The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-12-04
An English stO

II =
gone UP the river, camping out; we had
done our second days work. 1t was
| early morning on the third day, glo.
rious weather. was in the boat, get.
ting the steering lines in order; Giffard
and Dixon were on the bank, talking to
DIR. Rawle. As / understood it the
doctor was at the head of private asy-
lum for lunatics. He had been taking
q constitutional when he happened to
fall in with us just as we were sitting
down to our open-air breakfast; the
chance meeting led to Giffard inviting
him to share our gypsy meal. De did.
He was q pleasant fellow. not too old
and not too young. liked him exceed
ingly. We talked of things in general,
| and of lunatics in particular. Some
thing led to his mentioning-I think it
was speaking of the cunning of . cer-
tain class of lunatics, and the difficulty
of keeping them within four walls-the
fact that one of his inmates had es-
capped q day or two previously, and had
| not yet been retaken. This was the
more singular, as it was certain he had
not gone far away, and search had been
made for him in every direction. F
As Giffard and Dixon were, saying
goodbye. preparatory to getting into
the boat, the doctor laughingly said:
"Should you happen to come across
him, I shall consider you bound TO
bring him back safe and sound. He's
a man of forty-four or five, tall and
bony, iron-gray hair, and has habit
of showing his teeth and winking his
left eye. Don't look out for a raving
lunatic; for on most points he's as right
as you and !. He's wrong on two
things. Whatever you do, don't let
him lose his temper; for whenever he
does, though ever so slightly, he in
variably goes in for murder-he's all
but done for two keepers already. And
don't talk to him of England and En-
glishmen; for if he should get upon his
native land, he will favor you with
some observations which win make you
open your eyes,"
We laughed. ALI and Tom shook
hands with him and got into the boat.
We promised him if we should happen
to meet him we would certainly see him
returned to custody. ALI stood up and
showed us from the shore; we sang out q
last goodbye, and left the doctor stand
ing on the shore.
1t was q beautiful morning. The
river was delicious, clear as crystal; we
could see the bottom, and every stone
and pebble on it; just q gentle breeze,
tanning the surface of the waters into
q ripple. We Lit our pipes and took it
easily. I am q good bit of astraveler.
know many lovely hooks and crannies
in foreign lands; Ihave lived abroad as
much as at home; but I will match the
higher reaches of our own Father
Thames for beauty and for charm
against any scenery in Europe. And
on an early summer morning, after a
spell of glorious weather, it is in all its
prime, the water SO cool, so clear; the
banks so green, so charming; the state
ly trees on either side; the mansions
seen over the meadows, or popping
out among the trees. You may choose
your Rhine, Garda, or your Maggiore,
or your golden Bay of Naples, but
leave Cookham and old Father Thames
to me. sH-
Presumably, we had come for river
beauties and camping out, presumably.
but as q matter of fact there was q
young lady lived not so far ahead, a
mutual friend. Lillian Travers. Sepa-
rately and jointly we had high opinion
of Miss Travers, not only of her beauty,
but of other things as well; and having
come so far, we hoped we should not
have to return until at least we had a
peep at her. Unfortunately, though we
knew Miss Travers, we had no acquaint-
ance with Mr.-there was no Mrs. We
had met the young lady at several
dances and such like; but ON each occa-
sion she was accompanied by old Mrs.
Mackenzie. Apparently Mr.. Travers
was not q party man. But Lillian had
promised to introduce us to him when-
ever she got q chance, and we were
not unhopeful she would get that chance
now. So you see that little excursion
riverward had more in it than met the
eye.
We went lszily on. just dipping the
oars in and out, smoking, watching the
smoke curling through the clear air.
| All thoughts of the doctor and of his
parting words had gone from our
minds; we talked little, and that little
meeting. We had gone two or three
hundred yards; We were close to the
shore; Alf could almost reach it by
stretching out his oar. We were
dreaming and lazing, when suddenly
some one stepped out from among the
trees. He was close to us-not q dozen
feet away.
He was a tall man, rather over than
under six feet. He was dressed in a
dark brown suit of Oxford mixture; he
had a stick in his hand, wore a billy
cock hat, and his coat was buttsned
right up to the throat. He had light
whiskers, heavy dropping mustache,
and hair unusually long, iron-gray in
color. He might be q soldier retired
from his profession, or an artist out
painting; he certainly looked a gentle
man, ------ "a.
We were passing on when he raised
his stick, and shouted out "Stopr'
1t was . regular shout, as though we
were about half mile from him, We