Athalie

skies, green trees, sunshine, an

ss-a tree in pink bloom; morning-glories covering a rotting board fen

er mother-a still, white-shawled figure

membered them-a wide white tent under which

h children, hosts of them in a kaleidoscopic whirl

at they were her brother and two sisters-very much grown up and desirable to play with. But at seven she began to be su

etween herself and the other children. For a year or two it did not troub

ber. Once, very early in her career, her mother who had been sewing under the peach tree, dr

ecause there had been a little boy sitting beside her all the while she w

to her, or even whether she herself had conversed with the

isters began to suspect her of bei

mmunicative by nature, she was frank with them, confident and undisturbed, until their child-like and imp

f or to jeers seemed to her ordinary, unremarkable, and

e seemed to perceive things which nobody else noticed never disturbed her even when she became aware that other people w

thalie to be on her guard. She learned that embarrassed reserve wh

ns of being different, pretended that what her sisters accu

elf. Yet, always, there seemed to be something between

ation of the boys, of something about herself t

yed, and ready for anything that required enterprise and activity of mind or body. Her ragged skirts were still short at eleven-short enough not to impede her. And she led

e lawlessness born of sheer exuberance and superb health-some malicious tresp

l Greensleeve had fallen off and in reality the children had very little. But children at that age who l

cept when their mother did her best to stimula

en taught her in the little New Jersey school her father had kept. And her education ceased when she married Greensleeve, the ex-"

g in; and when Greensleeve also failed as a farmer, they opened

ely surmising the mind-hunger of youth, and its vigorous needs, did her limited best to satisfy it in her children. And that is really

tween long, sunlit hours of healthy, youthful madness-quiet moments when she came in flushed and panting from the headlong chase afte

d her quick ears or eyes, no natural phenomena of the open; life, birth, movement, growth, the flow, and ebb of tides, th

?" she al

at jumped at sunset, the quick furry shapes of mink and muskrat, the ratt

n farm-yard and barn-yard, fledgelings crying from a robin's nest of

the idle breezes stirred under the high sky,-and once a dead dog, battered, filthy and

an silences and furtive leering. And their half-heard words, half-understood phrases,-a gesture, a look that sil

who had brought Athalie into the world stopped in once or twice a w

the salt-hay stacks to the chestnut ridge, and she had come in after sunset to find her mother sewing in her own bedroom, h

n and presently returned to her mother's room c

, full in the lamplight she sat her down and

nough for her. And she passed examinations without effort un

stairs with the empty dishes, and came slowly back again,-a slender, supple figure with tangled hair curling below her s

d and mended," said her mother,

d absently. After a moment she

he remarked, dropping cross

ge boys," said he

t. But w

considere

hy

mon and vulgar practice except in

ed Athalie; "I soake

was

told him if he ever tried to get fresh

es

or old Mr. Manners

and to impress it upon them their mother had invented a story about a poor old man named Manner

lly inculcated, until the habit was formed. And now Athalie was the

d the child. "I never though

after this. You are old enough to understand

e babies come from. You said you would tell me

e, then, passing the needle through th

ed any opinion

d the chil

er mother tranquilly, "because the truth is

all that need be told concerning the mystery of lif

ealise that in her, too, lay latent a

er mother she remem

l discovered her mother lying on the bed. That evening the child was sitting on the floor at her mother

her head and sat looking at it, mildly interested, until, suddenly, she

ng at?" asked her mo

ing,

hal

t, m

e you loo

er: "Don't lie, Athalie. I'll try to understand you. Now tell me what y

glanced back at the d

ing there-now,

ere any

e laid her clasped hands across her mot

woman there

he

by the

w her,

, ma

r and come in and the

N

d she c

ow. She-jus

a young

, o

ry

was grey in her

s she d

mamma. There were spot

ver seen h

hink

was

. Al

e of the colour faded from her cheeks. There was a Mrs. Allen who had

en who lives on the old All

, ma

Greensleeve again spoke to her daughter on the one subject about which Athalie was incl

bed propped up upon the pillows. Athalie, cross-legged on a hassock beside her, was do

you possess a power-which

d deeply and she bent c

you to me, a baby just born.... I d

ng steadily,

"you are, in some degree,

ha

b voir, to see; clair-voyant, seeing clearly. That is all, Athalie.... Nothing to be ashamed

aid to talk about

is there to

. I see you sometimes looking at things I cannot see; I know sometimes you hear sounds which I cannot hear.... Things happen which perplex the rest

ver seen anything that did n

Allen had died when yo

d see

you know sh

til I s

u know

es

ow

w I knew it. I s

now she ha

mam

you-make you uneasy when y

said Athali

en you knew

d it? Why shou

her was

ere anything to be afraid of with God a

N

ittle afraid of me and of what they say I can hear and see? I have good eyesight; I see clearly

, d

ny questions. What is there to be surprised at if sometimes I see things inside m

nodded, enc

king to some men in a hotel there, why should it be surprising j

e they cannot see what is beyond t

corners. It makes me very cross and unhappy, and I don't want anybody t

. What they do not understand they ridicule. A dog that would

am

, de

cats, too, see many things that I do

you th

dozing on your bed, and I was down here on the floor, sewing,

hal

ew perfectly well tha

as it y

n. He walked ove

d t

n't know where they go. Th

was

n't k

e look

to be thinking of s

he sm

little boy. He was kneeling down beside the bed. And Mr. Ledlie's dog was lying h

ut you didn't tell

never like to speak ab

before seen th

mam

live-do y

They all

alive when you saw h

but that was a little different. Not very di

e call dead? Are

hey are not dead.... Nothing se

do you be

nce,-just across the causeway bridge.... And the dog came into the

Be careful to contr

"I must be careful to control it. I c

d to imagine some of the thi

come. I haven't anything to do with it. I don't know these people, and I am no

en Athalie had seen him, that mild and utterly unimaginative man w

fering, when he came gaily trotting into the garden, waving his tail quite happily. There was no dust or blood on

n came in to say good night to their mother she received them with an unusual

night,

t, little

rew her into a sudden and

u sure that noth

ad' birds,-why, the evening sky is full of them-the little '

ea

, ma

me-that way-wi

es

se, da

ss you, too-if i

it be p

know," she said slowly. Then, all in a moment her childis

enderly, smilingly, kissing t

n had gone to school Mrs. Greensle