Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-14


4 life which will probably never be solved AS
mere baby his beauty exceptional; his
curving lips, his finely chiseled nose, his wide,
clear blue eyes, his good, broad brow, his
sunny hair all marked him in such sharp contrast to
the heavyowled and duleyed parents that even they
themselves stood bit in of him, and his mothers
pride in his beauty was marred by certain ueasiness
that never entirely left her.
EYES," she admitted with a--regretful sigh, "he is
purity, but I'm afraid he's most too purity for boy
Kind O weakly, too" Jim Glow would add with
growing dissatisfaction.
With him, boy to be regarded as a distinct
asset valued exactly in proportion to his evidences of
Drawn; and he longed for sturdy for exactly the
same reason that he cherished the lfhe-fmbed colts
that scampered about in the brook meadow In this he
to be disappointed, for, to the Glow farmhouse
perched down from the rocky roadside there came no
more sons or daughters and the boy, Henry,
grew up in loneliness to develop within him that
strange and dreaming fancy which made him of no
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
with such patience as he might.
There denying that the boy was not at all
like other children of the countryside
HE jes sets there, mopn' and 1oozin in hole and
never says word" his mother complained "It jes'
pears like he amt got any gitup-an'git to him at
all"
And she 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 even he himself
could have told but he noted with rap eagerness the
passing Of every feecy cloud the sky he traced
fancful creatures in all its formations and his eye
dwelt IN keen pleasure upon the deep gradations of
shade and color in them He found calm delight in
crcasng with his years. in the changing hue of the sky
itself For him the great dome of heaven was not
only blue, but it was hundred blues-the blue Of
Winter and the blue of Summer, the 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 one day a flower
exactly matching that days sky that until its season
was passed and 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 tranple
it; and odd fancy to him that some little
fec of that great wonderful arch above had dropped
straight down to grow and bloom for him.
To Jim Glow the farm was a barren and unloveiy
place. if in his mental grasp there such things as
loneliness and unlovelness. The road high here
and the house was built upon the rocky hillside that
sloped down from the highway that it should take
up none of the fertile in the hollow below:
while beyond the barren hills rose up again. Of the
whole farm, scarcely than one-thrd was pro-
ductve, and because it was not all rich, loamy bot
despsed it as his wife despised her house At
first the dwelling long before Jim succeeded to it. had
been but cabin down to which led fight of roughly
placed stone steps AS the earlier generations of CLOVIS
had needed rooms they had added them one at
time, and upon that shelving ground each addition
had been built at slightly different level so that in
passing from any part of the house another part
there were steps to go up steps to go down. making
this womans day of unendng toll; and, while her
child still Young hecaue old from hard nd
unceaslng labor.
To the boy, however, the farm was paradise, and
the brook that of vaue to the father only as it
irrigated his fields and watered his cattle was to the
boy perpetual delight. He knew and loved every
one of its quiet little pools its steep, noisy shadows its
swift CONSTRUCTED channels its sandy bottoms where
the water widened out in thin, sparkling Sheets its
every crook and bend, clear down to the creek into
which, at the boundary of the farm, it emptied 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, scatly snake would slip its thin black length
down from the overhangng 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 reds, down where the dim fishes
moved.
He had a strange fancy about the brook too II
old, old friend, but as it was always racing
away to the rivers and the ocean, he felt that it was
always a stranger as well as friend. Every time
that he it he felt that he must make its acquaint
ance all over again, for this was water that he had
never before; so, while he was yet quite little
he used ia say Good morning" to it every day, and
lying down upon the bank with his face above it in
his favore spot he would tell it all about himself and
about the clouds and the blue sky which it must have
seen.
So the boy grew until he was thirteen and his list
less dreaming increased OF course, he worked as
every creature upon that farm whether two-footed or
four-footed, must work but he abored with curious
ineficiency that made Jim Glow heart-sick He was
good father in way, and patient one, but some
times in striving to bring the boy into proper rea-
ton with his duty toward life, he became brutal It