The age-herald., 1900-10-28
SKETCHES FROM
 EVERY DAY LIFE
FAR FROM THE MADDINc CROWD.

dulged on account of delicate health and never taught how to work Moreover, old ante bellum ideas of the impossibility of a gentleman working filled his mind. Physi- cally as we'll as socially he could not work, and now that poverty haunted them, he suffered keenly. To beg he was ashamed he was even too proud to beg for work; yet he felt that he ought to do something for the family's sake, and with boundless desire and ambition handicapped by pride and incompetence he suffered all the tor- lures of Tantalus until he became morbid, reserved and difficult.
 Living in land of wondrous beauty, of balmy and health-giving breezes, where the sacred silence of nature was never broken; in land that in more than alti- tude alone was land of the sky, he brooded over his fate seeing little of things around him and ever dwelling in retro spection in far off city by the sea, where the ships anchored in the harbor, their lights at night shining over the restless water as the changing tide now ebbed now flowed. All his life he had loved this old city with it's quaint architecture and clan- nish tribes, and he hated the solitude of the hills, the monoteny of their life, and would have welcomed a thunderbolt as a gift from God had it shattered Pisgah and changed the outline of the scenery
 
 In all hls life he had found but one thing for which he thanked God. One<day, in this to him forlorn region, of all places in the world where he would have least expected 1t, he found what few find in the world, a woman who charmed and soothed him; to every mood, every thought, her heart re- sponded, as the violin to the masters touch. He felt that he was understood and when woman can produce this belief she Is of wondrous tact, which is rare, or true affinity, which is rarer Out of his gratitude grew love.
 Love took up the harp of life and smote
 on all the chords with might;
 Smote the chord of Self, that trembling
 pass'd in music out of sight"
 Happy days had come at last Happy moments fled never to return Over the mountain paths they walked, yet they never spoke of love. There is no need to speak when the heart is understood, and the un- spoken word but added to their eompanion- snip charm of slight uncertainty. Some day he will speak," she thought and I Will have to tell hm-but can wait, yes, can wait. Youth is so long, there is always tune" So they walked to their rock on the cliff and sat there happy in the little idle ways of lovers, dreaming of happy years to scome when they could dream of the happy years gone by. Below them lay the valley of the French xxitb smoke rising here and there, like incense from the altar of home.
 He would have told her all that his heart burned to say, but he could not. He was poor-what could he offer this girl? He had nothing; he could not marry, and the thought crushed him to earth, banishing his dreams of heaven.
 One day he sat on the rock waiting for her and musing on his life and his hopes. He did not see the valley below him. He was looking far beyond towards the city, where he thought he must go. He had care fully considered all things. There was nothing for him to do in the mountains there was no money to be made If he stayed-good-bye to all hopes of her No, he must go. There in the city was chance and opportunity. He must do something He could remain idle no longer. The family could get on without him. He must have money-he would have it-he would go down to the sea and wrest it from the hands of Fortune.
 In his newborn enthusiasm and determ- ination he rose hurriedly from his seat; his foot slipped, and, grasping frantically at the rock, he fell over the ledge. A helpless cry echoed among the hills; there was the sound of few small pieces of rock dis lodged by his fall gently striking the cliff below, and then there was silence.
 F. H. M.