The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1907-12-06
CHAPTER l.

A little dell in the heart of a wood was
deliciously dappled with leafy shadows.
A loosely clad man, bearded and specta-
cled, and little on the right side of
forty, sat on a camp stool before a small
Geld easel, and libeled the landscape at
his ease. pausing at his work now and
then and drawing back his head to survey
1t with an air of charmed appreciation.
Near him. on the gnarled trunk of tree
and in che shadow of a moss-grown rock,
sat lady some ten or q dozen years
younger. leisurely torturing thread into
lace with hooked needle.
A little way down the dell a boy was
clambering among the rocks, shrieking
every now and then with ecstatic news OF
. beetle or butterfly. He was sturdy,
blue-eyed, golden haired little fellow OF
five, 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 fro~l his golden head
to his restless feet and tips of his brown
little fingers The mc.har snatched him
to her arms and covered him with kisses.
Suddenly she looked up, flushed, half pite-
GUS. with flash of tears in her eyes.
''Austin, feel afraid. Have right
to be so happy? Has any one right to
be so happy? Will it last?"
who knowsY" 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 1t CRATE
fully"
Sometimes" she said. "a shadow seems
to fall upon it all-the shadow of fear"
"The shadow of the past-experience.
The burned child breads the fire. We are
burned children, both of us. Five years
illness and poverty out Of seven years OF
married life is a large allowance. And,
after all, our present happiness isn't phe-
4nomenal, my dear, though it looks SO. We
have health, and we value it because we
have each missed it in turn. We have a
little money, and we think it great deal
because we have been SO deadly poor.
And them" he laughed and half blushed.
I'VE have a little fame, and that is all
the pleasanter because we were SO long
neglected. Sweet Is pleasure after pain"
II am dangerously happy" she answer
ed.
Come, let us unpack the luncheon bas-
k6t. SOIu Cu1Ckeu. 0dldu. DTcdus
Cheese. Milk. There we are. Fall to.
Sit down by your mother, Cupid. Take
a pull at the milk, old man, and then
you'll have an appetite. What a sudden
shadow!"
A cloud had foated between themselves
and the sun, and strange quiet had fall
en- with the shadow on the woods.
"Austin," the wife whispered, there Is
that dreadful man again. 1t seems as II
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 which
between the silver steps of the birches and
the reddish stems of the frs, walked a
gray-bearded man, with his head dropped
forward and his hands clasped behind him.
He looked neither to left nor right, but
went by as if unconscious of their pres
ence, and in little while was lost be-
hind the thicker growth of trees. As he
went out of sight the sun broke through
the cloud, the LEAKAGE was inundated with
life again and the birds renewed their
song.
Look" she whispered; ''the shadow
follows him."
"What an odd mood this Is to-day I"
said her husband, smiling at her. And
why is the poor old gentleman SO dresd-
ful?"
"But, Austin: do you know? You can't
have heard. He is known to have hatch
ed plots against the Gar"
well, yes. 1t is known also that he
A.. IL Jol,sl A..
ty years. His wife and his two sons
died In Siberia. They went there without
trial, and people who know him say that
the loss of them in that horrible way
turned his brain. Suppose anybody stole
you and little Austin? Suppose he drove
you on foot through hundreds of miles OF
Ice and snowP Suppose that he made you
herd with the human off-scourings Of the
world and that you died after three o,
four long drawn, hideous years? 1t might
be wicked, but surely It would not b.
quite without provocation If blew thai
man sky-high. don't say that regicid,
Is a thing to be commended. l don't de
fend the poor old gentleman's politica
opinions. But I do say that human ma
ture is human nature"
Luncheon over, he returned to hi
painting, to find the lights all changed
He worked away, however, with grea
contentment for an hour or two, while tn
wife and the boy wandered beyond tn
limits of the dell. When they came bacl
they found that he had packed up hi
traps and was lying at length on tn,
moss, with his face turned to the sky.
II do this better than paint" he said
cooking an idle eye at his wife frsm be
meath the soft white felt which rested OF
his nose. Shall we get back now?"
II want to carry something, papa,
said the boy, possessing himself of tn
camp stool. They sauntered on togethe
TRANQUILITY through the twinkling light
which da1zled from between the leaves
and their steps were noiseless on tn
dense carpet Of fir needles. The boy lai,
down his burden to chase a sulphur-ool
ored butterfly. They had gone a hundre,
yards before they missed him, and whe,
they turned to look for him he was seel
at the far end of a wooded vista, seate
on the camp stool.
Look at the little figure, Lucy" sal
the father. Isn't there something lionel
and almost pathetic In 1t? He looks a
II he were waiting for somebody VIII
W0uld nevpr cOme-a Houra ~ aa.av<>