Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-07-08


brother Of the mountains themselves.
AS | sat stupidity, stunned to the i'm
mobility Of rock in my hour Of doom,
I felt the overwhelming conviction Of
what had happened. Thor had follow
ed me along the ledge and In this hour
of vengeance and triumph, it was / and
not the great beast, who was about to
die.
It seemed to me that an eternity
passed in these moments. And Thor,
mighty in his strength, looked at me
and did not move And this thing he
was looking at-shrinking agailst the
rock-was the creature that had hunt
ed him; this was the creature that
had hurt him and it was SO near that
he could reach out with his paw and
crush it, And how weak and white
and helpless it looked now! What
pltiful, insignificant thing It was!
Where was its strange thunder?
Where was it's burning lightning?
Why did it make no sound?
Slowly Thor's giant head began
swinging from side to side: then he
advanced-just one step-and In a
slow, graceful movement reared him.
self to his full, magnificent height. For
me, it was the beginning of the end.
And in that moment, doomed as I was.
] found no pity for myself. Here, at
last, was justice! / was about to die.
T. who had destroyed so much Of life,
found how helpless I was when faced
life with my naked hands. And It was
justice! had robbed the earth of more
life than would fill the bodies Of a
thousand men and now my own life
was to follow that which had des-
troyed. Suddenly fear left me. want
ed to cry out to that splendid creature
that l was sorry and could my dry
lips have framed the words, 1t would
not have been cowardice-but truth.
For Thor knew me. That know.
He knew me as the dealiest of all his
enemies on the face of the earth. Yet
until die will / believe that, in my
helplessness, he no longer hated me or
wanted my life. For slowly he came
down upon all fours again and limp
ing as he went he continued along the
ledge-and left me to live!
am not, in these days, sacrilegious
enough to think that the Supreme
Power picked my poor insignificant
self from among a billion and half
other humans especially to preach q
sermon to that glorious Sunday on the
mountainside. Possibly 1t was all
mere chance. It maybe that another
day Thor would have killed me In my
heiplessness. 1t may all have been
lucky accident for me. Personally, l
do not believe it, for have found that
the soul Of the average beast Is cleaner
of hate and of malice than that Of the
average man. But whether one be-
lieyes with me or not does not matter,
so far as the point I want to make is
concerned-that from this hour began
the great change in me, which has n
nally admitted me into the peace ana
joy of universal brotherhood with Lie
| returned down the mountain,
carrying my broken gun with me. ana
everywhere ! saw that things were oil
ferent The fat whistlers, big as wood
chucks, were no longer so many TAR
gets, watching me cautiously from the
rock tops; the gophers. summing them-
selves on their mounds meant more 10
me now than few hours ago. look-
ed off to q distant slide. on another
mountain and made out the half-doZen
sheep | had studied = through my
glasses earlier in the day. But my
desire to kill was gone. l did not rea-
liZe the fulness Of the change that was
upon me then. In q dull sort or way
I accepted it as an effect of. shock per-
haps as a passing moment or repent
ance and gratitude because of my es-
cape. 1 did not tell myself that l
would never kill sheep again except
when mutton was necessary to my
camp-f fire. l did not promise me
whistlers long lives. And yet -the
change was on me and. growing
stronger in my blood with every
breath l drew =. The valley was dlf-
ferent. Its air was sWeeter. lis low
song of life and running waters ana
velvety winds whispering between the
mountains was new inspiration 10 me.
The grass was softer under my Ieet,
the flowers were more Deautlluli lne
earth itself held a new thrill for me.