The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-09

vast trackless forests surrounded
their encampments on three sides,
and on the fourth hay the steppe.
They were strong, brave and merry
men, content with little. -. They may
have been gypsies. And 10, one day
trouble came upon them. Alien tribes
appeared who drove them into the
depth of the forest. There darkness
brooded over the marshy ground, for
the forest was old and tall, and so
thickly were the boughs interviewer
that the sky was invisible through
them and the sun could not pierce
through the thick LEAKAGE to the boys.
And did rays OF light strike the stag
nant water of the marshes, a stencil
arose, whereby men persisted. And
then their women and children rose
up crying, and the fathers grew
thoughtful and sad. They must needs
leave the forest, but only two roads
led away from it: one-back to their
old hasnts, where the fierce and
mighty foe lay in wait, the other
forward where stood the giant trees,
their boughs embracing each other,
their gnarled roots deep in the clutch
ing mire OF the marshes. While day
lasted the trees stood silent and mo-
tionless in a grey twilight, and of
evenings, when the fires were lit,
they crowded closer about the tribe.
And the people were ever surrounded
by suffocating circle, they who were
wonted to the free spaces Of the
steppes. And even more terrible was
it when the wind beat upon the tree
tops and the forest resounded with
muffled thunder, as 1t were toiling the
death-knell of those who had found
refuge there. -. And the men sat and
pondered through the long nights, to-
the voice of the forests muffled
thunder, in the poisonous stencil of
the marshes. There they sat, while
shadows thrown by the boughs leapt
round them in a silent dance, and
these seemed to them not playing
shadows, but the gestures of the evil
spirits of forest and bog in their
triumph. -. They sat, they pondered
There is nothing, neither work nor
women, that so drains the bodies and
souls of men as do the sad thoughts
that suck the heart like snakes. And
the men grew weak with thinking !. !.
Fear rose among them, lettering the
strong arms, and terror sprang from
the mourning of the women before
the corpses of the dead and over the
fate of the living-and cowardly words
began to be heard in the forest, spoken
low at first, then louder and louder.
Already some wished to surrender
themselves and their will to the foe,
life of slave. -. But now came
Danko and saved them all.
Danko was young and beautiful to
look upon. The beautiful are always
brave. And he said to his comrades:
Reflection will not alter the course
of a stone. Who dares naught,
achieves naught. Why waste our
powers on sorrowful meditation. Rise,
let us go into the forest and pass
through it. 1t must have an end-all
things have an end. Forward"
The people looked at him and they
saw that he was the first among them
all, for stregth and fire burned in his
eyes.
Lead u.s." they said
So he led them. Danko. All follow
ed him and all trusted him. The road
was difficult! Darkness fell about
them and at every step the marsh
yawned with foul and eager jaws,
swallowing men, and the trees reared
a mighty wall across the path. The
boughs we're intertwined like snakes,
and the roots stretched in all direct
ions, and each step cost blood and
sweat to the marching host. Long, long
they marched. The forest grew dens-
err and their strength meItedt And