White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1936-10-15

break and the lonely cadenced 81
lence of a mountain farm when
people were not about: tufted car
dinals flashing red among the cher
nv blossoms and scattering liquid
notes on the morning like flutter
Of released petal spiraling to the
ground; bleating lambs leaping nerv-
ously and awkwardly about the lot,
still dazed and bewildered by the
new and unfamiliar world into
which they had suddenly been
dropped.
Slowly she went back to the house
and put the kitchen in order. Julia
had gone out to her garden. Abral
had disappeared into one of the hol-
lows. The wonted equilibrium was
even more upset within, and she
could feel the fragments moving
about her into new arrangements.
She went upstairs and sat on the
foot of her bed looking out on the or
chard. "The world looks different
to a body when you look out of an
upstairs window. What would it be
like if you were always above it as
high as a house instead of down in
! it as low as a man and looked over
an orchard in bloom the way you
look over cornfield in June? Would
you still feel bit twisted out OF
shape inside because Of the way
your folks and things move about
in the bottoms? / feel like I'm be-
ing pulled by something that is
moving around the place and taking
me with it, and guess I'll just CO."
1t was the smell Of the orchard
surging through the window ana
retreating with the wind that did
the pulling. She wandered down
among the apple trees where the
bees were diving in the golden
dust in the pollen centers, and the
gray-blue catbirds were f1utter-
ing with no sound through the
branches.
The wavering bleat of young
lamb ran over the Jagged shingles
of the barn roof and broke into
pieces about her. That reminded
her of Jesse's charge and she went
down to the barn and leaned over
the bars of the sheep-lot. By the
door in the sun lay like a piece Of
cloud little pile of white fleece
and on the wall was stretched thu
raw hide to dry before it went OF
to Sparrel's tanning vat. The sigh
of these things made her hear
heavy with the thought Of brit
and death.
The ewes in the lot were placit
with the weight and experience o
timeless and ageless years Of bear
ing and being born. Their uncon
Germ for the lambs was for the mo
ment monumental. They lay in com
plete tranquility under the sun al
though their energy had fled then
and was now leaping again in tn
spindly legs Of the new offspring
She went quietly down to tn
lower bars, and when she had slow
ly drawn them without disturbing
the calm which was on the sheep
| she drove them down to the cree]
: to water them. The shepherd
bounded off professionally down tn
fence and across Wolfpen to pre-
vent the sheep from scattering
They lowered on the edge of tn
creek in hesitation, lifting doubtful
J heads toward Cynthia and the1
staring at the dog. He was aler
but motionless. Then one Of tn
oldest ewes accepted him and wen
> down into the water and drank. TIL
whole flock drank and then raise
= their heads to look again, lettin
trickle of water dribble from tn
3 tuft of fleece under their throats
The same eve started to cross tn
] creek, but the shepherd lowere
his head and barked, and sh
. turned hack and was followed h