New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1923-09-06

perfectly sure in his own strength,
nut there was also more complex
reaeiion-one that he could not ana.
lyze or put into words. He couldn't
call II happiness. n wasn't that, nn-
less the mood that follows the hear.
Ing of wonderful music Is also hap
piness. Perhaps that was the hest
comparison, the passion he felt was
] something like the response made 10
great music. There had been times
at the opera. when all conditions were
exactly favorable, that he had felt the
same. and once when he had heard
Fritz Kreisler play Handels Largo"
IL was a strange reaching and crop
Ing. rather than happiness, II was
stir and thrill that touched the
most secret chords of his being.
He felt II most at night when the
great, white northern stars wheeled
through the heavens. II was good
to see them nndnlled by smoke; they
touched some side of him that had
never been stirred into life before. At
such times the sea was lost In
mystery.
Thetruth was that Ned, by the will
OF the Red Gods, was perceiving
something of the real spirit of the
North. sensitive man to start with.
he caught something OF its mystery
and wonder of which. as yet, Lenore
had no glimpse. And the result was
to bring him to the verge of far
reaching discovery: that of his own
weakness.
He had never admitted weakness
before. He had always been so sure
of himself. SO complacent. so self
sufficient. But curiously these things
were dying within him. He found
himself doubling, for the first time,
the success of this northern adven-
ture. Could he cope with the reali-
ties that were beginning to press upon
him? Would not this northern will
derness show him up as the weakling
he was?
For the first time in his life Ned
Cornet knew what realism was. He
in his city life, that he had
been a realist: instead he had only
been a sophist and mocker in an
environment that was never real
from dawn to darkness. He had
read books that he had acclaimed
among his young friends as MASTER
pieces Of realism--usually works
whose theme and purpose seemed to
be a bald-faced portrayal of sex-but
now he saw that their very premise
was one of falsehood. Here were
he true realities-unconque seas
and starry skies and winds from off
he waste places.
/ Unlike LenSre, Ned's regrets were
not that he had ever launched forth
Upon the venture. Rather he found
himself regretting that he was not
setter fitted to contend with it. Per-
1aps, after all, his father had been
light and he had been wrong. For
he first time in his life Ned felt the
reed of greater strength, of stronger
inews.
What If his father had told the
ruth, and that strict trials awaited
lin here. 1t was no longer easy to
isbeieve him. Almost any disaster
ould fall upon him here, in these
wastes of sunlit water, in the very
hadow of polar ice. The sun itself !
ad lost its warmth. 1t slanted down !
pom them from far to the south,
nd 1t seemed to be beguiling them,
nth its golden beauty on the waters,
ito some deadly trap that had been .
ct for them still farther north. 1t
1T Ned some way apprehensive and
ismayed. He wished he hadn't
cen so sure of himself, that he had
ken greater pains. in his wasted
Ears, to harden and train himself.
erhaps he was to be weighed In the
llance, and it was increasingly hard
believe that he would not be found
anting.
In such mood he recalled his
Tiers words regarding that dread
aim of test and trial that lay some
here beyond the world: some Bit
r, dreadful training camp for those
at leave this world untitled to go on
a higher, better world" He had
orned the thought at first, but now
could hardly get out of his mind.
suggested some sort of an analogy
til his present condition. These
1pty seas were playing tricks on his
agination; he could conceive that
e journey Of which his father had
oxen might not be SO greatly diff
rent than this There would be