The Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., N.D.) 1902-1913, 1905-04-20
Atthe Last, Peace
BY DAVID A. CURTIS

BY DAVID A. CURTIS
10 he was the queen of the fairies
10 Fairer than lilies. sweeter thar
roses, more precious than all rart
gems. She walked alone, day after
day, clad in a mantle of glorious, daz
cling beauty, with no protection save
the sunbeams that shone from her ra
dtant eyes and no more fear than the
summer zephyrs feel.
She dwelt alone, in the heart of the
great city, in tiny house walled in
with entertainments, and guarded by
legions of fairies. There had been
many knock at her door, but none
had entered, for none had been found
worthy. Her great frank eyes had
looked on each sutton as he came, not
unkindly, but with questioning that
would not be evaded, and the star
beams had stricken them, every one,
till the baser part of each mans heart
had withered and died and he had
bowed his back to the singing blows
with which the fairies had driven him
away, and he had taken with him as
he went a dull despair that embittered
his life forever after.
For her there had been no longing
and no regret, for the flower Of her
life had not yet blossomed and she
was az The sleeping princess, not even
dreaming of the awakening that would
come some day.
And the whole world was brighter
and better for her being in it, because
infinite tenderness and goodness and a
yearning love of pure holiness IRA
dated her person, SO that halo of
great glory not merely rested on her
brow. but enwrapped her body like
her most intimate garment. And
when she went about in the great
city stains faded away from the paving
stones that caught her footballs, and
dark places grew light as she passed.
He was man who had seen every
thing, who had been something, and
who had denied himself nothing. The
world was not in his debt, for he had
reached out and taken with ruthless
grasp all that his soul craved for many
years, until, when he was no longer
young, but was not old, he deemed 1t
true that there was nothing more that
was very we'll worth his effort to at
tain.
In his youth there had been one mas
ter passion, and in this, as in every
thing else that he had greatly cared
for, fate had been for time kind to
him. for he had won the maiden of
his choice. and years of perfect happi-
ness for them both had glorified their
path to the very brink of the Styx, in
whose waters he waded deep in the
vain effort to balk the master thief
who bore his beloved across.
Staggering back to the world of the
living, he dwelt apart with his mem
cries TIL the kind physician, Time, had
turned wounds to scars, and the dawn
of Desire cleaned again on his hori-
zon. But he played at love thereafter
till he deemed his true heart hunger
dead. Nor did. he feel it's cravings
again till one day.
That day he met the fairy queen,
and, lifting bold eyes to the resplend-
ent vision of her loneliness, he was
smftten as SO many others had been
by the starbeams, SO that his soul
swooned.
But she passed by, not knowing OF
his stress, and he rose again, weaA
and dizzy, indeed, but reused by the
sting of unspeakable desire, and fol-
lowed her humbly and afar off, with
a strange sickness in his heart, till
he saw the place of her abode. And
then, when he knelt upon the door
step, the fairies fell upon him with
ten-fold their accustomed fury, be-
cause they feared him, and they
scourgetl him till he fled. But De-
sire dwelt in his heart, and would by
no means be quieted, but ceaselessly
cried to him. day and night, to win,
II it might be, the love of This radiant
queen.
So he returned many times, and stood
afar of, looking and nightly longing,
but not daring to knock for entrance.
And the fairies, uneasy with the shadow
of fear that they had never felt before,
dashed him away, times and times, until
he refused. at length, to go, and knocked
boldly at the door. And the door opened.
and the queen looked forth and gra-
ciously and sweetly asked him what he
sought.
And 10! his soul was like to faint
again, for when her voice fell on his
ears it was more musical than dulci-
mers. Fine and soft and sweeter than
any woman's voice, it echoed through
the inner chambers of his heart until
the rapture of the hearing was almost
more than he could abide.
What would you?" she demanded.
Il am your true love forever" he an
swered. "and would win your heart. -
He spake boldly, but his eyes
dropped, lest that some dazzling star
beam should CLEAN from her eyes and
Stay him where he stood, but there was
no anger such as he feared, though there
was no response in her tone, such as he
1onged for, when she spoke again, still
graciously, but coldly, and as one i'm
measurably far above.
"Are you worthy" she asked There
have been many who wooed, but none
have won as yet"