Litchfield enquirer., 1874-08-20

and sat with melancholy frown and his eyea fixed on his piate His comrade was plainly terribly thorn in his side. I was curious, on tia.. other hand, to know how
 tie Colonel affected the Professor. and soon discovered that the latter was by no mealiis his ex,il,erant impudent self within
 the r;ldins of his colleagues pregnant si- lence. If there was little love lost be- tween then, the ranting charIatan was at least held in check by an indefinable res peet for his companicn's probity. He
 was fool, doubtless, with his careful
 statements and his incapacity to take a
 humorous view of human credulity; but, somehow, he was venerable fool. and
 the Professor, as n social parsonage, with out the inspiration of a iecture-room more or less irritatingly interspaced, and with that pale, grave old mathematician sitting by like a marble monument to Veracity, lacked the courage to ventilate his pacu- liar pretensions. On this occasion. how ever, he swallowed the Colonel's tacit pro- test with a wry face. I don't know what he had brought to pass in the darkened parlOr; whatever it was, it had agreeably stimulated his confidence in his resources
 We had been joined, moreover, at dinner by half dozen travellers of less oppres- sively skeptical mould than the Colonel, and under these circumstances 1t was pc culiarly trying to have to veil one's bright CT genius. There was undischarged thun- der in the air.
 The rain ceased the afternoon, and the sun leapfd ont and set the thousand pud- dies of the village street a-fashing. I found the Colonel sitting under tho tavern porch with village urchin between his knees, to whom he seemed to be impart- ing the rudiments of mathematical science. The little boy had bulging forehead, a prodigious number of freckles, and the general aspect of juvenile Newton. Be- ing present at the Colonels lecture, he had been fired with laudable curiosity to know more, and learning the Professor Fargo imparted information dOnaiciLe, had ventured to believe that his collea- que did likewise. The child's father, a great, gaunt, brown-faced farmer, with a yellow tuft on his chin, stood by, blush ing at the audacity of his son and herr, but grinning delightedly at his brightness. The poor Colonel, whose need of recog- nition had as yet been so meagre, was vastly tickled by this expression of infan- tine sympathy, and discoursed to the lit tic prodigy with the most condescending benevolence. Certainly, as the boy grows efa, tho most vivid of his childish memo ries will be that of tho old man with glow ing eyes and softened voice coming from under his white moustache-the voice which held hIm stock-still for whole half hour, and assured him afterwards that he was little Trojan. When tho lesson was over, proposed a walk to the Colonel, and we wandered away out of the village. The afternoon, as it waned, became glo- rious; the heavy clouds, broken and dis persed, sailed through the glowing sky like highprowed galleys, draped in purple and silver. l, on my side, shall never forget the Colonels excited talk, nor how at last, as we sat on q rocky ridge looking off to the sunset, he fairly unburdened his con- science.
 'Yes, sir!" he said; s'its base conces- sion to the ignoble need of keeping body and soul together, Sometimes l feel as if couldn't stand 1t another hour-as if it were better to break with the impudent rascal and sink or swim as fate decrees, than get hearing for the truth at such q cost. It's all very we'll holding my ton que and insisting that I, at least, make no claims for the mans vile frauds; my con- nection with him is itself sanction, and my presence at his damnable mummer1es an outrage to the purity of truth. You sec have the misfortune to believe in and to think it makes differ ence whether people feed, intellectually, on poisoned garbage or on the ripe, sweet fruit of true science! I shut my eyes every night, and lock my jaws, and clench my teeth, but I can't help hearing tho mans windy rubbish. It's tissue of lies, from beginning to end. know them all by heart by this time, and [ verify believe I could stand up and rat tle them off myself. They ring in my ears all day, and have horrible dreams at night of crouching under table with long cloth, and tapping on the top of it. The Professor stands outside swearing to tho audience that it's tho ghost of Archi- medes. Then begin to suffocate, and overturn tho table, and appear before a thousand people as the accomplice of the impostor. There are times when the val ue of my own unheeded message to man. kind seems so vast, so immeasurable, that am ready to believe that any means are lawful which may enable mo to utter it; that if ones ship is to set sail for the gold en islands, oven a Haunting buccaneer
 
 moods, when I sit there against the wall, in the shade, closing my eyes and trying not to bear-I really don't hear! My mind is myried miles away-foating, soaring on tho wings of invention. But all of a sudden the odiousness of my position comes over me, and I can't believe my that it's verify who sit there-I to whom a grain of scientific truth is moro precious than a mountain of goldp'
 He was silent long time, and myself hardly knew what consolation to offer him. The most friendly part was simply to let him expend his bitterness to the last drop. ''But that's not tho ~orst.". he resumed after while. ''The worst IS that hate the greasy rascal to como near my daugh- ter, and that, living and travelling togeth- or as we do, he's never far off At first he used to engage small child beforehand to hold up his little folded papers for him; but few weeks ago it came into his head that it would glve the affair an even great er air of innocence, if he could make use of my poor girl. It does, believe, and it tells, and I've been brought so low that sit by night after night and endure it. She, on her side. dreams of no harm, and takes the Professor for an oracle and his lecture Tor masterpiece. l have never her, for I have no desire to teach hor that there are such things as falsity and impurity. Except that our perpetual railway journeys gives her bad headaches, she supposes thatwe lead a life of pure felicity. But some fine day our friend will be wanting to put her into pink dress and garland of art ificial flowers, and then, with Gods help, we shall part company!"
 My silence, in reply to this last burst of implied the most deferential assent; but was privately wondering ''the little maid' was as perfect ly ignorant of evil as tl.e old man suppos- ed. I remembered the episode at the cemetery the day before, and doubted greatly whether her father had counten- anced it. With his sentiments touching the Professor, this was most unlikely. The young girl, then, had secret, and it gave me real discomfort to think this coarse fellow should keep the key of it. I feared that tho poor Colonel was yoked to his colleague more cruelty than he knew. On our return to the inn this im- pression was wildly confirmed. Dusk ho6 falloU xvbnr, xro kbo ,ox.Ll;o