CHAPTER X.
I had begun to feel an intense longing to return to my own country, butit was accompanied by a desire, equally as strong, to carry back to thatwoe-burdened land some of the noble lessons and doctrines I had learnedin this. I saw no means of doing it that seemed so available as acompanion,--a being, born and bred in an atmosphere of honor and grandlyhumane ideas and actions.
My heart and my judgment turned to Wauna. She was endeared to me by longand gentle association. She was self-reliant and courageous, andpossessed a strong will. Who, of all my Mizora acquaintances, was sowell adapted to the service I required.
When I broached the subject to her, Wauna expressed herself as reallypleased with the idea; but when we went to the Preceptress, sheacknowledged a strong reluctance to the proposition. She said:
"Wauna can form no conception of the conditions of society in yourcountry. They are far, very far, behind our own. They will, I fear,chafe her own nature more than she can improve theirs. Still, if Ithought she could lead your people into a broader intelligence, andstart them on the way upward to enlightenment and real happiness, Iwould let her go. The moment, however, that she desires to return shemust be aided to do so."
I pledged myself to abide by any request the Preceptress might make ofme. Wauna's own inclinations greatly influenced her mother, and finallywe obtained her consent. Our preparations were carefully made. Theadvanced knowledge of chemistry in Mizora placed many advantages in ourway. Our boat was an ingenious contrivance with a thin glass top thatcould be removed and folded away until needed to protect us from therigors of the Arctic climate.
I had given an accurate description of the rapids that would oppose us,and our boat was furnished with a motive power sufficient to drive usthrough them at a higher rate of speed than what they moved at. It wasbuilt so as to be easily converted into a sled, and runners were madethat could be readily adjusted. We were provided with food and clothingprepared expressly for the severe change to and rigors of the Arcticclimate through which we must pass.
I was constantly dreading the terrors of that long ice-bound journey,but the Preceptress appeared to be little concerned about it. When Ispoke of its severities, she said for us to observe her directions, andwe should not suffer. She asked me if I had ever felt uncomfortable inany of the air-ship voyages I had taken, and said that the cold of theupper regions through which I had passed in their country was quite asintense as any I could meet within a lower atmosphere of my own.
The newspapers had a great deal to say about the departure of thePreceptress' daughter on so uncertain a mission, and to that strangeland of barbarians which I represented. When the day arrived for ourdeparture, immense throngs of people from all parts of the country linedthe shore, or looked down upon us from their anchored air-ships.
The last words of farewell had been spoken to my many friends andbenefactors. Wauna had bidden a multitude of associates good-bye, andclasped her mother's hand, which she held until the boat parted from theshore. Years have passed since that memorable parting, but the look ofyearning love in that Mizora mother's eyes haunts me still. Long andvainly has she watched for a boat's prow to cleave that amber mist andbear to her arms that vision of beauty and tender love I took away fromher. My heart saddens at the thought of her grief and long, long waitingthat only death will end.
We pointed the boat's prow toward the wide mysterious circle of ambermists, and then turned our eyes for a last look at Mizora. Wauna stoodsilent and calm, earnestly gazing into the eyes of her mother, until theshore and the multitude of fair faces faded like a vision of heaven fromour views.
"O beautiful Mizora!" cried the voice of my heart. "Shall I ever againsee a land so fair, where natures so noble and aims so lofty have theirabiding place? Memory will return to you though my feet may never againtread your delightful shores. Farewell, sweet ideal land of my Soul, ofHumanity, farewell!"
My thoughts turned to that other world from which I had journeyed solong. Would the time ever come when it, too, would be a land ofuniversal intelligence and happiness? When the difference of nationswould be settled by argument instead of battle? When disease, deformityand premature death would be unknown? When locks, and bolts and barswould be useless?
I hoped so much from the personal influence of Wauna. So noble, soutterly unconscious of wrong, she must surely revolutionize human naturewhenever it came in contact with her own.
I pictured to myself my own dear land--dear, despite its many phases ofwretchedness--smiling in universal comfort and health. I imagined itspolitical prisons yawning with emptiness, while their haggard anddecrepit and sorrowful occupants hobbled out into the sunshine ofliberty, and the new life we were bringing to them. Fancy flew abroad onthe wings of hope, dropping the seeds of progress wherever it passed.
The poor should be given work, and justly paid for it, instead of beingsupported by charity. The charity that had fostered indolence in itsmistaken efforts to do good, should be employed to train poverty toskillful labor and economy in living. And what a world of good that onemeasure would produce! The poor should possess exactly the sameeducational advantages that were supplied to the rich. In this _one_measure, if I could only make it popular, I would see the golden promiseof the future of my country. "Educate your poor and they will work outtheir own salvation. Educated Labor can dictate its rights to Capital."
How easy of accomplishment it all seemed to me, who had seen thepractical benefits arising to a commonwealth that had adopted thesemottoes. I doubted not that the wiser and better of my own people wouldaid and encourage me. Free education would lead to other results.
Riches should be accumulated only by vast and generous industries thatreached a helping hand to thousands of industrious poor, instead ofgrinding them out of a few hundred of poorly-paid and over-workedartisans. Education in the hands of the poor would be a powerful agentwith which they would alleviate their own condition, and defendthemselves against oppression and knavery.
The prisons should be supplied with schools as well as work-rooms, wherethe intellect should be trained and cultivated, and where moral idiocy,by the stern and rigorous law of Justice to Innocence, should be forcedto deny itself posterity.
No philanthropical mind ever spread the wings of its fancy for a broaderflight.