The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1904-07-06
Copyright. 1909, by Emerson Hough.,
CHAPTER xx11.-cour1xurr


of the master mind of this little col
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 viii
lagos; talking, as best he might,
through such interpreting as was pos
sible, with savages who came from
he 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-that
west. so glorious, SO new, SO bound
less, which was yet to be the home of
countless hearth-ires 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,
oroad-bladed, tender tree, the very en-
blem OF all fruitfulness. 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
tomahawll. He saw the clustering
green shoots-numerous, in the sign
IF pienty-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, SD swiftly that it al
most seemed possible to count the
successive leaps of progress. He saw
the strong-ribbed leaves thrown out,
waving 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, it's swelling, its
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 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 it's 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
Jl0 CrlQkllnS Ol IuO UlducSS anu There,
borne on the strong parent stem, he
noted now the many full-rowed ears,
protected by their husks and heralded
by thu tassels and the blades. Como,
come ,e, all We people Enter in, for
I will feed We ALL" This was the song
Sf tho maize, it's invitation, iy loun-
SELL its promise.
Under the warped lodg,, frames
which the fires of the Ir.quois had
spared, there were yet visfple clusters
of e eavs of last years corn. Here,
undo his own eye. were growing yet
other ears, ripe for the harvesting and
ripe for the coming growth. A strange
spell fell upon the soul of Law.
Visions crossed his mind, born IN the
soft warm air of these formulating
winds. of this strange yet peaceful
sccne.
At times ne stoDd and looked out
from the door of the palisade, when
tho prairie u,ists were rising N the