The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1904-01-01

that which was the nearest approach
60 home that either for the tim,
might claim: and il was thus tina
both undertook once more that old ant
bootless human experiment Of seekins
to escape from ones own self. Siien
now. and dutifully obedient enough
was this erstwhile English beauty
Mary Connynge: YET often and oftei
Law caught the question of her gaze
And often enough. too. he found hi
own questioning running back up tbs
water trails, and down the lakes au'
across the wide ocean. in a demant
when. mercer ano nercer as IL glest
be yet remained too bitter and t9o
proud to put TO the proof by any means
now within his power. Strange
enough. savage enough. hopeless
enough. was this wild home of his IN
the wilderness OF the MessaSebe.
The smoke Of the new settlement
rose steadily day by day, but it gave
signal for no Watching enemy. All
about stretched the pale green ocean
of the grasses. dotted by many wild
flowers, nodding and bowling like bits
of fragile tlotsam ON the surface of a
continually rolling sea. The little
groves of timber, scattered here and
| there sheltered rom 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 A great land, a rich, fruitful
one. was this that lay about these adj
venturers.
A soherness had come over the habit
of the master mind of this little col
ony. His hand tooA up the az, anc
forgot the sword and gun Day after
day he stood looking about him, exam
ming and studying in little all the
strange things which he saw; seeking
to learn as much as might be Of the
| timorous slvages, who in time began
| to straggle back to their ruined vii
lagos; talking, as best he might,
through such interpreting as was pos
sible, with savaees who came from
The west of the MesSasebe, and from
the south and from the far southwest;
hearing. and learning and wondering
of land which seemed as large as
all the earth, and various as all the
lands that lay beneath the sun-thai
west, so glorious. so new so bound
less, which was yet TO be the home OF
countless hearth-tires and the sites oil
myriad fields OF C m 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 ii 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 EN-
bem of all fruitfulnass. He saw here
and there, dropped by the careless
hand of some departed Indian wcma-
the little terminating seeds, just
thrusting their pale-green heads III
through the soil half broken by the
tomahawk. lie saw the clustering
green shoots--numerous, in the sigr
of plenty-all crowding together ant
clamoring for light, and life, and air
/ and room. He saw the prevailing OF
the tall and strong upthrusting stalks
after the way Of life: saw the Others
dwarf and whiten. and yet cling on al
the base of the holder stem. parasites
worthless. yet existing, after the way
of life.
He saw The great central stalks
spring boldly up, SO swiftly that It al
most seemed possible to count the
successive leaps of progress. lie saw
the strong-ribbcS leaves thrown out
waving a thousand hands of cheerful
welcome and assurance-these blades
of the corn. so much mightier than any
blades of steel He saw the broad
beckcning banners Of the pale tassels
bursting out atop of the stalk. token
Of fecundity and of the future. lie
caught the widc-driven pollen as il
| whitened upon the earth, borne by the
| parent west wind mother OF increase
/ He saw the thickening Of the green
leaf at the base. its swelling. It's
I growth and expansion. till the indefi.
mite enlargement showed at length the
incipient ear.
He noted the faint brown Of the ends
of the sweetly-enveloping silk of the
ear. pale-green and often underneath
the sheltcring and protecting husk
/ lie found The sweet and milkwhitt
1 tender kernels, row upon row forming
rapidly beneath the husk, and saw a
| length the hardening and darkeninG
Of the husk at its free end, which tol(
that man might pluck and eat
And than he saw the fading of thu
lasseis, the darkening of the silk ant
the crink,ing of the blades; and there
borne on She strong parent stem, ht
noted now the many full-rowed ears
protected by tbsir husks and heraldet
by the tassels and the blades Come
come ye. all ye people. Enter IN. fol
| will feed 80 all" This was The sons
of the maize, its invitation, It's coun
sci. its promise
Under the warped lodge frame:
which the Ores of the Iroquois mar
spared. there were yet visible cluster;
Of the ears of last years corn. Here