THE HERMIT OF THE ROOK.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 9305, 3 February 1892, Page 4

THE HERMIT OF THE ROOK.

A SKETCH OF REAL LIFE. I was hunting in the wilderness of one ot tho uppor counties of Canada, far away, as I supposed, from any habitation of mankind, when I camo to tho front of a bold proojpioo at the base of a lofty mountain. To my surprise I saw smoke issuing from a crovice in the steep face of the rock ; and, upon looking a little closer, I saw, a short distance above me, a hole large enough for a man to enter if standing upright, and to it led a rude stairway, out in the rock, evidently by a human hand. As it was near night, and I had been looking for a camping-place, I thought I would soo who was there ; for that there was a fire up there somewhere, was evident by the 3ir»oke. So I fired off my rifle, or one barrel of it, as a kind 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. Yet it was combed as cleanly and neatly as if its owner had nothing to do but to take caro of it. " How arc you friend?" I shouted, thinking tho man might bo deaf. " Pretty well, for a lone sowl like roe !" he answered, in a broad Hibernian accent. 11 You're tho first man I've seen for full fifteen years that I've been hore." "Indeed!" said I. "Porhaps you'd like to hear something from tho 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 goiu' on in the world. It's dead to him, and he's dead to it, tho long while gono by," was his reply. I needed no pressing ; for a storm w»3 gathering overhead, and I knew I shoußl soon need shelter. So up I went, mounting the rude steps s,ome twenty feet, until I reached the entrance of the cave. Ho foil back, as I entered, into a large and very roomy cavorn, rudoly furnished with a table, two or threo 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 wa3 a large atore of firewood and a huge firo, showing that he was 110 l cnary of its uso. Large quantities of dried venison hung from poles stretched across the room, and a frosh sadclle of the same kind of meat hung near the doorwuv. -Liie man very cor.rioiibjy oncrcu ::io i> seat near tho firo, and than cut out slices of venison, preparatory to cooking supper. This he broiled, and putting it on some broad strips of clean biroh-bcrk for pktoj, invited me to sit up and cat. "I've nay ther tay nor bread to ofi'or yon. sir," he said. " It's so long since I've scan any that I never think of them now." _ I went to my haversack, and took tea. salt, and some biscuits from it — for I was generally well supplied when I went on a hunt. I took water from the stream which supplied him, trickling down the rock near the door, and in a quart cup of mine made some tea. But I could not get him to taste the tea orbiscnits. He said he had got nsed 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 oven that luxury. And as we lighted our cigars, the tremendous storm vhioh had been threatening for the past hour broke forth, and for a while we smoked in silence before the crackling fire, 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 tho rain had settled into a steady pour, I broke the silence with a question. " I don't wish to bo inquisitive, Mr. Johnson," said I, " but it seem 3so sti;nugo to aoe an Irishman lead a lonely life, that I would like to know why he does it. Your country people aTe 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 summers now, and hero I shall stay till I die !" And sighing, he lighted another cigar which I had given him. He smoked a few minute 3, and then said — " It's only daccnt that you should know, 1 sir, why I stay here, away from everything human, and I'll tell you. It is eighteen years come Christmas, since I landed iij America, with a young wife, whom I married only the week before I left Ireland. And a 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 ol land ; and so I came out into the country, and got me a nice little farm. For a year wo wore ns happy as rabbiti in the clover : but then a man — no, a devil— a countryman of my own, came along and asked me to yivt him a job of work. I did it for kindness nn<l the memory of ould Ireland, and he paid me for it. Yes — curse him ! eurao him ! — that is my only prayer now, sir. He paid me for it by winning the love of my own dear Norah from me. It was a long time before I found it out, and it was only when a black-eyed baby was born. And both me and Norab had blue eyes and light hair. " But Jim O'Neil had eyes as blac 1 - as n sloe, and hair as black as a crow's wing. And then 2 saw through a hundred tiling.that had bothered mo before, and -I knew how false Norah had been. I could have killed them both ; but I thought how l:app - , I had been with Norah, and how, in the ould country, I had promised her mother to be kind to her in a strange land when i gul there. And so I left her in bed with thi child, only saying to her that she never would sec the sight of me again. And I bought a gun and as much powder and lead as I could carry, and I wandered off into tho woods until I found this place, and here I have stayed ever since. That is all my story/ Poor fellow; it was all, and enough. How many such cases of treachery ami falsehood there are in this world, and howfew men who would, after knowing such a horrible wrong, thus shut themselves aw»\ from revenge and from the world 1 I left him the next morning ; but scarce a day passes since then that I do aot think of the Hermit of the Rock.