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 Copyright 1918 
 Roland Williamson 
 
 Copyright 1920 
 ^Marjory M. Carrington 
 
 Story reprinted through the courtesy of the Lookout. 
 
 MAR i7 I92U 
 
 ■©CU566100 
 

 . A FANTASY 
 
 <^ One afternoon, shortly before sunset, a 
 
 CO 
 
 ^ man and woman, having alighted from a car- 
 
 ^ riage, passed Into the yard before their new 
 
 liO home. It was new only in the sense that 
 
 they were about to occupy It for the first time 
 
in their married life, which was then but a 
 few days old. 
 
 The fence about the place had been white- 
 washed so long ago that the numerous 
 pickets off this dull gray line were scarcely 
 missed. There was really little use for 
 pickets, as the shrubs within were dry and 
 leafless, and where once was a well-trimmed 
 grass plot, the yellow leaves from a near-by 
 tree lay thick, mouldy and uninviting. 
 
 The house, a few yards from the rickety 
 gate, was weather-worn and quite as homely 
 as the other dwellings on this 
 rough-hewn street of a little ^ 
 town. 
 
Across the muddy thoroughfare, beyond 
 a crazy fence, was a lot in which a cow, thin 
 of body but sound in lungs, — for she lowed 
 lustily at frequent intervals, — nervously and 
 hungrily nipped at the wisps of dry grass 
 which grew just outside the palings of her 
 jail. 
 
 The noise of the departing carriage scared 
 out of an adjacent hedge a lone bird which 
 came with easy, dipping flight to the old, 
 gray hitching-post, where it lighted as if to 
 take a look at the new arrivals. It was a 
 
blue bird. You will find this quiet, dignified 
 little bird of happiness lights on the tops of 
 old posts or stumps in preference to trees, 
 suggesting thereby a bit of blue sky through 
 the clouds, the triumph of life over death, 
 a tiny feathered preacher in his sombre 
 pulpit, whose one text is "The Kingdom of 
 God is within you." 
 
 Everything here, except the bird, was dis- 
 mal enough for a funeral instead of the 
 home-coming of a bridal couple. 
 
 As they stood there looking at these 
 sordid surroundings, a small boy 
 — evidently an overlooked passenger 
 of the carriage — could now be seen 
 standing between the man and 
 woman. He was a very small boy, 
 and with his short golden ringlets, \^ 
 violet eyes and rose-colored cheeks 
 he looked like an ^_ » _,^ 
 angel, more than d^S^gi)^ 
 a child of human f^^t^^vf^.-^V 
 Tiesh and blood. ^^ — .. ^^^\^u\S^ 
 
 
He stood between the man and woman, 
 his little fingers of one hand intertwined with 
 the delicate ones of the bride, while with the 
 other hand — a rosy, chubby fist — he held 
 firmly a strong finger of the husband, thus 
 
 linking the two body to p 
 
 body and heart to heart. I 
 
 There must have been 
 some hypnotic power ex- 
 erted by this strange, ^^^^ 
 
 lovely boy, for when he )| 
 
 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^B^^^^^^^^ 
 
spoke the faces of his captives wore the hap- 
 piest smiles and they seemed indeed to mean 
 it when they declared to one another that 
 their home was beautiful. 
 
 They were really very honest about it. 
 Love — for the boy was none other — had 
 done nothing to affect their veracity, but had 
 simply blotted out all that was ugly, and made 
 them see the home only as it appeared to 
 them in their fairest dreams of the future. 
 This miracle done, the three went into the 
 house and closed the door. 
 
 The honey-moon passed : Other moons 
 waxed and waned, bringing joys great and 
 small — children, health, honors — the fulfill- 
 
^eihQ U^ve he ^Ud kIwW5 in Ihe Open 
 
 Ih [te liohtr » 
 
ment of fair dreams. Misfortune did not 
 overlook their home either, but left its bur- 
 dens; and even mighty Death dropped into 
 that rough-hewn street of a little town, and 
 carried off the couple's first born. Through 
 days of happiness and sadness Love stood 
 by, faithful and patient, pointing out hidden 
 joys, disguised blessings, and whispering 
 words of comfort in times of distress. 
 When the darling of the home was carried 
 off, brave little Love made the sorrowing 
 man and woman see through their tears that 
 the Angel of Death was really the Angel of 
 Life. 
 
