Year: 1877

Bh vi - III SAkhh ASsS4A Ss


at was dream within a dream, j
tell you, Charlie. L was asleep in my
bed in the next room, and there j
dreamed that | was visiting the Ran
dolphs over in Berkshire county.
Thought l had been up pretty late, play
ing billiards with Gale Randolph and
some of the boys. / remember distinctly
scoring seventy eight on run-four-
ball games. Well, went to bed tired
out, dreamed l did. fell asleep, and
dreamed this which call dream with
out a dream"


well, Mort" said /, ''the thing is
not so extraordinary after all. 1t is a
common enough psychological pheno
menon."


Il beg your PARDON" quoth Mort
Amerman, satirically, "would you be
good enough 10 reel me off little of
that last again, please? Say couple
of fathoms, or So"


None of your chatting now!"
laughed /, "but tell me what has all
this Chinese dream-puzzle to do with
the picture you promised to show me!'


Much, Q Sahibi for on the silent
yet speaking canvas have depicted the
scene whereof l speak, and now le
r0ici;" and with that he threw the
cover from the painting on his easel,
and left NE To examine it at my leisure,
while he went to his bedroom. The
easel was OF course in the best position
in the studio for viewing the picture,
and the soft, delicate light OF the au-
tumn afternoon lay full upon it; mel
lowed, however, by an artful arrange
ment Of screens and shadows, to gain
the precise effect desired.


The painting was of the ordinary
cabinet size, and appropriately painted,
being also relieved by heavy maroon
drapery, gracefully festooned behind
and around it. | am not of those who
believe that truly master-work of art
may be described aptly in words, yet l
must essay the task this once, and if l
render only the bald outlines of the ar
lists thoughts. it may be, perchance,
that 1 shall still be enabled TO convey
some glimmering of his meaning.


What first fastened itself upon me
was the murky darkness of most of the
scene. There was dense and gloomy
forest filling up the entire background
and much of the middle distance. Out
from among and under the trees
streamed a wild torrent, and plunged
over ragged rocks and through and
about the gnarled roots, and between
riffs in the solid stone, and so down to
a leaping cascade that disappeared at
the extreme right in black and gloom
ful pool. Stretching back from the
right, a broad expanse of gray moor ex-
tended in prospective sight to the base
of a range OF blue-gray hills, that tow
cred aloft into the clouds; narrow
path wound through this moor into the
dim distance, and was lost, apparently,
In the shades of night, which were fast
falling.


On the very edge of bold rock that
jutted over the pool, and on the very
boundary of the water fall, was the
only seemingly living object of the pie
ture.


a young man PROSTATE on his knees,
shading his eyes with his two hands,
and gazing intently into the pool be-
meath.


There was that in the attitude of the
figure, so deity and truthfully ex-
pressed, that sense and meaning grew
upon me as / gazed. He was agonizing
-distraught. His whole soul was look
ing forth from his eyes, and seeking in
the dim twilight, now fast fading, to
wrest from the obscurity beneath him
some terrible secret. SO clearly was
the story told, that my gaze instinct
lively followed his, and tracked, as his
must have, the secret of the black pool.


Twining about the base of the rock,
upon whose crest the yourg man knelt,
a meshed and tangled wrap of roots and
fibres first met the eye. But now, cling
ing with a death grasp to the largest of
these, / saw the round, fair arm of a
Young girl-and then-as though !
should have seen il, and nothing else,
from the first, so completely did it now
fill the picture-I saw the white figure,
limp white garments clinging TO the
body, and the fine white face, with rich
olden hair floating and tangled, on the
water and among the roots, and could
almost note the swaying to and fro of
the soulless form, as it was caught by the
eddies, and dragged hither and thither;
still held, however, by that trusty dead
arm that clung so determinedly to the
Shiny and black root above.


a touch on my shoulder so startled
me that l cried out; it was only Mort,
who had entered the room unnoticed,
so intent was in my concentration.


swell, what do you think of it?"
was the first and most natural question.


You never could have dreamed
that," said |. si E


Just as you see il, dreamed / 1t,
doubter. Now let me cover it up, and
let US 90 aud have some lunch"