Page:The Overland Monthly, Jan-June 1894.djvu/267



1894.]

Those Who Heard.

203

against it. To the east rose Mount Ta- coma, a monument of dazzling bright- ness. Mrs. Churchill looked around upon the scene and sighed gently.

" It is strange, Robert," said she, " that I should feel any sense of regret at leaving Tacoma, yet the thought of it makes me sad. Nature is so beauti- ful here that I almost forget how sor- rowful has been our experience. I have wondered how the people can be so ab- sorbed in the struggle for wealth, when there is so much about them to satisfy the love of beauty."

Whatever his answer might have been, it was cut short by the noise of a carriage dashing down the wharf. It drew up beside the boat, and the Major and Mrs. Kamm jumped out. The steamer was just casting off, so they had only time to shout their farewells. Their friends on the deck waved hand- kerchiefs to them until they were out of sight, and then remained to catch a last view of Tacoma ere the steamer rounded Brown's Point, and the scene of their hardships was shut out from their view forever.

H. Elton Smith.

THOSE WHO HEARD.

PURPOSELESS

She fluttered blithely through the shadowy wood, Like some unheeding bird. Hid there she found A shrinking violet in dewy tears. "Poor violet!" she said, and saying smiled. " Proud in your sorrow, hiding from the world ! Why are you weeping? Is it for some breeze That, loving, died upon your fragrant lips?" And so, while sunshine danced within her heart, She wrote a mourning song about the flower, Those who heard it wept.

Time counted

One bead upon his rosary of years. The sun no longer shone within her heart, With useless tears her own eyes were aweary. In lonely sadness did she seek the wood, . To drown herself in shadow-haunted depths. " Now I know Grief," she said, and saying, sighed. She wrote a song that tripped of its own mirth, Those who heard it laughed.

Sarah Comstock.