1868.]
DALLAS GALBRAITIJ.
from every bough and bit of rough bark; the dead trees were massed with a fila gree covering of purple, scarlet, of silver fretted with black; the wax-like leaves of
the pipsissiwa starred the path ; on every side the flower of the crimson cactus opened its heated heart to the late warmth. Dallas broke off a bough which was one
wonderful flowering in violet and green, crimped and curled leaves folded one above the other. but it crumbled in his hand_-a lump of slimy, rotten wood. Who was it that had so carefully turned all this death into beauty? Even where a bunch of mushrooms thrust up their heads, the brown needles thatched them like a miniature roof, and a ray of sun light, striking obliquely through their transparent stalks, glorified them into clear amber pillars for the fairy temple. Dallas walked on more slowly. A great quiet came into his mind, up through all its boyish jumble of ideas about fishing, and roots, and the work he wanted to do for Elizabeth. ‘He- Whoever it was that had brought all this good out of rotten
ness and decay, was it He that had brought him out of that miserable old time into this village? Was it? The lad’s eyes grew curiously steady and clear. The wind hinted a low, mys terious music in the pines, the sea, with warm, violet waves, caressed the shore,
but no voices from old, miserable years moaned in it. Some of us need to be lashed with defeat before we find out the real strength of the man within us, but some of us, like Dallas to-day, have to feel friendly hands touch us, and the world's seldom-seen, real. just, beautiful face clear shining into our souls. Then we see what we were meant to do in this life, and resolve to begin at once to build with gold instead of stubble. Lizzy, when she saw Dallas coming up the path, went down to meet him, and looked curiously at him. He had been at work with her all morning. in high good-humor, quizzing her about her
25
“No one came up with you, Dallas?” “ No.” He thought it neglectful that George was not with his bride this last evening, so affected not to understand her anxious question. They sat down on the low steps of the porch, but she could keep quiet but a little while. “ Dallas, where is Laddoun ?” “I do not know, Lizzy.” “ That stranger, Ledwith, has been fol
lowing him about all day.
I am afraid
of him,” uneasily getting up.
“ He has
a fish‘s eye, dead and cold.
I wanted
George.
I have something to tell you,
Dallas,” blushing and smiling, “ and he could have put it into better words than
I. George is a good speaker, I think?” timidly. “ That he is,” heartily. “ It’s a great thing to have talent, like Laddoun. If one wants to do anything in the world. I mean. It’s just like a heavy man walk ing in the sand; no matter where he goes, the print is there, deep. Now I_,7 “ You? When it comes to drawing, Dallas, I think you have a true geniu's,” eagerly; and she went into the room and stopped before a miserable picture of a man’s head, purporting to be Laddoun’s, wherein the outlines were all false and the features daubed with colors. Dallas looked at it complacently, his hands in his pockets.
“ Yes.
If I have any talent, it is for
painting, I think.” “And your experiments-your plans ?” “ Oh, that’s my work,” indifferently; “ that all comes natural to me. If you’d shut me up in jail, I’d find the way to those jobs all the same. But my paint ing is a different thing.” She listened attentively. She wanted him to feel that he was cared for in every trifle to-night. She wanted him to feel no lack of mother and sister in at least this one hour of his life. She guessed the starved, solitary childhood he had led, and thought of the scars and lashes on the lean back underneath his new clothes-of the wounds which even
locked Blue Beard’s chamber, whistling,
now sometimes opened and bled; and
and lilting out sailors’ songs up stairs and down. He was quiet and grave now, as if he had come up out of church.
her voice trembled a little when she told him to come with her and see what she
'o|.. l.—4
had hid in the Blue Beard’s chamber.
