The Red Cloud chief., 1879-05-01

loOAGu ~ HILL III ooSDk
"'Morrill,' l said, you surely do not,
after half q lifetime, bear . grudge for
that childish ~squabble.'
".He was no child! He was q man!
He struck me unjustly. There Is not q
day in which those blows have not
burned into my ieshi lam q man, like
himself, now, and III give him blow for
blow!'
81 also had business in Vermont, and
/ went with him, hoping to interfere, II
possible. But the sense Of injury had
ranked so long in his brain that 1t
amounted to insanity.
"He was a genial, ~kind-hearted fel-
low, except when Ruddiman's name was
mentioned. Then he would grow gloomy
and silent.
His long absence from a civilized
| country made him ready to note all that
happened about him. He took, too, the
keenest interest in every child and
woman that entered the cars, and wa
always ready to help them in any way
he could.
"At a station among the hills, q lit
tie girl came into the cars, leading q
feeble old man.. Morrill, sprang TO help
them TO a seat, and then he came back
for his valise.
"sHe's blind!' he said. Just think
of it! to live in your W country. and
not be able to see it! The old fellow is
poor, too, I'm afraid. I'll 60 and sit
with him.
He sat by the old man at intervals
during the whole day, helping him of
and on the train when we stopped for
meals, and, l fancy, paying for sumptu-
Gus repasts, to which his companions
had long been strangers.
"Once he came back to me.
ga fine old gentleman he said.
'Singularly intelligent. And there's
something very reverend in his simple
piety and goodness. If you had lived
among heathens for 30 years, you'd ap-
preciate it,
"At sunset, we reached c., and
Morrill, assisted the feeble blind man to
descend from the platform.
"sThis is my home,' said he. DO
you stop hereP"
"sYes,' stammered Morrill,. Il have
business in c.
"'You will come to my house, then,
when it is ~fnished?' said the old man.
You have been very kind to me. Ifeel
sure that we shall be friends. My name
is Ruddiman.'
"Morrill's face grew first pale, then
scarlet. He shook hands without a
word. When we had gone down the
street, he laughed aloud, like a woman
in Mysteries. But when l smiled, he
turned on me fiercely.
"'Stop!' he said. I'm q fool, but l
know it! know it,
"He proved a good friend to the old
teacher, whose lite became more CON-
Portable after that. Morrill, was a gen.
erous fellow, had plenty Of money, and
1 think felt that he ought to make
amends for every blow that he had not
given.
"One instance more of his logged
persistence:
81 left him in Providence. on his way
to New York to meet his brother. A few
days later, l received q letter from a
friend, in which he stated that the ex-
plolinS PARTY had been attacked on the
Plains by Indians, and all but three had
been murdered.
"The next week l went down to New
York, and hunted up Morrill,. He was
very pale and quiet, but had made prep
arations for a journey across the Plains.
This was before the days of Pacific rail-
roads, and the journey would be one of
months, and must be made in y wagon
train.
"'John, they tell me, vas murdered.
They buried him there. l am going to
bring him home
stirring him home? Impossib!ei'
"'I must see John, dead or alive. Do
you think l would leave him there for
the cayotes and savages to dig out of
the groundP'
"He went. The men who had re-
turned gave him accurate directions as
to where their slaughtered comrades
were buried.
"'But there were twenty of them,'I
demonstrated. How a you tell which
is Johns grave? II is unmarked
"'I shall dig them up until l find
him. he said, with compressed lips.
"And he did it. l am stating a fact,
and one that always seemed to me ter
ribly pathetic. The man journeyed for
months before he found, on q boundless
sage plain, the heaps of earth over the
murdered travellers.
"Then, alone-for his companions
would not aid him-he uncovered every
grave, looking for his brother, and COW
cred them re~verently again.
"JOhn was not there.
some or two of the bodies had al
ready been torn up by the cayotes, and
his, it was supposed, was one of them.
"James Morrill, returned to the States,
and prepared to 60 back to China,
to remain there the rest of his life.
"The day before he was to sail, I was
walking with him on Broadway, when
his brother John met US, face to face.
"James stood looking at him in blank
amazement, with stirring eyes and open
mouth. Then he laid his hands on his
shoulders.
"'You are q Fraud he said, quietly.
you ought to be dead. I've been dig
ging for you for months Then the
tears came to his eyes, he choked, as if
he had swallowed something, and was
silent.
"The two men walked away together
as calmly as if they had parted but yes
terdsy, instead of thirty years before.
"But they did not separate again.
They went together to China, and are,
most likely, still wandering through the
world in each others company
Youth's Companion.
An English gentleman travelled over
q railroad line where the fare was I'd,
but not having . ticket before entering
the cars, the company undertook to
charge him 3d., reckoning the distance
from the terminal station, from which