The Master-Knot of Human Fate | Page 9

fade like the baseless
fabric of a dream. And sometimes I think that it may be real, all real but
you, and that I shall find myself here all alone, dead or alive, sane or
mad. God! how horrible it is!"
"That thought has never troubled me," he said. "Whatever has put us in
this dream together will keep us together to the end. You have not
wanted me to go far away from you, so we have worked together; I
have even let you do work that was unfit for you because I knew you
would prefer it. You were more frank about it, but you didn't feel any
more strongly than I did. I couldn't, I can't bear to have you out of my
sight."
"Have you ever thought that it may be so?" she asked hesitatingly.
"What? That it isn't a dream, and that we are sane and alive? Yes, I
have thought of that too. If it be true, how universal is the destruction?
We know now, pretty well, from the time that has passed,--by the way,

how long is it?" He stopped with a sudden dazed look, and turned to
her.
"It was the first of May," she said softly. "Now it is nearly the last of
August."
"Four months!" he said in a shocked tone. "I did not realize it; I must
have been worse stunned than I thought. In that case it seems as if there
can't be anything left of this continent, unless it be detached peaks here
and there, where other mountain ranges have been. There may be other
men and women waiting as we wait for a sail, a sign, a message, and
they do not know any more than we do whence it is to come. The
alteration in the climate has convinced me that the waters on our West
are those of the Pacific; it has been so warm and pleasant. I have tried
to imagine what kind of a winter we may expect, or will the winter of
our discontent be made glorious summer--"
"By three crops of strawberries, like California?" she interrupted.
"Perhaps," he said, smiling. "As to the East, that may be the Atlantic, or
the Gulf; it seems more probable that it is the latter. The St. Lawrence
district was said to be the oldest section of this continent, and it is
reasonable to suppose the earth's crust thickest there, and along the
mountain ranges. I suppose the continent has gone to make another
layer, a stratum, on top of the pliocene, and after awhile the waters will
subside, or some volcanic action will raise up a new continent. If there
are any ships anywhere, on any seas, they will search every degree of
latitude and longitude. Our flag floats, did float, all over this globe; if it
still flies anywhere, we shall see it again."
"If I did," she said irreverently, "I should feel sure we were in heaven.
It was beautiful before, but what wouldn't it mean now, Adam? But
have you any one left on earth; if this continent is all gone, who would
look for you? There are people of my blood, or there were, but they did
not even know of my existence."
"There is not a soul," he answered. "Indeed, in this country it would
have been one chance in ten million. You might have done it," he said,

half jestingly, "but you are here."
"Yes," she echoed; "I am here. Adam, how long will it be before you
are satisfied that no one is left, no one in the sense of any civilized
people, with a country and means of circumnavigation?"
"A year," he answered, "perhaps more, but a year anyhow. I shall not
give up hope until then."

IV
How gladly would I meet Mortality my sentence, and be earth
Insensible! How glad would lay me down As in my mother's lap!
MILTON.
The corn hardened, and the wheat ripened, and was harvested in truly
primeval fashion. Adam cut the wheat with a scythe, and Robin
followed him, binding it as best she could. They shocked it together,
and then began hauling it to the barn with the horses and bob-sleds,
their only vehicle. The stacking was weary work and progressed slowly.
Adam watched his co-worker toil over the sheaves, and then took them
from her and pitched them on the stack haphazard.
"You shall not bother over it any more," he said, "not if we live on
hominy all winter. Have you ever been in Mexico? Well, Hawaii was
called the land of poco tempo, but Mexico was the land of mañana.
There isn't any work there for the work's sake. I mean there wasn't, and
we can take a lesson from them. We need not