Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1910-12-17
CHAPTER II.

tpOcns anu DIS the year Ol lHc great
flood. But the herald Of change had
not yet blown his trumpet in Paradise
Valley; and the world of russell and
green and limestone white, spreading
itself before the eyes of the boy sit
ting with his hands locked over his
knees on the top step of the porch
fronting the Gordon homestead, was
the same world which. with due sea-
sonal variations. had been his world
from the beginning.
1t was hot July afternoon, a full
month after the revival, and Thomas
Jefferson was at that perilous pass
where Satan is said to Turk for the
purpose OF providing employment for
the idle. He was wondering II the
shade of the hill oaks would be worth
tho trouble 1t would take to reach it,
when his mother came to the open
window OF the living-room: a small,
fair, well-preserved woman, this moth
er OF the boy of IL, with light brown
hair CRAVING a little at the temples,
and eyes remindful OF vigils, of fervent
beseeching, of mighty wrestlings
against principalities and powers and
the rulers of the darkness OF this
world.
You. Thomas Jefferson" she said,
gently. but speaking as one having au-
thority, you'd better be studying your
Sunday lesson than sitting there doing
nothing"
"Yes'm," said the boy, but he made
no move other than to hug his knees
q little closer. He wished his mother
would stop calling his Thomas Jeffer
son." To be sure. 1t was his name,
or at least two thirds of it; but he
liked the Buddy of his father, or the
"Tom-Jeff" of other people a vast deal
better
Further, the thought OF studying
Sunday lessons begot rebellion. At
times, as during those soul stirring re-
vival weeks. now seemingly receding
into a far-away past. he had moments
of yearning to be wholly sanctified
But the miracle of transformation
which he. had confidently expected as
the result of his coming through" was
still unwrought When John Bates or
Simon Cantrell undertook to bully him,
as aforetime, there was the same In
toxicating experience of all the visible
world going blood red before his eyes
the same sinful desire to Stay them.
zone or both
He stole glance at the opor window
OF the living-room. His mother had
gone about her housework, and he
could hear her singing softly. as befit-
ted the still. warm day. All hymns
were beginning to have that effect. and
this one In particular always renewed
the conflict between the yearning for
sanctity and a desire to do something
desperately wicked; the only middle
course lay In fight. Hence, the battle
FOL rlx kA t.Io Ella "a
at the window, sprang afoot, and ran
silently around the house and through
the peach orchard to Chamber over the
low stone wall which was the only
barrier on that side between the will
derness and the sown.
Men spoke OF Paradise as the val
ley" though 1t was rather a sheltered
cove with Mount Lebanon for its back
ground and a semicircular range of
oak grown hills for its other rampant.
Splitting 1t endwise ran the white
streak OF the pike, macadamized from
the hill quarry which, full quarter
OF a century before the Civil War. had
furnished the stone for the Dabncy
manor-house; and paralleling the road
unevenly lay ribbon of silver. known
to less poetic souls than Thomas JEFF
fersons as Turkey Creek. but loved
best by him under its almost forgotten
Indian name of Chiawassee.
Beyond the valley and it's inclosing
hills rose the other mountain" blue
in the sunlight and royal purple in the
shadows-the Cumberland: source and
birthplace of the cooling west wind
that was whispering softly to the ce-
dars on high Lebanon. Thomas Jeffer-
son called the Hottest of the purple
distances Pisgah. picturing II as the
mountain from which Moses had look
ed over into the Promised Land. Some
time he would go and climb II and
feast his eyes on the sight of the Ca
naan beyond; yea. he might even go
down and possess the good land, II so
the Lord should not hold him back as
He had held Moses.
That was a high thought quite In
keeping with the sense of overlordship
bred of the upper stillnesses. To COM
pany with It. the home valley straight
way began to idealize itself from the
uplifted point of view on the mount
of vision. The Paradise fields were
delicately- outlined squares of vivid
green or golden yellow. or the warm
red brown Of the upturned earth III
the fallow places. The old negro quar-
tiers OH TIE lJdblcy bIOunQSt many
years gone to the ruin of disuse, were
vine-grown and invisible save as q
spot of summer verdure; and the man
or-house itself. gray. grim and forbid
ding to = small boy scurrying past II
in the deepening twilight, was now nc
more than a great square roof with the
cheerful sunlight playing on IL.
Farther down the valley. near the
place where the white pike twisted it,
self between two OF the rampant hills
to escape into the great valley OF he
Tennessee. the split-shingled roof I'M
der which Thomas jefferson had eater
and slept since the earliest beginning
of memories became also a part OF
the high-mountain harmony; and the
ragged, red iron-ore beds on the slope
above the furnace were softened into
blur OF Joyous color.
The iron furnace, with its sltsrnat-
ing smoke pun and dull red hare
struck the one Earring note in q SYM
phony blown otherwise or great ma
lures organ-pipes; but to Thomas