*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 63028 ***

[Illustration:

  Hand in hand, a dark-eyed lad and a fair-haired lassie approached.

  Page 4.
]




                               REINSTERN


[Illustration]

[Illustration: BY]

                          _ELOISE O. RICHBERG_

[Illustration]

                               CINCINNATI
                     THE EDITOR PUBLISHING COMPANY
                                  1900




                               COPYRIGHT
                     THE EDITOR PUBLISHING COMPANY
                                 1900.

------------------------------------------------------------------------




                                CONTENTS


                             REINSTERN
                             LOVE’S DESTINY




                              _REINSTERN._


On, and on, and on! For interminable hours had we been rushing headlong
over yellowish-brown plains, punctuated here and there by willow-fringed
streams; past huge water-tanks standing guard over dreary little cabins
already cowering before the approach of fierce wintry assaults; past
forlorn specimens of unkempt and altogether hopeless humanity, who
straggled away toward invisible habitations beyond the horizon, or,
swaddled in accumulated filth and ragged shawls, squatted in solemn
stolidity by the roadside for a vanishing glimpse of fleeting
civilization.

From profitless window-gazing, to that supposedly restful twist
invariably assumed by the weary woman-traveler; from contemplation of
barren and boundless distance without, to closed eyes and anxious
retrospection, within; from the sterility of facts present, to the
incomparably cruel suggestions of merciless imagination, involving the
health, happiness, even the life of loved ones left behind;—till,
gradually, Creation resolved itself into a jumble of indefinable sounds
and fancies;—a rumbling, jolting, wheezing dizziness:

A crash and lurch brought every would-be-dozer to his feet, the train
suddenly ceased moving, and apprehensive of danger, we promptly
responded to the peremptory call: “All out here!” to find ourselves on a
wide springy platform surrounding a station-building quite unlike any
previously observed; in an atmosphere laden with the perfume of—was it
pine-woods—newly mown hay—violets—lilies or jasmine?

It seemed rather a mixture of many delicious odors. Fertile fields and
wooded hills stretched away before us; men, women and children in ideal
peasant costumes moved gaily about, chatting together, singing, dancing
over the velvety sod, or leaping and swinging from the supple boughs
while pelting each other with blossoms or gathering the luscious fruit
which was everywhere temptingly abundant.

Through the shrubbery, glimpses of rock-built and vine-covered homes
told of individual prosperity; flowering mosses outlined the roadways;
and luxuriant hedges, also in full bloom, divided the grounds one from
another; fountains and myriad birds filled the air with happy melodies.

Hand in hand, a dark-eyed lad and a fair-haired lassie approached,
saluted, and simultaneously asked in voices perfectly attuned, “Guides
for the city?”

Urban instincts immediately awakened and asked, “How far is it, and how
much—by the hour?”

Again, gracefully and respectfully saluting, they replied, “This is the
Center; the Fields are to the right and left; our services are paid by
the government.”

Slightly disconcerted at such unexpected hospitality, but also convinced
that our reputation as workers for the elevation of mankind had preceded
us, and rather self-exalted thereby, we said, affably enough; “Very
well; let the young lady show us about.” With an indulgent smile, they
explained, “We always help each other.” (“Born twins likely,” being our
mental comment.)

“These buildings near the Depot, for the convenience of producers and
consumers, are the Supply Stations, whence are shipped the government
products from fields and factories.

“Producers are supplied at cost, non-producers at a small advance. The
general Store-houses are farther down this, the Poplar Valley, but also
on the line of public travel.

“The Mother-fields are to the right, in the Maple-valley, while the
Father-fields fill the Elm-valley, to the left.

“Yonder, where the hill-side appears checked with different tints, are
the Schools of Natural History.”

“Schools?” we interrupted, quite prepared to exploit the superiority of
certain educational institutions farther east, in the organization and
regulation of which we had offered several valuable suggestions: “How
many schools have you?”

“They vary according to our needs; one for every ten students, from four
to twenty years of age.”

We neglected to dilate upon the immense advantages of our systems. We
may have been intoxicated by the invigorating atmosphere, the beautiful
scene, or the chanting and enchanting guides.

We did, however, venture to ask, deprecatingly, “Do you study only
Natural History?”

