Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-07-04
CHAPTER wv

walk and felt rather dull without Fac
chary, took Peggy's fat red hand and,
after good tea with Susannah, set
forth for an evening stroll, to gather
flowers and hear the birds sing.
Almost before they had got well into
the wooded places, Peggy shrank away
from a black wooden shed, partly over
hung by trees.
Peggy not go there, Aunt ETY." she
said; goose in there, a great white
goose
"A ghost. you little goose?" answered
Esther, laughing, for still there was good
sunset. Come and show me; want to
see ghost"
No, no, no"' cried the child, pulling
backward, and struggling as hard as she
mad struggled with the gate; Peggy see
white goose in black hole there, all
day."
Then. Peggy, stop here while I go
and look. You won't be afraid to do
that, will your"
Running bravely up to the hole in
boards, Esther saw. to her great amaze
ment, the form, perhaps the corpse of
man, stretched at length on the ground
inside. 1t lay too much in the dark for
so swaddled with netting and earthly,
tnat little could be made of it. A torn
strip of cambria, that once had been
white, lay partly on the body and partly
on the board Esther caught it up; she
remembered having ironed something of
THIS shape for somebody once, who was
gong to be examined. She knew where
TO look for the mark, and there she saw
small
Surprised as she was. she did not lose
her wits or courage, as she used TO do.
She ran to the door of the shed, tried
the paddock, and finding it fastened, made
haste to the grain house and seized
bunch of keys. Not one of them truly
was born with the lock, but one was
soon found to serve the turn; then Els
ther pushed back the creaking door, and
umldly gazed round the shadowy ned
She was quite alone now, 70 Ter Ii,
niece, with short sobs of terror, had SCI
off for home
In the light admitted by the open door,
young Esth deserted a poor misera bic
thlng, helpless still as a log, and sense
less, yet to her faithful heart the idol
OF all alteration. Gently, step by step,
she stole to the PROSTATE form, and
ed it. She feared to seem to take ad-
vantage of a helpless moment; and yet
keen JOY, mixed with terror, shone in
the eagerness Of her eyes. He is alive
am sure of that" she said to herself,
as she pulled forth a pair of strong
scissors which she always carried she is
alive, but very, very nearly dead What
wretches can have treated him like this 2"
In two minutes Hardenow was free
from every cord and thong of bondage;
his lax arms fell Mt his sides.
"Oh, he is starving, or downright
staryed!' cried Esther, watching his
white lips, which trembed with some
glad memory of suction, and then stiffen-
ed again to some Anglican dream. "Af-
ter all, l have blamed other folk quite
amiss. He hath corded himself away
from his victuals to give way to his
noble principles. But how could he lock
himself in? The Lord must have sent
bad angel to tempt him, and then to turn
the key on him"
Before she had finished this reasoning
process, the girl was half way towards
the cot of Tickuss, her heart outweishing
her mind, according to all true feminine
proportions. She ran in swiftly uDon
klLcDGn
and bordering over a very slow fire the
cookery of the children's supper. 1t was
as fine a pot of stuff as ever Susannah
Grips had made, for she did not hold
at all with fatteninS the pigs and starv-
ing her own children; and she argued
most justly, while Esther all the while
was ladling all the virtue out.
To put it briefly, Hardenow came unite
round, and after twenty spOonfuls vowed
with the conscience rushing for the
moment into the arms of common sense
that never would he fast again. And
after thirty were absorbed and begin
ming to assimilate, he gazed at Esther's
smiling eyes, and saw the clearest and
truest solution of all his "postulates on
celibacy." Esther dropped her eyes in
terror, and made him drink the dregs
and bottom, with a converts Jealous
gulp. And as it happened, this WIS
wise.
Esther smiled and wept at her pa
TENTS ardent words and impassioned
gratitude. She knew that between them
was great gulf fixed, and that the leap
across it seldom has a happy landing;
and when poor Hardenow fell back. in
the weak reaction of a heart more fit for
pain than passion, she knet at his side
and nursed mad cheered him, less with
the air of a courted maiden than of a
careful handmade. In the end. however
this feeling was prevailed upon to sub
side, and Esther, although of the least
revolutionary and longest established
stock in England-thal of the genuine
Crippses, whose name, originally no
doubt "Chrysippus," indicates the nos
session of golden horse-Etty Cripps.
finding that the heart of her adored one
had, in Splinters' opinion, a perilous fs-
sure, requiring change of climate. cor
scented at last to come down from the
tilt and so to Africa.
For Hardenow, as he grew older and
able to regard mankind more largely.
came out from many of the narrow WAYS.
which satisfy their final cause by lead
ing into one another. With tie growth
of his learning. his candor grew; and he
strove TO bind others by his own strap
and buckle, as little as he offered to be
bound by theirs. Therefore when two of
his very best friends made a bona fde
job of it, and being unable to think their
thoughts out got it done by deputy. and
sank to infallible happiness, Thomas
Hardenow pulled up. and set his heels
n
horse at the brink of quarry pit, and
the field of reason, rich and gracious.
opened its gates again to him.
And so, before any University Mission.
or plough-and-Bible enterprise. Hardenow
set forth to open track for commerce
and cation, aud to fight the devil
and slavery in the rich, rude heart of
Africa. Besides his extraordinary gift
of tongues. he had many other qualifica-
lions. his quiet style of listening, his
magnificent freedom from humor, and
last not least, as he said to Etty, for
clinching argument. his wife's acquaint-
ance with the carrying trade.
Happy exile. how much better than
home misery it is, But the House of
Grips sent forth another member into
Punishment, with little choice or chance
of much felicity on his part. As there
are woes more strong than tears. so are
the crimes beyond the lash When the
doings of Leviticus were brought to light.
and shown to be unsuccessful a council