Adeline Knapp

“ The wealth of a country is not to be estimated by the amount of its exports, or by the number of its great buildings, fine harbors, or splendid cities. A nation may have all of these while the people themselves are poor. The United States is a great and rich nation, not because of the value of its national possessions, but because the great mass of the people are fairly well off. There can be no real prosperity in a country unless the people themselves share it; there can be no just government if that government is considered as something apart from the people. ”

“ The night was far spent when Gard awoke. A late moon rode high in the heavens, flooding the glade with white light. The familiarity of the scene bewildered his rousing consciousness. The circling trees, the murmur of water, the far-seeming faint glow of embers in the great fireplace, his narrow ocotilla bed with its bear-skin covering: how well he knew them all! Had he but slept and dreamed, to awaken after all to the daily round of his accustomed solitude?
He raised himself upon one elbow. On the cot which they had brought for her, there, within reach of his hand, Helen lay sleeping. ”

“ HOW THE SHINING KNIGHT’S TREASURE WAS BROUGHT TO LIGHT It was high noon when the last of the knights of the Swartzburg laid down his arms at the feet of the emperor and swore fealty to him. Of the castle’s company Herr Banf was missing; for he had ridden forth, in the confusion that followed the entrance of Rudolf’s men, to make his way through the woods and thence out from that land, minded rather to live an outlaw than to bend knee to the foe of his well loved friend.
A wise ruler as well as a brave soldier was Rudolf of Hapsburg, and well knew he how to win as well as to conquer. ”

“ And who knows what may be the fate of that which was the real life of that ancient plant—the forces of light and heat set free in our furnaces and forges, to begin, again, their office of ministering use?
Did the giant rush die? Does anything die? Ages have seen the rushes fall and pass from sight, to wake to glorious light in the leaping 50flames. We see leaves fall each year and turn to mold from which other life-forms spring. There will be other poppies, next year, where yonder orange-red blossoms nod in the breeze. ”

“ As Gard put back his shell, with its contents of thorns and turned toward the pool sudden recognition came to him of a heretofore unsuspected truth.
“By the great face of clay, Jinny,” he said, drawing a long breath, “We’re not so bad off, after all!”
Again his eyes ranged the green circle of the glade; at the farther side, where the growth was sparse, he could see the valley with its yellow sands and rose-tinted air. The bright red of blossoming cacti made vivid patches here and there in the waste; even the great barren felt the touch of spring. ”

“ No word about the islands can be complete unless it touches upon the wonderful beauty of this country. This is a great part of the good inheritance of the people. It ought to quicken the pleasure and pride of every Filipino in his beautiful land. Its lofty mountains, its lovely plains and noble rivers, the rich verdure that clothes the country, all go to make up beautiful pictures everywhere. There is much that can and must be done to make the cities and towns more fit and beautiful places for people to live in; but for the outside country nature has done great things. ”

“ Mark ye, Gretel, Barbarossa will never wake from his sleep. He has forgotten the land. My father says God has forgotten it in his heaven, and how shall Barbarossa remember it, sleeping in his stone chamber? No; it is the truth: he will never come.”
“It is no long beard,” said Hansei, who had been watching eagerly. “’Tis something that he bears before him at his saddle-peak.”
This was indeed true. The shining stranger, as the children could now plainly see, held in front of him, on the saddle-peak, a good-sized burden, though what it was the young watchers could not, for the distance, make out. ”

“ All about me the things of Nature are still in the mystical, subtile tenderness of their young, green growth. The golden days of autumn are full of their own beauty. The grey days of winter’s mist and fog have theirs, but there is something in the tender blue days of the rainy springtime that sets the heart apraise, and brings out as nothing else can, the meanings of leaf and bud, of flower and tree. ”

“ By mid-forenoon the sun’s rays were oppressive, and they halted in the shadow of a giant suhuaro.
The camel, when the man released the leading-strap, lowered itself slowly to rest, doubling down its legs like the shutting of a jack-knife, and settling upon the sand with the curious, sighing grunt of old age.
Gard, in the meantime, set about the preparation of a meal. He shelled a handful of tree beans and crushed them between two stones, mixing them with water from his canteen into a sort of paste, which he ate. ”

“ In all such encounters with the Filipinos, the Spaniards had the advantage of better organization. The troops were well drilled and trained to obey, and their leaders were skilled in warfare. With no army organization and no outside aid the Filipino people were helpless to maintain their rights. Nevertheless, it is not in the nature of brave men to submit tamely to injustice or oppression, and it is no matter for surprise that though each new revolt was promptly put down, the spirit of liberty constantly urged the people on to new attempts to gain some measure of freedom. ”

“ The deformed boy saw the motion, and his face grew dark with rage and hate.
“Thou’lt fight me?” he screamed, springing forward. “Ay, that thou shalt, and rue it after, tinker’s varlet that thou art!” And with his hand he smote Wulf upon the mouth, whereupon he dropped the corselet and clenched his fists, but could lay no blow on the pitiful creature before him. Seeing this, the other, half crazed with anger, drew a short sword which he wore, and made at Wulf, who raised the armorer’s staff which he still held and struck the little blade to the ground. ”

