Michael O'Halloran — "Bearer of Morning"
"_Bearer of Morning_" "Douglas," called Leslie over the telephone, "I have developed nerves."
"Why?"
inquired he.
"Dad has just come in with a pair of waist-high boots, and a scalping knife, I think," answered Leslie.
"Are you going to bring a blanket and a war bonnet?"
"The blanket, I can; the bonnet, I might," said Douglas.
"How early will you be ready?"
she asked.
"Whenever you say," he replied.
"Five?"
she queried.
"Very well!"
he answered.
"And Leslie, I would suggest a sweater, short stout skirts, and heavy gloves.
Do you know if you are susceptible to poison vines?"
"I have handled anything wild as I pleased all my life," she said.
"I am sure there is no danger from that source; but Douglas, did you ever hear of, or see, a massasauga?"
"You are perfectly safe on that score," he said.
"I am going along especially to take care of you."
"All right, then I won't be afraid of snakes," she said.
"I have waders, too," he said, "and I'm going into the swamp with you.
Wherever you wish to go, I will precede you and test the footing."
"Very well!
I have lingered on the borders long enough.
To-morrow will be my initiation.
By night I'll have learned the state of my artistic ability with natural resources, and I'll know whether the heart of the swamp is the loveliest sight I ever have seen, and I will have proved how I 'line up' with a squaw-woman."
"Leslie, I'm now reading a most interesting human document," said Douglas, "and in it I have reached the place where Indians in the heart of terrific winter killed and heaped up a pile of deer in early day in Minnesota, then went to camp rejoicing, while their squaws were left to walk twenty-eight miles and each carry back on her shoulder a deer frozen stiff.
Leslie, you don't line up!
You are not expected to."
"Do you believe that, Douglas?"
asked the girl.
"It's history dear, not fiction," he answered.
"Douglas!"
she warned.
"Leslie, I beg your pardon!
That was a slip!"
cried he.
"Oh!"
she breathed.
"Leslie, will you do something for me?"
he questioned.
"What?"
she retorted.
"Listen with one ear, stop the other, and tell me what you hear," he ordered.
"Yes," she said.
"Did you hear, Leslie?"
he asked anxiously.
"I heard something, I don't know what," she answered.
"Can you describe it, Leslie?"
"Just a rushing, beating sound!
What is it Douglas?"
"My heart, Leslie, sending to you each throbbing stroke of my manhood pouring out its love for you."
"Oh-h-h!"
cried the astonished girl.
"Will you listen again, Leslie?"
begged the man.
"No!"
she said.
"You don't want to hear what my heart has to say to you?"
he asked.
"Not over a wire!
Not so far away!"
she panted.
"Then I'll shorten the distance.
I'm coming, Leslie!"
"What shall I do?"
she gasped.
She stared around her, trying to decide whether she should follow her impulse to hide, when her father entered the room.
"Daddy," she cried, "if you want to be nice to me, go away a little while.
Go somewhere a few minutes and stay until I call you."
"Leslie, what's the matter?"
he asked.
"I've been talking to Douglas, and Daddy, he's coming like a charging Highland trooper.
Daddy, I heard him drop the receiver and start.
Please, please go away a minute.
Even the dearest father in the world can't do anything now!
We must settle this ourselves."
"I'm not to be allowed a word?"
he protested.
"Daddy, you've had two years!
If you know anything to say against Douglas and haven't said it in all that time, why should you begin now?
You couldn't help knowing!
Daddy, do go!
There he is!
I hear him!"
Mr. Winton took his daughter in his arms, kissed her tenderly, and left the room.
A second later Douglas Bruce entered.
Rushing to Leslie he caught her to his breast roughly, while with a strong hand he pressed her ear against his heart.
"Now you listen, my girl!"
he cried.
"You listen at close range."
Leslie remained quiet a long second.
Then she lifted her face, adorable, misty eyed and tenderly smiling.
"Douglas, I never listened to a heart before!
How do I know what it is saying?
I can't tell whether it is talking about me or protesting against the way you've been rushing around!"
"No levity, my lady," he said grimly.
"This is serious business.
You listen while I interpret.
I
love you, Leslie!
Every beat, every stroke, love for you.
I claim you!
My mate!
My wife!
I want you!"
He held her from him, looking into her eyes.
"Now Leslie, the answer!"
he cried.
"May I listen to it or will you tell me?
_Is_ there any answer?
What is _your_ heart saying?
May I hear or will you tell me?"
"I want to tell you!"
said the girl.
"I love you, Douglas!
Every beat, every stroke, love for you."
Early the next morning they inspected their equipment carefully, then drove north to the tamarack swamp, where they arranged that Leslie and Douglas were to hunt material, while Mr. Winton and the driver went to the nearest Indian settlement to find the squaw who had made the other basket, and bring her to the swamp.
If you have experienced the same emotions you will know how Douglas and Leslie felt when hand in hand they entered the swamp on a perfect morning in late May.
If you have not, mere words are inadequate.
