will bear up any one whose heart
is light" she smiled. "But, mind you.
it must have no care at all 1t must be
as light as ether"
"would it bear you up?" he asked.
She shook her head mournfully, and
he said in voice that moved her.
and should sink like stone" 1t
seemed impossible for them to part
while that witch light cleaned upon
their enchanted wood. and when the
shadows grew gray they became a
part of them-like shadows they faded
from each others sight.
That night when Barbara went about
her duties and afterward when she lay
in her bed she found herself happy
with the elate and triumphant happi-
ness of which she had dreamed.
George Caxton, her promised lover,
seemed part Of the workadaE world.
Her thoughts turned away from him
in spite OF her efforts to be loyal.
She felt sure she would meet. the
stranger again in the woods, and she
did many times. He was a writer by
vocation. He even confessed to being
a poet He was not well, he said. The
city had worn on him, so he had come
Cor long rest there among the pines.
His name was Cecil Underwood
Barbara found 1t Impossible to resist
the charm Of his personality. He seem