Vernon Parish Democrat., 1921-06-23

breast of the wilderness, he can't help |
but be imbued with some Of the life that |
pulses therein.-From a Frontiersman's |
Diary
Long ago, when the great city Of
Gitcheapolis was a rather small, un-
tidy hamlet in the middle Of plain,
1t used to be that a pool Of water,
possibly two hundred feet square,
gathered every spring Immediately
back of the courthouse. The snow
falls thick and heavy in Gitcheapolis
in winter; and the pond was nothing
more than snow water that the inefi-
Cient drainage system of the city did
not quite absorb. Besides being the
despair of the plumbers and the city
engineer, 1t was a severe strain on
the beauty-loving instincts of every,
lnhabitant in the town who had any
such instincts. It was muddy and
murky and generally distasteful.
A little boy played at the edge of
the water, this spring day of long ago.
Except for his interest in the pond, 1t
would have been scarcely worth while
to go to the trouble of explaining that
1t contained no fish. He, however,
bitterly regretted the fact. In truth,
he sometimes liked to believe that it
did contain fish, very sleepy fish that
never made a ripple, and as he had an
uncommon Imagination he was some
times able to convince himself that
this was so. But he never took hook
and line and played at fishing. He
ofVs nF
of his boy friends. His mother prob
ably wouldn't object if he fished here,
he thought, particularly if he were
careful not to get his 81 es covered
with mud. But she wouldn't let him
go down to Gitcheapolis creek to fish
with the other boys for mud cat He
was mot very strong, she thought, and
1t was a rough sport anyway, and be-
sides-she didn't think he wanted to
go very badly. AS mothers are usual
ly particularly understanding, this
was a curious thing.
The truth was that little Dan Fail
Ing wanted to fish almost as much as
ne wanted to live. He would dream
about it Of nights. His blood would
glow with the thought of it in the
Fpringtime. Women the world over
will have a hard time believing what
Rn intense, heart-devouring passion
the love of the chase can be, whether
It is for fishing or hunting or merely
knocking golf balls into a little hole
upon green. Sometimes they don't
remember that this instinct is just as
much a part of most men, and thus
most boys, as their hands or their
tIps. It was acquired by just as la
borious a process-the lives Of un-
counted thousands of ancestors who
fshed and hunted for living.
It was true that little Dan didn't
look the part. Even then he showed
signs of physical frailty His eyes
looked rather large, and his cheeks
we're not the color Of fresh sirloin, as
they should have been. In fact, one
would have had to look very hard to
zee any color in them at all. These
facts are interesting from the light
they throw upon the next glimpse OF
Dan fully twenty years later.
Except for the fact that it was the
background for the earliest picture OF
tittle Dan, the pool back Of the court
house has very little Importance II
Sis story. 1t did, however, afford al
illustration to him of one of the real
" astonishing truths of life. He saw
shadow in the water that be pre-
tended he thought might be fish. HI
threw stone at 1t.
The only thing that happened wa
a splash, and then slowly widening
ripple. The circumference of the rip
pie. grew ever larger, extended ant
widened, and finally died at the edg
Of the shore. It set little Dan t
thinking. He wondered If, had tn
pool been larger, the ripple still woul
have spread; and If the pool had bee
eternity. whether the ripple wOul
have gone on forever. At the time h
did net know the laws of cause an
effect. Later when Gitcheapolis wa
great and prosperous and no lOnge
untidy, he was going to find out ths
a cause is nothing but rock throw
into a pond of infnity, and the rippl
that is its effect keeps growing an
growing forever.
The little incident that is the rel
beginning of this story was of L
more importance than pebble throw
into the snow-water pond; but its e
feet was to remove the life of Da
Failing, since grown up, far out
athe realms Of the ordinary.
And that brings all matters dow
10 1919, In the last days of a partlc
ssrlx slaaDv summer YOu would har