The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-11-18

Tho Word Of the Book.

on being in full possession of her fac
ulties at once and she arose instantly
and stepped out upon the sand. The
man gave way to her respectfully as |
she passed through the entrance. The |
mind is brightest in the early morn |
ing after sleep. She would give him |
another concept before the uses of the |
day, impaired his receptivity. She had
differentiated him from the rest of Gre |
alton when she taught him that he
was a man. She would show him now
that his was divided empire by de-
claring herself a woman. She laid her
hand upon her own breast and said
clearly:
"Woman!" giving the first syllable
the long 20" and definitely accenting
the second. She pointed to him and
repeated Man." to herself and re-
peated woman" Patiently over and
over again she said the word until
by and by he could say it, too.
The baby begins his language with
monosyllabic sounds which mean lit
tie and yet which have been identified
with the mother. It was fitting that
this man who was as child and yet
as a man should begin with something
deeper than infantile babble.
Man and woman!-she drove these
two ideas into his consciousness be-
: fore she ceased her task. If his idea
of man was at first infinite, she gave
him the concept of limitations imme-
diately following.
He was avid for instruction. Once
. he had learned the words, he babbled
them man, woman, man, woman"
until the iteration was almost mad
dening.
While she washed her face and
:, hands at the stream he plunged into
4 a brimming pool fed by the brook ere
: it descended to the sea. She noticed
: that he could swim like a fish itself,
naturally, instinctively, in an un-
y trained way of course, without the
N fancy strokes in which she had been
l. taught but brilliantly and well, never
:; theless. She would have given the
y world for dip, but it was not to be,
not yet, that is
. Then they breakfasted and she tried
70 teach him mo" and Yes" and the
'i meaning thereof. She intended to make
Ill circuit of the island later, but there
sc was no hurry. She began to realize
L. that time was nothing to her or tC
&c him, and so she idled under the trees
G setting him tasks as the picking o.
fruit and then stopping him will
AZ mo" and encouraging him with Yes
II, until he had some idea of those word!
III also 1t was relief to her to ge
W them firmly fixed in his mind for the!
u provided him with alternatives to thu
10 man and woman words On which h
=, harped.
:. After a while they started aroun
~ ! the island. 1t was perhaps six o
- eight miles in circumference. Their
,,1 was a sand beach everywhere, excep
ot in one place where the rocks cam
~, sheer down to the shore. From wha
;e she could tell by an inspection of tn
iii surface there was an underwater ell
No trance to some cave in the rock
ia which some day might be worth e.
In. ploring.
ont On the other side of the island frol
the cave. which was already demon
hat mated home in her mind, she cam
'tIv across the remains of ships DO;
she deep bedded in the sand. The bo;
ION had been perhaps wrecked and broke
he on the barrier reef, or possibly it ha
re- sailed through the entrance near
see hand-the only opening in the enci
let. cling guard of splintered rock whi1
thv she had seen-and had been hurlt
ons upon the beach where it had la
her through years until buried in Il
and shifting sand Only the gunwales
,ate the boat and the stem and the ste
her. were exposed. She had no idea as
no what it's condition was, but she pro-
nee ised that so soon as she could S
iece would make shift at something for
nut shovel and dig it out, She gazed
was it for a long time wondering II
got were an explanation Of the presen
the of the solitary inhabitant of the
dust land, but nothing was to be gained
l to wonderment and speculation.
not A little stream she noticed trick
God. from under thick covert across
ught sand toward the sea. She turned q
rest idly walked away from the beach,
her lowing the stream The man, who
she stood with her watching the boat,
what not for a moment notice her. but
his soon as he discovered her directi
she ran after her and without Offering
wax touch her barred the way with
here tended arms.
ality NO, no." he cried, his first I
IS in spontaneous use of the word.
ppen She stopped, reflected, waved
man aside and went on. There
the something in the coppice that
5 one feared. She had not known that
hand possessed the faculty Her curio
i. so was too strong to be denied She n
lie, If see what 1t was. She quicSened
the pace as if to shake him On, bat
G sea, easily kept by her side plainti
" the calculating his monosyllabie nega'
soned 1t was evident that he knew the IN