Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1911-01-20
CHAPTER TX.


rose with the sun and lived with the
| industries, marking all the later expan-
| sive strides and sorrowing keenly that
| he had not been present to see them
| taken in detail
One morning he ran plump into
| the Major, stalking grandly along the
| tile-paved walk and smoking a war
| time cheroot of preposterous length.
| The despot of Paradise, despot now
| only by the courtesy OF the triumphant
genius of modernity, put on his eye
glasses and stared Thomas into re-
spectfu1 rigidity.
| why, bless my soul!-if 1t isn't Cap
tain Gordon's boy! Well. well, you
young limb! If you didn't faveh youth
good fatheh in eve'y line and lineament
of youth face, I should neveh have
known you-you've grown so. Shake
hands, subj"
| Tom did it awkwardly. 1t is a gift
| to be able to shake hands easily; a
gift withheld from most girls and all
boys up to the soulful age. But there
was worse to follow. Ardea was some-
where on the peopled verandas. and the
Major, more terrible in his hospitality
than he had ever appeared in the old
time rage-fits, dragged his hapless vic
| tim up and down and around and about
in search of her. mot say Howdy' to
Ardea? Why, you young cub. where
| are youh mannehs, subj" Thus the
Major. when the victim would have
| broken away.
1t was a fiery trial for Tom-a way
picking among red-hot plowshares of
embarrassment. How the well-bred
folk smiled and the grand ladies drew
their immaculate skirts aside to make
passingroom for his dusty feet! How
one of them wondered. quite audibly,
where in the world Major Dabney had
unearthed that young native! Tom
was conscious of every f1eck of dust Oh
his clothes and shoes; of the skilless
knot in his necktie; of the school desk
droop in his shoulders; of the utter
superfuousness of his big hands.
And when, at the long last Ardea
was discovered sitting beside a gor-
geously attired Queen of Sheba, who
also smiled and examined him minute
ly through pair of eye glasses fas-
tened on the end of a gold mounted
stick, the place of torment, wherever
and whatever 1t might be, held no
deeper pit for him. What he had
climbed the mountain to find was a
little girl in a school frock. who had
sat on the yellowing grass with one
arm around the neck of a great dog,
looking fearlessly up at him and tell
ing him she was sorry he was going
away. What he had found was a very
staturesque little lady, clad in fluffy
summer white, with the other Ardea's
slate blue eyes and soft voice. to be
sure, but with no other reminder of the
lost avatar. @
From first to last from the moment
she made room for him, dusty clothes
and ALL on the settee between herself
and the Queen of Sheba, Tom was con-
scious of but one clearly defined
thought-an overmastering desire to
get away-to be free at any cost sui
the way Of escape would not disclose
itself. so he sat In stammering misery
answering Ardea's questions about the
sectarian school In bluntest monosyl-
tables, and hearing with his other eaz
terrible Major tell the Queen OF She
ba all about the railroad invasion, and
how he-Tom Gordon--had run to find
punk match to fire q cannon in ths
!, Dabney cause. @lfa
He escaped finally from the entan.
clements of Major Dabney's hospital
ity. On the way down the cliff patti
a
kindled anew. There had been times
: in the last year, especially. when h
: had thought coldly of the disciple
calling and was minded to break ava,
!. and be q skilled craftsman, like hi
|, father. Now he was aghast to thin
= that he had ever been so near the brin
i of apostasy. With the river of tn
Water of Life springing crystal clea
+. at his feet should he turn away an
= drink from the bitter pools In the will
derness of this world? With prophet
q ic eye he saw himself as another Boan
v erges, lifting, with all the inspirin
IL elouuence of the son of thunder, tn
ID Baptist's soul shaking cry. Repent We
,e for the kingdom of heaven Is at hand
The thought thrilled him. and tn
D. fierce glow of enthusiasm became a
DR. intoxicating ecstasy. The tinkling dri
l. of falling water broke into the noonda
silence of the forest like the low-voice
Of call of a sacred bell. For the first tim
at since leaving the mountain top he too
,g note of his surroundings. He wa
standing beside the great, cubicaI boul
| der under the cedars-the high altar 1
natures mountain tabernacle
Thomas Jefferson had the deep peac
of the fully committed when he ros
u from his knees and went to drink q
in the spouting rock lip. 1t was decide
he now, this thing he had been holdin