EARTH'S ENIGMAS

A VOLUME OF STORIES BY

CHARLES G D ROBERTS

LAMSON WOLFFE AND COMPANY BOSTON AND NEW YORK 1896 _Copyright, 1895_,

University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.

Author's Note.

Most of the stories in this collection have already appeared in the pages of English, American, or Canadian periodicals. For kind courtesies in regard to the reprinting of these stories my thanks are due to the Editors of Harper's Magazine, Longman's Magazine, Scribner's Magazine, The Cosmopolitan, Lippincott's Magazine, The Independent, The Toronto Globe, Harper's Bazaar, and The Youth's Companion.

C. G. D. R.

Fredericton, N. B.

_January, 1896._

Contents.

Do Seek their Meat from God

The Perdu

"The Young Ravens that Call upon Him"

Within Sound of the Saws

The Butt of the Camp

In the Accident Ward

The Romance of an Ox-Team

A Tragedy of the Tides

At the Rough-and-Tumble Landing

An Experience of Jabez Batterpole

The Stone Dog

The Barn on the Marsh

Captain Joe and Jamie

Strayed

The Eye of Gluskap

Earth's Enigmas.

Do Seek their Meat from God.

One side of the ravine was in darkness. The darkness was soft and rich, suggesting thick foliage. Along the crest of the slope tree-tops came into view--great pines and hemlocks of the ancient unviolated forest--revealed against the orange disk of a full moon just rising. The low rays slanting through the moveless tops lit strangely the upper portion of the opposite steep,--the western wall of the ravine, barren, unlike its fellow, bossed with great rocky projections, and harsh with stunted junipers. Out of the sluggish dark that lay along the ravine as in a trough, rose the brawl of a swollen, obstructed stream.

Out of a shadowy hollow behind a long white rock, on the lower edge of that part of the steep which lay in the moonlight, came softly a great panther. In common daylight his coat would have shown a warm fulvous hue, but in the elvish decolorizing rays of that half hidden moon he seemed to wear a sort of spectral gray. He lifted his smooth round head to gaze on the increasing flame, which presently he greeted with a shrill cry. That terrible cry, at once plaintive and menacing, with an undertone like the fierce protestations of a saw beneath the file, was a summons to his mate, telling her that the hour had come when they should seek their prey. From the lair behind the rock, where the cubs were being suckled by their dam, came no immediate answer. Only a pair of crows, that had their nest in a giant fir-tree across the gulf, woke up and croaked harshly their indignation. These three summers past they had built in the same spot, and had been nightly awakened to vent the same rasping complaints.

Table of contents (by pages)

• 1: Earth's Enigmas by Roberts
• 2: The panthers were fierce with hunger
• 3: He cherished a hearty contempt for the drunken squatter
• 4: As the hungry panthers drew near the cabin
• 5: The Perdu lay perpetually asleep
• 6: The boy still longed for the Perdu
• 7: The Perdu began to find fuller expression
• 8: Perpendicular walls of the Perdu
• 9: The Perdu could not be securely frozen over
• 10: Then he formed a sudden resolve
• 11: On the grassy brink of the Perdu
• 12: And the blind stirred almost imperceptibly
• 13: The ewe wheeled and charged madly
• 14: And the big mill on the Aspohegan was working overtime
• 15: Sombre visaged old mill hand called 'Lije Vandine
• 16: On a steep slope overlooking the mill
• 17: But Vandine paid no heed to her calls
• 18: Vandine sat down on the edge of the bank and waited stupidly
• 19: As 'Lije Vandine tended his vicious little circular
• 20: And the Gornish Camp was not proud of him
• 21: And for Gillsey no traditions held
• 22: Gillsey was captured and dragged back to camp
• 23: The Gornish River went boiling and roaring like a mill race
• 24: Gillsey turned upon her one of his deprecating
• 25: From that day Simon Gillsey stood on a higher plane
• 26: Cleaving the grasses in flight as swift as an arrow
• 27: Prodding the near ox lightly in the ribs
• 28: Keepin' company with Jim Ed A'ki'son
• 29: He seated himself dejectedly on the cart
• 30: Just now he was thinking about the way Liz had changed
• 31: The drummers whipped their horse to a gallop
• 32: From members of the Neville family
• 33: It is as death to the palefaces to keep silence
• 34: At this time a lieutenant at Beausejour
• 35: Following the tide up the channel
• 36: The boss of the Aspohegan camp
• 37: Thrusting himself in front of the laughing McElvey
• 38: Goodine flushed with jealous wrath
• 39: By this time Goodine had formed his plans
• 40: As Goodine turned and resumed his chopping
• 41: Then suddenly Reddin straightened himself
• 42: What gal's currls be you referrin' to Jabe
• 43: But she was jest sheerin roun' onter them rocks
• 44: When the folks heerd what had tuk place
• 45: Momentarily dimming the crystal that smoothly gushed beneath
• 46: Whence a greenish mist steamed up
• 47: I tried to force the bolt back
• 48: Not a stone's throw from the rectory gate
• 49: Suddenly I heard the rector cry
• 50: Face to face with the apparition
• 51: He was on the point of crossing the dike
• 52: Jamie crouched down behind the dike
• 53: Where the dike took its beginning
• 54: Clutching the short grasses of the dike
• 55: His yoke fellow was a docile steady worker
• 56: And the ox continued his quest
• 57: And the panther paused irresolutely
• 58: And most of the Acadians wore an air of heavy resignation
• 59: Pierrot gave it to me to keep for him
• 60: Here it had been found by Pierrot Desbarats
• 61: And L'Etoile de Pierrot Desbarat
• 62: And the Eye of Gluskap with it
• 63: Who had captured the heart of young Desbra
• 64: Jack Desbra laughed and recaptured the maiden
• 65: Than the great grandson of Marie and Pierrot
• 66: In a few moments Desbra became absorbed