4
THE COURIER.
in
10
Extracts from Mrs. Elia V. Pcattie's New
Novel, "The Bcleaguerec? Forest." ,
There is really only one misfortune in
the world which is worth mentioning,
and that is to remain unexpressed.
1 am not afraid of anything but re
pression and whisperings and conceal
ment and reservations. . . The worst
form of impiety to me, is to let the hu
man forces be unuBod. The heart and
the brain, these are vats filled with
grapes, and it is the work of each man
to press out the wine.
Thoughts are like mother-of-pearl.
They alter each second; they hve in
describable half-lights, and vanishing,
nameless tints. The man who could
describe them would be a poet past any
poet who ever lived. In moments of
confidence we may eay something which
approaches a revealing, but it is dull
end coarse. It is a base coin employed
for purposes of exchange because the
true gold is beyond our reach.
Souls are balls of crystal, touching at
one point only.
American caste is something like the
mist on the mountain side. It looks as
if it were there when you see it at a
distance, but as you draw closer to it it
becomes impalpable, or can be felt only
by a slight chill which pervades your
body, but to which you presently be
come accustomed.
ugly houses with dynnmite and place
gun powder under ready made clothing
establishments. I'm a sort of peri
patetic providence out of a job."
Virtues are
about.
The artistic temperament and the
trained conscience make a good com
bination and one not often to be .found.
Fate is like a merchant; it will take
all it can get and it 1b possible for the
conscience to be prodigal with restitu
tion. Life in the camp in winter is like be
ing in a gigantic porcelain vase, and
with all the memory of one's life en
closed in the vase. "They are the
spices of my pot-pourri, for I think my
self as mere ashes of rosee, or at best a
handful of leaves left over from blos
som time."
When drab souls get up to heaven J
suppose they'll be set a little to one side
where the glory can't fade them.
Thus fell the tall pine: "I saw the
beautiful shaft tremble; a shrill, mu
sical vibration ran its length, then a
high note of alarm and despair seemed
to burst from it it was like the cry of
an inconceivably mighty violin and it
swayed, then toppled, slowly at first,
then faster faster the great trunk
dragging it. Then came the tragic
plunge, the crash, a chaos of flying
branches, a ruEh of scurrying echoes
from the hills, and then silence. It
would call to the morning no longer; no
longer watch the wheeling of slow con.
etellatione; no longer gather to itself
the perfumes of spring as they floated
up from the ardent south; no longer en
tangle the streamers of the northern
lights in its aspiring top. It is dead!"
Quoth John Cadmus: "If I see a man
wbo 6eems dissatisfied with.his terms of
iifel wonder if it wouldn't be a mercy
in me to knock bis brains in. When I
see a jaded woman dragging herself
down to the city to work every day to
support an existence that has no chance
(or her or anybody else, I have difficulty
to restrain myself from pushing her un
der the car wheels and making an
end of ber. X always desire to blow up
Milly Billy, do you know you've a
pretty mouth? It's a pity to waste such
a mouth on a man.
Billy I never waste it on a man.
Town Topics.
Missionary Are you going to burn
me at the Blake?
Cannibal No; I'll just bake you to a
turn. Tou don't know what an excel
lent cook I am. The Polynesian.
" Beware the microbes in a kiss 1 "
Stern science ever cries ;
But then, when ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.
No member of the legal profession
ever handed down an opinion requiring
such wonderful acumen as did a report
er from Washington recently, writing of
the weather. While not making any
specific prediction regarding the effect
of the rains, he ventures the opinion
that "all those crops that are not ir
retrievably ruined will be benefited by
the breaking of the drought. It will
take the average mind several houre to
digest such a solid chunk of wisdom as
that.
to be lived, not talked
DAYS IN BEAVER CANON.
BV FLORA BULLOCK.
For The Courier
Geologists have almost admitted that
the Black Hills is an enchanted land.
They cannot explain its formation nor
account for its wonders. They simply
know that at some time before the
Dawn the new Earth trembled, and
lifted great stores of its hidden treas
ures nearer the sun and within reach of
man's prying hands. In all this broad
land there is no piece of ground of like
extent that is bo rich with a variety of
gifts, and at the same time so fascinat
ing in beauty. People who have travel
ed the world over and have paused in
many picturesque spots say that there
are nooks and corners of the Hills which
are unsurpassed. Yet most of those
who journey Hillward know only the
main-traveled roads and well-beaten
burro tracks. Thrice blessed is he,
however, who can get out into the heart
of the Hills, where few summer sojourn
ers have penetrated, and explore the
canons known only to the Indians of
old. the deer who are following if not
proceeding them on the path to ex
tinction, and the ranch man, herald of
a new era. He will find lovely slopes
by brooks where he will want tc pitch
his tent, narrow canons, high-walled
with red rock precipices, and always the
weird, blue black mountains in the dis
tance lure. Do not let them entice you
to move from your lookout, for long is
the road that leads to them, and the
blue black haze is as illusive and unat
tainable as the rainbow. In truth,
there ib something uncanny in the vay
certain hills Beem to recede as you ap
proach them and follow when you turn
your back. Mt.Piegah, a great, long,
green hulk with a white stone crown,
never leaves you, if you travel north
ward from this point, and you never
seem to reach it. I have hoped to fol
low the horse's nose up its slopes, but I
fear I shall never get to it, though it
appears to be very near.
