THE HEALING SPRINGS AND THE PIONEERS

He came out of the mysterious South one summer day, driving before him a
few sheep, a cow, and a long-eared mule which carried his tent and other
necessaries, and camped outside the town on a knoll, at the base of which
was a thicket of close shrub. During the first day no one in Jansen
thought anything of it, for it was a land of pilgrimage, and hundreds
came and went on their journeys in search of free homesteads and good
water and pasturage. But when, after three days, he was still there,
Nicolle Terasse, who had little to do, and an insatiable curiosity, went
out to see him. He found a new sensation for Jansen. This is what he
said when he came back:

"You want know 'bout him, bagosh! Dat is somet'ing to see, dat man--
Ingles is his name. Sooch hair--mooch long an' brown, and a leetla beard
not so brown, an' a leather sole onto his feet, and a grey coat to his
anklesyes, so like dat. An' his voice--voila, it is like water in a
cave. He is a great man--I dunno not; but he spik at me like dis,
'Is dere sick, and cripple, and stay in-bed people here dat can't get
up?' he say. An' I say, 'Not plenty, but some-bagosh! Dere is dat Miss
Greet, an' ole Ma'am Drouchy, an' dat young Pete Hayes--an' so on.'
'Well, if they have faith I will heal them,' he spik at me. 'From de
Healing Springs dey shall rise to walk,' he say. Bagosh, you not t'ink
dat true? Den you go see."

So Jansen turned out to see, and besides the man they found a curious
thing. At the foot of the knoll, in a space which he had cleared, was a
hot spring that bubbled and rose and sank, and drained away into the