The Harlowton news. [volume] (Harlowton, Mont.) 1909-1914, 1910-02-25


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 woman She laid her
hand upon her own breast and said
clearly:
"Woman!" giving the first syllable
the long co. 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 q child and yet
% q 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. II 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 AID
hands at the stream he plunged into
q brimming pool fed by the brook ere
It descended to the sea. She noticed
that he could swim like fish itself.
naturally. instinctively, in an un-
trained way of course, without the
fancy strokes in which she had been
taught, but brilliantly and well, never
theless. She would have given the
world for a dip, but it was not to be,
not yet, that is.
Thea they breakfasted and she tried
to teach him NO and Eyes" and the
meaning thereof. She intended to make
circuit of the island later, but there
was no hurry. She began to realize
that time was nothing to her or to
him. and 50 she idled under the trees,
setting him tasks as the picking Of
fruit and then stopping him with
mo" and encouraging him with Eyes"
until he had some idea of those words
also. It was relief to her to get
them firmly fixed in his mind, for they
provided him with alternatives to the
man and woman words on which he
haxped.
After a while they started around
the island. It was perhaps six or
eight miles in circumference. There
was sand beach everywhere, except
in one place where the rocks came
sheer down to the shore. From what
she could tell by an inspection of the
surface there was an underwater en-
trance to some cave in the rocks
which some day might be worth ex-
ploring. .....
On the other side of the island from
the cave, which was already denomi-
mated home in her mind, she came
across the remains of a ships boat
deep bedded in the sand. The boat
had been perhaps wrecked and broken
on the barrier reef, or possibly 1t had
sailed through the entrance near at
hand-the only opening in the encir-
cling guard of splintered rock which
she had seen-and had been hurled
upon the beach where it had lain
through years until buried in the
shifting sand. Only the gunwales OF
the boat and the stem and the stern
were exposed. She had no idea as to
what its condition was, but she prom.
Used that 80 soon as she could she
would make shift at something for
shovel and dig 1t out. She gazed at
1t for a long time wondering II 1t
were an explanation of the presence
Of the solitary inhabitant of the is
land, but nothing was to be gained by
wonderment and speculation.
A little stream she noticed trickled
from under thick covert across the
sand toward the sea. She turned and
idly walked away from the beach, fol-
lowing the stream. The man, who had
stood with her watching the boat, did
not for q moment notice her, but so
soon as he discovered her direction.
ran after her and without Offering to
touch her barred the way with ex-
tended arms.
mo, mol" he cried. his hrst real
spontaneous use Of the word.
She stopped, reflected. waved the
man aside and went on. There was
something in the coppice that he
feared. She had not known that he
possessed the faculty. Her curiosity
was too strong to be denied. She must
see what 1t was. She quickened her
pace as II to shake him of, but he
easily kept by her side plaintively
calculating his monosyllabic negative.
It was evident that he knew the mean
ing Of the word. she was glad to see.
When she reached the underground
Of the coppice. she hesitated in appre-
hension OF she knew not what, but
summoning her courage parted the
reeds and peered in them. She shrank
back with a sudden cry of horror. for