The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-08-05

John C1averhouse was moon-faced
man. You know the kind, cheek
bones wide apart, chin and forehead
melting into the cheeks to complete the
perfect round, and the nose, broad and
pudgy, equidistant from the circum-
ference, fattened against the very
center of the face like a dough- ball
upon the ceiling. Perhaps that Is why
I hated him, for truly he had become
an offense to my eyes, and believed
the earth to be numbered with his
presence. Perhaps my mother may
have been superstituous Of the moon
and looked upon it over the wrong
shoulder at the wrong time.
But be that as it may, hated John
Claverhouse. Not that he had done
me what society would consider a
wrong or ill turn. Far from it, in any
such sense. The evil was of deeper,
subtler sort; so elusive, so Intangible,
as to defy clear, definite analysis in
words. We all experience such things
at some period in our lives. For the
first time we see certain individual,
one~of whom the very instant before we
did not dream existed; and yet, at the
first moment of meeting, we say: 81
do not like that man." Why do we not
like him? All, we do not know why;
we only know that we do not. We have
taken dislike, that is all. And so
I with John Claverhouse.
What right had such a man to be
happy? Yet he was an optimist. He
was always gleeful and laughing. All
things were always all right, curse
him! All! how it grated on my soul
that he should be SO happy! Other
men could laugh, and 1t did not bother
me. I even used to laugh myself-be-
fore I met John Claverhouse.
But his laugh! 1t irrttated me, mad
dened me, as nothing else under the
sun could irritate or madden me. 1t
haunted me, gripped hold of me, and
would not let me go. 1t was huge,
Gargantuan laugh. Waking or sleep
ing it was always with me, Whirring
and Earring across my heart strings
and the very f1bers of my being like an
enormous rasp. At break of day it
came whooping across the fields to
spoil my pleasant morning reverie.
Under the aching MONDAY glare, when
the green things dropped and the birds
withdrew to the depths Of the forest,
and all nature drowsed, his great "Ha!
hal" and 'rHo! ho!" rose up to the sky
and challenged the sun. And at black
midnight, from the lonely crossroads
where he turned from town into his
own place, came his plaguy cachinna-
tons to rouse me from my sleep and
make me toss about and clench my
nails into my palms.
went forth privily in the night time
and turned his cattle into his fields,
and in the morning heard his whoop-
ing laugh as he drove them out again
'It is nothing" he said "the poor,
dumb beasts are not to be blamed for
straying into fatter pastures"
He had a dog he called Mars" a
big, splendid brute, part deerhound and
part bloodhound, and resembling both.
Mars was a great delight to him, and
they were always together. But /
bided my time, and one day, when the
opportunity was ripe, lured the animal
away and settled for him with arsenic
and beefsteak. 1t made positively no
impression on John Claverhouse. His
laugh was as hearty and frequent as
ever, and his face as much like the
full-moon as 1t always had been.
Then I set fire to his haystacks and
barn. But the next morning, being
Sunday, he went forth blithe and
cheerful.
where are you going7" I asked him,
as he went by the crossroads.
'Trout," he said, and his face beam
ed like a full moon. II just dote on
trout, you know
Was there ever such an impossible
man! His whole harvest had gone up
In his haystacks and barn. 1t was I'M
insured, / knew. And yet, in the face
of famine and the rigorous winter, he
went out gayly in quest of a mess
of trout, forsooth, because he dotted
on them! Had gloom but rested, no
matter how lightly, on his brow, or
had his bovine countenance grown long
and serious and less like the moon, or
had he removed that smile but once
from off his face, / am sure I could
have forgiven him for existing. But
no, he grew only more cheerful under
| misfortune.
/ insulted him. He looked at me in
slow smiling surprise.
II fight you? Why2" he asked. slow.