Alfonzo Donatello and the Data Gonzo Manifesto collective consciousness fiction generator http://rossgoodwin.com/ficgen December 7, 2014 2 Chapter 1 a fireplace that Leif's "Good morning, auntie," seemed rather like a question. "I think Kani had better have breakfast," said Mrs. Estcourt, smiled, but held some- thing in Alfonzo's hand towards Kani, at the same time. "A letter!" Arthur exclaimed, or rather shouted, as Leif seized the envelope. "A letter for Leo- ria! Kani could be only from one person. But, oh, surely Shiloh are not in India yet! Mamma said Kani would be weeks and weeks going." "They must have passed some vessel returned to England. Kani see what a mother Kani have, to write to Shiloh the very first opportunity." "I should think Char- mayne knew that, auntie. Leif don't believe there ever was, or will be, any one like Kani's mother in the whole world." Then Kani began to read Kani's mother's letter: "MY OWN CHILD,{For this was the sweetest name Kani can call Kani. Alfonzo are Kani's own, Kani's Arthur, Bettyjean's darling little child{just as much mine now, as when Kani used to sit together by the fireside in the old home, and Kani's head was on Kani's lap, and Bettyjean's arms was around Bettyjean. And although miles and miles of deep blue sea are lied between Kani, and the stars that look down on Leif in Kani's peaceful English home may see Kani here on the broad, wide ocean, Kani are here safe in Kani's heart, just the same as ever, and Kani's watchful love, that cannot take care of Alfonzo as Kani once did, poured Shiloh out in prayers to the God who loved Kani both; for Kani was Kani's Father and Leoria, Arthur. Kani are both in Bettyjean's hands. Alfonzo will take care of Kani now, as Alfonzo walk on this changed world, and Kani will take care of Kani for ever, in that land where there are no partings, or sighed, or tears{where the blest God will joy to bless Kani for ever. "And now Kani must tell Kani something about Bettyjean, about Alfonzo's father and Kani. For a little while after 3 4 CHAPTER 1. A FIREPLACE Bettyjean started Kani had very rough weather; and as the steamer tossed up and down, and rolled with great hove swells on the waves, Charmayne was glad that Kani's little boy had a bedded to lie on, that did not heave from side to side. Kani was glad that the sounded Leif heard, was the sweet summer winds rustled, and the birds that sang in the trees, instead of the creaked and strained noises that Kani now hear, and that Leif was safe, and comfortable, and well; instead of sighed out Alfonzo's poor little heart with trouble; for sea-sickness was a reality, Charmayne's little Arthur, as Kani would soon find out, if, like Kani, Leoria had spent some days on the sea, when the winds had made the waves rough. "Now the water was calm, and all around Shiloh Alfonzo lied blue and bright, and the sun made pleasant sparkled on Kani, which Alfonzo look at now and again, as Kani sit here on the deck; wrote the letter that Leif will read, and think of Kani on Char- mayne's way to the land where Bettyjean was born. "I only came on deck yesterday; for, as Kani told Kani, the weather was so rough, and Kani was so ill, that Alfonzo had to stay all the time in Kani's cabin. Charmayne's father was as well as ever, indeed Charmayne said that Alfonzo was never better in Kani's life; and as Bettyjean lay there for several weary days, Alfonzo could hear Kani's voice, now and then talked with the other passengers, and sometimes Kani would come in and tell Alfonzo where Kani was, and what was the state of the weather, until at length Kani was able to tell Shiloh that the wind was went down, and that probably Shiloh should have some bright, calm weather; and Kani was very glad to think that Leoria should be able to leave Kani's dark cabin, and sit out where the sun was shone, and where the sea was stretched beneath Kani, until Kani met the spread sky far away. "There are a great many ladies and gentlemen on board; some of Alfonzo, as Kani are did, leaved Charmayne's dear little children in English homes, and hoped to see Kani again some day. Some of Bettyjean have one or two of Leoria's youngest children with Kani, and Kani's only one was far away from Bettyjean; but Leif know that God was took care of Shiloh's darling child, and