Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-05-13

lCr BRIEF career.
That night she dreamed of the Vel
low Devil in Her Winners box, and.
aWaking, remembered her dream. 1t
seemed odd 100, because she had
not even thought of the Yellow Devil
for over q year.
But the menacing Mongoi Inquire
seemed bound to intrude into her life
once more and demand her attention
as thought resentful of long oblivion
and neglect; for, a week later, all
old missionary from lndo-China-a
native ChineSe-Who had lectured at
the Baptist Church in Gaytield the
evening previous, came to pay his
respects to the Reverend Wilbour Ca
rev. And Rue had taken the Vel
low Devil from the olive-Wood box
that day and was busily making a
pencil drawing of it.
At sight of the figure the native
misSionary's narrow almond eyes
opened extremely wide, and he leaned
on the table and regarded the bronze
demon very intently.
Then he took from his pocked and
adjusted to his button nose a pair of
large, horn spectacles; and he care
fully examined the Chinese characters
engraved on the base Of the an, lent
bronze. following them slowly with
yellow and clawlike forefinger.
Can you read what is written
there?" inquired the Reverend Mr..
CareW.
Yes, brother: This is what is
written: Il am Erik, Ruler of Chaos
and of All that Was The old order
passes when 1 arrive. L bring con-
fusion among the peoples; l hurl
down emperors; Kingdoms crumble
where 1 pass; the world begins to
rock and tip, spilling nations into
outer darkness When there are no
more Kingdoms and no more kings;
no more empires and no emperors,
and when only the humble till, the
blameless SOW, the pure reap; and
when only the teachers teach in the
shadow of the Tree, and when the
Thinker sits unstirring under the
high stars, then, from the dark edges
of the world L let go my grasp and
drop into those unreasonable deeps
from which L camel. Erik, Ruler
of All that Was"
After a silence the Reverend M.
CareW asked whether the figure was
a very old one.
1T is before the period called Han
"a dynasty during which the Mon
gols were a mighty people. This in
scription is Mongol. Erik was the
Yellow Devil of the Mongols."
Not a heather god, then?"
mo, a heather devil. Their Prince
of Darkness"
curiously at this heather Prince Of
Darkness, arrived out of the dark
ages to sit to her for his scowling
portrait.
Il wonder what he thinks of Amer
lea" she said, partly to herself.
The native missionary smiled,
picked up the Yellow Devil, shook
the figure, listening.
There is something inside" he
said; perhaps jewels. If you drilled
a hole in him you could find out"
Tie Reverend Mr.. Carew nodded
absently:
Yes; it might be worth while" he
said.
IF there is a jewel" repeated the
missionary, you had better take it,
then cast away the figure. Erik
rings disaster to t1e land where
The Rev. MI. CareW smiled at his
Chinese and Christian confere's in
@radicable vein of superstition.
CHAPTER ~.
The Trodden Way
There came the indetcrmlnate year
when X NAH finished school and
there was no money available to send
her elsewhere for further embellisn-
ment, no farther horizon than the
sky over the Gayfield hills, no other
perspective than the main street OF
Gayfield with the knitting mill at
the end of it.
SO into Gayfieid mill the girl walk
ed, and found q place Immediately
among the unsllilled. And her career
appeared to be predet:ermined now,
work, to share her toll and the
gaieties q. Gayfield with the major
ity of the other girls she knew; to
marry, ultimately, some boy, some
some farmer lad, perhaps, possibly
school teacher or local lawyer or
physician, or possibiJ. the head >ot
some department in the mill, or may
he a minister-she was sufficiently
well bred and educated for any one
of these.
year re found her still very much
child at heart, physically backward,
I late adolescent, a little shy. in
clined 10 silences, romantic, sensitive
to all beauty, and passionately eX-
pressing herself only W. curled up
by the stove with her pencil and
the, red light of the Goals falling
athWart the slim nd that guided it.
She went sometimes to village par.
no preferences among the youths
of Gayfeld, no romances. For that
matter, while she was liked and even
furtively admired, her slight Ahyness,
reticence, and vague, indefinite
something about her seemed to dis
courage familiar rustic gallantry.
Also, she was as thin and awkward
as an overgrown lad, not thought to
| be pretty, known to be poor. But for
| all that more than one young man
| was vaguely haunted at intervals by
some memory of her gray eyes and
! the peculiar sweetness Of her mouth.
| forgetting for the moment several
| freckles on the delicate bridge of her
| nose and several. more on her sun
| tanned cheeks.
She had an agreeable time that
| winter, enchanted to learn dancing,
han Of
sleigh rides and chicken suppers,
| and the various pictures every Thurs
| day and Saturday nights to church
| entertainments, amateur theatrtcals
at the town hall. and flectures under
| the auspices of the artiStocratic D.,
| o. F.-Daughters of the Old Frontier
But she never saw any boy she
| preferred to any other, never was
| conscious of being preferred, except
| ing Once-and she was not quite GER
| tain about that.
1t was old Dick Neeland's son,
Jim-vaguely understood to have
| been for several years in Paris study
| ing art-and who now turned up in
| Gayfield during Christmas week.
Ruhannah remembered seeing him
| on several occasions when she was
little child. He was usually tramp
ing across country with his sturdy
father. Dick Neeland of Neelands
| Mills-an odd, picturesque pair with
| their setter dogs and FURNISHED guns,
| and old Dicks face as red as a
wrinkled winter apple, and his hair
| snoW-white.
There was six years difference be,
tween their ages, Jim Neeland's and
| hers, and she had always considered
him a grown and formidable man in
those days. But that winter, when
somebody at the movies pointed him
out to her. she was surprised to find
him no older than the other youths
she skated with and danced with.
AfterWard, at a noisy village party,
| she saw him dancing with every girl
in town, and the drop of Irish blood
| in this handsome, careless young fell
| low established him at once as
Fascinating favorite.
Rue became quite tremulous over
the prospect of dancing with him.
| Presently her turn came; she rose
| Il II 49, -o1f