Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1914-06-03

had made the passage, the silent fig
ure swiftly made its way toward the
south.
All through the long hours of the
night it pushed on, never apparently
undergoing the least WEAKNESS or
manifesting any uncertainty either
as to the direction it was pursuing,
or the carrying out of the purpose it
had in mind. Once an owl disturbed
in it's love-making by the approach
of the figure screeched its indigna-
ton to its mate in the language pc
culiar to those birds of the night,
but the figure noted not it's cries,
Passing by, as heedlessly as though it
had not heard the angry bird, and
perhaps it had not.
A little farther on the bowling of
a wolf away to the left, broke upon
the ears of the figure, and then as
if in recognition of the voice of it's
enemy hound suddenly began to
bark, Indignantly expressing in its
voice, the rage it felt at the utter
impossibility of getting at the wild
disturber of the night, with it's auda-
cious bowling and it's snappish bark
ing. The presence of the hound in
Dictated to the figure it's near ap-
proach to the dwelling of some
settler, which, anxious to avoid, it
passed at a safe distance undiscover-
ed even by the hound whose alert
ears were not acute enough to de-
tect the wary tread of one so accus-
toned to concealing its movements,
as this representative of a people
whose every movement, if not ma
turally, was essentially, on account
of the nomadic life they lived, one
of stealth.
BY this time the figure had COW
cred a long distance on the way to
its point of contact. The shades OF
night were already giving way to
the approaches of the morning. The
horizon was beginning to feel the
first glad touches of the rising sun
Night-hirds and prowling beasts OF
prey were slowly sinking away to
their dark retreats among the rocks
in the deeper forest, where the fig.
ur silently followed, seeking the iso-
lation afforded by the solitudes
which lay some distance from the
more public paths it had been pur-
suing through the night.
Lighting upon quiet nook
where, undisturbed, it might find
much needed repose after the weari'
some night, it first found refresh.
ment in a simple rerast such as was
common among its people. The
| food was washed down by copious
draughts of water which flowed from
a clear spring near by. Then lying
down in the shadow of great rock
! it became oblivious to all surround
ing objects. All through the day
the figure slept on, never once ava
kening or manifesting any tendency
toward restlessneEs even though the
birds were fiuttering overhead, and
occasionally gray squirrel sat nib
bling a nut, or mayhap rabbit
rushed past; but none of these things
caused the slightest disturbance tc
the sleeper, and it was not till dark
ness had again fallen upon the earth
that the figure opened it's eyes and
after gazing about for moment
quietly rose to its feet, stretched it
self, took some jerked venison from
bag made of skins and munched
away at it till the meat was finished
After that it went to the spring and
drank deeply till its thirst was salts
fed. Then, after plunging hands
and face in the water it at once re.
sumed it's journey toward the south
and was soon lost to view in the gath
ering gloom of the darkening night
Continued next week.