The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1907-08-29


laborer in the harvest field for speak
ing i'll of Joe, and the unraveling of a
strange street fight one day disclosed
as it's cause a like resentment on the
part of blind broommaker, engen-
dered by like offense. The broom
makers companion, reading the Toe
sin as the two walked together, had
begun the quarrel by remarking that
Happy Fear ought to be hanged once
for bis own sake and twice more Ito
show up that shyster Louden" Warm
words followed, leading to extremely
material conflict, in which, in spite of
his blindness, the broommaker had so
much the best Of it that he was re-
moved from the triumphant attitude
he had assumed toward the person Of
his adversary, which was an admirable
imitation of the dismounted st. George
and the dragon, and conveyed to the
Jail. Keenest investigation failed to
reveal anything oblique in the mans
record. TO the establishment of Ca
naan, there was nothing against him.
He was blind and moderately poor, but
a respectable, hardworking artisan and
pride to the church in which he was
what has been called an "active work
err" It was discovered that his sensi-
hveness to his companions attack on
Joseph Louden arose from the fact that
Joe had obtained the acquittal of an
imbecile sister Of the blind man, two
thirds witted woman who had been
charged with bigamy.
The Tocsin made what it could of
this, and so dexterousy that the wrath
OF Canaan was one farther jot increas-
ed against the shyster. Aye, the town
was hot, inside and out.
Let US consider the forum. Was
there ever before such a summer for
the National House corner? How
voices first Numbered there, then
cracked and piped, is not to be rem
dered in all the tales of the fathers.
One who would make vivid the great
doings must indeed dip his brush in
earthquake and eclipse" Even then
he could but picture the credible and
must despair Of this-the silence of
Eskew Arp. Not that Eskew held his
tongue, not that he was chary of
speech-no! O Temporal, O mores! No:
But that he refused the subject in
hand, that he eschewed expression I'D
on it and resolutely drove the arg1-
ment in other directions, that he
achieved such superbly un-Arplike in
consistency, and with such rich mate
rial for his sardonic humors, not at
arms length, not even so far as bis
niger tips, but beneath his very palms,
be rejected it. This was the impossible
fact.
Eskew-there is no option but to de-
clare-Was no longer Eskew. It is the
truth. Since the morning when Ariel
Tabor came down from Joe's Office,
leaving her offering Of white roses in
that dingy, dusty, shady place, Eskew
had not been himself His comrades
observed it somewhat in physical diff
ference, one of those alterations which
may come upon men Of his years sud-
denly, like a ''sea change" His face
was whittier, his walk slower, his voice
Tiled thinner. He creaked louder when
he rose or sat. Old always from his
boyhood, he had in the turn Of a hand
become aged. But such things come
and such things go. After eighty there
are ups and downs. People fading
away one week bloom out pleasantly
the next, and resiliency is not at all a
patent belonging to youth alone. The
material change in Mr.. Arp might have
been thought little worth remarkins.
What caused Peter Bradbury, Squire
BuckaleW and the colonel to shake
their heads secretly to one another and
wonder if their good old friends mind
Fad not begun to go" was something
very different. To come straight down
to 1T, he not only abstained from all
argument upon the '"Cory murder" and
the case of Happy Fear, refusing to
discuss either in any terms or under
any circumstances, but he also declined
to speak of Ariel Tabor or of Joseph
Louden or of their affairs, singular or
plural, masculine, feminine or neuter.
or in any declension. Not word CON-
initial or noncommittal. None!
And his face when he was silent fell
into sorrowful and troubled lines.
The voices Of the fathers fell to the
pitch OF ordinary discourse; the drowsy
town was quiet again; the whine of the
planning mill boring its way through the
sizzling air to every Weakening ear. Far
away on quiet street it sounded faint
~, like the hum Of bee across a creek.
and was drowned in the noise of men
at work on the old Tabor house. It
seemed the only busy place in Canaan
that day, the shade of the big beech
trees which surrounded it affording
some shelter from the destroying sun
TO the dripping laborers who were saw
ing, hammering, painting, plumbing,
paperlng and ripping open old and new
packing boxes. There were many
changes in the old house-pleasantlv in
keeping with it's simple character-airv
engagements now almost completed so
that some of the rooms were already
finished and stood, furnished and i'm
maculate, ready for tenancy.
,;ol,