You will not have been in Beaver
Canon an hour before you will hear
somebody say, "up on the prairie."
Preferences
WE Jong ago learned that
to argue against a wo
man's preferences was a mere
waste of time consequently we
never try. We sell every good
sort of typewriter in its best
form. One of these will suit
your requirements. Plenty of
unbiased advice, however, if you
require it.
. E. AM&OU&Z,
Telephone 759 v
T
1106 O (Street:
IINCOIN, NEBR.
You will booc come to think that is
certainly an enchanted region, and a
curiosity to go hence will seize you.
After the long up-grade drive of seven
miles, it will be a joy to come out on a
wide, s'ightly rolling prairie, where
great fields of oats and wheat are ripen
ing for the harvest. No crop failure
there, but a land of heavy laden, yel
lowing greenness. Isn't it queer to see
those large, smooth Btones that He along
the road, telling their chapter in the
story of creation? Some New England
settler has begun to pile them along
under his wire fences, and in time they
will form a picturesque addition to the
prairie landscape.
The ranchman landed me at a primi
tive log shack on a little hillside close
by a large grove of quaking aspen trees
that cluster around a spiing of Nature's
own nectar. I cannot imagine what
possessed the builder of this cabin to
locate it on the elope of the hill, the
windowless north end being about a
foot lower than the south end. From
the door I looked straight into a stony
hillside, and it was alight compensation
to know that from that hill I could see,
by the aid of a field glass, the line of
the Big Horn mountains far to the west.
The ranchman explained that the in
clined floor was meant for a watershed;
when it rained, a frequent occurrence
here, the water that came in under the
door would flow right through. But
the first settler did not even boast of a
floor. When a young man of more pro
gressive spirit bousht out the claim and
came up for his first night of the re
quired tenancy, he found cold comfort.
It was in the dead of winter, and win
ter "up on the prairie" is a thing to be
feared, and he brought his brother in
law to keep him company. One slept
on the board which served as a bed
while the other kept up the fire on the
floor. The ranchman regaled me with
such cheerful (alee as these while we
ate our lunch. Then while he worked
at his haying, I sought the solitude of
the aspen grove, and filled my fingers
with gooseberry stickers just as it I
were not alone, away off at the end of
the world. Hardly a bird call broke
the silence or interrupted the talking
of the aspen leaves, the grasshoppers
out on the hillside buzzed like rattle
snakes, but oh, there are no snakes on
the "prairie!" They cannot warm their
skinny backs sufficiently in that cool
latitude.
One is not even afforded the com
pany of stray cows, fur the prairie is
not a cattle country. So it is possible
to be very much alone, and barring
poetic moods, very lonely in that high
and supposedly enchanted land.
Give me, rather, a jolly crowd, with a
wagonful of truck, bound for a day's
camping. Up the Beaver canon a
real narrow canon, not a wide valley
is an ideal place. Under pines on a
sloping hillside, with a view of red and
white' rock ledges and high gypsum
buttes in front, beyond which peers the
inevitable black-robed Pisgah; in front,
the clear bubbling Beaver where trout
lurk. The Doctor says they are only
good to eat; they take the hook like
suckers, that explains my luck. There
is a house not far away for shelter from
storms, and numerous Bide canons and
mountain trails invite the rovers. With
the beautiful and great old limestone at
yuur use, tieer auu wiiu uirus ruuciy
feet, with the anthem of the pines
blended with the song of the brook, and
the sky opening wide before you what
more could a body wish? Add e
crowd and the merry laughter and jok
ing, the ravenous hunger and the uncon
ventional appeasing of it, where are
your seaside resorts and summer hotels
beside it?
Company at the ranch. Such a bak
ing and stewing and frying, such rattle
of dishes and bustling in kitchen and
sitting room. Grown folk, young folk,
children and babies, and all happy and
young. It is not like having company
to tea in town. For the ranch is a long
way off, and they must come to stay all
night and several days. Do you re
member how it was when all the eons
and daughters came home to the farm
for a holiday? Such gayety, such ei
citement. Why, we even forgot to
watch the teams that pass, trying to
name the occupante, unless we discover
some addition to the company. How
lonely it seems when they have all gone
away, when there is no baby to play
with, no little chaps to amuse. One
may love mountains and skies, finding
contentment among them for awhile.
But, after all, the human interest is
supreme, and no one can be truly hap
py long alone.
E. H. PIERSON,
and gtoebs.
1035 K St. . Lincoln, Net-
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