The Re-Creation of Brian Kent

ouse, where Auntie Sue, after providing him with nightclothes, left by one of he

ules of the game, he should have worn a strait-jacket;-when his delirium filled the room with all manner of horrid creatures from the pit; when leering devils and loathsome serpents and gibbering apes tormented him until his unnatural strength was the strength of a fiend, and his tortured nerves shrieked in agony. But Auntie Sue perversely ignored the rules of the game. And neve

ildest ravings, ever gave Auntie Sue a clue to his identity. She sear

ld she chance to talk with passing neighbors. "The river brought him to us, Judy, dear," she said. "We must save him. No one shall know his shame, to humiliate and wound his pride and drag him

me, and when she returned again to the stranger's bedside she was breathless and trembling as from some unusual exertion. And the following afternoon, when Judy came to her with the announcement that the boat which had brough

be a-wearin' yourself ter the bone a-takin' care of such as him," Aunti

r he sure wouldn't been a-floatin' 'round in that there old John-boat 'thout ary gun, or f

mming-up of the damning evidence against the stranger, b

g the room, happened upon a scene that caused her to st

ly stroking his tumbled, red-brown hair, even as a mother might lovingly caress her sleeping child. And then, as Judy watched, breathless with

gesture, she commanded the girl to silence, and the two tiptoed from the room. When they were outside, and Auntie Sue had cautiou

dy, how he-how he-mig

ma'm, you-all ain't never even been mar

swered the challenging question with splendid spirit: "No, I have never been married

in safety, she sank into a chair, convulsed with la

le old nurse with the light of sanity in his deep blue eyes. Very tired eyes they were

ing a chair close beside the bed, seated herself and pl

w." And as she looked into the eyes that regarded hers so questioningly, there was in h

ds: "I have been in Hell; and you-you

uckling laugh. It was so good to have him able to tal

?" he repeated, puz

r boat landed is my property, and so anything that drifts down the river and lodges there belongs to me. Whatever the river brings

r for a moment; then she saw th

river to do something for me, and-and it did

ng, until it finally reaches the great sea, where its waters are united with all the waters from all the rivers in all the world. And in all of its many, many miles, from that first tiny spring to the sea, there are not two feet of it exactly alike. In all the centuries of its being, there are never two hours alike. An infinite variety of days and nights-an infinite variety of skies and light and clouds and daybreaks and sunsets-an infinite number an

wonderingly. "And what in the world

she answered: "I am Auntie Sue. I

you tell me your name? I m

I shall be seventy-one years old the eighteenth day of next Novemb

He wrinkled his brow in an effort to remember. "Wak

It is not at all an uncommon name. And now tha

hen said, deliberately,

ickly; "and that is why your hair is

, for I can't lie to you, and I won't tell you the truth." And she sa

and gentle as she said: "My dear boy, I shall never ask you more. The river brought you to me, and you are mine. You must not e

ded at the door o

d hastily. "I must go. Lie still, and g

uch his forehead. Then she was gone, and Brian Kent's Irish eyes were