The Morning examiner. [volume] (Ogden, Utah) 1904-1910, 1909-02-14

lie which viii probably never be solved. As
mere baby his beauty was exceptional; his
eurying lips his finely chiscled nose his wide
clear blue eyes. his good, broad brow, his
sunny hair, all marked him in such sharp contrast to
the heavyjowlcd and dul-eycd parents that they
themselves stood bit in of him. and his mothers
pride in his beauty marred by certain uncasncss
that entirely left her
"Yes," she admitted with regrctful sigh. ''hc is
purity but I'm afraid he's most too purity for 4 boy"
Kind o weakly, too" jim Glow would add with
growing dissatisfaction
With him, boy to be regarded as a distinct
asset. valued exactly proportion his evidences of
brawn; and he onGcd for sturdy for exactly the
same reason that he cherished the Gthc-lmbcd colts
that scampcred about in the brook meadow In this he
to be disappointed, for, to the Glow farmhouse.
perchcd down from the rocky roadside. there came
daughters, and the boy, Henry.
grew up in loneliness to develop within him that
strange and dreaming fancy which made him Of
apparent worth.
Hes lazy, that young un" Jim decided in pro-
found disgust while yet the child pinafores and
from that time the father took up the burden Of his
cross with such patience as he might
There was no denying that the boy not at all
like other children OF the countryside
He jes sets there, mopn' and loo5in in a hole and
says i word" his mother complained 1T jcs
pears like he amt got any gitup-an'git to him at
all"
And shc was right Many many times the little
sat behind the kitchen looking, looking. and form
ing words to mold his thought. What it was that
he saw across the tiny valley not he himself
could have told but he noted with rapt cagerncss the
passing of every hccoy cloud the sky; he
fanoul all formations and his eye
dwct in keen pleasure upon the deep gradations of
shade and color in them He found calm delight, IN
crcasing with his years in the changing hue OF the sky
itself For him the great dome of heaven not
only blue, but il j hundred bucs-thc blue of
Winter and the blue of Summer tho blue of morning
and the blue OF evening, the blue OF midday and the
blue of night. with all the varying shades between.
He found at the edge Of the brook ono day flower
exactly matching that days sky that, until season
passed and 1t had ceased to bloom he came to it
every day to compare it, building with infinite pains
little enclosure about it that the cattle might not trampe
1t; and odd fancy came TO him that some little
cck Of that great wonderful arch above had dropped
straight down to grow and bloom for him.
To Jim Glow the farm a barren and unlovcly
place. il in his mental grasp there such things as
lovelincss and unlovelincss The road was high here
and the house built upon the rocky hillside that
sloped down from the highway, that should take
up OF the fertile room in the hollow below;
while, beyond the barren hills up again. OF the
whole farm. scarcely more than one-third pro-
ducyc. and because it was not all rich, loamy bot
tom-land such he could never hope to possess the
II
first the dwelling long before Jim succeeded to it, had
been but a cabin, down to which led fight of roughly
placed stone steps. As tho earlier generations of CLOVIS
had needed they had added them one at
a timc and upon that shelving ground each addition
had been built slightly different level, so that in
passing from any part of tho house another part
there steps to go up steps to down. making
this womans day of unending toll; and, while her
child still young, she became old from hard and
unccasng labor.
To the boy. however, the farm was paradise, and
the brook that was OF value the father only as it
irrigated his fields and wacrcd his cattle, was TO the
boy perpetual delight He knew and loved every
Of its quiet little pools steep noisy shadows its
swift, CONSTRUCTED channels its sandy bottoms where
the water widencd out in hin sparkling sheets. its
every crook and bend, clear down the creek into
which, at the boundary OF the farm, II cmpticd At
this point there formed deep, slow basin, where
leaves long and pointed dripped, touching their very
tips in the water; and sometimes while he watch
ing stcalthy snake would slip its thin black length
down from the oycrhanging branches and glide away
under the dark surface If lay here and gazed long
into the depth there strange colors shifting
and varying with the changing light; deep deep blues
and browns and even reds down where the dim fishes
moved
He had strange fancy about the brook, too. 1t
was an old. old friend, but as it always racing
away to the rivers and the ocean, he felt that it
always stranger well friend. Every tine
that he saw he felt that he make its acqualnt
anec all again, for this water that he had
never seen beforS; so. while he yet quite little,
he used say Good morning" to il every day. and.
lying down upon the bank with his face above it in
his avortc spot he would tell ii all about himself and
about the clouds and the blue sky which il must have
So the boy grew until he was thirteen. and his list
less dreaming increased or course. he worked. as
every upon that farm whether twofootcd or
four footed, work, but he labored with curious
ineficiency that made Jim Glow heart-sick. He
good father in way. and patient one, but some
times in striving bring the boy into proper rcla
ton with his duty toward life, he became brutal 1t
Z