The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1907-08-03
CHAPTER l.

deliciously dappled with leafy shadows. |
A loosely clad man, bearded and specta-
cled, and a little on the right side OF
forty, sat on a camp stool before small
field easel, and libeled the landscape at
his ease, pausing at his work now and
then and drawing back his head to survey
II with an air of charmed appreciation
Near him. on the gnarled trunk of tree
and in the shadow of a moss-grown rock,
sat a lady some ten or dozen years
younger, leisurely torturing thread INTO
lace with hooked needle.
A little way down the dell boy was
laundering among the rocks, shrieking
every now and then with ecstatic news of
q beetle or a butterfly. He was sturdy,
blue-eyed, golden-haired little fellow OF
Eve the picture of health, and he was
risking his limbs and chattering to all ami
mate and inanimate nature-a delightful
boy, and all alive from his golden head
to his restless feet and tips of his brown
little fingers. Tie mother snatched him
to her arms and covered him with kisses.
Suddenly she looked up, flushed, half pite-
Gus, with a fash of tears in her eyes.
Austin. feel afraid. Have l right
to be SO happy? Has any one right to
be so happy? Will it last?"
"Who knows?" he answered. Human
affairs run in averages, but then the av-
erages are not individual. We have had
almost trouble enough in our time to have
paid for little joy. Let us take it CRATE
fully
Sometimes" she said. "a shadow seems
to fall upon it all-the shadow OF fear
1.-THE shadow of the past-experience.
The burned child breads the fire. We are
burned children, both of u.s. Five years
Illness and poverty out of seven years OF
married life is large allowance. And,
after all, our present happiness isn't phe-
nomenal, my dear, though it looks SO. We
have health, and we value it because we
have each missed it in turn. We have
little money, and we think 1t great deal
because we have been SO deadly poor.
And then" he laughed and half blushed,
1--WE have little fame, and that Is all
the pleasanter because we were so long
neglected Sweet is pleasure after PAIN
81 am dangerously happy" she answer
ed.
Come, let us unpack the luncheon bas-
ket. Cold chicken. Salad Bread
Cheese. Milk. There we are. Fall to
Sit down by your mother, Cupid Take
pull at the milk, old man, and Their
you'll have an appetite. What a sudden
shadoww
A cloud had foated between themselves
and the sun, and a strange quiet had fall
en- with the shadow on the woods.
Austin" the wife whispered, there II
that dreadful man again. 1t seems as i
he had brought the darkness with him."
A brown sloping path, covered still
with the fir needles shed in the foregoing
autumn, broke the wall Of green whicl
bounded the dell, and down this footway
between the silver steps of the birches an
the reddish stems of the frs, walked
Kray-bearded man, with his head droope
forward and his hands clasped behind him
He looked neither to left nor right, Blu
went by as if unconscious of their pres
ence. and in little while was lost be
hind the thicker growth of trees. AS b
went out of sight the sun broke throug
the cloud, the LEAKAGE was inundated wit
life again and the birds renewed thei
song.
Look" she whispered; 1.-THE shade
follows him."
What an odd mood this Is to-day
said her husband smiling at her. IAN
WHY is the poor old gentleman so drea
ful?"
But, Austin, do you know? You can
have heard. He is known to have hate
ed plots against the Gar"
.'Well, yes. 1t is known also that
has been wifeless and childless this tive
nv wears His wife and his two sol
died in Siberia. They went there witho
trial, and people who know him say tn
the loss of them in that horrible WI
turned his brain. Suppose anybody ste
YOU and little Austin2 Suppose he dro
Won on foot through hundreds of miles
ice and snow? Suppose that he made y
herd with the human off-scourings of
world, and that you died after three
four long wp, hideous years? 1t mig
he wicked, but surely 1t would not
ouite without provocation II blew Il
man sky-high. don't say that regicl
"a a thing to be commended, | don't
fend the poor old gentleman's politi,
oninions. But do say that human
ture is human nature"
Luncheon over. he returned to
painting. to find the lights all chang
He worked away, however, with gr,
cOntentmCut LOT du muir VI tWo, Wuiie
wife and the boy wandered beyond
limits Of the dell. When they came bf
they found that he had packed up
traps and was lying at length on
moss, with his face turned to the sky.
~ do this better than paint" he Sc
cooking an idle eye at his wife from
meath the soft white felt which rested
his nose. "Shall We get back now?"
~ want to carry something, pap
said the boy, possessing himself of
camp stool. They sauntered on toget
TRANQUILITY through the twinklng Zig
which dazzled from between the lea
and their steps we're noiseless on
dense CARPET of fir needles. The boy
down his burden to chase a sulphur
ored butterfly. They had gone hund
yards before they missed him, and W
they turned to look for him he was Z
at the far end of a wooded vista, sei
on the camp stool.
Look at the little figure, Lucy"
the father. Isn't there something lol
and almost pathetic in It? He looks
II he we're waiting for somebody