The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-04-26

crSeking ounglers. 1t was certainly
worthy OF remark that DR.. Wallace at
ways shot his quota OF game" prompt
ly and privately, as favorite mem bers
Of his fashionable congregation could
.annually testify.
' When the last murmurings OF voices
had died away behind him i'm the for
est aisies, DIR. Wallace gleefully brand
ished his rifle like dumb-hall, snuff
ed the crisp meIlowness of the autumn
woods and gurgled.
"Ah, it's good TO be alive-anI alOne!"
Ten hours later it wasn't as good to
be alone. 1t was dark. The wind vol
leyed down the rocky valley and the
spruces "bOO-ed' lonesOmely. DIR. Wal
lace arose from his knees. but not from
devotiOns He had been trying to blow
into life the little blaze his last match
had ignited in the painfully collected
pile of dry-kye. But the wind had puff
ed against him VIGOROUSLY. L had
blackened his face, scorChed lis eye
-brows and singed his neat puffs of side
WhiskerS and finally. aided by a wet
drizzle. had dOused the last flicker of
blaze Dr. Wallace looked away into
the mystic gloom. harked to the weird
voices of the woods and sat down and
groaned between his shiverings.
lie was lost-iost'
apart his fingers pitchy from his clam
heTing of sentinel trees. he ponderad
reniOrsefully that all his misfortune
had come from leaving the straight and
narrow path Of the horseback. A broad
and easy way leading TO the valley had
tempted him astray. He reflected with
mournful usefulness that his expert
ence would make admirable illustra-
tion for a sermon. But would he ever
stand again before mis- urban congre-
CATION? Solemn thought, Lost men
were like lost needles in that wilder
ness. He, tattered and scratched and
unkempt and aching after HIS mad
scamper'ugs in his lost mans panic,
had he ever been well CARRIED and CAIN
and eloquent in a pulpit? This COVER
ing wretch. shivering under the great
trees. seemed 10 be some one else.
Then. growing philosophic, ne reflect
ed more bitterly that he had not al
ways in this life kept on through the
xdifficulties of the high and narrow
Dpath. Away back there in the OLD days
he had gone down into The valley. He
had since made himself believe some
times that ne was back on the heights
again. but now. face to face with him
self. and with elemental and naked ma
tuer talking it's truths about him, he re-
allied the fUtiiity Of his Seif-decep-
ton.
A loon OF some far mOuntain-locked
pond halleloo-ed its aln.nst human cry
like a wall of regret. And nearer still
black bear barked in threatening
staccato. The trees voiced melancholy
rebuke that his soul in its new s9nsi-
tiveness translated for him. Nature S
loneliness I'm the sunshine had always
been welcome release from the life IN
which he moved with almost the aTtifi-
ciaIity Of an actor. Not that the Rev
DR.. Ransom Wallace was a corrupt
man. His daily life -sin1e-had been
clean But he himself knew that mis-
manners. his comings and goings al
home. with the gaze If the world on
him, even the bland and unctuous IN
ronations of his voice. We're part of tine
assumption that CITY pastor must
carry to his role.
In his canvas coat bob-tailed to a
Injurious degree in his knickerbcc kers
with his rifle slung into tna hollow oi
his arm and the glory of sUnlit outdoors
about him. he was again himself, the
actor behind the scenes, relaxing the
spiritual and physical muscles thai
ached-allowing himself the rare de-
light OF hating the squirming mob OF
Afity schemers for day-unpastoral in.
riuigence, but none the less comforting
But now, with the sun gone. the might
brooding, the cold numbing his body
and fear chilling his soul, he met him
self-and hated himself. And he pu
aside all speciOus excuses, and knew
why,
When al last the dawn cane-h'
watching toward what his somewha
j obstinate judgment declared to be cas-
the sun as though in malicious jes
rose through watery clouds in tn
southwest.
For half an hour Dr. Wallace sa
there on his hiliOck and with menta
righteousness tried TO browbeat the SUI
into egregious error When the docto
had reluctantly admitted TO himsel
that the luminary probably knew il
business, he found that under the new
conditions east or west or south mean
nothing helpful to him. Points of com
pass suggested nothing All the worl
seemed ske- vowed. He got up an