Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1921-12-16


time.
at was my fault" said Harry pres
emily. 81 never could say the half l.
wanted to when she was with me. My
tongue is too slow. She gave me a
chance and l wasn't man enough TO
take it. That's all I've got to say on
that subject"
Some time afterward in a letter to
his father the boy wrote:
Il often think of that ride down the
river and the way he talked to me. 1t
was so gentle. He was a big, power
full giant of a man who weighed over
two hundred pounds, all of it bone and
muscle. But under his great strength
was a wOman's g%entleness under the
dirty, ragged clothes and the rough,
brown skin grimy with dust and
perspiration, was n of the cleanest
souls that ever came to this world. !
don't mean that he was like a minis
ter. He could tell a story with pretty
rough talk in it, but always for a pur-
pose. He hated dirt on the hands or
OIL the tongue. He loved flowers like
a m He loved to look at the
stars at night and the colors of the
sunset and the morning dew on the
meadows. l never saw a man so much
In love with fun and beauty"
They reached Havana that evening
and sold their canoe to a man who
kept boats to rent on the river shore.
They ate a hot supper at the tavern
ond NOT a rf1n vuffh n faroan. uyho UoG
going ten miles in their direction.
From his cabin ome two hours later
they set out afoot in the darkness.
"GOing home is the end of all jour
neys," said Abe as they tramped along.
ibid it ever occur to you that every
live creature has its home? The fish of
the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts
of the field and forest, the creepers in
the grass, all go home. Most of them
turn toward it when the day n
The call of home is the one voice heard
and respected all the way down the
line of life. And, We know, the most
wonderful and mysterious thing in ma
ture is the power that fool animals
have to go home through great dis
tances, like the turtle that swan from
the Bay of Biscay to his home off Van
Dieman's Land. Somehow, coming over
In a ship, he had blazed a trail through
the painless deep more than ten thou
sand miles long. It's the n miracu-
lous gift-the one call that's irresist-
ible. Don't you hear it now? 1 never
lie down in the darkness without
thinking of home when l am away"
"And it's hard to change your home
when you're wonted to it," said Harry.
"Yes, its a little like dying when you
pull up the roots and move. It's been
hard on your folks"
This remark brought them up to the
greatest of mysteries. They tramped
in silence for a moment. Abe broke
in upon it with these words:
81 reckon there must be another
home somewhere to go to after we
have broke the last camp here, and a
kind of a birds compass to help US
find it. 1 reckon We'll near the call of
it as we grow older"
He stopped and took off his hat and
looked UP at the stars and added:
"If it isn't so 1 don't see why the
long procession of life keeps harping
on this subject of home. 1 think 1 see
the point of the whole thing. 1t isn't
the place or the furniture that makes
1t home, but the love and peace that's
in it. By and by our home isn't here
any more. 1t has moved. Our minds
begin to beat about in the undiscOv-
cred countries looking for it. Some
how we got it located-each man for
himself"
For another space they hurried along
without speaking.
II tell you, Harry, whatever a large
number of intelligent folks have
agreed upon for some generations is
soft they have been allowed to do
their w thinking" said Abe. cts
about the only wisdom there is"
He had sounded the keynote of the
new Democracy.
So, under the lights of heaven,
speaking IN the silence of the night of
impenetrable mysteries, they jour
neyed on toward the land of plenty.
'It's as still as a graveyard" Harry
whispered when they had climbed the
bluff by the miy hong after midnight
and were near the little village.
They're all buried in Sleep" said
Abe. wen get Rutledge out of bed.
He'll give US a shakedown some
where"
His loud rap on the door Of the tav-
ern signalized more than a desire for
rest in the weary travellers, for just
hen a cycle of their lives had ended.
Continued Next Week.