The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-03-22

! Violet is a boy. Brought up on an is
land and never having seen anything of
life away from his home and the sea,
his mind kept pure, he has learned the
song of the sea. Over him from boyhood
has hung a dark cloud, his fathers muir
der of a child for money and execution for
the crime. AS result of the fathers
deed, the boy inherits a large sum Of
money. He refuses to take it; to him it
Is blood money. But the time comes
when he is tempted to take it. BY ma
ture the boy Is a musician, a composer
He plays the piano, but has been deprived
OF the use Of an instrument. His pas
to him the opportunity to get a piano
with a portion of the 'rblood money"
1T would mean a life brimful Of splen-
dor; 1t would mean happiness.
He would have it. He would take the
money. 49, rs ..5,
THE feeling Of the cool, smooth ivory
came again to his fingers, SO strongly
that he looked down at them half expect
antly. ~ .t" .s.
Under the dull winter sky he dreamed
on, and at his feet the sea sang.
1T was its own splendid, rythmical mel
ody-the Song Of the Sea, the melody that
had come to him years ago in the night
And as the day was leaden and gray,
It's sound was to him leaden and gray,
just as In the summer sun it was blue and
flashing. The plano was to be
his, and it would express to other people
the music of nature that they were too
dull to hear.
"And then. with q little sharp sound in
his throat, he lay down in the chill sand
hiding his face. The color was going!
Gently and srelentlessly the harmonious
grayness Of the waves sound was fading
into chaotic nothingness that was hor-
rlbte.ss 1t was as II the sky had lost its
color, and become a whirling blank above
CHASTITY trees and inharmonious meadows
Violet was frightened. Harmony had
become discord.
| "And then in an instant he knew why
He merely felt that to take the
| money was unnatural a sin against the
laws of harmony, and that therefore he
must not do it"
'Minnie's cold little hands stealing ur
| his sleeves were like the hands of the
Fog-spirit:e
1.-THE hands were about his neck now
and gently pulling his head down.
1.-THE Song Of the Sea- pulsed student,
In his ears; he saw the sunny sea, the
| whirl of white birds against the blue
| water
His eyes closed as the girls cheek
touched his.
''Violett!'.-- -.L4
With a little cry he broke away and
rushed into the gray darkness"
|
These two extracts from the story show
how the book answers the chairs cues.
ton. The story is the story of youths
effort to keep in tune with nature. He
finds his ability to hear natures music
depart when he yields to a temptation
to sin against what he regards as the laws
of harmony. Whether this will prove
satisfactory to the reader is for the read
er to say. The story cannot fail to in.
terestt the thoughtful.
So The Uneasy Chair.
Friends Hlther and Won is the title O
a little volume Of verse by L. F. s. Barn
ard, the title poem containing this stanza
4 We understand that death can never part,
That life may separate awhile, yet heart
| Can never lose what 1t has gained;
| That some day we shall stand as long before
Friends reunited. dearer than of yore,
! And all our highest hopes attained.