The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1903-12-23
at araS dreadful to hear her"

full to hear her above the cries Of the
children The Indian went away like
scared hound. And none Of the 9th
ers. would touch her."
After l heard this story was thank
fu. every day that Eagle could not re-
member, that natural happiness had
its way with her elastic body.
!Ime Ursule told me the family
learned to give her liberty. She rowed
alone upon the river and went where
she pleased. The men in La Baye
would step aside for her. Strangers
disturbed her by bringing the con-
sciousness OF something unusual.
Once I surprised Marie and Katarina
Sitting close to the fire at twilight talk
Ing about lovers Eagle was near them
on a stool.
That GIRL" exclaimed Katarina,
speaking Of the absent with strong dis
approval, "is one Of the kind that will
lcr 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 frSty'
Eagle listened in the attitude o. q
young sister, giving me to understand
by q 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 ace at the end of the world.
It was so cold that paper stuck to
the fingers like feathers and the nails
tingled with frost The white earth
crcaked underfoot, and when sled
went by the snow cried out in striil
| long resistance, q spirit complaining
Of being trampled. Explosions came
from the river and elm limbs and TIM
bers Of the house startled US. White
fur clothed the inner keyholes. Tree
trunks were black rs ink against
background Of SHOW. The oaks alone
kept their dried foliage, which ratified
like many skeletons, instead of rustling
in its faded redness, because there was
no life in it.
But the colder it grew the higher
| Grignon's log fires mounted. And when
channels were cut in the snow both
along the ridge above Green Bay and
across country in every direction
French trains moved out With jansling
bells, and maids and men uttered voice
sounds which spread as by miracle on
the diffusing air from horizon to hori-
zon. You could hear the officers speak
ing across the river, and dogs were
like to shake the sky down with their
barking. Echoes from the smallest
noises were born in that magnitied,
glaring world.
The whole festive winter spun past.
Marie and Katarina brought young
men to the peaks of hope IN the two
sing" seat and plunged them down to
despair, quite in the American fashion.
Christmas and New Years day We're
great festivals, when the settlement
ate and drank at Pierre Grignon's eX-
pense and made him glad as If he ia
thered the whole post. Nine. Grignon
spun and looked to the house. And a
thousand changes passed over the
landscape. But in all that time no
one could see any change in my cloud
mother. She sewed like child. She
laughed and danced gavots. She trod
the snow, and muftied in robes with
Nine. Ursule and the girls flew over 1t
IN 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 it.
My own dim days were often in
mind. I tried 10 recall sensations. But
had lived a purely physical life. Her
blunders Of judgment and delusion Of
bodily shrinking were no part OF my
experience. The thinking self In me
had been paralyzed, while the think
Ing self in her was alive, in q cloud.
Both Of US were memoryless, except
ing her recollection Of Paul.
After March sent the ice out Of river
and bay spring came with rush as It
comes in the north. Perhaps many
days it was silently rising from tree
roots. In February we used to say,
s1This air is like spring" But after
such bold speech the arctic region de-
scended upon US again and we We're
showed in to the ears. Yet when the
end Of March unlocked US it seemed
we must wait for the month Of Mary
to give US soft air and blue water.
Then suddenly It was spring, and every
living soul knew it. Life revived with
passion. Longlngs which you had for
gotten came and took you by the
throat, saying; "You shall no longer
be satisfied with negative peace. Rouse
and liye" Then fitting, exquisite, pur-
pie flaws struck across milk opal water
In the bay. Fishing boats lifted them
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