Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1916-06-09

Francisco basin. 1t Seemed but days |
after the rains when the sparse grass |
and new-leafed bushes of the wilder /
ness began to shrivel up. Day after
day the sun leaped brazen, from the |
horizon to the sky, his first level rays |
searching out the scant, stored mois-
ture Of whiting foliage, and the very
sap of the hardy brush. While the cat
tie were still fat they became weak
and turned to cactus for nourishment.
They broke down the sickly branches
with their horns and rubbed them in
the sand to free them of the worst or
the thorns. Herders rode the rounds
on weakening horses and dismounted
time and again to pull out spines from
the shouts of passive, painting cows.
Bulls died of broken pride. They
would not subject themselves to the
pain of eating cactus. The river-the
great river-was no longer great. 1t
grumbled with a weak voice from deep
down in the gorge Gerry watched its
falling level with anxious eye and one
day sent an urgent call to Lieber for
help.
Lieber came He brought with him
an army, every man bearing with him
the tool that had come soonest to his
hand. Spades were few and hoes; the
bright shares of a pick or two caught
the light like lances. Most of the men
| depended on the heavy sheath knives
| they carried at their sides. They
looked like an army Of sansculottes
as they swarmed into the ditch and
began to dig. In two days they had
sunk it to the required level. When
they finished Gerry rode back with
them to help bring down Liebers
weakening stock.
Kemp had stayed in sole possession
at Lieber's. Digging was not in his
line, so he had volunteered to hold the
fort against the return of the garri-
son. He welcomed Lieber and Gerry
to a supper of his own making in ap-
proved cowboy style: sour-dough bis
cults made by a master hand, steaks
cut from a freshly killed calf and fried
before toughness set in. a pile OF
creamy mashed spuds. There was a
LONELINESS about the meal that made
them eat in silence. They felt as
though for years they had been wor-
Shipping false culinary gods. The pile
of steaks, the heaped potatoes, the hot
biscuit, were eXotics, strayed into a
land of pepper sauces and garlic.
M sil thn nd thor
night was even longer than usual. Ger
RVS mind went back to a French book
that he had bought in desperation al
Pernambuco. He had ploughed through
half of it and with a catch in his
thoughts he remembered that it lay
open on the table when he left his lit
tie room in Piranhas on the morning
of mornings that had broken life in
two. Some of its phrases, cOnned
over and over again in his struggle
with the half-forgotten idiom, came
back to him. LA parole est du temps
lie silence de leternite." He smiled tC
himself at the twisted meaning the
long silence Of his companions gave tc
the words.
Then the smile left his face. He re
membered the argument. The instinct
. we all have for superhuman truths
tells US that it is dangerous to be 81
lent with those we would keep at 9
, distance, for words pass and are for
gotten between men, but silence-ac
tive sience-is forever ineffaceable
True life-the moments of life that
, leave a trace-is made up of silence
Not passive silence; that is but anoth
er name for sleep. But the active 81
lence that breaks down barriers
, pierces walls and turns the life of ev
cry day into a life where all is in
, tense, where there is no ban-nothinG
orbidden-where laughter dare no
, enter, where subsection is submerged
, and where all-all. is remembered.
Gerry felt that this active silence
= had come upon them. These men were
, being borne into the silent sphere Of
, his own soul. He felt restless-afraid
! He decided to speak. He was on the
| point of speaking when Lieber LEI
down his chair softly, clasped hi
| hands and broke the silence.
{ Last night l dreamed l heard thu
, blast of steamers horn and when
woke up the cold sweat was on my
l forehead because | know that there |!
: no desert, no wilderness, so far from
the things you would forget tina
l dreams cannot follow you to it."
{ He stopped and silence fell upor
2 them again. Lieber stared straight il
!. front of him, out into the night. His
D face worked as though he were Strug
t Cling to keep his lips closed. When hi
| began to speak again, the words wer,
Y scarcely audible. 81 don't know why
:. l want to tell you two about why an
\ here, unless 1t is that as we sat her,
( so quiet l felt that you knew it all
r that you knew all that | know an(
| that was on the point of knowing al
D that you have known. The little lie,
, of life suddenly became big and hate
| full and | saw in my life a monster Ii,
t that the silence was exposing,
p "There are lots of men with the be
ginning OF my story. It's common anC
| takes little telling, | was horn II