Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-07-13

as or OLD IIIeF Tue Jay WOTE. IN
stead he tossed and twisted on his
narrow cot and finally would turn on
the electric torch to read two letters
over and over again.
One he read with a curl of the LID.
It was from a pretty woman that had
futtered into his life and out. He had
forgotten her and now she had come
back to buzz words In his buzzing ears.
She said, at costs woman to learn
that happiness is not really tangible
Between being fortunate and happy a
gulf is fixed. | was fortunate-iust
not misera ble-and stood on the brink
Of the gulf Happiness brushed me
with it's wings. / reached out to
catch 1t and the gulf took me- How
long will it be before l climb back
to the height that seemed not so very
high when I possessed it? 1 don't
know do not hate you-only
myself. You have known many wom-
en-. but you have not known me- That
ia the bitter part. You do not know
what | gave you. One thing l ask you
and the words as l write are blurred
with tears like my eyes-if ever a
foolish woman, honest and true as
was. offers you the same sacrifice, do
not take it. have suffered for all the
women you will meet"
Fool" said Alan to himself, STOOL,
not to see that / turned her wish
washy weakness into strength and
loosed dumb tongue"
And then he drew out the other let
ter and the curl In his lip Strengthened
out to a line OF sweetness and the
light in his eyes turned to a fiery, blind
adora ton. The letter had been sent
to him, sealed, by J. Y, who had &C
companied it with a note. The letter
began, ITO my boy at Thirty" and
signed, with undying love, your
friend and Mother" In life he could
not remember his mother, but he saw
her now In three pages of laboring
words traced by dying hand In her.
self, dying at thirty, she had seen her
boy revealed. She had had no
strength-no time-left for slow ap-
proaches. With the first words of her
letter she laid 4 cooling hand on his
burning SOUL She spoke the all-seeing
wisdom of death. She held him close
to her heart and fed him with her life's
blood. All that she had been, all that
she had learned, all that she foresaw,
was crowded into those three pages.
They We're brittle with age, the ink
yellow and faded In words that no
eyes but his and hers had ever seen.
They gripped his soul and held 1t
steady. Without this letter he would
have torn up the other. But the other
had come as complement and he kept
1t because it helped him to see himself.
AS Alan weakened the bridge ap-
preached completion. Batches Of men,
as special work was finished, were
dispatched to the absst. With each
batch McDougal strove to send his
master, but Alan was too weak to go,
though he did not say So He had
realized 1t with terror and then with
calm. mo, McDOugal, not this time"
he would say, and finally, 81 think I
might just as well stay on till they
send up to take over. It's unprofes-
sional to chuck 1t before. 1t won't be
long now" And McDougal mad cursed
low, rolling oaths and taken it out on
the men.
Alan seemed to have become child
tsh in his weakness. He spent what
strength he had left In cutting words
into a board ripped from a kerosene
box. When he had finished he called
McDougal and showed him his handi-
work. "McDougal," he said, 'if any
thing should happen to keep me here
permanently just cut these words into
some big rock and lay me under it.
Be careful you get them just So. The
French are mighty particular about the
way we use their lingo, and while it
wasn't Frenchman that wrote this
bit, guess he'd be just as particular"
"Aweel, SIR" said McDougal, sitting
his rage within him, 'I'n do as you
wish" He took the board and looked
at 1t. The words meant nothing to
him but the scene meant much. He
went out and concluded lis agreement
with twelve quiet, lowering men gath
cred from the countryside. They were
pioneers without knowing it, They
and their fathers and their fathers
fathers had held these far depths of
the world against wild beasts and
drought and food since, centuries ago,
the Jesuits swept through the subcon-
tinent and left trail Of settlers be-
hind them. They were proud, narrow,
independent They were untnventive,
unimaginatiye. No man among them
had ever thought to lie. They did not
steal, though they were robbed when
ever they invaded civilization with
their wares.
From them McDougai had learned
that due east, halfway to the sea, was
place called Lisbsr's and that this
Lieber was known as the Americana
and had fame as a curador Of fevers
Four men could carry sick man to
Lieber's In q hammock In four days
Twelve men could do 1t In two, and
quicker than that hundred men could
not CO. For the price of three steers
each-two-year-olds-they would IN
dertake to deliver the sick man at
Lieber's In two days. McDougal pom
dered. It was a chance. If he sent
Alan 70 tho rotl-haad fhoro yUouJdn,+