Page:Laughing Boy-1929.djvu/301
Bs mm ms LavgHING Boy 289 BN NS A going on. Extraneous things intruded themselves. There were people all around, pitying him. It was being insisted upon that loneliness and pain were not worth enduring for a whole lifetime, without purpose. ‘But I have to live for her,” he said aloud, and thought hard about her. Then he saw her, standing on the other side of the fire. He started to his feet, choking with all a Navajo's terror of the walking dead. He was dis- solved in fear, but she was gone. He was alone, the voices were gone, the people. He sat down, trembling, and quite wide awake. Evidently he did not want to die, but he had no will to live; he did not know himself, it would be wrong to make
- a decision now. Little by little he grew drowsy,
+ and dozed in snatches. Perhaps her coming was a good thing; one would not expect her ghost to be like other people's. This, too, became a discussion outside himself. The spirits of the dead are bad; if they walk, it is for destruction. She is different, she would come to protect him. She would lead him to some frightful end. But no one could imagine blue fire coming out of her eyes and mouth. It went on and on. There was an outline of something he had not seen before, it moved and he felt his scalp crawl. Then he let out a deep sigh and relaxed. It wasa