Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-24

of continually rolling The little
groves OF timber. scattered here and there.
sheltered from the summer sun the wild
cattle Of the plains. The shorter grasses
hid the coveys of the prairie hens. and on
the marsh-grown bayou banks the wild
duck led her brood. great land, rich
fruitful one was this that lay about these
adventures.
A soberness had come over the habit of
the master mind of this little colony His
hand took up the AK and forgot the sword
and gun. Day after day he stood looking
about him. examining and studying in lit
tie all the strange things which he saw;
seeking to learn as much as might be OF
the timorous savages, who n time began
to straggle back to their ruined villages;
talking, as best he might. through such
Interpreting as was possible, with savages
who came from the west of the Messasebe,
and from the south and from the far south
west; hearing and learning and wondering
of a land which seemed as large as all the
earth, and various as all the lands that lay
beneath the sun-that west so glorious, so
new boundless, which was yet to be the
home of countless hearth-fires and the sites
Of myriad fields Of corn. Let others hunt
and fish and rob the Indians Of their furs,
after the accepted fashion Of the time; as
for John Law. he must look about him and
think and watch this growing of the corn.
He saw 1t fairly from its beginning, this
growth of the maize: this plant which never
yet had grown on Scotch or English soil;
this tall, beautiful, broad-bladed, tender
tree, the very emblem of all fruitfulness.
He saw here and there, dropped by the
careless hand Of some departed indian wo-
man, the little terminating seeds, just
thrusting their pale green heads up through
the soil. half broken by the tomahawk He
saw the clustering green shoots numerous.
in the sign of plenty-all crowding together
and clamoring for light, and life, and air,
and room. He saw the prevailing of the
tall and strong upthrusting stalks after
whiten, and yet cling on at the base of the
holder stem, parasites, worthless, yet ex-
listing, after the way of life.
He saw the great central stalks spring
boldly up. so swiftly that 1t almost seemed
possible to count the successive leaps OF
progress. He saw the strong-ribbed leaves
thrown out, waving thousand hands OF
cheerful welcome and assurance-these
any blades of steel. He saw the broad
reckoning banners of the pale tassels burst
ing out atop of the stalk, token of fecund-
lily and of the future He caught tn the wide
borne by the parent west wind. mother of
increase. He saw the thickening Of the
green leaf at the. base, it's swelling, its
growth and expansion, till the indefinite
enlargement showed at length the 1nciplent
ear.
He noted the faint brown of the ends of
the sweetly enveloping silk of the ear, pale
green and soft underneath the sheltering
and protecting husk. He found the sweet
and milk-white tender kernels, row upon
row, forming rapidly beneath the husk, and
saw at length the hardening and darkening
of the husk at it's free end, which told that
man might pluck and eat
And then he saw the fading Of the tas-
sells, the darkening Of the silk and the
crinkling of the blades; and there, borne
on the strong parent stem, he noted now
the many full-rowed ears, protected by
their husks and heralded by the tassels and
the blades. Come. come We, all We people!
Enter in, for / will feed We all!' This was
the song of the maize it's invitation, its
counsel, its promise.
Under the warped lodge frames which
the fires of the Iroquois had spared there
were yet visible clusters Of the ears of last
years corn. Here, under his own eye,
were growing yet other ears. ripe for the
harvesting and ripe for the coming growth.
A strange spell fell upon the soul Of Law.
Visions crossed his mind. born in the soft
warm air Of these formulating winds, of
this strange yet peaceful scene.
At times he stood and looked out from the
door of the palisade. when the prairie mists
were rising in the morning at the mandate
Of the sun. and to his eyes these waving
seas of grasses all seemed beckoning fields
Of corn. These smokes, coming from the