Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-03

making Ice, the natives mad II. 1t was
both impressive and Oppressive. the muff1ed
vibrations booming across the high pitched
silences like the half srnothered roars of
some starving wild beast in the pains of
wounds and hunger. The dogs had been
frightened at first, and had barked and
howled in unison. Sir Bedivere. the
splendid St. Bernard, was country born;
but the two years of his life had been
passed in the effete ways of cities: and
dainty Lady Babbie. the -pedigreed
collie puppy, was only a few months up
from Virginia. Sir Bedivere the venture
some had gone down to the lake, where the
strange thing was concealed. and. ear to
ice, listened gravelv and inquiringly. He
had then, in the way of dogs of much
wisdom, communicated to his ti1nid young
companion on the bank that there was
nothing to fear. and had eventually inbued
her with his daring to the extent of slip
perry frolic on the grooming ice.
From the doorway Mazda had stood and
watched them. 1t was the doorway of
a summer bungalow, lovely in its season,
and of much beauty, albeit of a bleak and
lonely sort, in this midwinter of SHOWS.
The great pine sentinels stood impasSively
erect, and their uniforms were whittier than
any pipe-clayed trappings of militant man.
uc SllNcI DllCllcS SlllH elcu dllu SlloOh III
the late wintry sun; and the poplars-those
ridiculous peoples, with their bare. gaunt.
long legs, to her the Clan -Gaels of the
forest-stood stiff and stoical. like Scots
men on parade. The garden. an exquisite
life in summer, was floral graveyard. and
had the desolate look of all dead things,
wrapped in its winding sheets of white,
awaiting springtime resurrection. There
were some translucent red berries in the
hedge of tatarian honevSuckle, and she
had scattered some crumbs about; but it
was too cold for even the brave little brown
chickadees to venture out. The red berries
made vivid splash of color, the only one,
save the magnificent copper lights of her
hair, in the whole vast white and green
eXpanse.
She let her eyes rest on the scarlet line:
she had always loved color, and light, and
warmth, and kaleidoscope movement. Her
inner vision pictured the city at this hour:
The carriages would all be rolling home
ward from the park. the ring of the horses
sharp-shod feet on the pavements mingling
with the hard breathings of the motors, and
the hurrying tread of the human thousands,
the grub toilers of the day, fastening to
the metamorphosis that would transform
them into butterflies of night The electric
bulbs would be sowing their blossoms by
millions across the dusk, till the whole city
was one riotous hotbed of color Was it
only year ago that she had been part
an enjoying, pulsing part-of this great
Babylonian garden OF bloom?
She had loved it all passionately; but
she also had loved, though then uncognizant
OF it, with the other and unsupported side
of her many -fibered nature, this country of
SHOWS, its stern silences. the sigh of the
winds as they swept like Fates through the
trees, the tang of the air when the frost bit
deep, which was like wine to the blood.
The city had claimed and held the pleasure
loving, lotus dreaming side of her; but
there was sterner fiber, bequeathed by grim
old Puritan forebears ere they had met and
crossed-never utterly merged-with the
soft seductions of the South. Stephen
Strong, NJ. D.,-the man, not the physical
tected these elements in her long before
will fashion you, he had said to her once
direct way, If she ever takes YOU in hand,
drous being that will surprise the being yo
All, yes; but the fierceneSs of the fashioni
brutality of the hammer and anvil. 1t had
intolerable pain of it that she had turned to t
Mother-Nature the nurse, the teacher, tn,
find how well she loved her, and how dea
was she in return.
And so she had shut herself up here amor