With a merry laugh, they answered, “Indeed! That is much, we think: To
learn of the birth, growth, development and decay of Nature’s products,
from the tiniest manifestation of life—animal, vegetable and mineral—to
man’s perfect evolution, from this physical form into spirituality.

“We, children, learn only the rudiments of each change, the Scientists
and Philosophers make it their life work.”

“And live and die poor, here as elsewhere?” we facetiously suggested.

“Indeed, no!” they answered again, with a merry peal of laughter at so
dire a possibility. “We have no ‘poor’ as you call them. The government
is the friend of everyone.”

With a skeptical sniff, and a suspicion that we were in the heart of one
of those “Ideal communities,” of whose birth, growth and early collapse
we had read, we asked:

“Where are the other schools, or are those enough for your population?”

“On Bald Hill, toward the east—you can see the brick buildings and
scaffoldings—are the schools for Mechanics; where those who are so
fitted by heredity, learn the use of tools and machinery.”

“The children of mechanics, must then follow their father’s calling?”

“Not necessarily: If a carpenter-man does not wish to raise
carpenter-children, he seeks a wife among the farmers, philosophers,
professions or wherever his preferences tend. Their united desire calls
to their home souls harmonious, in development with their intentions.

“Your people have not yet learned this law—in Natural History;” with a
roguish twinkle, “it is taught in our lowest grades.”

“Taught to children?” we asked horrified at this depravity.

“To little children. Your people ignorantly imagine marriage and birth a
game of chance, attended by much nonsense and immorality; in which
parents may draw anything from a blank or a monstrosity to a saint. You
are here to learn the beautiful truth;—or as much of it as you are
capable of grasping.”

Their conversation seemed so illy fitted to their years, that we asked
their age.

“Fifteen and eighteen years of this incarnation, while you are nearly
fifty; but, in Eternity, we are your seniors and can teach you to crush
the shell by which Earth-children have surrounded themselves.”

“You speak of ‘Earth-children;’—are you not of them?”

“No; this is Reinstern. You have been brought to us to learn the
possibilities of your people.”

“Isn’t Reinstern in the western part of the United States?” we asked,
greatly mystified.

“It is a planet as yet undiscovered by your astronomers, who waste
lifetimes searching with telescopes for what the inner vision will
readily disclose when you allow the real self to predominate.”

“This is a flimsy dream, after all,” was our immediate conclusion, which
though unexpressed, was quickly answered.

“No; you are not dreaming; but thoroughly awake, at last. Upon your
planet, generation after generation have been given over to materialism
and hypocrisy; till Life, which is only embodied in Love and Truth, is
nearly extinct; it is, in your best, torpid.

“Again and again have Teachers and Physicians from a higher plane of
existence been clothed in your Earth-garb, and lived among you that your
eyes might be opened.

“You have either persecuted or shunned them, but occasionally, after
their departure, dully recognizing their mission and superiority, have
worshipped their materialization; giving no heed to their precepts.

“It is now feared, among the sister-planets, that Earth will lose her
spirituality, which is her life, and become, again, a nonentity among
the spheres; a mass of corruption which must, eventually, return to its
original state of floating matter, to be elsewhere utilized.

“As all progress in humanity is accomplished through loving effort for
the good of others, Reinstern is now making a vigorous attempt to
elevate your people; to teach them the great truth that soul-life is one
with Universal life, and must be allowed its only expression, Love; not
love in the corrupt sense, received by most of your people, which is not
Love at all, but only a low grade of selfishness. True Love seeks the
good of all, and thereby, wins the best for self. This too is
selfishness; but such is a duty. The Father has clothed us in
individuality, that we may, through our own exertions, become stronger
in virtue; unless we avail ourselves of the opportunities he supplies,
we are ungrateful and unworthy.

“Our bodies are self-built Temples in which to worship, not the outward
manifestations of His power, but His Spirit of Love, which, though
all-pervading, all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving, must ever be
invisible to finite eyes.

“According as we truly worship and enjoy all within human possibilities,
recognizing His presence in every blessing, we live; if we ignore Love’s
voice, we are committing suicide, crowding out of the physical, Life;
hastening the decay,—individual, national and planetary, which
inevitably follows injustice and unkindness. This decay manifests itself
in your ill-health, moral and physical.”

“Do Reinstern people all speak English?” we asked, rather quizzically,
after this broadside of philosophy.