 But there were plagues that even Love 
 could not hold out against. Being brave he 
 
 ''l&S^'! 
 
stood always in the open — in the light — and 
 this plague that undid him was a plague of 
 darkness. It came into the home so cleverly 
 disguised as to escape his ever watchful eye. 
 
 It happened that the couple had met in 
 the neighborhood a woman who was most 
 friendly and pleasing. She was a sociable 
 person, and it was not long before she be- 
 came an intimate friend of the family. She 
 cared nothing for children, whose frankness, 
 it must be said, seemed to annoy her, and 
 for that reason she would make her visits at 
 night after the little ones had gone to bed. 
 
 After a few calls this entertaining woman 
 
 Ai'iiilHiirmMiruiinrTTiTlMinniiinnMhiilTMnrirffiiiiira^^ 
 
 
brought with her a beautiful bon-bon box 
 full of spicy confection which she would at 
 intervals, during the evening, give to the 
 woman and her husband. 
 
 The box was a wonderful work of art 
 made of metals that looked /^^^/^*\ 
 like gold and silver, and upon V^ jV-^ 
 it was a curious design worked ^^.^^fjig; 
 out in brilliant stones. This 
 box the woman always kept 
 near her. 
 
 Just at first no ill effects 
 from the eating of these con- 
 fections could be noted; but as 
 these visits of this entertain- 
 ing woman continued, a 
 cooling of the affections 
 of the man and woman 
 could be observed. Love 
 found them growing 
 strangely deaf also. 
 Formerly the faintest 
 whisper of the little fel- 
 
low controlled their actions, but now he some- 
 times suffered before he could make them 
 understand his needs. This chilliness was 
 taking the light out of Love's eyes, and his 
 cheeks grew as white as his little starved 
 body. The saddest part of the whole thing 
 was that neither the husband nor the wife 
 seemed to be the least concerned over it. 
 
 One night, in the now nicely furnished 
 parlor, there sat about the table the hus- 
 band, wife and the entertaining woman. 
 Love, now so pitifully thin and white that 
 his great violet eyes had, it would seem, a 
 depth of sorrow sufficient to melt the hardest 
 hearts, was going from the husband to the 
 
 ^^^^^^'1 
 
wife and back again begging piteously for 
 something. He shivered and shook as if he 
 was about to freeze, although the night was 
 so warm that the windows were open. 
 Tears stood in his eyes, and his lower lip 
 trembled as — brave to the last — he fought 
 to keep those tears from falling. Stabbed 
 by the cold, hard, pitiless gaze of the man 
 and woman, Love sank to the floor, where 
 he lay quite motionless except for a waving 
 curl, blown by the breeze that seemed to 
 moan as it entered the window. On this 
 same breeze was borne the delicate fragrance 
 

 I/. 
 
 / -' 
 
 / / /■ 
 
 r > 1 
 
 ^^\\\^ 
 
 ti 
 
 -v;? 
 
 ■ / 
 
 of the yellow jas- 
 mine, a wood flower'\ 
 
 dear to the hearts \^"-^.--. 
 
 /^ - \\^- ------- 
 
 /•<\ of the husband and ^\v ^- - - 
 
 wife, and full of 
 
 associations of the happy days of their court- 
 ship. 
 
 Breathing this sweet, familiar fragrance, 
 the man and woman stirred and looked to- 
 ward the window with hand to ear, as if 
 their hearing had been restored. That fra- 
 grance had worked this partial cure, and 
 what they heard was the mystic chord of 
 memory, whose music fell upon their ears 
 with a peculiar and indescribable charm. 
 