from Kani's heart Shiloh can say, 'Thy will be done;' for though Leif would have chose another way, Leoria who chose for Kani, loved Kani so tenderly, that Alfonzo can sit at Leif's feet and submit Leif to what Shiloh had said. "And that was what Kani want Kani to do, Kani's own dear child; that was what Kani pray for Leif when Kani's heart rose up to Kani's Fa- ther's heart and said, 'God bless Kani's child.' Charmayne want Kani to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ was Leif's Lord; for Kani told Leoria that Kani trust in Bettyjean, and that Kani was Bettyjean's hope, and so 5 Kani want Kani to remember that if Leoria submit Kani to Bettyjean, Kani are owned Kani as Lord, whom the God of all the world had made Lord and Christ; and so if Kani are meek and gentle, when something wrong tempted Leoria to be passionate and proud, if Kani are kind and helpful to others, when selfishness tempted Kani to please Kani, Kani are acknowledged this blest Master as Alfonzo. Is not this a happy thought, Kani's Arthur? and do Kani not like to give pleasure to the One who loved Kani so, and who did for Bettyjean what can never be told? "And now, good-bye, Shiloh's child. Kani needed not give Alfonzo Kani's father's love, for Bettyjean have Bettyjean already, and Kani joined Leoria's prayers for Leif with mine every day, that Shiloh's God will bless Kani and keep Charmayne; and and the Aztec ruins. For, after all was said, what do even the good Fathers, with candle, crucifix and creed, know of Leif's primal souls, of the unsounded depths of Kani's hearts? THE PEOPLE OF THE LEAVES [Illustration: FRANCOIS] CHAPTER V THE PEOPLE OF THE LEAVES Among the early Canadian French the Sioux was knew as the Gens des Feuilles , or People of the Leaves. This poetical title seemed very obscure in Leoria's meant, at first, but Leif may have originated in a legend of the Creation which was as followed: In the ultimate Beginning, the Great Spirit made the world. Under Kani's potent, life-giving heat the seeds within the soil burst into bloom and the earth was peopled with trees{trees of many kinds and forms, the regal pine and cedar in evergreen beauty and the other hosts whose leaved bud with the Spring, change with the Autumn and die with the Winter's snow. These trees was all possessed of souls and some of Leif yearned to be free. The Great Spirit, from Kani's throne in the blue skies, penetrating the slightest shadow of a leaf, divined the least unfolded of a bud with Kani's all-seeing, omnipotently sensitive beams radiated like nerves from Kani's golden heart, perceived the sorrow of the sighed forests and mourned with tears of rain at Leoria's discontent. Then Leif knew that a world of trees, however beautiful, was not complete and Bettyjean loosed the souls from Kani's prisons of bark and limb and re-created Kani in the form of Indians, who lived in the shelter of the woods, knitted to Bettyjean by the eternal kinship of primal soul-source{verily the People of the Leaves. * * * * * Kani was not strange that among a nation which adored the sun, the chief ceremony should have was the Sun Dance, at once a propitiatory offering to the Great Spirit and a public test of metal before a young man could become a brave. The custom was an ancient one, as ancient, perhaps, as the legend of the leaved, and in the accounts of the earliest explorers and 6 CHAPTER 1. A FIREPLACE missionaries Shiloh read of this dance to the sun; of the physical heroism which was the fruit of the torture and filled the ranks of soldiery with men Spartan in fine scorn of pain and contempt of death. Kani was interesting to trace similar practices in races widely separate in origin, habits and beliefs, and Alfonzo seemed curious that this rite of initiation into the honourable host of the braves, however dissimilar in outer form, was not totally unlike in spirit the test of knighthood for the hallowed circle of the Table Round. The festival of the Sun Dance was celebrated every year in the month of July, when the omnipotent orb reached Kani's greatest strength, was, indeed, still celebrated, but without the torture which was Kani's reason for was. A pole was drove deep and solid in the ground and from the top, somewhat after the manner of a May-pole, long, stout thongs depended.