THE PARIAH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2572, 1 July 1903, Page 84

THE PARIAH.

By Isobei- M. D. Mattoney.

The ploughman threw the last handful of gin in over the harrowed earth, then put on his coat and trudged homeward. But one grain of wheat Lad fallen out on the edge of the grass, and he was very unhappy as lie lay unheeded and unenred for.

i);ij-s passed, rainy, warm, and cool, and the broad, brown fnee of the field lay passive and still: but ihen came a, change. In the night there had been very heavy lain, and the morning sun &hone brightly down on a soaked earth.

The farmer btood looking at the field. It Ltd elianged a-s if by magic. A pale, green, elusive glimmer lay over it — the crop was up at last.

Deep down in the grass lay the forgotten ve?d, but now he had a long, slender sprout which forced itself upwards towards the glorious sun and downwaids among the grass roots. The soil was rich, for it had been limed and bad lain fallow for woeks before the crop tvus sown, and the farmer rejoiced/ exceedingly, for the yield promised to be heavy.

Bright day after bright day, wet night after wot night, and the crop bounded gladly up towards the blue heaven ; and the Pdiiab. bounded gladly upwaids too, for he aUo was filled with, the wild iov of life.

But deep in his heart lay the small pang of jealousy and pain at being an outcast, a pariah. Why should he straggle so hard to live when he, too, ought rightly, lilhi<? brothers, to be drawing the ready richness out of the tilled Und? Why "fchooild he be hampered by the Knotted grass which hung round him in gieen masses, and cast tortuous roots tlirough the soil wherein he found hia sustenance?

And the night winds passed heedlessly over the field, dimpling it and making it like a va-sfc green sea.

"Ah !" cried the Pariah, as he nodded his heavy head menacingly, "we Uiall see, we shall see!" But the adjacent stalks of wheat tossed their crested heads proudly and turned towards the sun, and like the sound of many waters came the mocking answer from the field, "We shall see! We shall see!''

Burning days followed ; the earth, became hot and panting, and the crop, palpitating in the golden haze, slowly faded paler and paler, and then bronzed in the sun's fiery lavs - „ Th, en came autumn, "season of mist*." There was neither wind nor rain, nothing but the intensely hot d.iys, when the eauh trembled in a shimmering golden robe and in the ni^lil time slumbered in a clinging white .shioud.

'Ihe grains of wheat baidi-ned and struggled within their husks as they waited for the reaper, and ever and anon "a plump seed leapt t-o the ground and lay waim in the earth's bosom, awaiting its resurrection.

The Pariah stood tall and strong, towrring above the --^s and holding his huid high in pride, for was he not as stall and handsome as his fellows in the field?

Then one day, as the crop quivered in the hazr as if it were blasted with hot air, the farmer came, and crumpling some of the ears in Ins hand, deemed it read/ to :ut.

Tho next day two men came and -'.ut it track six feet wide round the field, to mike room for the reaper and binder, and the Pariah saw his kind shrink to the earth as the cruel scythe severed their stems from the roots, but he stood alone, untouched, happy that he had escaped the fate of his / fellows. The reaper ay.d binder came next, and click-clack, click-clack, down bowed the crop, and was bound in big, bronze sheaves and tossed aside as the machine 1 went on its ruthless way. The day passed, and the sun set on a bare stub'bled field, dotted with stoofcs.

Time went on, and the Pariah saw the stooks formed into a stack near him ; but he stood motionless, with drooping CTcst, for the knowledge had come to him of the cruel night-frosts and the bitter wintry cold which was soon to be. I Next came the threshing machine. The sheaves were forked into its rapacious mouth, and riddled and mangled, and then the warm, clean grain ran out into sacks, and was taken away to the bam. And at night, when the panting engine stood quiet, o gust of wind came, a little red spark flew into the grass, a little demon of red flame after — the Pariah was surrounded by a moat of fire, and in a moment he was gone !