THE
CHEMAWA
AMERICAN
3
the way they always had been done.
for he had experienced the first hitter
Now it happened that there was a experience with reform. He flagged
custom among the fiends to gather upon sadly as he sped over the dalles, toward
the plains of The Dalles each Autumn, the defiles near the great inland sea, in
when the erupted lava had become tent upon reaching some craggy position
agreeably cool and there hold a grand whence he could defy attack.
tournament, somewhat as the collegian
But the foremost fiends were upon
warriors of today battle upon the grid him. There were a hundred to one.
iron, or the statesmen meet for recrea The moment was critical, and all seem
tion and word’y combat at the places of ed to be lost for the devil, and reform
parliamentary assembly.
appeared to be at the end of its brief
From these fiestas of blood and turmoil career.
the Devil had absented himself for three
However, the devil was equal to the
successive years. So when he finally re emergency. Without stopping he smote
appeared he was the object of consider mightily upon the rock with his tail.
able comment and speculation. Every The basaltic pavement yielded to the
brother fiend realized that against his Titanic blow. A chasm opened and
strength there was no hope of individual went riving up the valley, piercing
opposition. And as up to that time the through the bulwark hills. Down rush
Devil had never become particularly ed the waters of the inland sea whirling
hated, the idea of a combined attack up boulders through the narrow trough,
on him had not occurred to the others. and making a fearsome guard between
So the Devil approached, after his ab the retreating Devil and the pursuing
sence, his massive and destructive tail fiends.
vibrating proudly. And he said:
The main body of the devil-hunters
“Fellow fiends, the earth is quieting. shrank back, cowed by the obstacle.
Eruptions and earthquakes are coming But many essayed the leap, and contin
to an end. The elements are becoming ued in the mad chase, now doubly thirsty
peaceful. Cannot we learn a lesson from for the blood of the fainthearted reform
them? Would it not be well for us to er.
give up war?”
Again, and more fiercely smote the
So spake the Devil, intending peace, Devil upon the rocky floor with his ter
and precipitating war. Immediately rible tail. A larger and more awe inspir
there arose from deviltry in general a ing cleft shot among the rocks, and
howl of hatred and disapproval.
through it another seething torrent from
“He would lure us to peace, that he the inland sea poured forth to block the
may destroy us easily” they cried. way.
“ Death, death to the traitor!”
Still the leading fiends were not ap
And all the legions of fiends, united for
the first time, made at the initial re palled. Many took the leap. Some
succeeded in the crossing, others fell in
former.
The Devil, evidently a wise politician, the boiling waters and were swept away
pursued a fabian policy, and took to his to a watery grave or crushed against the
heels. And as he ran his heart was sharp rock walls by the swift flood.
h**avy within him, sayeth the chronicle,
(C ontinued on page8.)