 They arose and walked quickly into the 
 
 gallery, leaving their guest sitting near the 
 
 ■^^^^^^■^ table with a troubled look on her pale face. 
 
 For several minutes the man and woman 
 stood at the end of the gallery listening to 
 those sweet minor tones that came they knew 
 
not whence. As they turned to re-enter the 
 house a bright Hght shone around them, and 
 looking towards the door they beheld two 
 angelic figures, at the sight of which they 
 hesitated, trembling with excitement and 
 speechless with surprise. As if in a dream 
 they heard a voice, soft and sweet as the 
 gentle murmur of a wind in the midst of 
 flowers. 
 
 "Do not be afraid," said the voice. "I 
 am Truth. My sister and I heard Love cry- 
 ing in here, and we felt you needed us." 
 
 Around Truth shone a white light — her 
 chosen symbol. Into the door of the dwell- 
 ing this light was sending its bright, pure 
 
3u<J^enly V(\t corv€5 ^ her qr^^ceful ^Jy 
 
 4lo"snJ|en , 
 
 Seeme( 
 
rays; and now something whispered to the 
 man and woman that in this light only truth 
 should stand. 
 
 Following its rays their gaze fell upon 
 the costly box upon the table. Instantly its 
 metals lost their glitter, and appeared dull 
 and leaden. The brilliancy of the stones 
 with which it was encrusted faded out, and 
 their colors disappeared except that of the 
 rubies, which now looked like drops of blood. 
 The curious design was gone, and in its stead, 
 marked out plainly with those blood red 
 stones, appeared a skull and cross-bones, be- 
 neath which were the words "Lies — half- 
 truths." 
 
 Shocked at this discovery the man and 
 woman drew close together, and their hands 
 met as of yore with sustaining power. 
 When they had recovered themselves a little, 
 their gaze fell instinctively upon the owner 
 of this frightful casket. She sat as they had 
 left her — near the table. In the rays of the 
 light her once fine eye seemed to grow small 
 and beady; her cheeks and 
 throat took on a dull, gray, 
 
scaly look; from her lips shot forth a 
 forked tongue. Across this creature's fore- 
 head appeared, as livid as the brand 
 of Cain, the word "Gossip." Suddenly 
 the curves of her graceful body seemed 
 to straighten; and slipping slowly from the 
 chair this now hideous reptile fell with a 
 soft, sickening thud to the floor where for 
 a brief moment, swaying its horrid head to 
 and fro, it lay, in every line a serpent. The 
 scream of horror from the woman at the 
 door seemed not to affect it; but like "the 
 deaf adder that stoppeth her ear" it could 
 not stand the light, and turning to a side door 
 wriggled out into the starless night. 
 
 The man and woman rushed into the 
 
 room, and dropped 
 upon their knees by 
 the body of their 
 Love, that lay like a 
 
 "b"^ 
 
withered lily, cold and still. In the light of 
 Truth they now saw the whole of the tragedy. 
 The disguised adder had poisoned them with 
 lies and that even deadlier potion — half- 
 truths. Their hearts had been hardened and 
 their ears stopped, and Love had died be- 
 cause of it. Seeing it all very plainly, in an 
 agony of grief they cried out: "O Truth, 
 Truth, if you had only been here Love would 
 not have died." 
 
 For a little while there was a deathly 
 stillness in the room, broken only by the sobs 
 of the woman. She and her husband, drawn 
 close now by this great grief, remained kneel- 
 ing. A soft noise, like the sweep of an 
 angel's wing, caused them to look up; and 
 before them they saw Truth's sister, pure- 
 eyed Faith. "You must keep her with you, 
 too," said Truth, "for she can see even when 
 there is no light." 
 
Love - Sli^ll hot 
 
 pii.$S 
 
Faith kneeled beside them. "Do not 
 grieve," she said gently, taking up one of 
 Love's pale hands and holding it to her cheek. 
 "He is not dead but asleep." 
 
 A smile, sweet and faint as the wafted 
 fragrance of the jasmine, came to the lips 
 of Love. 
 
 
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