“You have been magnetically prepared for this experience, and
psychically understand all that is presented: this is in the hands of
the electrical students,—is one of their object lessons.

“Were it possible for you to come here unattended and unheralded, you
would see, hear and understand nothing, as our language resembles your
thought communication. We are not so advanced in spirituality as in many
other planets, the inhabitants of which float in the atmosphere at will,
conversing at all distances as freely as you with your family around the
breakfast table. With such the physical is quite subordinate to the
spirit; but we are much above your plane and do not appear materialized
in your eyes.

“Your spirit is, for the time, magnetically maintained by those who are
striving for the salvation of Earth from annihilation.

“You will carry your experience back to your people, and devote your
life to their uplifting. The physical life of those fortunate Earth
inhabitants who have been found susceptible to our efforts, will be
greatly prolonged by our people, that all possible good may be
accomplished.”

After a few minutes—or hours, of riding,—or was it floating? we found
ourselves in Maple Valley.

Would that we were sufficiently gifted to paint that wondrously
beautiful scene! to portray the glories of human life among the Good,
the Pure, the True, the Happy! It were then indeed an object lesson to
all of Earth’s sorrowing people.

To the left, lay broad fields of grains and grasses, bending timidly
before the fervent caress of August zephyrs; gardens of unfamiliar
fruits and vegetables stretched before us; to the right rose tier after
tier of grassy knolls dotted with low, spreading shrubbery; while
farther up the slope, ideal groves of magnificent Maples, seemed
beckoning to the pleasure-lovers.

Perfectly developed humanity supplied the Highlights for the fascinating
picture. The grassy knolls swarmed with babyhood, whose rosy-cheeked
mothers in gay colored, tunic-like garbs, busied themselves among the
rustling foliage;—pruning, training, planting and cultivating.

One could hardly believe that work, considered by us as too
laborious,—nay—positively injurious for womankind, was being
accomplished by this band of merry-makers.

When we could distract our attention from the bewildering scene, the
guides were saying: “These fields are tilled and the crops harvested by
the mothers of the Yearlings, as you see.”

“Who owns or controls the fields and pays for the labor?”

“It is government land.”

“—and the government?”

“—is officered by citizens who have outlived the parental term and
successfully graduated into full citizenship three or more children.”

After our mumbled comment, “A premium on parentage, at last,” we asked:
“Who takes care of the ‘Yearlings,’ as you have called them?”

“Their mothers;” with a puzzled look at each other—“with a little help
from the Applicants after noon.”

“Women doing farm work and baby-tending? That seems incredible;” we
exclaimed.

With a peal of happy laughter that proved contagious, and a quickly
executed, waltz-like whirl of amusement, they preceded the explanation:
“Until children pass their first birthday, they accompany their mothers
daily to these fields, to roll about on the sod, dig in the soil or
sleep in their baskets, while their mothers plant, prune, graft, harvest
or cultivate according to the season; meanwhile, the Applicants are
attending to the house and preparing for the noon home-coming; after
which they share the Yearling duties.”

“Who are the Applicants?”

“Young men and maidens, who desire to marry, after having passed with
honor through several departments of Education and Preparation; and, by
the State Records, have proved their ability to provide for the material
and spiritual needs of a family; and have received, from the Board of
Public Health their Certificates of physical fitness, are granted the
Applicant’s degree.

“This entitles them to assist and relieve Fathers and Mothers in their
home and field duties, until they pass their twenty-fifth birthdays and
have selected life partners. If they can then show records of at least
one year’s satisfactory administration of such duties, the Government
issues their Marriage-license.

“This is, in every family, a period of great rejoicing; each licensed
child being then honored by visits and gifts from all relatives and
friends; and, if he or she happens to have merited special recognition
from the city or State, by any act of peculiar heroism or
self-sacrifice, the Officials add a generous tribute.

“In some notable cases, the bride or groom must build a house in which
to store the Ante-wedding presents.”

“You make as much of the license-granting as of the wedding?”

“The public is not expected to take cognizance of the wedding day. It
would be regarded on Reinstern, as grossly immodest and cruel, to call
general attention to the exact hour wherein the young couple are legally
empowered to exercise the marital privileges. It is the culmination of
the most sacred desires of the human heart.”

As with curtained eyes, they bowed modestly before us, we felt
unaccountably ashamed of our crude practices, though but dimly
comprehending the mystic purity of which we were thus vouchsafed a brief
glimpse.