Through fern and brake head high, through sumac, willow, elder, buttonbush, gold-yellow and blood-red osiers, past northern holly, over spongy moss carpet of palest silvery green up-piled for ages, over red-veined pitcher plants spilling their fullness, among scraggy, odorous tamaracks, beneath which cranberries and rosemary were blooming; through ethereal pale mists of dawn, in their ears lark songs of morning from the fields, hermit thrushes in the swamp, bell birds tolling molten notes, in a minor strain a swelling chorus of sparrows, titmice, warblers, vireos, went two strong, healthy young people newly promised for "better or worse."
They could only look, stammer, flush, and utter broken exclamations, all about "better."
They could not remotely conceive that life might serve them the cruel trick of "worse."
Leslie sank to her knees.
Douglas lifted her up, set her on the firmest location he could see, adoring her with his eyes and reverent touch.
Since that first rough grasp as he drew her to him, Leslie had felt positively fragile in his hands.
She smiled at him her most beautiful smile when wide-eyed with emotion.
"Douglas, why just now, when you've waited two years?"
she asked.
"Wanted a degree of success to offer," he answered.
Leslie disdained the need for success.
"Wanted you to have time to know me as completely as possible."
Leslie intimated that she could learn faster.
"Wanted to have the acknowledged right to put my body between yours and any danger this swamp might have to offer to-day."
"Exactly what I thought!"
cried she.
"Wise girl," commented the man.
"Douglas, I must hurry!"
said Leslie.
"It may take a long time to find the flowers I want, while I've no idea what I shall do for a basket.
I
saw osiers yellow and red in quantities, but where are the orchids?"
"We must make our way farther in and search," he said.
"Douglas, listen!"
breathed Leslie.
"I hear exquisite music," he answered.
"But don't you recognize it?"
she cried.
"It does seem familiar, but I am not sufficiently schooled in music----" The girl began softly to whistle.
"By Jove!"
cried the man.
"What is that Leslie?"
"Di Provenza, from Traviata," she answered.
"But I must stop listening for birds Douglas, when I can scarcely watch for flowers or vines.
I
have to keep all the time looking to make sure that you are really my man."
"And I, that you are my woman.
Leslie, that expression and this location, the fact that you are in competition with a squaw and the Indian talk we have indulged in lately, all conspire to remind me that a few days ago, while I was still a 'searcher' myself, I read a poem called 'Song of the Search' that was the biggest thing of its kind that I have yet found in our language.
It was so great that I reread it until I am sure I can do it justice.
Listen my 'Bearer of Morning,' my 'Bringer of Song----'" Douglas stood straight as the tamaracks, his feet sinking in "the little moss," while from his heart he quoted Constance Skinner's wonderful poem: "_I descend through the forest alone.
Rose-flushed are the willows, stark and a-quiver, In the warm sudden grasp of Spring; Like a woman when her lover has suddenly, swiftly taken her.
I hear the secret rustle of little leaves, Waiting to be born.
The air is a wind of love From the wings of eagles mating---- O eagles, my sky is dark with your wings!
The hills and the waters pity me, The pine-trees reproach me.
The little moss whispers under my feet, "Son of Earth, Brother, Why comest thou hither alone?"
Oh, the wolf has his mate on the mountain---- Where art thou, Spring-daughter?
I tremble with love as reeds by the river, I burn as the dusk in the red-tented west, I call thee aloud as the deer calls the doe, I await thee as hills wait the morning, I desire thee as eagles the storm; I yearn to thy breast as night to the sea, I claim thee as the silence claims the stars.
O
Earth, Earth, great Earth, Mate of God and mother of me, Say, where is she, the Bearer of Morning, My Bringer of Song?
Love in me waits to be born, Where is She, the Woman?
_ "'Where is she, the Woman?'
The answer is 'Here!'
'Bearer of Morning,' 'Bringer of Song,' I adore you!"
"Oh Douglas, how beautiful!"
cried Leslie.
"My Man, can we think of anything save ourselves to-day?
Can we make that basket?"
"It would be a bad start to give up our first undertaking together," he said.
"Of course!"
she cried.
"We must!
We simply must find things.
Father may call any minute.
Let go my hand and follow behind me.
Keep close, Douglas!"
"I should go before to clear the way," he suggested.
"No, I may miss rare flowers if you do," she objected.
"Go slowly, so I can watch before and overhead."
"Yes!"
she answered.
"There!
There, Douglas!"
"Ah!
There they are!"
he exulted.
"But I can't take them!"
she protested.
"Only a few, Leslie.
Look before you!
See how many there are!"
he said.
"Douglas, could there be more wonderful flowers than the moccasins and slippers?"
she asked.
"Scarcely more wonderful; there might be more delicate and lovely!"
"Farther!
Let us go farther!"
she urged.
Her cry closed the man's arms around her.
Then there was a long silence during which they stood on the edge of a small open space breathlessly worshipping, but it was the Almighty they were now adoring.
