The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1908-11-05

TICK was tnat ne naO stopped 700 Oileu
and listened too long. Now. If one
waits until they come too close, II is
difficult to distance them again, and II
one listens until they ring too clearly
there is no sound in the world. not
even the whisper Of woman, that can
ever again quite drown them. And the
worst of Il is that no man can face
this Fear-that. however the bravest
man may turn, il is always from be-
hind that he hears the steps which
follow as IL coward fed
All men do not hear them-oRly the
exceptional may. or the men excep-
tionaliy situated Herrick happened
to be both. Many men have bequeathed
to them an inheritance OF death; but
Herrick had also an inheritance of per-
feet loneliness. His people were all
at peace In the graveyard plots belong
Ing to the different health resorts Of
two continents, and he had lived alone
since a lad in an old house haunted by
their portraits. and their names on the
iyleaf of every book from which he
learned life. Herrick was not a cow
ard; but one day he locked up the
house and went out through the green
old garden. At the gate he looked
back
Il was born in you" he said to his
home. 'and IL the girl love didn't
have to drag over Europe with an in
valid mother, would live In you. be-
cause you are next door to her. and
make the most of my time. But
won't stay by myself-and maybe I'll
never see you again"
He looked away for a moment to the
war-defaced college buildings on the
low green hills beyond They had
been home, too. He hesitated. and a
blush rose to his face Then he kissed
mis- hands to It all with the impulsive
gesture OF a child and turned his back
on his too quiet past.
In the station by the river he bought
a ticket to the biggest and noisest city
in his native state. which was south
ern one. We will omit the intermedi-
ate stages. Enough that In a month
he had been able to fulfill his intention
OF getting a position on one of the big
gest and noisest papers in that city.
He reasonably argued that a re-
porter on night duty with a six-hour
margin of daylight would not have
much time In which to lie awake
listening. and. having an income. he
could afford this hypothesis. Herrick
was after mental excitement. and he
got IT, For the first time he was real
ly taken out Of his own brain-life and
into the lives OF others. That was a
good result to begin with. His an
cestors were the same short-lived set
OF idiots. and the footsteps sauntered
as cynically as ever on his trail. But
he had not time to consciously listen.
or to fret over the selfishness of the
girls mother, who. doubtless, heard
footsteps hunting her down, too, poor
thing or to write minor poetry. which
is the silliest thing a grown-up man
with an intellect can do-unless he
can sell 1t. He had only time for his
work and he found out that he was
good at II. He also found out that six
hours of midday when one slept was
worth night of ten hours TO lie awake
and listen in. and that only crazy peo-
pie may safely cultivate their magma
tons. Therefore, he endeavored to
confine his attention to his daily work
and to let his ancestors alone. On the
whole. he succeeded. Every morning.
with his brain at its busiest. he wrote
the pages that went to make up his
Saturday letter to the girl he loved
When that was done ne ran down, all
in minute, II seemed. Sometimes he
dropped his head on the letter and
went to sleep. Oftener he reeled to the
bed and fell on 1t. the daylight on his
eyeiids. black night beneath them. He
had not leisure to think of himself at
ALL But there was drawback to this.
Il was good for his mind, but it was
not always good for his body. Some
times a trivial seeming cough worried
at his throat for days, and sometimes
neuralgia gripped with a clutch not to
he loosened except with red-hot wits
Ky. Usually. however. he was dead
ened to these discomforts. His CON
sciousness was filled with other things
the tearing hurry and devious, de-
vices of his work-its crowds, and can
didates. and confessions--its murders
and its marriages. And there we're
storms OF music-there we're civic ban
quets-there were noted divines under
whom he catnapped In the galleries OF
the first churches. But better than all
these were the thousand special and
individual occurrences that took his
breath away and made his flesh glow
with the dlscoyerer's rapture. He had
lived so among books for his 26 years
that he had not known before that
things which had never been put into
books ever happened.
Once, while musing under a noted
divine. he got TO thinking over this.
What stories ! could write" he
cried TO himself He sat there staring
at the speaker. but saw him no more
than he saw the red and gray Saint
John. or the blue Mary Mother In the
triple-arched easement behind the pull
pit He went to heaven and tasted
power, and then. as usually happens,
Fate. to get even with him, reminded