The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1918-04-18
1.-THE TOWER OF Babel"
The Unexpected Sorrowful Return of PrOdgal
Son to His Home in The Forest
Selected.

Selected
Half of Keon. California, the
hillside with rugged abruptne from the valley of the San Lor-
high ridge urrowed with deep gules and stud
ded with the blackened stumps of trees.
Among these the monarch of all the the
untouched On bold point twenty rods the
steep stood gigantic edwoodtree Twentyfour feet
ground with like niche
until height of feet its
eighteen feet. Thence like huge
altitude three hundred feet and for
of hardly seemed to decrease in bulk.
hundred feet from the ground the first
above doomed the dropping branches the
hap and graceful but irregular and contorted and
clothed in scan. dark-green foliage
The pinnacle gnaed spire dead wood bleached
gray thousand places by the bills OF
many woodpcke multitude of these birds made
and morning and filled the air
queuous they fitted about beat loud rolls the
wood.
Some imaginative person, listening dscordan
of woodpckers called the the Tower of Babel
and by known in the country roundabout
The Tower of Babel had not been spared from sentimental
The rough and broken that seemed impossible
without breaking into Fragments left unmolested
favorable time Not far from the Tower three other
large group had been spared for the
North who had California in
ranching had admired the Tower of Babel from
he stepped from the train Keon After looking
bought of land the foot of the mountain almost
and there he built and
cottage
Ralph Kepler poor boy who lived with his mother in
shanty the Higgins Foeys MILL forgot Mr. Nohs
arrival III Keon Ralph honest and faithful but he rude
and unmannery.
employed the sawmi occasionally passed
hunchback with long, powerful
swarthy deeply pited with smallpox. Ralph called
him day. How Humpy Dumpy%" The dwarf
suddenly turned and rushed upon him.
The but the clutched his collar and
he vas dragged into the road and shaken violently
This happened the of Mr. Nohs arrival in the
place. separated Ralph apologize
dwarf but the boy had taken to his heels.
The gazed he walked look
perplexty, last slowly shambled him
self: He be gentlemen know I've him before
somewhere. but don't know where
Mr.. North unmarried, and though he employed
his wife constantly Mount Hope he had and then for
Mrs Keplers assistance keeping the house in order Ralph
the garden Mr. North him books read and
seemingly without intention. him manly lessons
Ralph tried day find the dwarf in order apologize
him for his rudene but the sawm had been moved twelve miles
away, and the dwarf could not be found
few months after the house completed, Mr. North
that he going and that should be absent about
months The dismissed the of the
place was given to Mrs. Kepler and to Ralph.
Three months after Mr. Norths departure, Mrs. Kepler
She charged Ralph place
fully and him containing the which Mr. North
had left with her. Thirty dollars Of the belonged Ralph
but the rest must be given back again to Mr.. North
One day the boy working quietly garden old
who gathered herbs the told him the
Babel was slowly but surely going down.
Its going down, right down this gimcrack of
housed" said the old 1t leans downh anyhow tops
gone foot week before mbe
look it, but mortal wedge that uphill And Hg
gins won't let it be unless be kept from breaking
The old away, leaving upon Raph's weight
of and Three good whom he brought
from Keon agreed that the Tower would certainly
roots" within short time and that impossible
wedge fall uphill. In any would be
shattered to fragments the rough ground.
But each the conclusion You see
Nick Mar Higgins Foleys He any
the best timber ler California You Big try
tiff you catch Jim SOBER"
Ralph Mar, they advised but was overwhelmed
with confusion when he him
His intended apology his
of making He stammered I'D like
that big treeth going to on a house."