The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-05-25

y blowing off the south Pacific. :
temperate sun in a spotless sky
harbor fretted with waves like azure
shells and winding among shores still
green and wholesome from a winters
rains. 1t was Sunday, too. and ROUND
the woody headlands and across the
dark blue inlets came the sound oil
bells for afternoon church. Tom lay
on his back his head beneath a Nor
folk island pine. his heels in the warm
sand at the waters edge. His eyes
We're closed. but he was listening te
the bells.
He fanc.ed the sound as 1900
miles away, for so had he lain and
listened amid the Suffolk rabbit war
rens on summer Sundays when his
place was in the COOL dark rectory
pew. His spirit was in Suffolk now.
Then the bells stopped. Then he lay
very still, and when he turned he half
expected his back to smart and his
legs to Jingle. Once more he was a
felon in a felon's country. 1t was that
despite sun and waves and soft white
sand, and felon was his name no less
for this his unmerited ease. AS he
looked across the bay black fin broke
the blue and made an allegory with a
single smudge. Even as those sweet
waters teemed with sharks. so the fair
land that locked them was rank and
rotten with intestine horror and cru
city and corruption.
Fourteen thousand milesi The dis
lance was brought home to Tom by
being printed on the chart. beneath an
ideal course, in small type, which the
little Rosamund was sailing over at
that moment. 1t set him thinking of
Claire, but the thoughts had no form
and little sting. Not even yet could
he think or feel acutely. A bundle of
dead nerves and clouded brains, he
could but ache and work or ache and
bask as he was doing now.
An odd number of The Pickwick
Papers had found its way to the
bungalow and now lay in the sand be-
side Tom. He had finished it, to his
sorrow, before the bells began. Pres
emily up came Dafntree with the dog
that still followed him to every haunt
but his study. He carried his camp
stool and an arlnful of books. and
Toms heart sank. their taste in litera-
ture differing terribly, though of the
two only one held himself qualified to
judge. The judge glanced at the green
cover In the sand much as he would
have favored mountebank at a fair,
with insolent nostrils and plying
eye for those who smiled. He opened
his Byron and read a canto of Lara"
aloud and admirably, but Tom nearly
fell asleep and was accused Of having
no soul for poetry. cor for anything
else" Tom reminded the reader, who
shut the book with an offended snap,
but opened another next minute.
Perhaps" said Daintree, you pre-
fer this sort of thing. shouldn't won
der
And he read:
"Oh that 'twere possible
After long grief and pain
To find the arms of my true love
Round me once again,
when I was wont to meet her
In the silent woody places
OF the land that gave me birth
We stood tranced in long embraces
Mixed with kisses sweeter sweeter
Than anything on earth
"a shadow fits before me
Not thou, but like to thee.
All, God, that it Were possible
For one short hour to see
The souls we loved, that they might
tell US
What and where they be!'
When Daintree began, Toms eyes
had been swimming lazi1y about the
bay, but the first quatrafn brought
them at bound to the readers face.
and now he was hanging upon every
word. Line after line rang through
him like a trumpet call. waking old
echoes, stirring and stabbing him, I'M
til the whole man tingled with the
rushing of long stagnant blood. And
now came stanZas that went no deeper
than the ear, while those three ran
their course through every vein. Yet
when he next caught up the thread il
was his own soul still speaking. The
very story was now his own.
"Alas for her that met me.
That heard me softly call;
Came gIimmering through the laureis
At the quiet evenfaH
In the garden by the turrets
OF the old nanorial hall"
He had turned his head 4 blue mist
hid the world, but through it shone
poignant vision of Claire Harding
among the Winwood fir trees--in the
autumn evenings long ago. And this is
how the tears came back into Tom
Erichsen's eyes. to show him that his
soul had lived through a nights bush
ranging and four months OF Major
Honeybone's iron gang
Dainfrae looked on with a Jealous
scorn That a few stray verses in the
Annual Register should put fire and wa
ter in eyes which the com bined Hours
Of Exile and Of ''Idieness" some
times left.in such very different state.
It was a CALLING thought. and it show
ed itself in such black looks that Tom
was constrained 10 cut his first heart
felt outburst very short indeed So he
hastily added that the poem appealed
20 him particularly. He need not ex-
plain why.
II see." said Daintree. Not alto
yether on its merits, eh5 I'm glad TO