Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1922-02-03
CHAPTER K.
Miss Browne Has a Vision.

MISS bfoWne Has vision.
Perhaps because of the secret ex-
citement under which I was laboring,
seemed that evening unusually aware
Of the emotional fluctuations of those
about me. Violet looked grimmer
than ever, so that l judged her strug-
giles with her mundane consciousness
to have been exceptionally severe.
| Captain Magnus seemed even beyond
his wont restless, loose ointed and
wandering-e and performed ex-
traordinary feats of sword-swalIow-
ing. Mr. Shaw was very silent, and
his forehead knitted now and then
into reflective frown AS for myself,
| had much ado to hide my abstrac-
ton, and turned cold from head to foot
with alarm when l heard my own
voice addressing Crusoe as Benny.
A faint ripple Of surprise passed
round the table.
Named your dog over again,
Miss Jinny?" inquired Mr.. Tubs. Mr..
Tubbs had adopted a facetiously pa
ternal manner toward me. / knew in
anticipation of the moment when he
would invite me to call him Uncle
Ham.
Il say, you know" expostuIated
Cuthbert Vanes 81 thought Crusoe rath-
er a nice name. Never heard of any
chap named Benny that lived on an
island"
tried to rally from my confusion,
but / knew my cheeks were burning.
Looks Of deepening surprise greeted
the scarlet emblems of discontinue
that hung out.
"By heck, bet there's Teller at
home named Benny" cackled Mr..
Tubbs shrilly, and for once / blessed
him.
Aunt Jane turned upon him her
round innocent eyes.
"Oh, no, Mr. Tubbs" she assured
him, 81 don't think a single one of
them was named Benjyi''
The laughter which followed this
gave me time to get myself in hand
again.
"Crusoe it is and will be-" I assert
ed. "It happens that a girl 1 know at
home has a dog named Benny" Which
happened fortunately to be true, for
otherwise / should have been obliged
| to invent it. But the girl is a cat,
and the dog d miserable little high
bred something, all shivers and no
hair. / should never have thought of
him in the same breath with Crusoe.
That evening Mr. Shaw addressed
| the gathering at the camp-fire-Which
we made small and bright, and then
sat well away from because of the
heat-and in a few words gave it as
| his opinion that any further search in
the cave under the point was useless.
| Of he had known the strange confirm
atory echo which this awoke in my
mindD He proposed that the shore
of the island to reasonable distance
on either side of the bay entrance
should be surveyed, with a view to
discover whether some other cave did
not exist which would answer the de-
scription given by the dying Hopper
down as well as that first explored.
| Mr.. Shaw's words were addressed to
the ladies, the organizer and financier.
respectively, of the expedition, to the
very deliberate exclusion of Mr.. Tubbs.
But he might as well have made up his
mind to recognize the triumvirate. En-
throned on a camp-chair sat Aunt
Jane, like a little goddess of the Dol
| lar Sign, and on one hand Mr.. Tubbs
smiled blandly, and on the other VI
olet gloomed. You saw that in sacred
council Mr.. Shaws announcement had
been foreseen and deliberated upon.
Miss Browne, who carried an invis-
ible rostrum with her wherever she
went, now alertly mounted 1t.
''My friends she began, "those
dwelling on plane where the Mate
rial is all may fail to grasp the
thought which 1 shall put before you
this evening. My friends, this expe-
dition was, so to speak, called from
the Void by Thought Thought it was,
as realized In steamships and other
ephemeral forms, which bore us over
rolling seas. How, then, can it be 9TH
erwise than that Thought should in.
fuence our fortunes-that success
should be unable to materialize before
persistent attitude of Negation? My
friends, you viii perceive that there
is no break in this sequence of ideas;
all is remorseless logic.
"In order to withdraw myself from
this atmosphere of Negation, for these
several days past l have sought Sc
clusion. There in silence l have as
serted the power of Positive over
Negative Thought, gazing meanwhile
into the profound depths Of the All.