Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-08-02

lived with his father curious life of
the past-the life of an old man, not
looking forward into the dazzling uncer-
tainty of the future, but seeking in the
remembrance of the past all that is
good, sacred and joyful. The boy grew
up behind Chinese wall, apart from
all the joyful excitement, the busy up
roar of his generation, "heavily laden"
as the great Russian poet Lermontotf
"With the hoary wisdom of his sires."
When Andrusha was fourteen years
of age his father brought him to st.
Petersburg to the Corps des Pages, the
first military school of the empire. On
taking leave of his son in the reception
room of the school, the General, for the
first time in his life, betrayed some
weakness. He clasped Andrusha in his
arms and whispered, "Be good boy,
become an honest soldier; remember
you have got an old father whose life
you hold in your hand. If you ever
should bring shame on our name, shall
die." The boy felt too heavy; burn
ing tears fell on his brow, and bewil-
dered, amazed by this unexpected out
burst of a feeling he had hardly sus-
pected, he threw both his arms around
his father and broke out into a fit of
wild, uncomfortable sobbing. All the
passion all the love which had been
hitherto chilled in his young heart by
his fathers repulsive severity, seemed
at that moment to stream out at once,
shaking his body from head to foot, and
mingled with half-conscious feeling of
pity for himself, for his cold, bleak
childhood.
And thus father and son parted.
During the four years of his studies An
drusha but rarely saw his father. The
journey to Poltava was long one. The
| net of railroads which now connects the
South of Russia with the capital did
not exist even in the widest dreams of
a loyal subject of the Gar. Travelling
was slow and expensive, and General
Savelieff's fortune less than modest.
When at length at the end of his stu
dies, which he accomplished brilliantly,
the young artillery aficer, Andre Ivan
ovitch Savelieff, came to pass the long
vacation with his father in the small
country house of Poltava, the latter was
deeply struck with the change in the
appearance and the temper of his son.
Instead of merry, somewhat silent but
healthy and blooming boy, there sprang
out of the perekladanyo (mall cart) the
General had awaited with such throb-
blng impatience, an earnest, pale man
with a nervously expressive, deeply
marked face, with fiery, piercing and
unHinching gaze-one of those young
faces only to be found among the Rus
sian generation of to-day-a face tell
ing tale of deep thought, of prema-
ture suffering, and of great, torment
ing love. And the boys temper was
changed too.
Of his former awe, mingled with an
impulsive tenderness towards his father,
no trace was to be found. He met the
latter respectfully, but with a certain
mien of independence and of manly dig
nifty which struck the old general with
utter amazement, though it pleased him
on the other hand to find in his son
something akin to his own iron nature.
They met no more like father and son,
but like two soldier friends, one younger
than the other, but both hardened in the
great battle of life. 1t was, however,
preclsly this resemblance on both their
natures which brought them further
apart than ever. Both were not slow in
detecting that they had no interest, nc
idea, no aim in life in common with
each other While the son was scarce.
ly able to answer correctly all his faith
er's queries about the whereabouts OF
this or that general, the newest patterns
of uniforms, or the most recent events
in the life of the imperial family, the
father felt but little interested and
showed still less understanding for the
officers erudite explanations of the new
est improvement in artillery or the pro
jected reforms in the military admins
tration. Besides, the son had othe
studies which engrossed him, othe
books. not treatises on artillery, whicl
he read without even showing them t.
his father. Once the latter, coming un
expectedly into his sons room, saw tn
titles of two of these books, '.The Lif
and Writings of Ferdinand Lassalle,
and Commentaries on John Stewar
Mills Political Economy" Both name
were naturally unknown to him, ant
the name of Tchernyshevsky, the cele
brated Russian Socialist, being no
printed on the last named book, th
brave old General retained no other i'm
| preston from that incident than tha
his son, though a capital soldier, wa
somewhat of bookworm.
, In autumn Andrusha returned to 81
N