“Shall we tell you more of the fielding system?”

“Is there more?”

“You have heard but the beginning. While the mothers and applicants are
thus busied, the fathers are caring for the three-year-olds, the Buds,
in the Elm-valley,—”

“—and the two-year-olds are at home with the servants?”

“We have no servants; there is no dominating or servile class; all try
to serve the same Divine Will, as interpreted by the Higher Self.

“Our oldest citizens are advisers in time of doubt; being more highly
developed and able to read the Truth more clearly through the delicate
material veil they will soon discard.”

“Death can have no terrors for them?”

“What you term ‘Death’, the change to the next higher plane of
materiality, is, with us, but the passing of night-time; we anticipate
the glories of the approaching dawn.

“You are to see this change before you leave us. You asked of the
two-year-olds, or, as we know them, the Restless. They are in the charge
of the recently married women, who thus acquire a practical knowledge of
the motherhood to which they aspire.

“They, also have field and garden duties, not so absorbing or laborious
as those of the parents, for two reasons: The Restless need rather more
attention than the Yearlings; and the young wives themselves require
more leisure for study and preparation.”

“But who earns the living for the family?”

Again the waltzing whirl of suppressed amusement, before they said
gravely: “Parents are the highest priced laborers in the land; mothers
and fathers receiving equal honors, salaries and privileges.”

“It is all very beautiful—very—too beautiful to be true.”

“It is true; and its simplicity brings its realization within the reach
of all. It must be realized by Earth: You have the conditions,
everything, except the will to accomplish the change. All blessings are
yours to take. You are only self-blinded; and by your bigotry, are in
danger of blood-poisoning.

“Bathe your eyes in Truth; open them to His everlasting and all-powerful
Love, and wash away the putrefaction that threatens your Eternal
welfare, your planet’s existence.”

A radiant light enveloped them, an invisible choir flooded the air with
celestial harmonies; we bowed ourselves, reverently, before an unseen
but overpowering presence, and covering our faces answered, fervidly:
“With Thy help, Lord, we will.”

“After the third year?”

“The recently married men receive the graduating Buds into the Youth’s
department, and devote their first year to them; their work is also in
the open air and completes the Field course.

“After these young benedicts promote a class of Youth, they receive
their full certificates of Fatherhood. They are then of age, as you
would call it.”

“Are not many of these young people unfit for the responsibilities, the
custody of children, the field work or—”

“You have forgotten that marriage-licenses are granted only after the
Applicants are fully qualified. Our Committee on Generation thoroughly
investigate every case.”

“The five-year-olds?”

“Are taken in groups of ten, by teachers, who, during the following two
years, instruct them in the first principles of birth, growth and change
as presented by plant and animal life in field, forest, garden and home:
This includes much you would classify as rudiments of Physiology,
Chemistry, Astronomy, Psychology, Paleontology, Arithmetic, Language,
Geography, History and Agriculture, besides Cleaning and Cooking. It is
accomplished however without books or tablets, and, much of it outside
the class-rooms.

“Flowers, fruits, vegetables and grains; birds, fish, reptiles and many
other forms of animal life, are germinated and developed to maturity;
nurtured and experimented upon; but ever to the benefit of the life
involved.”

“Are your teachers men or women?”

“Both; always in pairs; the government believing that by constant and
familiar association, only, can the present standard of purity and
liberty be maintained.”

A strain of flute-like music interrupted us. “A sick call,” explained
the guides. “You see the flags floating from occasional nursery knolls;
they locate ailing babes, and demand attention from any passing mother;
while every staff-whistle is distinctive and quickly recognized by the
mother whose offspring has special need of her presence. Knowing this,
each is free from that harrowing anxiety experienced by Earth mothers,
who must watch constantly over their teething or otherwise ailing little
ones; or suffer untold agonies with apprehension, during an absence;
thus poisoning the nourishment, in preparation, which Nature intends to
serve as a cure for every infantile ill.”

“But it seems positively cruel to force mothers with sick children into
the field.” We were really indignant about it.

Again those merry children laughed in great glee at our innocence:
“Reinstern mothers are forced to—nothing; they are their own sovereigns.
They have fitted themselves for their positions, and their
responsibilities are the greatest possible—the reproduction of the race.
Their salaries are generous, and continue without interruption or
diminution throughout the parental term.”

