The Miller sun. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 190?-19??, 1907-05-25
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
CHAPTER XII.

<zar.dles with tolerable regularity from
Above When there was any sign OF
neglect or forgetfulness on the part or
old Peter, rap on the cliff with the
hntchet brought him at once to the mouth
of the we'll with a request to know what
we wanted now. He protested several
aiInes against our wasteful e&travaganoe,
and the expense to which we were put
cling him, in a much injured tone, AZ
enough we were there of our own choice.
Above all, the waste of candles irritated
him the most.
you're got to do wiroIt EN- he
shouted one day in reply to my request.
"',rhe young un's done wirout 'em, and
you're got to do wirout EN-; do you
understand thatY' But on my suggesting
ehe alternative of lighting bonfire the
candles came quickly enough. l also
insisted on a supply Of linen being sent
down for the young 'un' and change
for myself, promising to let him have my
clothes to wash regularly every week.
We were not unmindful OF the future
livery day we put by something out of
she supply of food in case of accident !;
and, foreseeing Psyches wants when we
made our escape, l took the measure
2lent of her little foot, and sent it up,
writh n demand that shoes of that size
should be sent down the next day.
ann not sure that old Peter, who became
exceedingly recalcitrant toward the last
would have given in to this, bat just at
that time my grandfather got about, and
old Peter disappeared one morning and
o0e saw and heard him above us no
rnOre, and the shoes came down the next
morning.
But preparation of far greater impor-
Tapce than this gave me great concern.
Il had to make the girl und erstand some
thing of the world into which she would
40 when she left the cave in which she
had passed her life-the world in which
probably she would go one way and
another. I felt that the sudden revela-
eion of such a world would take away
her reason, just as the glare of day might
blind her IL did not now accustom her
eyes to the light of a candle. To do this
had to teach her to speak and train
her imagination to form ideas from the
sound of words.
She was not wanting IN intelligence,
and quickly picked up the use of such
words as were necessary to Our immedi-
ate wants. She was as ready to learn
as l to teach; and sat beside me hour
after hour in our time of rest, repeating
what she had heard, and adding to her
store Of phrases. For over three months
abe studied in this way, never showing a
agn of impatience, and then a change
came. Naturally she understood what
II said to her far better than she could
express her own meaning; at last compre-
shending what / said so well that she
lrarely asked me to repeat a word or
change the form Of phrase. Then her
Interest in learning declined. The incen-
rive was gone now that she had mastered
sShe difficulty of understanding words, and
Il seemed to me that her tongue was still
: CT than when she could merely babble
without reason.
Talk to me-" she would murmur.
~f1alk to me as you did when knew
nothing but what / saw in your face,
you have so much to tell me about; /
lnve nothing to tell you that you do not
know"
Her phrases were ungrammatical and
broken like a child's, but this was their
meaning. This led to my talking great
deal, and she was content to listen, sit
1ins as still as a mouse. / told her about
The wide-spreading sky and The glorious
sun that rose on one side and set on the
other in soft clouds of beautiful colors,
and of the moon that came when he was
gone, and of the myriads OF stars like the
little one we saw at times through the
hole in the cave that spangled the heav-
ems all over when neither sun nor moon
was there to dim them; and then spoke
about the broad sea and the things in it
and on 1t, and the fields of green grass
.dappled with bright-colored flowers, and
the trees where birds far prettier than
Cav sang songs almost like her own.
She was never tired of hearing these
descriptions, but they did not excite her
with any eager desire to escape from the
cave and see and hear all that she loved
TO be told about. / fancy they must have
been to her like those descriptions of
Paradise, which tickle our ears but fail
Ito stimulate us with desire to go there
one moment before the inevitable time
Indeed, the outer world must have
been as incomprehensible to her stunted
imagination as The idea of limitless space
or infinite time is to the majority of or
binary people. She could form no con-
ception of world that hid no chalk
walls.
She seemed to take greater interest in
hearing about men and women than about
things. The existence of other human
beings in another cave was understand
able, but her delicate brows creased in
1erolexity to hear thae the number of
men like myself, the girls like her, was
sSevand orr counting.
.Do they all live together?" she asked,
In bewilderment.
l tried to explain how people were