The Delta independent., 1915-07-09
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
strenuously puckered, and gazed some
what mournfully into the blaze. Sally
had a secret. 1t was secret which she
based on a 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
II he did-she must know how to read
and write. Maybe, when she had
learned little more, she might even
90 to school for a term or two.
The cramped and distorted chirog.
raphy on the slate was discouraging
It was all proving very hard work. The
girl gazed for time at something she
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 well written. and
every ''hain't" should be an isn't"
-
The normal human mind Is a res.
ervoir which fills at a rate Of speed
regulated by the number and caliber
Of Its feed pipes. Samson's mind had
long been almost empty. and now from
20 many sources the waters of new
things were rushing in upon 1t that
under 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
boy 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 quarreled
garrulously over the end and aim OF
Art. which they spelled with CAPT
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 q
solemnity of visage that was often
construed into surly egotism.
He still wore his hair long, and
though his conversation gradually
sloughed of much of its idiom and
vulgarism, enough Of the mountaineel
stood out to lend to his personality g
savor of the crudely picturesque.
Meanwhile he drew and read and
studied and walked, and every days
advancement was a forced march
Lescott. tremendously interested in hii
experiment, began to fear that the
boys too great somberness of dispo
sition would defeat the very earnest
ness from which 1t sprang. So one
morning the landscape-maker callet
on friend whom he rightly believed
to be the wisest man, and the great
est humorist in New York.
II want your help" said Lescott
'T want you to meet a 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 Kip
ling and De Maupassant. One of hi
antipathies was meeting people wh'
sought to lionize him. Lescott reat
the expression, and, before his hos
had time to object, swept into his re
cital.
At the end he summarized:
"The artist is much like the sette
pup. II it's in him. it's as instructive
as a dogs nose. But to become eff
cient he must go a-field with stead.
U0taron nf htc nWn hraad"
II know!" The great man. who wal
also the simple man, smiled reminis
Gently. "They tried to teach me t.
herd sheep when my nose was itchinl
for bird country. Bring on your man
want to know him."
Samson was told nothing of the be
pevolent conspiracy. but one evening