THE HERMIT OF THE ROCK.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9192, 21 September 1891, Page 4

THE HERMIT OF THE ROCK.

k SKETCH OF DEAL LIFE. I was hunting in the wilderness, of one of the upper counties of Canada,' far away," a3 I; supposed, from any habitation of mankind,! when I came to the front of a bold pveci-; pice at thebaso of a loftyinonntain. - 't To my surprise I saw smoke issuing from' a crevice in the steep face of the rock ; and,: upon looking a little closer, I saw, a shsrtj distance above me, a hole large enough for! a man to enter if standing upright, and to it led a, rude stairway, cut in the rook, evi-' dently by a:hinman kand. As it was near night, and I had been looking for a camping-place, I thought I - would Bee who was there ; for .that there was a fire up there somewhere, was evident by the smoke. So I fired off ray rifle, or one barrel of. it, as a bind of hint that I was around ; and a moment after a man, dressed almost entirely in furs and buckskin, stood at the hole in the rock, with a gun in his hand. > His hair and beard, grizzled with age, looked as if it had been growing half a century, by its length. Yot it was combed as cleanly and neatly as if its owner had nothing to •£> but to take care of it. ' II How arc you friend ?" I shouted, think-; ing the man might be deaf. ■ " Pretty well, for a lone sow! like me 1" he answered, in a broad 'Hibernian- accent; " You're the first man I've seen for full fifteen years that I've been here." ■ t "Indeed!" saidl. " Perhaps • you'd HW to hear something from the outside world? Shall I come'up ?" "You can if you like, sir; but it's little ould Jimmy Johnson cares to hear about what is goin* on in the world. It's dead to him, and he's dead to it, the long while gone by,",was His replyi ; . . I needed no pressing; for a storm was gathering overhead, and I knew I should goon need shelter. So up I went, mounting • the rude steps some twenty feet, until I reaohed the entrance of the' cave. l He fell back, as I entered, into a large and very roomy cavern, rudely furnished with a table, two or three shelves and benches, and hung round with hundreds of deer, wolf, panther, and bear skins, besides furs of mink, marten, and otter. . In one end was a large store of firewood and a huge fire, showing that he was not chary of its use. Large quantities of dried venison hung from poles stretched across the room, and a , fresh saddle of tho same kind of meat hung ' near the doorway. ' ' The man very courteously , offered me a seat near the fire, and then cut out slices >of venison, preparatory to cooking supper^. This he broiled, and putting it on some broad strips of clean birch-bark for' plates, invited me to sit up and eat. > > II I've nayther tay nor bread to offer you, sir," he said. " It's so long since I've seen any that I never think of them now." , I went to my haversack, and took tea, salt, and some biscuits , from it — for X was generally well supplied when I went on a , hunt. I took water from the stream which j supplied him,- trickling down the rock near the door, and in a quart cup of mint made some tea. " ■ ', But I could not get him to taste the tea or , biscuits. He said he had got used to living without them, and did not want to tease his • appetite. But after supper I produced some - cigars, and he could not refuse a smoke, long as he had denied himself even that luxury. • And as we lighted our cigars, the tromen- ; dous storm which had been threatening for ,; the past hour, broke forth, and for a while wo smoked in silence before the ' crackling' fir<e, listening to the peals of thunder and the heavy dash of rain outside. At last, when the thunder had ceased to roll through the forest, and the rain had settled into a steady pour, I broke the silence with a question. • " I don't wish to be inquisitive, Mr. Johnson," saM I, " but' it'seems so strange to see an Irishman lead a lonely life, that I would like to know why he does it. Your country people are always so fond of life and company." " I know they are, sir ; and I was once. But it's all over," said Johnson, with a sigh. " I've been here fifteen winters and sixteen i summers now, and here I shall stay till I die !" And sighing, he lighted another cigar which I had given him. He smoked a few minutes, and then .said — " It's only dacent that you should know, . sir, why I stay here, away from everything human, and I'll tell you. It is eighteen years come Christmas, since I landed in America, with a young wife, whom I married only the week before I left Ireland. And n prettier girl than Norah was never crossed the salt, salt sea. Oh, if she had but been as good as she was pretty, it's myself never would have come to living alone in this way. I had money enough, to buy mo a bit of land; and so I. enrae out into the country,' and got me a nice little farm. For a' ye^r we were as happy as rabbits in tho clover ; but then a'raan— no, a devil— a countryman of myown.'Came along and asked me to giyc" him a job' of work.- • I did it for kindness and the memory of ould Ireland, and he paid me ' for it. Yes — curse him ! curse him !-— that is my onlyprayer,now, 7 sir. He paid me for fit by winning the love of T rhy own dear Uor^lt from me. It was; a long time before I fourth it out, and it was only when a black-eyed baby was born. ;l And both me and Noraii had blue eyes and light hair. " But Jim O'Neil bad eyes as black as j a aloe, and hair as black as a crow's wirig. And then I' saw through a hundred things that had bothered me before, and I knew how false Norah had been. I could have killed them both ; but I thought how happy I I had been with Norah, and how, in the ould country, I had promised her mother to be i kind to her in a strange land when I got there. 'And so I left her in ' bed with the child, only saying to her that she never would see the sight of me again. And; 1 bought a gun and as much powder and- lead as I could carry, and I wandered off into the woods until I, found this place, and hore I have stayed ever since. That is all my story." Poor fellow ; it was all, and enough. How many such cases of treachery and,, falsehood there are in this world, and how few men who would, after knowing such' a horrible wrong, thus shut themselves away from revenge and from the world ! I left him the next morning ; but scarce a day passes since then that I do not think of the Hermit of the Bock.