The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-09-07


and while the winds played mournfully
among the hem1ocks and majestic pines,
the two approached the open door where
they paused for glance at the surround
ings.
cit was in truth lovely place,
But lonely as an eagles nest.
1t was place where one in quest
OF exile from the voice and face
Of man might hide. Not even a road
Led to it. and no field was sowed
For scores of miles. All overgrown
With varied vines of long neglect
There stood a solid house of stone
Rough quarried. Clinging trailers
deck
The small high windows, heavy set
AS a medieval castles. High
With lofty edge against the sky,
Fading away in craggy fret,
gray bare cliff o'ershadowed all,
And down the leafiess long ravine
Whence came the sound of waterfall
The widest stream that flows between
Old Appallachia's blue peaks ran
Leaping to darkness"
As they stood there in silence the guest
could but contrast the present with the
past of his hermit host: once he "gazed
at ambitions loftiest heights with stead
fast eyes, and dreamed of fame but now,
spurning the plaudits of his fellowmen, he
stands here "alone by memory's urn for
gotten" Approaching night, an icier
blast, and then the falling snow break
the reverie and the two friends pass
within. A slender Indian maid flung wide
the massive door, admitting them to a
room
Where blaZed glorious fire of wood
Piled by liberal hand upon
An ample hearthstone."
The two powerful dogs blinked welcome
and the hermit babe his guest be at home
while he for the moment withdrew. AS
the visitor sank into a great armchair
before the flaming freight, the outer
storm he felt proper setting for strange
stories within. 1t was
"A night when winds that wildly blow
Remind one of disastrous tales,
or people persisted in the snow,
Or icy wrecks and helpless walls
On dreadful oceans"
1t was Christmas Eve and the three lone
occupants of the hermitage "supped that
eve in happy STYLE While the guest
brought up the old recollections and the
recluse learned once more to smile, the
maid who had known but few summers
pondered we'll the strangers face. At
last he in wanton gleefulness recalled an
early escapade and spoke a name which
startled the girl to trembling and tears.
The hermit led her into another room
where with a soothing message he left
her alone.
Returning then to his friend. now by
the flaming hearth, he unrolled hidden
section of his life. He told how his
hermit career sprang, not merely frcm a
desire to be away from the vanities of
society. but also that it was continued
because of crime that had stained it.
He had found peace with regard to both
though the latter came
with more despair
And hotter tears and longer prayer"
In this very hall the death struggle
had occurred. A guest who was an enemy
ate and drank at the hermit's table, then
in vile insult uttered that name just
spoken when in frenzy the two men
closed in deadly strife and the hermit
was victor. The maiden was witness;
thus when in different spirit that name
was uttered again tonight she feared a
repetition of the tragedy.
But what of the history in that name
The poet knew but the one scene of early
love and folly which he recalled without
knowing its sequel.
Il knew that years ago one night
When love lay all in summer moon
And the warm stars hung like dewdrops
bright,
On the hills of heaven, he touched a
tune
To the serenading string, in the dusk
OF bloom-th thick trees in a garden OF
musk
That a white shape stole through a cur
tain of lace.
A girl all sweet from the warmth of
dream.
And came to him there in the secret place
Under the blossoms of crimson and
cream"
And now the hermit goes on With his
story He owned the crime, his man
like, unkind, untrue" flight, but also told
of the heaping wrath of heaven OH his
head Seeking in fairest lands = resi-
which ever kept out of his reach, he
finally came to settle on an isle 'in a
bright unsailed southern sea-" But there
singular fate brought the lost girl to
him.
Two bodies from wreck were hIougLi
One inky night when wild storm blew
And one was hers whose shame
wrought,
And one was his whom here | slew"
Their ship had been driven out of It's
course and these two only were saved
The one was going as missionary; the
other was following, "insolent. bold
hateful'-"the prosecuting worshipper o.
tear-paled beauty" The storm was Over
when the now holy woman came to con
seriousness and found her early lover
bending over her.
She knew me. begged me to depart
For love of Christ, for her own sake