The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-04-15

started from some older State with all of
its household goods in a wagon. like hun
dreds Of thousands. OF other Americans.
some native born. some imported, but all
OF the restless class. They had failed to
find their intended route by missing a great
rock that marked the parting of certain
ways. but when they suddenly found them
selves amid abundant pasturage for their
weary horses and cattle, with an enormous
spring near by and thickIy wooded hills on
one side OF a brook they concluded that
they had reached that particular portion of
the romise al which every American
wanderer believes was set apart for him
from the foundation of the Republic.
Individually they differed as greatly as
their dogs. who showed strains of all good
and doubtful varieties of canine blood. A
sociologist would have thought them col
lectively as unpromising material from
which TO make a harmonious
as could have got together by accident, for
among them could be found New England
ers, Southerners. people from Ireland, sew
eral German states. France-by way of
Canada-Africa by the slavers' route, and
from Judea, with pauses all over Europe.
Yet later arrivals, who also missed the
rock that was TO have guided them else
where. found the social conditions quite as
good as any they had known.
The Yankees had put up a schoolhouse
and tormented their neighbors into appre-
citation Of the benefits OF ''book larnin',"
the Southerners had introduced the to-
bacco plant and disclosed the mysteries Of
hunting game and of keeping undesirable
persons at proper distance, the French
Canadians had impaired the art of eating
almost anything until crops could be made,
the Irish had shown the ways of getting
more potatoes from a square rod of soil
than most Americans get out Of an acre,
the Germans had made evident the posi-
bilities of the kitchen garden n of cheer
ing the evening hours with song, the col
ored people had taught some of their neigh
bors TO whistle care down the wind and TO
do nothing cheerfully when there was
nothing to do, and the Jews revived the
forgotten art lin America) of not spending
money foolishly.
One day there appeared in the settlement
a young man of serious visage, and an
nounced that he was a minister of the
gospel and a fisher of men. and that all
would be fish that zane within reach of his
net. This statement did not brighten any
one; the schoolhouse was placed at his dis
posal Sundays and evenings, and he was
hailed Hospitality. after the manner of new
communities. from every house that he
CHANGED to pass at meal times.
Fishers of men. like other anglers. have
the habit of selecting the species which
they most enjoy catching, and the Rev.
Peter Waldress was not long in resolving
that the human fish he most desired to
land from the Lost Rock pool were Lie
Riggin and Connie O'Day.
Lie was a Yankee, whose ancestors had
been sailors and masters Of ships. so he
had inherited a large physique and a mas
terful manner that caused all the younger
men OF the settlement. as well as many of
the older ones. to accept him as a leader.
Like many other Yankees he was I'M
wearying at argument, and the young
preacher shrewdly reasoned that with such
a man at his side the entire community
would be talked into the church.
Connie was unlike Lie in all respects
except popularity. vitality and gcod-nature.
She was as pretty as a picture, and no de-
ldI VI TIE hdIO lIc vi d HcW SctI4cLHcHl
seemed able to mar her beauty or depress
her spirits. The deepest browns that the
summer sun cast upon her could not hide
the roses in her cheeks, many hours of
pOtato-hoeing did not rob her hands of
their dainty shape nor her back and Shout
ders OF their queenly pose, nor did her
eyes lose their luster when successive
rainy days imprisoned their owner in a
cabin that had but one small window. All
summer long she went barefooted, as did
most other women in a land that was a
days journey from a shoemaker, but her
brown feet remained as small and shapely
as if they were of bronze and fresh from
the mold. Mothers of other girls wished
that their daughters could look and act
like Connie. and the girls wished fervently
that they could fulfill the parental desire.
The young preacher could not look at Con-
ME without murmuring to himself the line;
For a smile of God t~hcusart."
and he had not been in the village a fort
night before he was obliged to Examine his
soul most uncomfortably for fear that he
was angling for his own private gain.
Finally Waldress, while talking 20 him
self. called Connie Satan and babe her
get behind him; for Easter Sunday was ap-
preaching, and he was determined that the
day should mark a great change in the
spiritual condition of Lost Rock. He found
great encouragement in a general Easter
ferment that pervaded the community.
Women were summing potted plants that
they might bloom by Easter. the Germans
were beginning to tell old Easter legends
TO all who cared TO listen. the Southerners
were searching the woods and ragbags Tor
materials with which to color Easter eggs.
AS Easter eve and the anniversary OF the
Passover were concurrent. the head of the
Jewish family travelled many miles TO pro-
cure a lamb. and the oldest colored man OF
the village walked as far TO replace a
broken string of his fiddle.
Connie O'Day's mother was nursing a bit
OF shamrock in a box of earth brought
from old Erin several years before. and
Connie herself became p~rettier through the
fever of hope that she might see the sun
dance on Easter morning, as every good
Irish woman knows ii does dance when be-
held from any portion of the most beautiful
isle of the sea.
But Lie Higgins only contribution TO