Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1912-12-25

nduhS. 1 Ill CIunIoy.
cts rather difficult to see them in
the moonlight; their rags match the
pavements."
The Egyptian night, that sapphirine
darkness which the flexible magma
shades, or floods with mystery and ro-
nance and wonder, lay softly upon
this strip Of verdure aslant the des-
ert's.face, the Valley of the Nile. The
moon, round, brilliant, strangely near,
suffused the SCARED old visage of the
world with phantom silver; the stones
of the parapet glowed DULY, the pave
ment glistened Whitley, all things it
touched with gentleness, lavishing
beauty upon beauty, mellowing ugli-
ness or effacing it. The deep blue
Nile, beribboned with the CHANGING
lights from the silent feluccas, curling
unusually along the sides of the frost
like dahabeahS and steamers, rolled
on to the sea; and the blue-white
arc-lamps, spanning the Great Nile
bridge, took the semblance of a pearl
necklace. From time to time a cara
van trooped across the bridge into
Cairo. The high and low weird notes
of the tom-toms, the wheeling protests
of the camels, the raucous defiance of
the donkeys, the occasional thin
music of reeds, were sounds that
crossed and recrossed one another,
anciently.
do you care for poetry, Mr.. Jones?"
ST? l used to write it."
"And you aren't afraid to admit it ?"
'Well, | shouldn't confess the deed
to every ore,' he answered frankly.
1--WE all write poetry at one time or
another; but it's generally not consti-
tutional, and we recover"
81 do not see why any one should be
ASHAMED of writing poetry
"Ah, but there is poetry and poetry.
My kind and Byron's is born of kim
idred souls; but he was an active
genius, whereas, l wasn't even a pas
!sive one. In all great poets find my
own rejected thoughts, as Emerson
says; and that's enough for my slen-
der needs. Poets are rather uncom-
Portable chaps to have round. They
are capr1cious, irritable, temperament
al, selfish, and usually demand all the
attention"
The little vocal stream died up
again, and once more they listened to
the magic sounds of the night. She
stopped abruptly to look over the para
pet, and his shoulder met hers; after
that the world to him was never go
ing to be the same again.
Moonlight and poetry; not the
safest channels to sail uncharted. The
girl was lonely, and George was lone
ly, too His longing had now assumed
a definite form; hers moved from this
to that, still Indefinitely. The quick
ness with which this definition had
come to George rather startled him.
HIS first sight of Fortune Chedsoye
had been but yesterday; yet, here he
was, not desperately but consciously
in love with her. The situation bore
against all precepts; it ripped up his
preconceived ideas of romance as a
gale at sea shreds canvas. He felt
a bit panicky. He had always planned
a cOurtship of year or so, meetings.
separations, and remeetings, pleasur-
able expectations, little junkets to the
aters and country places; in brief, to
witness the rose grow and unfold.
Somewhere he had read or heard that
courtship was the plummet which
sounded the depths Of compatibility
He knew nothing of Fortune Ched-
soye, save that she was beautiful to
his eyes, and that she was as different
from the ordinary run of girls as yon-
der moon was from the stars. Here
his knowledge ended. But instinct
went on, appraising and delving and
winnowing, and instinct told him what
knowledge could not, that she was all
his heart desired.
When man finally decides that he
is in love, his troubles begin, the
imaginary ones. Is he worthy? Can
he always provide for her? Is it pos
stble for such a marvellous creature
to love an insignificant chap like him
self? And that worst of mental
poisons, is she in love with any one
else? What to do to win her? The
Ivato " hercules, 81 =
Jason; what mad piece of heroism can
he lay his hand to that he may wake
the slumbering fires, and having
reused them, continue to feed them?
Manhood, meaning that decade be-
tween thirty and forty, looks upon
this phase, abashed. After all, it
wasn't so terrible; there were vaster
emotions, vaster achievements in life
to which in comparison love was as
a candle held to the sun.
Again she stopped, leaning over the
parapet and staring down at the wa
ter swirling past the stone embank-
ment. He did likewise, resting upon
his folded arms. Suddenly his tongue
became alive; and quietly, without
hesitancy or embarrassment, he began
to tell her Of his school life his life
at home And the manner in which