Show A candle 61 im X in the wilderness wildene Wil all deme CHAPTER VII continued 14 i how dare you do this lie asked 1 I 1 would not have you forget that hint I 1 an am a christian she elie answered A and nd I 1 do not forget that you yoki are the best friend of robert heathers 1 I remember robert used to tell me that he loved you and I 1 tell you that I 1 love him all my friends have been opposing me about it and saying hard things but b ut they do not shake roy my purpose I 1 think that you and I 1 are the only friends of his in this new world it Is curious that we should meet as ye we do said william 1 I could love you myself for all this the last time that robert and I 1 sat down for a talk together he was in despair because you were engaged to rosewell what a joy to hear you say it I 1 I 1 found soon eoon that I 1 could not love rosewell and that I 1 was deeply in love with robert I 1 wonder it if lie he has forgotten me ol 01 no wherever he Is you may be sure that you are in every hour of his lire life I 1 know him as the eagle knows tits ills mate he was not easily moved ile he scoffed at my enthusiasms the love of a man for a maid had never touched him film until he met you then for the first time lie he showed the white flag I 1 would bet my worthless noosed koosed neck that robert has been thinking of you a hundred times this aery day she fumed to him with a took look of joy and sympathy saying these are the lie sweetest words that have ever come to my ears I 1 have been starving for comfort with eve every ry one against me my heart Is stubborn it would not give up it would riot not eva even let me go home to my people I 1 have had to stay here and see this through Is it the wisdom of a wom aus ans heart that has sustained me ile he answered it Is all this opposition that has held you steadfast at last I 1 am rewarded with good news slie she said the astrologer tells me that my lover will be coming soon william smiled he had little faith in the arts odthe of the astrologer in which the women of that time put a large dependence ile he was however astonished rt at tho the greatness of her heart the two passed a number of ragged children who looked curiously at the rope on williams neck and soon began throwing pebbles at him peggy weld put an end to their mischief that was the beginning of tile the great things in the promise of margaret hooper and roger williams young heydon had long been thinking of the children of the poor who were growing up in Ig norai they were the most pressing problem of the colony there were a number of young ladles in boston like reggy peggy weld with nothing ln to do he made a plan for organizing the male children of the toilers boilers into groups and for interesting the young ladles in the task of ten teaching benching ching them reading and writing the love of cleanliness and decency and fair play vane gave him film hearty support he and william supplied the money for a rough inexpensive structure in which the young boys were taught it was equipped with benches and blackboards the work began and prospered the seamen the goodmen and their wives brought their children to this haven of new hope the young ones enjoyed the teaching th ohp play and the rewards the church and the court were deeply interested the ministers deacons and magi magistrates strakes were coming often to see the astonishing progress of the learners volunteers were offering help winthrop said that no better work had been done in the new world the work was transferred to the ampler accommodations of the meeting house and philander and daniel maude two learned men were engaged by the court to do the teaching meanwhile william heydon out in the bay with his boat hall had saved two people from drowning ile he was returning in his canoe from a visit to his friend henry blaxton ile he went immediately to their relief th the e panic stricken pair upset his canoe and dashed him into deep water fortunately tuna tely they were not more than a fathoms length from good footing one of those saved was a daughter of the magistrate john haynes the girl a as ll 11 fate would have it clung to the ro rope e on williams neck while the other was dragged to shallow water in tits his left hand the next day vane prevailed upon the court to pardon him the rope was removed from his neck and again at last he be was EL a citizen he joined the military company he visited and helped the poor their dialect their droll and rugged humor interested him the flavor of the soll soil and tile the salt gait sea was ads in it he became a popular man and even the church folk gave him a welcome in their homes peggy weld and her brother had taken ship to new amsterdam and were going north from there to the lake of the iroquois and perhaps to gebec to find robert R bert heathers those who could not accept the sanctity of all the ancient hebraic teaching were driven out of the colony the brilliant antino ninin anne hutchinson still tarried having won the favor of the ladles of the parish because enuse of her wit and charm governor vane was severely criticized for countenance and support to her ra cerles it was evident that even te a friendship of the influential women not long delay her exile lucli a quenching of the sparks of was not ne w the taste of the f A a tale 1 ale of the beginning of new england by IRVING BACHELLER service copyright by irving bacheller generous john winthrop the church h was filled with dark sayings a pretentious tent ious lous babbling as to the merits of sanctification and justification yet every sabbath a warden drummed tile the people out of their comfortable for table homes and hailed them to church all had to go and assume a look of piety while they shivered for hours in a dank cold atmosphere in no way improved by a dank and molded theology william and vane and others were gospel glutted william heydon rode across countr country y to see roger williams at his fireside lie he met the distinguished thomas hooker ile he sat for a day in the co company m of these great free minded purl tans who upheld the right of the individual to find his belief without coercion lie ile aroused their enthusiasm by telling of ills his work that day he saw these men chiseling chi the spiritual blocks which were to be the foundation of a structure immense and wonderful they were these the beginning of authority is the free consent of the governed said the courageous ou brown bearded gray eyed hooker who had worked his way through cambridge as a in his college dining room and god knows neither jew nor gentile rank nor caste said the iron gray amply mustached roger williams tile