The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-10-09
ARRIVING
Chapter ViI-Continued.


Once I surprised Marie and Katarina
sitting close to the fire at twilight, talk
ing about lovers. Eagle was near them
on a. stool. &c.,
'"rhat girl" exclaimed Katarina, speak
ing Of the absent with strong disapproval.
lis one Of the kind that will let another
girl take her sweetheart and then sit
around and look injured Now if she
could get him from me she might have
him! But she'd have to get him 'frst!'
Eagle listened in the attitude of young
sister. giving me to understand by a look
that wisdom flowed, and she was learning.
We rose one morning to find the world
buried in snow. The river was frozen
and its channel padded thick. AS for the
bay, stretches of snow fields with dark
pools and broken gray ridges met ice at
the end Of the world.
1t was SO cold that paper stuck to the
fingers like feathers, and the nails tinglel
with frost. The white earth creaked UNI
der foot, and when sled went by the
snow cried out in shrill long resistance,
spirit complaining Of being trampled. Ex
plosions came from the river, and elm
limbs and timbers of the house startled
US. White fur clothed the inner key
holes. Tree trunks were black as ink
against background of snow. The oaks
alone kept their dried foliage, which rat
tied like many skeletons, instead Of rus
was no life in it.
But the colder it grew the higher Orig
mons log fires mounted. And when chan
nels were cut in the snow both along the
ridge above Green Bay, and across coun-
try in every direction. French trains
moved out with jangling bells. and maids
and men uttered voice sounds which
spread as by miracle on the diffusing air
from horizon to horizon. You could hear
the officers speaking across the riven; and
dogs were like to shake the sky down
with their barking. Echoes from the
| smallest noises were born in that magni-
| fed, glaring world.
The whole estie winter spun past.
| Marie and Katarina brought young men to
the peaks of hope in the "twosing' seat,
and plunged them down to despair, quite
in the American fashion. Christmas and
! New Years days were great festivals.
| when the settlement ate and drank at
| Pierre Grignon's expense, and made him
| glad as if he fathered the whole post.
Nine .Grignon spun and looked to the
| house. And a thousand changes passed
eer the landscape. But in all that time
no one could see any change in my Cloud
Mother. She sewed like a child. She
| laughed, and danced gaVottes. She trod
the snow or muffled in robes with Nine.
| lJrsule and the girls, flew over 1T in a
| French train; a sliding box with two or
| three horses hitched tandem. Every
| evening sat by her side at the fire, while
she made little coats aNd trousers for me.
But remembrance never came into her
| eyes. The cloud stood round about her as
it did when I first tried to penetrate 1t.
NV own dim days were often in mind.
I tried to recall sensations But 7 had
| lived a purely physical life. Her blunders
/ of judgment and delusion Of bodily shEink1
| ing were no part Of my experience: The
| thinking self in me had been 'paialyzed.
| While the thinking self in her was alive,
In a cloud Both Of us were memoryless,
excepting her recollection of Paul.
After March sent the ice out Of river
and bay, spring came with rush as 1t
| comes in the north. Perhaps many days
it was silently rising from tree roots.
| In February we used to say: "Fhis air is
| like spring." But alter such bold speech
the arctic region descended upon as again,
and we were showed in to the ears. Yet
when the end of March unlocked us, 1t
seemed we must wait for the month on
May to give us soft air and blue water.
Then suddenly it was spring, and every
living soul knew it. Life revived with
passion. Longings which you had forgot
ten came and took you by the throat. say
ing You shall no longer be satisfied
! with negative peace. Rouse, and i've!
Then fitting, exquisite. purple flaws struck
across milk-opal water in the bay. Fish
ing boats lifted themselves in mirage, sail
| ing lightly above the water; and islands
sat high, with a cushion Of air under
them.
The girls manifested increasing Interest
in what they called the Pigeon Roost set
tlement affair. Nine. Ursule mad nc
doubt, told them what I said. They
pitied my Cloud-Mother and me with
the condescending pity Of the very young,
,1y1oa hoy
be heard.
ooh. she'll come to her senses some
time. and he'll marry her, Of course was
the conclusion they invariably reached;
for the thing must turn out well to meet
their approval. How could they foresee
what was to happen TO people "llose lives
held such contrasts?
"Father Pierre says he's nearly twenty
! eight: I call him an old bachelor de-
| clared Katarina; land she was a married
woman. They are really very old to pc IN
love-"
"You don't know what you'll do when
you are DID," said Marie
"Ah, dread it" groaned katarlna.
$50 do t.
But there is grandmother She
doesn't mind it. And beaux never
trouble her now"
NO" sighed the other. ''Beaux never
trouble her now
| Those spring days was Wlld Will ieSI-
lessness. Life revived to dare things
We heard afterwards that about that time
the meteor rushed once more across
France Napoleon landed at a Mediter-
ranean port, gathering force as he
marched swept Louis XVIII. away like q
cobweb in his path, and moved on te
Waterloo The greatest Frenchman thai
ever lived fell ultimately as low as st
Helena, and the Bourbons sat again upor
the throne. But the changes of which
knew nothing affected me in the Illinois
Territory. '..' o. ~
Sometimes walked at night and sat W
in bed, hot with Indignation at the injus
tice done me-, which could never prove
which did not care to combat, yet which
| unrea sonably walked the fighting spirit II
me- Our natures toss and change, eXpant
or contract, influenced by invisible power:
we know not why. >-. .',.
One April night sat up in the veile<
light made by a clouded moon. Rail-
points multiplied themselves on the win
dow glass; heard their sting. The i'm
pulse to go out and ride the wind. or picl
the river up and empty it all at once int
the bay, or tear Eagle out of the cloud
or go to France and proclaim myself witt
myself for follower; and other feats o
like nature, being particularly strong il
me, struck the pillow beside me with M,
fist Something bounced from. It on tn
= floor with a clack like wood. stretches
| downward from one Of Madame Ursule'
thick feather beds, and picked up wha
brought me to my feet. Without lettin