“How long is that?”

“Never more than fifteen years, though contingent upon the age of
marriage. The term limit, in years, is from forty to forty five.”

“How do parents invest their earnings?”

“According to individual tastes and preferences. As with you, many have
beautiful homes, with extensive grounds, indulge in Art Galleries,
Libraries, Theaters, or Conservatories, while others devote the later
years to special sciences or enter the School of Physicians.”

“Then even this hygienic regime entails occasional illness?”

“Accidents will always attend immaturity and inexperience; Infinite
Wisdom alone can insure perfect harmony; but our physicians are also a
salaried class, who teach as well as heal. Ill health which
incapacitates members of his families for daily usefulness, is recorded
against the physician; and a succession of such reports count to his
discredit, even to the extent of depriving him of his diploma. In such
cases, he, through the advice of the sages, seeks a less responsible
avocation, or one for which he is better qualified.

“We do not, like you, bribe our doctors to neglect their patients or
retard their cure.

“Our medical course is in three departments: Chemistry, Magnetism and
Materia Medica. The first concerns the elements and combinations forming
the physical body of man. Magnetism teaches the application of these
principles and elements to the upbuilding and repairing of the body,
while in Materia Medica we are taught to locate and extract these
required principles from the animal, vegetable and mineral world. We
hope to be physicians, after a time.”

This wish was uttered with a deep joyousness that told of a riper
understanding than is expressed when the Earth-born youngster, during a
brief cessation from banister-sliding or somersault-turning, exclaims,
“I am going to be a doctor—a lawyer—or a policeman,” and yet there was
an enthusiasm that was almost a parallel.

“You have not mentioned lawyers.”

“We have none; yours are an outgrowth of dishonesty and cruelty; a
finger pointing to dissolution.

“Your law is a demoralizing human rule, through the enforcement of which
you would compel mankind to do what should be in accordance with his
ardent desire. If he disobeys your petty law, you inflict
penalties;—even daring to shorten his physical existence. From the
effects of this treatment, he, like you, must suffer for ages to come,
so seriously is his growth retarded.

“We, on the other hand, feel deeply humiliated by any act of wrong among
our people, which demands public notice; it reflects upon the moral
atmosphere of the community.”

“Do your people never, in anger, disappointment or unusual depression or
excitement, injure others, or trespass upon their rights?”

“Occasionally;” they admitted, sadly.

“And the punishment?” We were most curious to learn the treatment of
evil among the good.

“If it be fully proved, before the officials, one has committed a really
flagrant offense, he is uniformed in red, as a symbol of materialistic
domination, and sent to the School of Philosophy, where the Sages meet
for discussions. Your Socrates was a philosopher of their class. There,
he has the best possible atmosphere in which to recognize and correct
his faults.

“During this term of reformation, his parents, if still in the flesh,
usually wear mourning, from choice, in recognition of their own
shortcomings during his conception or earlier years.”

“How long is this term of punishment?”

“Not punishment; development; we consider it the Second Childhood. The
time varies from one to six months of your counting.

“We have only one bad case on our records,” they added proudly.

“Are you allowed to state the facts?”

“It is of public record and History: A father knocked down his own
son—because he kicked him.”

“Kicked his father?”

“Yes; poor little fellow!”

“Surely the boy should be punished;—not the father?”

After a startled glance of indignation, which quickly faded into pity,
they continued:

“Children inherit all physical tendencies from their physical parents.
In the case under discussion, the lad received vicious inclinations from
the father, who had, however, so controlled his temper as to
successfully pass all ante-marriage tests.

“Had he taught that son by example the self-discipline he so well
understood, the boy would never have disgraced us.

“Through whose neglect was the boy injured? Clearly the father’s. The
mother was also considered at fault, to this extent:

“Through a mistaken charity, a desire to shield her beloved from
criticism, she had endured, without complaint several outbreaks previous
to the one reported; for this she resigned, temporarily, her maternal
rights and colors. Our future generations must be protected at any
cost.”

“Then she finally delivered him over for the sake of the future?”

“The offense was committed in the field and was reported by the Agent,
as it should have been by whomever witnessed the relapse.

