The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-01-07
Euening Story
Blind Boy.
BY DOROTHY DOUGLAS

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strangely. ea1ly love y. they
were rearing their silvered branches
up thru the soft shadows of the gar
den.
But Avis saw pone of it Slim and
white and sullen, she made her way
careIessly thru the glorified evening
woods that skirted her fathers estate.
She was blind to all the beauty in the
world-unseeing. unfeeling. save her
own hurt fingered. She wanted to
close out all living things from sight
and never more sense the caressing
touch of beauty.
Life had turned on her viciously
and wrenched from her hold the only
living thing she wanted, and Avis was
suffering over the loss Of a man as she
fered in the whole of the world.
Her eyes turned languidly toward
the little lake where the pink pond
lilies used to grow. And in spite of
her conviction that life was one grand
failure and men poor atoms of wreck
age drifting about at the mercy of
tides, Avis grudgingly admitted that
the moonlight on the lily pond was
rarely beautiful.
"But treacherous," she meditated
ironically, like love-beautiful ON the
surface, but tainted, horribly un-
SdfOT5s ia LIE Q0Rlh OIL IL
Avis heaved a sigh. She was of
sufficient years to know. tho she re-
fused stubbornly to admit, that Jeffry
Arnold was not the kind of man to
harbor SO sincere and true q love as
Avis had given him. He had fled to
another woman, and Avis was left
with jagged love thrusts in her sem
sitive nature, making her feel that
life was an impossible state for her
During their fervid courtship she
had known but blinded herself to
his limitations. She had been deaf
own and had chung to her love for
him thru all adverse criticism.
Now Arnold had thrown her over
and life was sorry thing for Avis.
Suddenly from out of the shadows
of the barren trees a slim boyish fig
ure strove painfully with the deep I'M
dergrowth to make its way into a
clearing. He was feeling his way eau
tiously yet with certain familiarity
among the silver birch trees. His
hand, white and ethereal in the moon
light, fascinated Avis and she watched
1t moving from tree to tree.
He was making his way slowly but
surely toward the deep pond. The
white calm of his finely chiseled face
was now clear in the light. There was
a world of interest, of exquisite final
ity there. as if in his human blindness
he had found far greater outlook. an
expanse of vision rare to the open
eyes. There was no hope in the face
only quiet surrender to a greater
power.
Gle must be walking in his Sleep"
thought Avis and realized that she
must stop him before he reached the
edge of the pond. The shock of icy
water might prove fatal. She rose
stealthily and quietly SO as not to
frighten him, and gently as lily
brushing its mate she slipped her hand
thru his arm, then turned him from
the pond.
Against her arm she felt the mans
heart quicken its beat.
who is that?" he asked quietly.
you were walking straight into the
water" Avis said, conscious that her
voice was strangling with emotion.
This man was blind-blind to all
the beauty of this moonlit world.
Blind-and little over his first youth
lips was boyish, actually boyish.
Avis shrang from her own petty in
feriority. Her scanty, meager trou-
bles stung her consciousness into utter
shame. She suddenly hated Arnold
with a hate that flung huge carpet
over her former love and smothered it
for all time. She hated herself. too,
for the moments of weakness she had
allowed his desertion to give her. In
vivid flashes these truths flung them
But the blind boy was Speaking and
Avis heard him with startling clarity
of brain. 1t seemed as II her heart
had been thrown wide open swiftly
that he might enter
wonderful place. AS a kiddie every
tree and every curve of the wee lake
were familiar to me. Funny-f I had
bumped off hereafter going right
thru the great war
LTNI ,,.I.r Att ~ = -
arm nearer her side. They had
blinded him. then, those beasts of the
enemy country.
IF they had only blinded me be-
FORE" he said, as if he had sensed her
thought "only a scant half hour so
pals as 1 saw them dashing headlong
over the top. full of life, manhood
the bravest and finest pals God ever
put breath in" He drew a breath
and ceased speaking, but his silence
was more terrible to Avis than a vivid
word picture, for while his body had
tautened she knew that he was racked
with inward sobs. He was struggling
to forget that flash of wreckage
penned within his brain just before
sight had been snatched from him.
stealthily. ike prisoners escaping
squeezed thru Avis's eyelids and
splashed down over her hands.
But don't think I'm gutter" the
man finally was saying. II am thank
full to have known SO brave a set of
men, yl1onored for having fought be-
side them. And If the good Lord
wills that 1 am never to see with the
physical eyes again-well, I certainly
have. my Imagination left. 1 have had
visions, dozens of them scrambling
across my brain and crowding to get
out. Some day, when 1 have learned
to use a typewriter, I will put them
down in story form and perhaps make
something worthy of my life-why,
my dear" he broke off and spoke
softly, you are crying-why do you
weep?"
The gentleness of his voice set Avis
to crying afresh
Surely you are not sad on my ac-
count He continued as If speaking
to a very small child, Il have seen
all the beauty of the world-the sun
ripping on this lily pond. the lovely
smile on beautiful lips, the love shin