The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1904-04-01
THE MISSISSIPPI
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l By EMERSON HoUGH 4
Il Author of 'The Story of the Cowboy"
Tho Girl at the Hallway House. Etc. d
Copyright. 1902, by Emerson Hough.,
CHAPTER XXu.-CoNTINUED.

A soberness had come over the habit
Of the master mind of this little col
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 vii
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
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-fires and the sites of
myriad fields of corn. Let others hunt,
ana 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 1t 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 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
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 thousand hands of cheerful
welcome and assurance-these blades
of the corn, so much mightier than any
blades of steel. He saw the broad
beckoning banners of the pale tassels
bursting out atop of the stalk, token
of feeundity 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
recipient ear.
He noted the faint brown of the ends
OF the sweetly-enveioping silk of the
ear, pale-green and often underneath
the sheltering and protecting huslz.
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,
noted now the many full-rowed ears,
protected by their husks and heralded
by the tasseis and the blades. Come,
come re. all We people! Enter in, for
twill feed We ALL" This was the song
Of the maize, its invitation, its coun-
sci, its promise.
Under the warped lodge frames
which the fires Of the Iroquois had
spared. there were yet visible clusters
OF the ears of last years corn. Here
under 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,
.sions crossed his mind, born in the
soft warm air of these formulating
winds, of this strange yet peaceful
scene.
At times he stood and looked out
from the door of the palisade, when
khe prairie mists we're rising In the