Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-03-24

IL was IN these rude quarters that
Law and his companion established
/ that which was the nearest approach
/ to home that either for the time
/ might claim and 1t was thus that
both undertook once more that old and
/ bootlegs human experiment Of seeking
to escape from ones own self Silent
now, and dutifully obedient enough
was this erstwhile English beauty,
Mary Connynge; yet often and often
! Law caught the question Of her gaze.
And often enough, too, he found his
own questioning running back UP the
/ water trails. and down the lakes and
across the wide ocean, in demand
which, fiercer and iercer as It grew,
he yet remained too bitter and too
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 fiotsam ON the surface OF a
continually rolling sea The little
groves Of timber, scattered here and
there, sheltered from 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, rich, a fruitful
one, was this thar lay about these adj
venturers.
A soberness had come over the habit
! of the master mind of this little coli
ony. His hand took up the ak. and
forgot the sword and gun Day after
| day he stood looking about him, exam
lining and studying in little all the
strange things which he saw; seeking
| to learn as much as might be OF the
timorous savages. who in time began
| to straggle back to their ruined Wiz
lagos; talking. as best he might,
| through such interpreting as was pos
| sible, with savages who came from
| the west OF the Messasebe, and from
| the south and from the far southwest;
| hearing, and learning and wondering
| of a land which seemed as large as
| lands that lay beneath the sun-that
| west, SO glorious, SO new. so bound
less, which was yet to be the home of
countless hearth-fires and the sites of
myriad fields of corn. 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 it 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-
blem Of all frnitfulness. He saw here
and there, dropped by the careless
hand of some departed Indian woman,
the little terminating seeds, just
thrusting their pale-green heads up
through the soil, half broken by the
| tomahawk He saw the clustering
green shoots numerous, in the sign
of plenty all crowding together and
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 at
| 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. He saw
the strong-ribbed 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
| reckoning banners of the pale tassels
bursting out atop of the stalk. token
| Of fecundity and of the future He
caught the wide-driven pollen as it
| 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, its
! growth and expansion, till the indefi-
mite enlargement showed at length the
Nincipient ear
He noted the faint brown OF the ends
| OF the sWeetly- silk Of the
ear. pale-green and often underneath
| the sheltering and protecting husk.
| He found the sweet and milk white
tender kernels, row upon row, forming
! rapidly beneath the husk, and saw at
| length the hardening and darkening
| Of the husk at its free end. which told
that man might pluck and eat.
| And then he saw the fading Of the
tassels, the darkening Of the silk and
the crinkling of the blades; and there,
borne on the strong parent stem. he
noted now the many full-roWed ears,
protected by their husks and heralded
| by the tassels and the blades Come.
1 al1s4uo .aof,s11of Ir,,fesy