The Desert and The Sown

as a journal letter from Paul, mailed by some returning prospector chance encountered in the forest as the p

roof we shall sleep under. There are pine-trees near the cabin cut off fifteen

irthright when we strayed from innocence, when we ceased to sleep with one ear on the ground, and to spell our way by the moss on tree-trunks. In these solitudes, as we call them, ranks and clouds of witnesses rise up to prove us deaf and blind. Busy couriers are passing every moment of the day; and we do not see, nor hear, nor understand. We are the stocks and stones. Packer John is our only wood-sharp;-yet the last half of the name doesn't altog

to be fresh with him. He has a disconcerting eye when he fixes it on a

to say, 'and the cub he is smal

tries to be 'fresh'?" Christine

rhaps," said

Paul seems to need a lot of editing." Moya had paused a

gement of his comrades

oya ought to have the first reading of her own lett

rary! I'll go on with pleasure if you don't mind."

ar-One at the least Of a pair the prettiest'-which is, within a foo

us,' he goes on to say, 'where the step is broken by rocks and tree-roots;'-and he is chanting it to himself (to

itudes'!" Chr

Anybody who is tired of this can be excused. Emerson won't mind, and I'm sure Paul won't!" She looked a mute apology to

ul lot of him here!" Moya's voice

ove, Old

young!"-Christine

mountains old, Only the waters cold, On

sunlight; and there is a crêpe-like black moss that hangs funeral scarfs upon the boughs, as if there had been a death in the forest, and the trees were in line

across the deepest darks as motes sail down a sunbeam. One wearies of the constant perpendicular, always these stiff, columnar lines, varied only by the melancholy incline where some

ted to our hiring the fellow-an objection which I sustained, hence his logical spite includes me). John was melting pine gum and elk tallow into a dressing for our boots. I took a mean advantage of him, his h

ing for the time when she could take her letter away and have it all to herself. If she stopp

ure ever

trust her f

rest shall

ight and m

land refuse

ime enoug

yet my M

n her gree

e flowers s

their depa

mured hastily. "Even I can understand

nfallible John say?

and smiled, as at

for

ine, be

; but you'll be tired enough to sleep without rocking about the time you trust to Nature's tuckin' you in and puttin' victuals in your mouth. I never see nature till I came out here. I'd seen pretty woods and views, that a young lady could take down with her paints; but how are you going to paint that?'-he waved his tallow-stick towards the night outside. 'Ears can't r

r sky-a puff and a flash and a roar; an' trees four foot across snappin' like kindlin' wood-not because it hit 'em; only the breath of it struck them; and maybe

like paws; his buckskins have a surface like a cast after Rodin. They are repousséed by the hard bones and sinews underneath. I can think of nothing but the clothing of Millet's peasants to compare with this exterior of John's. He is himself a peasant of the woods. He has not the predatory instincts. If he could have his way, not a shot would be fired by any of us for the mere idle sport of killing. Shooting these innocent, fearless creatures, w

el to. They can sleep in the same tent and eat from the same plate, if you like. Why, it's b

shed wit

" Mrs. Bogardus bent her dark, keen gaze upon her

sternly. "Moya,"-in a different voice,-"your lett

er does not care for descriptions, a

ve her one of her infrequent, ceremonious kisses, which, like