Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1909-03-31

Il H.
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IlTETETSNS through the woods
1l:NIXMNIE.H in storm, but the
IIANEWEEGH morning broke in
lkONWEcSN sparkling sunshine
TPN: A:HH like white burst of
L2I1z9hS spray from a dark,
believing wave.
The ring of an ak cut through the
twitter of birds, and the throbbing
notes of meadow lark's song On
the edge of the clearing where Heath
cot had built his log cabin. a young
pine had been ripped up by the roots,
and in swift flashes, catching the light
as it rose and fell his ak was denud-
ing the trunk of all branches except
two upper ones which on either side
extended an outstretched arm. Any
other settler would have seen in the
fallen tree only so many cords of
firewood, but in every crude incident
of frontier life Heathcot beheld an in
ner. spiritual meaning-saw in the
pine felled by the wind a Heaven-giv-
en- cross for his Easter standard when
he should preach his great revival SER
mon on the morrow
swung his AK with tireless energy,
and thoughts leaped to his brain in a
rising torrent of religious fervor.
Standing by the compelling form of
the cross rough-hewn from their own
forests by the hand of their own
prophet he would speak to his people
word of power such as he had never
spoken before-not even in his old
church back in -.
A sudden transformation swept over
the zealot's face The angel had fed
and left only the man, the primitive
man with fierce. elemental love, jeal-
ousy, hate. Crimson surged in his
cheeks; his eyes blazed; his lips
marked a line of defiance across set
teeth.
The ak rose and fell, physical la
Dor beating into repression the stress
of his passion. But while he chopped,
cut, trimmed, while he and the helpers
summoned from the settlement bore
the cross through the woods and
planted it at the head of the plaza,
the sense of disgrace that had ruined
his career and driven him into the
his home life had been house upon
the hilltop. its betrayed honor Knocked
at by every little dweller of the valley.
And on the following day when the
settlers from far and near cabins gath
cred in the plaza, and Heathcot rose
from his knees and stood beside the
great pine cross to preach his Easter
sermon. unconsciously it was the
spark of personal anger that lighted
his flaming denunciation of evil.
1t was a dramatic scene. Above. a
dull, gray sky, weighed low with heavy
clouds; budding on both sides and at
the lower end of the plaza. the rude
shacks of the Settlement high-walled
beyond by the trees of the surround
ing forest; at the upper end sweep
of open country stretching green to
the horizon. The cross of pine planted
at this end lifted its clear-cut strength
against the background of the sky.
Equally strong stood out the frontier
preacher in his top boots, his cordu-
roys, his crimson sweater. likewise
strong in bearing the men and women
of his congregation who had left the
made ways of pleasantness and peace
to blaze new trail in history.
Only a man like Heathcot, who lived
and labored and fought with them.
side by side. shoulder to shoulder,
could have touched them, quickened
the spiritual within, and the vision of
power that had flashed before him
while he was hewing the cross the