“ We know that we have ourselves fashioned the chain that binds us to earth. We know that we were made for flight, and we know that we know all this. Still afar in the sky the hawk soars, with downward gaze seeking his desire. Still, tho’ my feet are upon the earth, my spirit fares upward in its flight toward its desire, above and beyond its strong wings’ farthest flight.
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I wonder whether the restless impulse that sends city folks hill-ward in the springtime is not a part of the Divine Plan that would lead us all to lift up our eyes to the hills whence our help cometh. ”

“ Almost unconsciously he began telling her of finding his claim; of working it; and of Jinny.
Helen listened with rapt interest. She knew that men did go off into the mountains as she supposed Gard must have done. She had talked with prospectors, in her lifetime, but never with one like this.
“I suppose you will be wonderfully rich when you begin working your claim in earnest,” she said, at last, slowly, “Shall you like that?”
“I think so. There are some things I want a good deal”—Ah, how much he wanted them: the right to freedom; the right to hold up his head among men. ”

“ Elise came a step nearer, with a gesture of pleading.
“My lord,” she said, with earnest dignity, “ye cannot mean it! I am a poor, helpless maiden, with nor father nor brother to fend for me. Never can ye mean to do me this wrong.”
“’Tis needful, girl,” the baron said, keeping his eyes lowered; “this is no time for thee to be unwed. Thou must have a legal protector other than I. Only a husband can hold thy property from the emperor’s greed—and perhaps save thee from eviler straits.” ”

“ They flock up here, the city folks, during these first spring days, to eat their luncheons by the roadside and to fill their hands with the poppies and wild hyacinth, the blue-eyed grass and pimpernel that everywhere dot the young meadows’ glowing green. I hear, at night-fall, mother’s voices calling the little ones to prepare for home-going, and I love to see the contented parties go wandering down, the tiniest tired climber usually sound asleep in his father’s arms with the sun’s last rays caressing the small face. ”

“ Across the desert came the sound of a man’s voice, calling angrily. ’Chita put out a hand, arresting Gard’s steps.
“It is my father,” she whispered. “He is blind; but he has ears of the coyote. If he hears you—if he knows—he will beat me!”
She was but a child, now, in her terror, and Gard reassured her.
“He’ll never know,” he said. “No one will ever know. You go back, now, like a good girl. And remember: you must never do a silly thing like this again. Will you promise me?”
She lifted a pale face toward his, in the starlight. ”

“ It grew close up about the shop, so that its small wild life constantly came in at the open door, or invited the youngster forth to play. Rabbits and squirrels peeped in at him; birds wandered in and built their nests in dark corners; and one winter a vixen fox took shelter with them, remaining until spring, and grew so tame that she would eat bread from Wulf’s hand.
The great trees were his constant companions and friends, but one mighty oak that grew close beside the door, and sent out its huge arms completely over the shop, became, next to Karl, his chosen comrade. ”

“ All day they had moved steadily mountainward, and now they began to draw nearer the range that ever since dawn had reared a jagged line along the horizon. Gard had not known whether they would reach the mountains that day. One does not predicate distances in the desert. They may be long, or short; the lying air gives no clue.
But as the afternoon shadows were turning to mauve and blue, what had for hours looked like sloping foothills, leading gently toward further heights, suddenly reared itself before them in a long stretch of high, perpendicular wall. ”

“ The growth of the scouring-rush seems to me to show something beautiful, as well as interesting. There is a certain light-hearted gaiety in the waving, tree-like thing which makes one forget that it is a degenerate stock, and doomed to destruction. Still a little work remains for it to do: still some waste places and miasmatic bogs to be cleansed and purified, and so the little rush grows on, the merest shadow of its once opulent self. ”

“ Just where the massive square bulk of the keep raised its grim stories, a great buttress thrust boldly out from the castle, running up beside the wall of the tower for a considerable distance. The two were just enough apart to be firmly touched, on either side, by a man who might stand between them, and it was a mighty test of courage and strength for a man to climb up between them, even a few yards, by hand and foot pressure only. It was a great feat to perform among the more ambitious knights and squires about the castle. ”

“ We see this same tendency in the leaves of the wild poppy, the buttercup and all the great crowfoot family. Across the road stretches a line of locusts, just now in dainty, snowy, fragrant blossom. 21The individuality of a tree is a constant and delightful fact in Nature. The locust is as unlike the oak or the willow as can well be imagined, yet like them in taking on an added and characteristic loveliness in the rain. How delicately the branches pencil themselves against the blue and silver of the cloudy sky and the dark green of the orchard beyond them! ”

“ The luminous blue sky, the colorful air, the immensity of the waste plain, gave him pleasure. Even the weird desert growths no longer oppressed him.
“After all, Jinny,” he said, as they threaded their way gingerly past a great patch of cholla, with its vicious, hooked spines, “there’s as much life here as there is death. I never sensed it before; but everything’s got a claw to hang onto life with.” ”