Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1901-05-14

Hetty" had not entered his mind at all.
He just meant the words as an express
sion OF EXTREMIST emphasis; and on the
third day after writing that letter he set
out, as he had declared he would, for
home. As he had sold his horse and cut
ter before leaving the Farmers Inn, it
was necessary for him to make the jour-
ney on foot; but he cared nothing for
that. A twenty-five mile walk, in such
fine weather, was nothing to him.
He would have liked to bid farewell to
poor Billy the Barker, but Billy had mys-
teriously disappeared, and it was the
opinion of the woman who kept the
boarding house that he had gone into the
river, as he had often threatened to. All
John could do was to leave his address,
to be given to the man if he ever return
ed, and with it a message that if he
would come out to the Cameron farm he
might stay there until he got well, land
it wouldn't cost him a cent"
1t was upon one of the lovely days of
early spring, when the dew was still up
on the grass, that John turned his back
upon Temperanceyille At the top of the
first high hill he turned and gazed upon
the city. The golden light of the sun,
passing through the low hanging dome of
sooty clouds above it, took on o dull SAT-
from tint, and the two rivers looked like
furnished silver. From tall chimneys ev-
erywhere columns of black smoke rose
straight to the pall-like sky, as if sup
porting it. Here and there, in the bases
of those columns, glowed tongues of
fame, hardly perceptible now, but, as he
we'll remembered. brilliant at night with
their changing hues of blue and gold and
crimson. Distant as he was, the roar
of the mills reached his ears as a dull,
unceasing growl. Step by step, as he
moved backward from the crest of the
hill, the city seemed to drop away from
before him until it was ali gone and only
the black dome above it remained, grow
ing hourly vaster in breadth and height
In late years, Pittsburg has won a
temporary respite from her old condi-
lions of CRIME and smudge and gloom
through the utilization of natural gas in
stead of bituminous coal in her many
thousands of fireplaces. Her buildings
are brighter, her air clearer and her peo-
pie cleaner and perhaps happier by rea-
son Of the change; but she has lost some
thing of her former distinctive pictur-
esqueness.
Five miles out of town, turning a bend
in the road-around the corner of an old
school house famous for its complete COW
ering of roses in the month of June
John met Uncle David Henderson, in
light wagon and driving a double team at
a spanking gait. After their first excla-
nations of mutual gratiied surprise at
the encounter, the giant sat staring at
his nephew, too much occupied with
studying him to even think of asking him
to get into the wagon.
'Why do you stare so at me, uncle?"
asked John.
You look so different from what you
used to. OF course l knew you, the mo-
ment l saw you, but, John, you don't
look like the same boy!'
Il am older"
"Only four months. 'Tain't that. You
have a different look. What have you
been doing?"
working in a rolling MILL"
'Ah, that's it! Jump in, and I'll turn
around"
'Don't you want 20 go on into town."
''No. 1 only came after you"
$50 you did get my letter. then, and
never answered itY
Didn't, hey? What do you call this?
Could l send a wagon and team by mail?
But l was coming for you anyway"
When the horses heads were turned
homeward, Uncle David again remarked
upon the change in Johns appearance.
MEMS looks" he said, depend a good
deal on how they live, their surroundings
and their work. I've always known that,
but never appreciated it so much as l
do now in seeing you. The young fellow
who works on a farm in the peace and
quiet there enyironing him, with the in
fuence always pressing upon him of Ma
lures slow processes, which he cannot
control but only help, unconsciously sinks
into a tacit acceptance of a secondary
place in the scale of being. The dormant
seed, slow-growing tree and lOng-ripen-
ing harvest, all compel him to recognition
of the law of patient submission to the
invisible force that is operating at the
same time and in the same way upon him
and upon all things surrounding him. Ma
ture masters him; the seasons make him
their slave; it is more correct to say of
him that he vegetables, than that he lives.
CTo be continued.)