Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-10-08
ADAMS
"A NOVEL
1oHAPTER WI fContanuedl
BY ~N1NA-wILcox PUTNAM

" AAS AuOoy
I ann completely"
SGood!" cried Adam, arising. .and
as soon as Woolcraft returns from the
fower-market we shall talk with him.
In the meanwhile I must go out and
close the cofd-frames. 1t Is growing
dark and the nights arefstill treacher-
! ous."
"And I will take another look at nv
patient" said Kipp.
He arose and made for the door,
but Adam halted him with a gesture.
What do you really think the mat
ter is?" he asked.
"Exhaustion, mostly" said Kipp.
tuberculosis. I can tell better when
she's rested a bit. Exhaustion, mostly.
If I see she needs It, we kin call in a
regular MD. but I reckon l., oan AK
her up all right"
Poor soul!" said Adam. II hops
you can. Somehow the idea of her
which she turned in Her extremity.
thinking to find her father. is terrible
to me. But II she knows you so we'll,
and you will be here.. !"
Cant you write to Jerry7'
Il will do SO, of course, though it
seems most unlikely that we can
meanwhile we can only wait until she
tells us what her situation is"
He turned to the front door ~and
went out.
The cool of tha-evening was creep
ing up the river, towing a thin salt fog
from h Atlantic at its CAKES. filing
the lungs with dampness as with
smoke, and yelling the Green things
in the. garden with a gray-spangled
veil. There was a clean odor of rich
earth upturned, and<a breath from a
clump of blossoming shrub-apples.
Westward. a sullen glow, low on the
horizon, marked the passing Of the
shone palely. From the tall apartment
buildings opposite, lights burst forth
in the still unshaded windows. and
from the river-front. came the joyous
cries of urchins at play under the
mock day of the a%rc!lights.
Adam. crossed to the cold-frames
and drew their sheltering blankets Of
glass up over trembling. shame-faced
paneies and alyssum and young mig
nonette. Black shadows crept out from
the fence-corners, spreading over the
chilling earth, creeping up to the edge
of the little porch. Adam, his task
ended. stood leaning on rail and
lay inside, and the abruptness with
which his past naid- night revelries had
been hurled into the truthful sun. It
seemed to him as though he suddenly
saw clearly all the careless nights
he had spent-harmlessly and, in a
way, innocently enough so far as he
was himself concerned-but adding.
none the less, his~quota to, the spirit
which keeps the dead dancing through
out the night. He had spent his-money
freely to maintain these things-had
added his drops to the fearful river
which swirls down the valley Of time,
murky, thick with the bodies of the
slain Ha Caopa4l e. -,.A-
faces glinting up at him momentarily
as they were swept past. and, with a
gasp, he realized that through no vir-
tue of his w he was safe ashore,
washed up by chance, and left strand
ed, but securely out of the waters
reach.
The strong ones pulled out for
themselves. though fortunate fools.
like himself. were rescued by the hand
OF fate; the weak ones, like the girl
In there-they were the white, drown
ed faces floating by And it was all so
wasteful. so hideously unnecessary. so
wrong! Because smen, such as he had
supported the greedy nav of the city
night, h woman inside layfbroken
and ill....He shuddered at the
thought. 1t was all SO Careless, SO
thoughtless. There. had been noyrea
harm in him, h9knew; yet without a
thought Of what he did, he had been
a cog in the wheel-that kept it all go
ing. Perhaps it was the lights that
had made him do it,. Surely 1t was
the lights. The soft, orang glow Of
them. the magical rows and strings
OF them, up and down Broadway,
Transforming Sheol into Fairyland.
The orange lights, the white lights
precious metal; the rosy lights which
softened the tired faces and made the
tired eyes CLEAN anew. It was the
man-made moons, the pearl-drop arc
lights which changed the earth at
night! He had been blinded by them.
Things looked beautiful under them,
h city was enchanted by them, and
one saw as through some strangely
clarifying lens. One laughed It what
was sad, and wept at what was funny.
The sore places on the city's white
body could not be seen. for the shin
ing of her tinsel jewels-the lights
the strange fires which men lit, to be-
tray their own feet.
But how could n know, until the
day light came? The Christmas-tree
ornament seems to be made Of the
laughter of the sun. when it wrinkles
in the warm room beneath the shaded
candles. But on the ash heap, under
the cold light of day, it is only a bit
of cheap tinsel stuff, made in a dark
--SS ~ Jan WAN pOo1.
thing that need not exist al all save
forNthe vanity Of those who cannot
worship without glitter and pomp,
and-tinsel!
And Pearl was that bit Of tinsel.s
When she lay thexe unconscious,
her bruised eyelids and pitiful cheeks,
with their streaked splotches Of ro,'~a.
he~4had seen sin in the day for the
first time, and he could not forget it.
He could only feel the hurt Of this
fresh discovery. and wondeE indig-'
nantly, how such things could be hef-r
tered. How could theleyes Of the. blind
be opened? And how could thev rrs
their new-found vision? Wildly need
full of doing something, he turned to,
the ttool-chest, and getting out a sDade,
set furiously to work upon a long
contemplated trench. 3
For ar hour he worked steadily.
poured from him, but he did not
cease. He felt as though It was part Of
the old evil in him, loosened at last
by the blessed earth-toil.> The. spade
felt light in his strong hand. and he
could hardly strain the great muscles
OF his shoulders and back enough to
keep pace with the power Of his spirit
ual striving. The soil was tough and
stubborn and he was glad Of its re-
%sistance. And all the while he saw the
white face of the girl, staring up from
the tangled mass OF her dark hair as
though from the swirling waters of
that murky stream which hadsEsshed
her here.
What is 1t which makes us DO ~
he said in spirit, as he toiled. what
Is th6 beast in u.s., Are we so black
and rotten. really? Only a mad God
would have made us, 81 for cruel sport!
NOE No! It cannot be that we are
really bad!S It is only U abnormal