The Democratic advocate., 1878-07-20
Original Storp.
BASIL GORDON'S VOCATION.
Writfen for the Democratic AdrOeate
ny EDWIN GREER.

ny EDWIN GREER.
Ii was on the afternoon of July day,
some summers ago, that two young men
lay in the shade of large oak in grove
some rods distant from the principal hotel
of K, a seaside resort lying a mile or
two to the south of Rehoboth Beach, in
the charming little State of Delaware.
One ofthem, Kennedy Cheston, young
lawyer from Baltimore, was sprightly
'society man. lie was handsome, con-
versationaI, dashing, successful in his pro-
fession, and, it is superfuous to add, quite
favorite with the ladies.
Basil Gordon, his friend and old school
mate, was not in all respects so fortunate.
He was, it is true, by far the nobler look
ing man, and there was a high gentility
about him that won him Difference every
where. Though a native Of the Eastern
Shore, and calling It his home, he had re-
ceivcd his scholastic training in the city,
and had spent most Of the years of his
manhood in travelling. He had an mex
tinguishabIe affection for his native town,
but could not long at time, with all his
burning ambition, his intense interest in
what was going on in the world, and his
constant longing to give some effective
expression to that interest, breathe freely
in its narrow provincial limits
Although gifted with fine powers, which
had been well trained by varied study, he
had not yet met the expectations of his
friends People had begun to call his life
failure. He knew this, and seldom en-
tered society.
Less free here than at home to follow
his own inclinations, he mingled with the
gay crowd that every morning contended
with the breakers, now aud then render
ing assistance to despairing novice, but
generally devoted his afternoons to-read-
ing or boating, and only occasionally
showed mselfamong the pleasure-seekers
in the evening.
He was too habitually reserved to be be-
trayed into the voluntary formation of ac-
quaintanceships when travelling, or to be
consciously demonstratiye among sirang-
ers, while he had such an intensified soul
life as precIuded his ever becoming the
conventional conversationalist Placed in
certain conditions, be could talk for hours,
his face all aglow with the light enkindled
BY his multiplying conceptions. But these
conditions did not often occur.
Fortunately, however, the world, while
prizing the takers, those deft individuals
whose happy art it is to bridge many a
social rayine otherwise impossible, does
not wholly fail to recognize and appreciate
those others who in solitary walks are pom
dering with painful delight some psycholog-
ical problem, it may be, or thinking Of
the great historic characters, the giants Of
the past, whose trials and triumphs did not
save them from being tranpled under foot
by the pigmies of the present, or seeing in
the tiny flower by the wayside beauty to
be transplanted to the souls garden and
10 the dewdrop gem for its palace, or,
perhaps, their spirits attuned by the Hand
that awaked the haFmonies of the golden
harps, are giving their FIRST strains to God
and the angels.
Being an Eastern Shoreman, Basil was
fond of ath letic exercises and aquatic
sports. Kennedy had spent ten days with
him at his home cunning and fishing.
They had now been at the beach couple
Of weeks. They had been smoking on this
lazy afternoon about quarter Of an hour
when Kennedy broke the silence.
"Bas, said he, ''why in the world don t
you pay more attention to the ladies'? I've
fallen in love with half dozen and danced
with dozen Of the EN- since we've been
here, but I've rarely seen you conversing
with any lady save Miss Herbert. True,
she's beautiful girl, and is regarded as
one of our most brilliant bellies, and is from
the Eastern Shore, your paradise, but don t
you think she is trihe too bookish ?"
"Yes,-for those who don't read"
II can stand your inuendoes, old fel :
low But do wish you would show your
self in society ofteuer, as you used to do.
The people here don't know what is in
you"
Puf-puff-puff came the smoke from
Basil's cigar, slowly curling upward in
beautiful circles.
"ChestOn, "a protracted pause, during
which the gentle putting went on-"did it
never strike you that man with aspira-
Eions cannot believe that life was given to
be spent in focalizing his energies in a
perpetual contemplation Of the ladies', ad-
mirable though he knows them to be ?
Miss Herbert, | confess, is the most at
tractive lady ever met You can't say
Of every lady that she can talk as well as
she can dance. joy in things Of beauty,
not, perhaps, quite as much as poor Keats
did, but about as much as most ordinary