The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1926-06-11
BAREE,, Son Of Kazan

lace toward MIN AFTER LnuI. FOR
long time she stood looking in the d.
rection which Pierrot had taken. And
when, after q time, she turned and
came back to BARGE, she did not look
like the Nepeese who had been twin
ing flowers in her hair The laughter
was gone from her face and eyes. She
knelt down beside him and with sud-
den fierceness she cried:
1T is pechipoo, Baree! 1t was You
-you-who put the poison in his
blood. And hope he dies! For I am
afraid-afraid
She shivered.
Perhaps it was in this moment that
the Great Spirit of things meant Ba-
rec to Understandable at last it was
given him to comprehend that his day
had dawned, that the rising and the
setting of his sun no longer existed in
the sky, but In this girl whose hand
rested on his head. He whined softly.
and inch by inch he dragged himself
nearer to her until again his head
rested in the hollow of her lap
For long time after Pierrot left
them the Willow did not move from
where she had seated herself beside
Baree. 1t was at last the deepening
shadows and near rumble in the sky
that reused her from the fear of the
things Pierrot had told her. When she
looked up, black clouds were massing
slowly over the open space above the
spruce-tops. Darkness was falling.
In the whisper of the wind and the
dead stiffness of the thickening gloom
there was the sullen brewing of storm.
Nepeese shivered and rose to her
feet. For the first time Baree got up,
and he stood close at her side Above
them lightning-fiasll cut the clouds
like knife of fire, followed in an in
slant by terrific crash of thunder.
Baree shrank back as if struck by
blow. He would have skunk into the
shelter of the brush wall of the wig
wan, but there was something about
gave him confidence. The thunder
crashed again. But he retreated no
farther. His eyes were fixed on Ne
peese
She stood straight and slim in that
gathering gloom riven by the light
ming, her beautiful head thrown back,
her lips parted, and her eyes glowing
with an almost eager anticipation-a
sculptured goddess welcoming with
bated breath the onrushing forces of
the heavens. Perhaps it was because
she was born on night of storm,
princess mother had told her that
how on the night she had come into
the world the crash of thunder and
the flare of lightning had made the
hours an inferno, how the streams had
burst over their banks and the stems
of ten thousand forest trees had
snapped in its fury-and the beat of
the deluge on their cabin roof had
drowned the sound of her mothers
pain, and of her own first babyish
cries.
On that night, it may be, the Spirit
loved to face it, as she was facing it
now. 1t made her forget all things
but the splendid might of nature her
half-wild soul thrilled to the crash and
fire of it; often she had reached up
her bare arms and laughed with JOY
as the deluge burst about her. Even
now she might have stood there in the
little open until the rain fell, if
whine from Baree had not turned
her. AS the first big drops struck
with the dull thud of leaden bullets
about them, she went with him into
the balsam shelter. 1t seemed an in
terminable time before the thunder
rolled far to the east, and the light
ming died away into distant and in
termittent Hastings. Even after that
the rain fell for another hour. Then
it stopped as suddenly as it had be-
gun.
With laughing gasp Nepeese rose
to her feet. The water gurgled in her
moccasins as she walked out into the
open. She paid no attention to BARGE
and he followed her. Across the
open in the .treetops the last Of the
storm-clouds were drifting away.
Nepeese looked down and saw Ba-
rec. He was standing. clear and I'M
leashed, with freedom on all sides of
him. Yet he did not run. He was
waiting, wet as water-rat, with his
eyes on her expectantly. Nepeese
made a movement toward him, and
hesitated.
mo, you will not run away. Baree.
1 will leave you free. And now we
must have fire! Let us hunt for the
wuskwi, Baree."
tTo BE coNTINUED.)