Here the moss lay in a flat carpet, tinted deeper green.
Water willow rolled its ragged reddish-tan hoops, with swelling bloom and leaf buds.
Overflowing pitcher plants grew in irregular beds, on slender stems, lifting high their flat buds.
But scattered in groups here and there, sometimes with massed similar colours, sometimes in clumps and variegated patches, stood the rare, early fringed orchis, some almost white, others pale lavender and again the deeper colour of the moccasins; while everywhere on stems, some a foot high, nodded the exquisite lavender and white showy orchis.
"Count!"
he commanded.
Leslie pointed a slender finger indicating each as she spoke: "One, two, three--thirty-two, under the sweep of your arms, Douglas!
And more!
More by the hundred!
Surely if we are careful not to kill them, the Lord won't mind if we take out a few for people to see, will He?"
"He must have made them to be seen!"
said Douglas.
"And worshipped!"
cried the girl.
"Douglas, why didn't the squaw----?"
asked Leslie.
"Maybe she didn't come this far," he said.
"Perhaps she knows by experience that these are too fragile to remove.
You may not be able to handle them, Leslie."
"I'm going to try," she said.
"But first I must make my basket.
We'll go back to the osiers to weave it and then come here to fill it.
Oh Douglas!
Did you ever see such flower perfection in all your life?"
"Only in books!
In my home country applied botany is a part of every man's education.
I never have seen ragged or fringed orchids growing before.
I have read of many fruitless searches for the white ones."
"So have I. They seem to be the rarest.
Douglas, look there!"
"There" was a group of purple-lavender, white-lipped bloom, made by years of spreading from one root, until above the rank moss and beneath the dark tamarack branch the picture appeared inconceivably delicate.
"Yes!
The most exquisite flowers I ever have seen!"
"And there, Douglas!"
She pointed to another group.
"Just the shade of the lavender on the toe of the moccasin--and in a great ragged mass!
Would any one believe it?"
"Not without seeing it," he said emphatically.
"And there, Douglas!
Exactly the colour of the moccasins--see that cluster!
There are no words, Douglas!"
"Shall you go farther?"
he asked.
"No," she answered.
"I'm going back to weave my basket.
There is nothing to surpass the orchids in rarity and wondrous beauty."
"Good!"
he cried.
"I'll go ahead and you follow."
So they returned to the osiers.
Leslie pondered deeply a few seconds, then resolutely putting Douglas aside, she began cutting armloads of pale yellow osiers.
Finding a suitable place to work, she swiftly and deftly selected perfect, straight evenly coloured ones, cutting them the same length, then binding the tip ends firmly with raffia she had brought to substitute for grass.
Then with fine slips she began weaving, gradually spreading the twigs while inwardly giving thanks for the lessons she had taken in basketry.
At last she held up a big, pointed, yellow basket.
"Ready!"
she said.
"Beautiful!"
cried Douglas.
Leslie carefully lined the basket with moss in which the flowers grew, working the heads between the open spaces she had left.
She bent three twigs, dividing her basket top in exact thirds.
One of these she filled with the whitest, one with stronger, and one with the deepest lavender, placing the tallest plants in the centre so that the outside ones would show completely.
Then she lifted by the root exquisite showy orchis, lavender-hooded, white-lipped, the tiniest plants she could select and set them around the edge.
She bedded the moss-wrapped roots in the basket and began bordering the rim and entwining the handle with a delicate vine.
She looked up at Douglas, her face thrilled with triumph, flushed with exertion, her eyes humid with feeling, while he gazed at her stirred to the depth of his heart with sympathy and the wonder of possession.
"'Bearer of Morning,' you win!"
he cried triumphantly.
"There is no use going farther.
Let me carry that to your father, and he too will say so."
"I have a reason for working out our plan," she said.
"Yes?
May I know?"
he asked.
"Surely!"
she answered.
"You remember what you told me about the Minturns.
I can't live in a city and not have my feelings harrowed every day, and while I'd like to change everything wrong, I know I can't all of it, so what I can't cope with must be put aside; but this refuses, it is insistent.
When you really think of it, that is so _dreadful_, Douglas.
If they once felt what we do now, could it _all_ go?
There must be something left!
You mention him oftener than any other one man, so you must admire him deeply; I know her as well as any woman I meet in society, better than most; I had thought of asking them to be the judges.
She is interested in music and art; it would please her and be perfectly natural for me to ask her; you are on intimate terms with him from your offices being opposite; there could be no suspicion of any ulterior motive in having them.
I don't know that it would accomplish anything, but it would let them know, to begin with, that we consider them friends; so it would be natural for them to come with us; if we can't manage more than that to-day, it will give us ground to try again."
"Splendid!"
he said.
"A splendid plan!
It would let them see that at least our part of the world thinks of them together, and expects them to be friends.
Splendid!"
"I have finished," said Leslie.
"I quite agree," answered Douglas.
"No one could do better.
That is the ultimate beauty of the swamp made manifest.
