Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1907-03-01
MAsH1neror STANDARD
81 Will Send Her"
IOriginal.1

at tOitSt, his d lOi tuhC a.
his disposal, buried his talents in a
napkin. In other words. instead OF CIV
ing them 10 mankind he kept them for
his own occasional amusement. Once
and only once during the ten years fol-
lowing his graduation there was
chance for his reform. At Nice one
year during the carnival he met a girl
who might have awakened in him an
ambition. There was q love affair, but
In its incipiency the girl was taken
westward by her parents. while Mer-
RAM went eastward. AS soon as they
had separated Merriam knew what he
had lost. Why he had lost her he never
told his dearest friend. 1t was sup
posed her parents had other plans for
her.
But he did tell his dearest friend of
his disappointment. Strangely enough.
that friend was an Alpine guide. Mer
riam spent many summers climbing
the Swiss peaks. always with the same
guide, Herman Goertz. The dangers
they passed together. the solitudes in
which they camped, brought out a con-
fidence that could have been elected in
no other way. The guide had occasion
to love his employer. On one occasion
Goertz slipped, hung by the rope over
precipice and was pulling Merriam
over with him. He called on Merriam
to save himself by cutting the rope,
but Merriam was made of sterner stuff
and hung on till the guide got grip
on the ice, and they were saved.
The two parted at last In a snow
storm. An avalanche began to move
slowly, taking Goertz with it. Merriam
could not see him, but heard him say:
"Herr, farewell. I will send her to
you" A week later the guides body
was found thousand feet below, head
down in the snow.
Returning to America, Merriam tried
to amuse himself. One day while at
the seashore. strolling alone on the
beach, a fog came in from the ocean
and enveloped him. He was walking
slowly, guided by the sound Of the
breakers, when q form doomed before
him and in another moment resolved
itself into a woman. She stopped, and
Merriam stopped.
"You herew he said under his breath.
Eyes, and your
II supposed you were In Egypt.
was told by a friend that he saw you
at Cairo not three weeks ago."
II was. I reached America last
week."
stranger
''That we should meet In this wayi
should think 80. How small the
world is after ALI But there Is some
thing stranger still. Do you know that
I felt a premonition Of meeting you
here?"
'Tn the fogT'
"Yes."
'That is remarkable" Then he add
ed musIngly. "A premonition that you
would meet me-in a fogr'
There are gray hairs-a few-in
your beard. Let me see; It Is ten
years since we met in Nice"
"And parted"
II couldn't help that"
"Not very well. you 50 young. Had
you been thirty instead Of twenty It
might have been different. Who sent
you heref'
"Who sent mer'
II mean why did you comeY'
II took q fancy to walk down the
beach"
"And took fancy to walk up"
"And then the fog rolled in, and we
didn't see each other until We happen
Cd to come near together. After all.
it's simply q coincidence"
Merriam was silent.
"What are you dreaming about7 I've
heard you have been spending most
Of your time climbing mountains. You
seem now to be looking from some
high peak and wondering. a. Professor
Tyndall did from the top Of the Mat
terhorn. whether the broad expanse
before him had contained the nebulous
cloud from which the universe was
evolved"
mo. I am listening to the voice Of
q friend going to his death. There was
o snowstorm. I couldn't see him. Al
the avalanche took him he bade me
farewell through the fakes. And now
you come to me through the mist"
She placed a hand on his. Don't
wear that uncanny expression. You
seem to be standing between the nat
ural and the spirit world Go back In
fancy to Nice. Say again what you
said then"
"And receive q different answerr'
"All Is changed. am alone In the
world"
Two expressions were lowering on
his face contending for precedence. the
one she had called uncanny gradually
receding before the other, q sudden
hope.
"And receive q different answerr'
be repeated.
"Yes."
II one had been listening to this dia-
logue between two persons he could
not see. he would have heard nothing
further except the plashings on the line
Of foam.
Then came . soft yellow light from
above. and the mist slowly melted
away, revealing the ocean, the cir.
cling gulls, the dunes, the cluster Of
hotels and cottages both up and down
the beach, connected by curved white
line of foam. Idlers were scattered
here and there. and some dshermen
were Bleaching a boat.
my world has cleared" said Mer-
Ram. "Now I shall begin to live. I
must do something for you" Then the
faraway look came back upon his face.
he was thinking Of the words:
Herr, farewell. I will send her "a
your CHAUNCEY WARDWELL.
Vefmont's Two Seasons.
One winter when Thaddeus Stevens
had come back to his Vermont home
he was the victim Of q severe cold
and could not leave the house for many
weeks. One of his callers was Lewis
Clark. a man Of short stature, who
In earlier days had been a playmate of