The Mintage | Page 3

After breakfast I saw that boy get a spade, a shovel and a pick out of
the wagon.
With help of others a grave was dug there on the prairie.
The dead was rolled in a blanket and tied about with thongs, after the
fashion of the Indians.
Lines were taken from a harness, and we lowered the body into the
grave.
The grave was filled up by friendly hands working in nervous haste.
I saw the boy pat down the mound with the back of a spade.
I saw him carve with awkward, boyish hands the initials of his father,
the date of his birth and the day of his death.
I saw him drive the slab down at the head of the grave.
I saw him harness the four horses.

I saw him help his little brothers into the canvas-covered wagon.
I saw him help his mother climb the wheel as she took her place on the
seat.
I saw him spring up beside her.
I saw him gather up the lines in his brown, slim hands, and swing the
whip over the leaders, as he gave the shrill word of command and
turned the horses to the West.
And the cavalcade moved forward to the West--always to the West.
The boy had met calamity and disaster. He had not flinched.
In a single day he had left boyhood behind and become a man.
And the years that followed proved him genuine.
What was it worked the change? Grief and responsibility, nobly met.

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The church has aureoled and sainted the men and women who have
fought the Cosmic Urge. To do nothing and to be nothing was regarded
as a virtue.
SIMEON STYLITES THE SYRIAN
The church has aureoled and sainted the men and women who have
fought the Cosmic Urge. To do nothing and to be nothing was regarded
as a virtue.

As the traveler journeys through Southern Italy, Sicily and certain parts
of what was Ancient Greece, he will see broken arches, parts of
viaducts, and now and again a beautiful column pointing to the sky. All

about is the desert, or solitary pastures, and only this white milestone
marking the path of the centuries and telling in its own silent, solemn
and impressive way of a day that is dead.
In the Fifth Century a monk called Simeon the Syrian, and known to us
as Simeon Stylites, having taken the vow of chastity, poverty and
obedience, began to fear greatly lest he might not be true to his pledge.
And that he might live absolutely beyond reproach, always in public
view, free from temptation, and free from the tongue of scandal, he
decided to live in the world, and still not be of it. To this end he
climbed to the top of a marble column, sixty feet high, and there on the
capstone he began to live a life beyond reproach.
Simeon was then twenty-four years old.
The environment was circumscribed, but there were outlook, sunshine,
ventilation--three good things. But beyond these the place had certain
disadvantages. The capstone was a little less than three feet square, so
Simeon could not lie down. He slept sitting, with his head bowed
between his knees, and, indeed, in this posture he passed most of his
time. Any recklessness in movement, and he would have slipped from
his perilous position and been dashed to death upon the stones beneath.
As the sun arose he stood up, just for a few moments, and held out his
arms in greeting, blessing and in prayer. Three times during the day did
he thus stretch his cramped limbs, and pray with his face to the East. At
such times, those who stood near shared in his prayers, and went away
blessed and refreshed.
How did Simeon get to the top of the column?
Well, his companions at the monastery, a mile away, said he was
carried there in the night by a miraculous power; that he went to sleep
in his stone cell and awoke on the pillar. Other monks said that Simeon
had gone to pay his respects to a fair lady, and in wrath God had caught
him and placed him on high. The probabilities are, however, Terese, as
viewed by an unbeliever, that he shot a line over the column with a
bow and arrow and then drew up a rope ladder and ascended with ease.

However, in the morning the simple people of the scattered village saw
the man on the column.
All day he stayed there.
And the next day he was still there.
The days passed, with the scorching heat of the midday sun, and the
cool winds of the night.
Still Simeon kept his place.
The rainy season came on. When the nights were