“All feared the most disastrous effect upon our community. You may not
fully understand that such manifestations act as carrion, attracting
from lower atmospheres those ravenous thought-creatures, bred by
evil-doers, and called by some of your inspired writers, ‘Elementals’,
who swarm around unhealthy humanity, endangering the welfare of every
sensitive organism within their reach, in their senseless frenzy to
prolong a shadowy and useless existence.

“Bereft of filth, they gradually lose their electrical vitality and
power to harm; and finally disintegrate into crude matter.

“This father was uniformed in red and delegated to the School of
Philosophy for one entire season. There he was also subjected to the
influence of most refining music, and his reformation was complete; for
we have not a more patient and conscientious father or husband in the
city.

“He was restored to his paternal colors and is a much better man than
ever, for his victory over the parasites that were sapping his life.”

During the conversation, we had been slowly traversing the length of the
valley, noting as we passed, elastic health and unalloyed happiness upon
every side. Most strongly were we impressed by the vigorous girlish
beauty of the matrons, who were at regular intervals, as fondly absorbed
in their nursing darlings, as the most devoted of Earth mothers.

During these brief intervals, when the Nursery knolls were thronged with
mothers, attention was called to occasional workers, who though resting,
like the others, from their field labors, were busily writing in small
volumes suspended from their girdles.

“Government Agents who keep the Time accounts that the mothers may not
be harassed or disturbed; they only of all the field workers are not
parents.”

“Why, if salaried and free, are they timed?”

“Time is an important factor in determining the value of the crops;
seasons differ in the amount required, as with you.

“The sod and soil must at times be too cold and damp for these tender
human germs.

“We need every variation of temperature, and are, by this close
companionship with nature, able to absorb the physical elements which
give us strength and endurance; by this very course, we are enabled to
preserve a youthful vigor to which Earth-folk are strangers. During the
time of physical growth we court every opportunity for absorbing Force;
this, assimilated, we may in later years live according to our tastes
and preferences, as we have then the power to attract and adjust
whatever may be required for recreation.”

We suddenly became conscious of an uncomfortable rumbling and jarring,
similar to the sensations we had experienced during the Earth-life, from
which we had till now seemed so widely separated; as this confusion
ceased, we heard in those sweet tones we were rapidly learning to love:

“We will dine now, if you wish;” and simultaneously felt ourselves borne
rapidly through space and finally into a large, airy apartment—an ideal
dining room.

We had hardly taken cognizance of its many beauties, before we were
again attacked with the jolting, rocking, lurching consciousness of
Earth-life, and became dimly aware of harsh voices unpleasantly near
us.——

Our guides announced us simply as “Voyagers from Earth,” in response to
which the matronly queen who presided, greeted us cordially, directing
us toward capacious easy chairs which nearly surrounded the room.

After several ineffectual efforts to rise above the haunting spectres of
our former life, we were dully conscious of being addressed by the host,
as follows:

“Your Earth People are in their ignorance robbing you of this
opportunity; being greatly disturbed over your absence from the body,
which they have discovered notwithstanding our efforts to hold their
attention elsewhere.

“The one poor harassed soul, less gross than the rest, upon whose
instincts we have relied for your safe return, has yielded to their
importunities sooner than we anticipated, and has now resorted to
Prayer. An earnest Prayer to the Father from a sincere and faithful
heart is a Power we can not safely combat.

“You must now return; but we will try to raise you again from the
depths, when you are in the quiet of your own home, alone, and the
prospects are favorable.”

Deeply disappointed and violently struggling against the power that
would thus wrench us from the happy haven into which we had drifted, we
heard—O, so faintly, as from a great distance——

“Rest easily, Earth-child; you are doing yourself only harm. All will be
made clear in the Good Father’s own time.”

Then the horrible whistles, the jolting of the train, and an indignant
voice saying:

“Didn’t you see her shiver? Such a fuss over nothing! She is coming to,
all right. Better keep your bottle for those that need it. Some doctors
think that brandy will start or stop the universe.” This last in an
undertone.

We opened our eyes very reluctantly, to find a red-faced, wrinkled and
be-whiskered man bending over us, with a breath strongly indicative of
the contents of a bottle held threateningly near.

Pushing it angrily away, we exclaimed in a far-from-Reinstern-like
tone:—

“Why are you meddling with our affairs? We did not want to come back
yet; we have not seen the father’s field;—not even had dinner—and things
looked so attractive!”

