Show Aerelv a Repetition In a country town back among the mountains a long way “off the main line” is a countr’ store too much like thousands of other country stores to require description One day in September a boy with a pile of school hooks beside him sat on the solid plank platform in front of this store and gazed out over the few houses in the village and beyond the mountains and from the fragments in books he had read builded cities and countries unknown and different and did again with his own hands deeds recorded in the books and others greater and possible to him only Then down the single windy street came the prospector and his outfit His coming spoiled the dream and brought the boy back to the world he hated but he for once did not mind because here was a man who must have seen at least part of the “other country” The prospector looked frayed his whiskers hair clothes everything about him looked bleached by exposure to the sun and wind and rain of ages The only touch of contrast to this somber aspect were his eyes sharp black and alive but with the trick of focusing themselves often on things infinitely distant To the boy they seemed to tell of intelligence and of a capacity in the man that was difficult to rec oncile with the rest of him His saddle horse and the two pack mules added to the impression given by the man Everywhere was evidence of long exposure to the sun and wind and rain The horse and mules were fat but a heartless droop of ears and an unimpassioned hopeless look of eyes told of weary changeless miles in the past and the anticipation of many more for the future The man's eyes seemed the only reason for the existence of the outfit and the man He slid out of his saddle ignored the curious eyes of the boy and went in to barter for a “grub stake” a few pelts and a scanty supply of “dust” paid for by days of hard “panning” where the colors were scarce He carried the articles on the plank platform out bought The boy helped him drive the mules up and held them while the newly acquired weight was adjusted in the packs The man commented on the pile of books expressed his belief that the boy would go to college become a lawyer or something else great told him that he had found nothing much where he had spent the summer and that he was going ‘just over the mountain where the prospects were better and where he was sure to strike it” Then he moved off down the windy road and the boy picked up his pile -- |