Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1915-05-07
CHAPTER TX.

CHAPTER TX.
Christmas came to Misery wrapped
IN a drab mantle of desolation. At
the cabin of the Widow Miller Sally
was sitting alone before the logs. She
laid down the slate and spelling book,
over which her forehead had been
Stranuoualy puckered, and gazed some
what mournfully into the blaze. Sally
mad a secrey. 1t was a secret which she
based on faint hope. II Samson
should come back to Misery he would
come back full of new notions. No
man had ever yet returned from that
outside world unaltered. No man ever
would. A terrible premonition said he
would not come at all, but, if he did
If he did-she must know how to read
and write. Maybe, when she had
learned little more, she might even
go to school for term or two.
The cramped and distorted chirog,
raphy on the slate was discouraging
1t was all proving very hard work. The
bll SdHeu lOI d IIllIe DIT SOIuSlulu6 bic
saw in the embers, and then a faint
smile came to her lips. By next Christ,
mas she would surprise Samson with a
letter 1t should be we'll written, and
avery "haint" should be an isn't"
The normal human mind is a res
srvoir which fills at a rate of speed
regulated by the number and caliber
of its feed pipes. Sam sons mind had
long been almost empty and now from
30 many sources the waters of new
things were rushing in upon it that
ander their pressure it must fill fast
or give away.
He was saved from hopeless com
plications of thought by a sanity
which was willing to assimilate with
out too much effort to analyze. The
hoy from Misery was presently less
bizarre to the eye than many Of the
unkempt bohemians he met in the life
of the studios, men who quarrelet
garrulously over the end and aim Of
S1ll, NlLINn IlICy oPClICu Win d Icpl
tai A-and for the most part, knew
nothing of. He retained, except with
in small circle of intimates, silence
that passed for taciturnity, and {
solemnity of visage that was otter
construed into surly egotism.
He still wore his hair long, and
though his conversation gradually
Bloughed off much of its idiom ant
Vulgarism, enough of the mountaineel
stood out to lend to his personality {
savor of the crudely picturesque.
Meanwhile he drew and read ant
studied and walked, and every days
advancement was a forced march
Lescott, tremendously interested in hi
experiment. began to fear that tht
boys TOO great somberness of dispo
sition would defeat the very earnest
ness from which it sprang. So on,
morning the landscape-maker callet
on friend whom he rightly believed
10 be the wisest man, and the great
est humorist in New York.
81 want your help" said Lescott
81 want you to meet friend of min,
and take him under your wing in
fashion. He needs you"
The stout mans face clouded. A few
years ago he had been peddling hi
manuscripts with the heart-sickness O
unsuccessful middle age. Today mel
coupled his name with those of Kin
fling and De Maupassant. One of hi
antipathies was-meeting people whit
sought TO lionize him. Lescott real
the expression. and, before his hos
had time to object, swept into his re
eital
At the end he summarized:
THE artist is much like the settle
pup. If it's in him. it's as instinctiv
as a dogs nose. But to become elf
cient he must go a-field with a stead
veteran of his own breed"
Il know" The great man. who wa
also the simple man, smiled reminis
Gently. They tried to teach me t,
herd sheep when my nose was itching
tOl Dllh IOuntly' DllllS Ou your MAN
want to know him"
Samson was told nothing of the be
nevolent conspiracy, but one evening
shortly later he found himself sittin,
OF a cafe table with his sponsor an,
q stout man, almost as silent as him
self. The stout man responded witt
something like churlish taciturnit,
60 the half-dozeE pen and women VIII,
came over with batteries. But later
when the trio was left alone, his fac