He shook his head with a professional air, and murmured: “Not right
yet;—better,—decidedly better.”

Then we sat up as straight as a clothes-pin, and glaring at the
passengers about our seat rudely demanded:

“Just trot right off about your own affairs, now, all of you; you have
treated us shamefully, and,” we sniveled and wept a little at this
point, “we don’t even know your names.”

The conductor now interposed: “Madam, you fainted, and but for the
kindness of this physician,—”

“Kindness of fiddlesticks!” we interrupted, “we were out of town, off on
a voyage,—visiting friends,—and should have returned in good time, if—”

The doctor hastily returned to his post, while the others with
horror-stricken faces, as promptly retreated.

Resourceless before their suspicions, we relinquished all intentions to
elucidate, and added, simply:

“Who thought we were all right if left alone?”

Whereupon a mild-mannered miss of probably sixteen well-invested
summers, turned toward us to say, modestly:

“I’ve seen people that way before; Aunt Sophronia often is; I don’t
understand it; but you didn’t look a bit dead.”

“Dead!” we ejaculated; “We’d like to die that way often, every day or
two. You must have some common sense.”

Then we straightened up our traveling cap, and stared savagely at the
outside panorama of brown fields, while we tried to imagine a life of
love, truth, justice, charity;—among idiots.

Later, we convinced our fellow-passengers of our sanity, by expressing
our grateful appreciation of their solicitude; how could they know?—and
assurance of our complete recovery.




                           _LOVE’S DESTINY._


         Where the gray crag kisses the virgin sky,
         And the fledgling eagles half-famished cry,
         Where the sun’s kind glance warms the cloud to tears,
         And the snow-bank clings to the earth for years;
         Where the lichens starve and the sad winds mourn,
         There, a host of cupids at eve were born.

         They came tumbling out from their rocky nest,
         Nor regretful wailed for the rugged breast;
         But astride the crest of a stream as blue
         As the star-lit sky; with their arrows true,
         Downy, sun-tipped wings and the briefest legs,
         Just like dear young ducklings released from eggs.

         They are fluttering, splashing in frolic gay,
         Whirling here and there in the misty spray;
         Now, anon, down dizziest steeps they glide,
         All demurely, roguishly, side by side;
         In their path, huge bowlders await, but see!
         With a somersault they are passed in glee.

         Through a rock-bound glen next they gurgling go.
         ’Neath caressing, whispering branches, low,
         For a splashing romp, undisturbed by fear,
         In a broad lake, billowy, deep and clear;
         But they’re nearing, blindly, the crumbling edge
         Of a ragged, cruel and treacherous ledge;

         While those countless myriads are hurrying in,—
         Crowding, racing, chasing from brim to brim:
         Hark! With hands clasped over an aching breast,
         A poor Soul moans, “Come to me, Love, and rest;
         Long and patiently have I watched for you:
         Fill my heart and home with yourselves so true.”

         Do you hear them chant, in their rapturous glee,
         “Never tires Love, Soul; we are not for thee.
         We must on and on, like the water blue;
         Bravely wait, work, hope, till your Love finds you.
         Danger waits below; you are tempting Death;”
         She is calling, still; for, with bated breath,

         Has she watched, benumbed, while a sportive elf
         Laughing wildly, recklessly, cast himself
         From their midst, to the surging depths below;
         And she moans, “Dear Love, I shall miss you so.”
         “Love but laughs at dangers; fear not;” they say,
         “Fancy not he dies: We all live for aye.”
         Right over they tumbled;—she peers down to see—
         Not death;—but mad revels of exquisite glee:
         Joyous myriads whirled in the dashing spray!

                ·       ·       ·       ·       ·

         Think ye not love dies in an hour—a day;
         ’Tis his dim, dull shadow, o’er which men weep,
         When a sun-cloud gives to the shadow, sleep;

         But Immortal love, ever close beside,
         Through life’s midnight hours will undimmed abide.
         Watch and pray, lone Soul, for the love that lasts;
         Sighing not o’er shadows another casts;
         Lest a passion-cloud should engulf your way,
         Till you, helpless and hopeless, drift astray.

------------------------------------------------------------------------




                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES


 1. Table of Contents added by transcriber.
 2. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
 3. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.
 4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Reinstern, by Eloise O. Richberg

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