the spirit of love manifested in the love of a man for ills his neighbor Is the big thing there can be no love of god without it it if neighbors are not loveable love able we must make them so both agreed that the safety of the colonies lay in the education of the poor william went away encouraged by the friendship of these men their ideals had given him a new understanding of life and a new zest for it leaving there he took medicine and a nurse to a tribe of indians who were dying like rotten sheep of the smallpox meanwhile new evidence regarding robert heathers came to governor vane samp had brought some hint of it to boston james rosewell had gone up the coast on the tavern ship ile he went ashore at tile the fishing camp where amos and robert fleeing from john samp had set out to cross the wilderness ile he suspected that the fugitive was still lingering in that part of the woods moreover definite word had find come came to boston that one edward in that camp had important information rosewell found him 1 I wont go down there and spend it a week or two for nothing said mellow es im a poor man I 1 have to work for my living if you have good evidence I 1 will see pee that you have a fair allowance for your time Mcl lowes answered while the tavern ship was ras lying here that time a shallop turned in from boston her captain said that a man named heydon was being tried for adultery and was ras likely to bo be hung in spite of his being a blue blooded gentleman the young soung chap who was with said to roe me if they hang heydon they will hang the wrong man I 1 know that lie he Is innocent how do you know that I 1 asked I 1 reckon lie expect to be questioned ife he changed color and stam a little and said the guilty man ran away that night 1 I know or care who lie he was I 1 know when the tavern ship left boston I 1 was spree ing all night and went up the coast fishing next day thus a gibbet was being erected for robert heathers CHAPTER VIII the capture peggy acid and her brother took a ship north from new amsterdam to fort orange while robert heathers and amos were still in the pathless waste robert was weary after ten days of climbing and crawling and sloshing slashing shing and tiptoeing and whispering in this interminable wilderness beset with perils he had grown thin and irritable ri dont get amos said to him 1 I reckon well be at the big lake soon then ill give ye a ride and ye can rest yer er nags they came about nightfall to th edge of a small lake it was about a quarter of a mile in width and some two miles long the deep silence of 0 its wild lonely setting was broken by the distant chattering of a porcupine they drank the lake water and ate of their meat and meal oll oh godl god I 1 im weary robert whispered ns as he lay back and spread his arms to the mossy ground 1 I dont like the feel 0 tills this said amos well push on a little and nose into a thicket and lie down they found a stand of young pine and spruce on high ground not a fat fal con shot from the lake under its ita cover they lay down their heads were were no sooner on the ground than they heard loud cries in the distant forest aroos amos sat up and listened A loud splashing broke the silence two canossi cano canoes esi I 1 amos whispered the killers have come its savages driving game toward the lake on the farther shore said lie he were lucky not to be there A band of red men maybe fifty or more start miles back about a hundred feet apart and drive shoreward the killers are lann in canoes on the lake they have sharp lances 0 ironwood when tile the game takes water they thrust the lances to its heart and drag it out have a big fire and a feast down there if theres meat enough eat themselves stiff and sleep for two days ahe the wild cries were coming near the lake weird echoes chased one another far and wide in the wooded solitudes suddenly they ceased there was a great splashing in the water below then the angry roaring of a moose in tits his death struggles and a shrilling like that of a stampede of demons in tile the dooryard of hell to quote from a in the diary of robert Ilta the killing went on while the beasts groaned and strove helpless in the water it ceased in the space of a few minutes the tumult dimmed to a low ch chatter ritter they heard the crackling of fire and soon through their close knit lattice of pine needles they could see the glow of its flames in a moment shrill cries of anguish leaped heavenward and sped away over the ridges they sank into frightful sobbing aspirated groans and rose again into a strained tremulous far reaching bugle note of agony it was mingled with a hoarse background of devilish and gleeful laughter my godl godi robert exclaimed are they torturing a white mana man amos answered 1 I do not think so I 1 have heard the like ol 01 0 that before it were the voice ofa savage ile he were imitation a white man under torture our nerves be like a fiddle string we holler when we are hurt to the bone we cant help it groans are music to them fiends 0 hell they sing or make no sound when they be put to torture if they show that they feel pain they die disgraced I 1 reckon they have no more nerves than a muskrat that fellow give a good imitation but I 1 knew it were fun mahln A white man would have had bad so methin to say to god or hed a cursed em a murth in good french dutch or english I 1 reckon we better get away arway from this st inkin hog wallow for fear make a drive on this side tomorrow I 1 got the lay ol 01 0 the land afore dark this ridge goes north well cat eat foot to its top and grope along till midnight they shouldered their packs and cautiously moved on while the indians indiana were shouting and dancing and yelping around their fire that night robert carried the heavier burden he got a reaction from the torture cries which he noted in his diary as follows As I 1 lay back on the ground and listened to the cries of agony they seemed to come from my own heart godl god I 1 I 1 think it would relieve me if I 1 could lie on my back and sob and yell for an hour as I 1 used to do when I 1 was a child slowly in the exciting days that followed the sharpness of his worries wore away but often when he be slept lie he dreamed of the gallows find and its rope the weather favored them it was a time when snow and cold winds were overdue but still the indian summer lingered the days were pleasant the hazy wooded peaks and ranges bathed in sunlight at last from a mountaintop they saw the great lake of the iroquois a long water filled basin reaching far north and south between two ranges shown in the familiar map of champlain Champl aln TO BE CONTINUED |