Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1903-11-07
A HERITAGE 80.
......OF FEAR 90.


chimney piece.
"A fellow named Royal-well, that's
enough Of his name. guess-and
were out In West Virginia looking after
some timber land for the Susquehanna
Lumber Company. 1t was glorious
October, and many of the summer WIS.,
itors were still up In the mountains,
among them family Royal had once
known In New England, There was a
girl named--oh, well. she had other
names, but the one l knew her best
by was just Sweetheart, SO Wen call
her that. Royal managed to see good
deal of her between whites, and kept
lingering on, giving the company one
pretext after another, until sudden
change In the weather decided the girl
and her mother to start ut once for
California. where they We're to spend
the winter. Then all at once 1t occur
red to Royal that 1t mightn't be quite
the square thing to sit there breath
ing the air and letting the cOmpany's
money slip through our fingers. so the
party Of us planned to leave the next
day but one.
"That night wheezy old freight
train disgorged Hagenback's whining,
| growing roaring troupe at the little
station. They were on their way to
Wheeling having had no intention of
putting up at our small village, but a
variety Of complications and cross-cur-
rents, broken cage and a sick lion,
had combined to sidetrack them there
for day or two.
"ROyal and We're both down at
Sweethearts that night, and she was
teasing Royal to take her to the me-
nageries. He chaffed her for wanting
to see lot of NANCY brutes-it was
poor show, anyway, he declared, and
to go would be pure waste of good
October weather. She suggested, then,
that he take her matchmaking in the
snow-something to mark their last
day there on the mountain. He was
willing enough to do that, and 1t was
arranged that we should start early in
the morning, taking tie trail up the
mountain on the other side Of the
railroad.
1.-THE fall of snow was light, but crisp
and crusty, crunching under our tread
as we made our way up the ribbon Of
path. for all the world like icing on a
wedding cake laughed Sweetheart.
I remember how the girls cheeks
| glowed in the singing air and her
merry laugh echoed in the frosty still.
ness. Royal worshiped her - big,
blonde, and splendid, tramping there
by her side, holding back now and then
the overreaching branches tossing
aside stone or fallen bough from
her way.
i "Is it just your name, wonder
laughed the girl. or it it courtly. EN-
brordere6 way you have Of doing even
the smaNest things that always makes
me feet like princess with you as at.
tendantY
Royal laughed, and she went on
mischievously:.
"'You see, it's merely as compll.
ment to myself that like to have you
with me- with a richly contradictory
glance, however, from under the mys.
terry of long dark lashes: you have n
/
and them measuring his six feet two
with her dancing eye. you are so com.
fortably big and strong you make me
brave as we'll. wouldn't be afraid Of
regiment with you-Or whole me-
nagerie.'
"The man turned deathly pale at the
last words, and in fash I recalled a
scene of our childhood, which, though
was much younger than Royal at the
time, made a deep impression on me.
Royals mother had been terribly
frightened by one of those dancing
bears that men used to tramp through
the country with generation ago, and
when her small boy. opened his eyes on
the world at last she determined to
make him love all animals as much as
she herself feared them. But from
babyhood he showed an unmistakable
antipathy toward even dogs and cats;
COW would make him howl with ter
ror, and once, when he was four or
FIVE, he actually went into spasms at
the sight Of monkey. The incident l
mentioned, however. occurred several
years after that. was five or six my
self, and had just begun to attend the
new school that was built somewhat on
the outskirts of the little village, with
an eye to civic growth, and which was
also attended by rather rough ele.
ment from the factory settlement fur.
Their down the pike. There were great
numbers of cattle raised in our part
of the country, aud it was the custom
to brand them and turn them loose on
the common lands, to save fencing
We boys knew all that in general
way, of course, but we had both beer
kept pretty closely at home, and when
as a great concession, Royal and were
allowed to spend a half holiday will
one of the big boys at the settlement
we felt immensely important.
"Well, you know what brutes boys
are; some of them had heard that Roy
was afraid Of animals, and thought 4
would be fine fun to see him scared
OF course, neither Of us knew wha
was in the wind, but my childish shy
ness made me stick closely to him, an(
we were both told to stand on low
| lut StuLup AL thc AlhtuiC Va oh oPCA
space In what was then called the 'bii
woods Our eyes were bandaged, an(
we were to wait till the boys CAV
three mysterious calls, when somethin,
wonderful would happen, they said
Royal had protested about the band
age.
"'You're afraid jeered one big boy
and Royal was silent.
HE was no coward, but he knew hi
weak point, young as he was. and wa
abnOrmally sensitive about 1t. We sub
mitted to having our eyes bandaged
and stood there together on the stump
every nerve alert. I remember I ha'
the impression that something like
clOudburst would descend upon us
nothing was further from our mind
/ -. - ...A v1.... ypN