Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-02-12
CHAPTER XII.

neglect or forgetfulness or. the part Of
| old Peter, a rap on the cliff with the
Ratchet brought him at once to the mouth
of the we'll with a request to know what
we wanted now. He protested several
times against our wasteful extravagance
and the expense to which we were put
ting him, in a much injured tone, as
though we were there of our ow u Choice
Above all, the waste of candles irritated
him the most.
You're got to do wiroIt en- he
shouted one day in reply to my request
1.-THE young un's done wirout 'em, and
you're got to do wirout en-; do you
understand that?" But on my suggesting
the alternative of lighting a bonfire the
candles came quickly enough. | also
insisted on supply of linen being sent
down for the young 'un" and change
for myself, promising to let him have my
clothes to wash regularly every week
We were not unmindful of the future,
Every day we put by something out of
the supply of food in case of accident ;
and, foreseeing Psyche's wants when we
made our escape, took the measure
ment of her little foot, and sent it up,
with a demand that shoes of that size
should be sent down the next day. |
am not sure that old Peter, who became
exceedingly recalcitrant toward the last,
would have given in to this, but just at
that time my grandfather got about, and
old Peter disappeared one morning, and
we saw and heard him above us no
more, and the shoes came down the next
morning.
But preparation of far greater impor-
lance than this gave me great concern.
I had to make the girl und e7stand some
thing of the world into which she would
go when she left the cave in which she
had passed her life-the world in which
probably she would go one way and 1
another. l felt that the sudden revela-
ton of such a world would take away
her reason, just as the glare of day might
blind her if l did not now accustom her
eyes to the light of candle. To do this
l had to teach her to speak and train
her imagination to form ideas from the
sound of words.
She was not wanting IN intelligence,
and quickly picked up the use of such
words as were necessary 10 our immedi-
ate wants. She was as ready 70 learn
as I to teach; and sat beside me hour
after hour in our time of rest, repeating
what she had heard, and adding to her
store of phrases. For over three months
she studied in this way, never showing a
sign of impotence, and then a change
came. Naturally she understood what
l said to her far better than she could
express her own meaning; at last compre-
hending what / said so we'll that she
rarely asked me to repeat a word or
change the form of a phrase. Then her
interest in learning declined. The incen-
tive was gone now that she had mastered
the difficulty of understanding words, and
it seemed to me that her tongue was still
er than when she could merely babble
without reason.
Talk to me-" she would murmur.
Talk to me as you did when knew
you have so much to tell me about; l
have nothing to tell you that you do not
know"
Her phrases were ungrammatical and
broken like child's, but this was their
meaning. This led to my talking a great
deal, and she was content to listen, sit
ting as still as a mouse. l told her about
the wide-spreading sky and the glorious
sun that rose on one side and set on the
other in soft clouds of beautiful colors
and of the moon that came when he was
gone, and Of the myriads of stars like the
little one we saw at times through the
hole in the cave that spangled the heav-
ems all over when neither sun nor moon
was there to dim them; and then 1 spoke
about the broad sea and the things in it
and on it, and the fields of green grass
dappled with bright-colored flowers, and
the trees where birds far prettier than
Cav sang songs almost like her own.
She was never tired of hearing these
descriptions, but they did not excite her
with any eager desire to escape from the
cave and see and hear all that she loved
to be told about. fancy they must have
been to her like those descriptions of
Paradise, which tickle our ears but fail
to stimulate US with a desire TO go there
one moment before ne inevitable time.
Indeed, the outer world must have
been as incomprehensible to her stunted
imagination as the idea of limitless space
or infinite time is to the majority of or
binary people. She could form no con-
ception of a world that had no chalk
walls.
She seemed to take greater interest in
hearing about men and women than about
things. The existence of other human
beings in another cave was understand
able. but her delicate brows creased in
perplexity to hear that the number of
men like myself, the girls like her, was
beyond our counting.
DO they all live together?" she asked.
in bewilderment.
| tried to explain how people were
grouped in communities, and the cornmu-
mites divided into families. One even
in= when l told her l hoped 10 find her
family. she said
what is the use If we are an to live
separate in different caves?"
This idea, / am sure, occupied her
thoughts good deal. One day she coax
ed me TO neglect work. herself showing
a repugnance to it for the first time
Talk, talk" she said, holding my arm.
"But there is work to do. The water
is our. l must not lose a minute
"Why do you want to get out into that
world?" she added. Must you live
alone, too! There are three caves here
l will go in the next one il you do not
want me with you. And then this viii
be better than that great one where all 60
away from those who love them"
We'll talk about that another time,
Psyche" said l, rising.
She let me go alone for half a dozen
stcps-it was the first suggestion of OPP
position on her part-then she sprang up
with a cry of regret, and, overtaking me,
mutely looked into my face with eyes that
pleaded for forgiveness.
And that morning she worked in the
burrow as she had never worked before.
To see her one would have thought that
her happiness rather than mine depended
on our escape.
I tried In vain to obtain isome history
of the past from her: she could reveal
nothing beyond her life in the caves.
Always here. always the same till you
came" she said
Days, and weeks, and months slipped
away without seeming tedious, even to
me: to Psyche they were all too short