Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-07-15
Gales and Sketfbfs.
WHAT ssoz.s Did.
fContlnuca rom Yesterday

L1scI. an ue-dU0-'edtneT-uedfer leu
them all TO victory. Demilie adjusted
himself TO these democratic re-
vcrsals of ali democratic precedent
well enough after the first surprise was
over: only let the nation prove itself po-
tent and faithful in its awful jeopardy. and
It mattered little to him that for a season
he was counted among the humblest Of
the strengthening atoms At least. so be
thought. -uniil-later Nevertheless. il
was somewhat Of choking morsel that
he found himself compelled to salute his
own brother Ben with military Difference.
that unlocked cub Of the whole family.
with no other talent tina. had ever been
discovered except for ward-meeting ora
tory and and high feeding. whom be had
always reviIed for the Asiatic spiendor Of
his neckties and Observation-Disclosures,
and who had appeared in the most ram
pant Of wide-awakes at their mothers fu-
neral. but who now wore colonel's uni
form, while the M re aesthetic younger
brother had only lately achieved the stripes
Of a corporal.
That very same afternoon. before he
answered Miss Glyn's invitation in person
Demille had grumbled. not loudly, but
deeply. over this unhandsone trick Of Des-
tiny: "lf Nature had given me leather
lungs and india-rubber nerves. that
might have beloved tor our Affairs and
our Fires and slnng the Eagle about by
the tail at ,nass-rneetings a. that lummux
Ben did. ! should not pc cooped up
here like setting hen" Thus wrathiul
~ cogitatiDg, the young man strobe along
through groups of blue bIouses, crushing
yellow object in his right hand. Not
long before. he might have been detected
furtively pressing that object to his lips.
his cheek, even his nose. and smelling il
with long drawn, luxurious inspirations.
There was no other fragrance about it
than that Of the old clay pipe in whose So
ciety il had iourneyed in Sim Smalls
pocket to its destination; but the Young
man had learned from love that when all
other demonstrations prove inadequate
there yet remains an iniinitudc of tender
ness ut the end of the nose. and that the
amerous Paiagonian il not so absurd at
ter all, "a simply osculatory nations think.
Demille mounted slight cminence
from whence he could see. some miles
away. a group OF magnolia-trees over
which the twilight was already spreading
filmy wings. He knew that within that
group was dilapidated mansion. -Doric
temple with Swiss chalet details, full
even in the fervid summer moons of shad-
owy hooks and dim cool vistas, where
Beauty could sleep in safety till her Prince
came. even though ravaging War cut
down every other tree of the landscape
outside her waxen-chaliced magnolias.
Beauty was safe for the Grays had gone
and the Blues had come. and her brother
in whose Doric chalet she dwelt, was 10y
al 20 the old flag.
As the young man gazed upon the dusky
mass Of the magnolias, he shook the to-
bacco- scented yellow envelope wrathiully
in the direction Of Colonel Demille's quar-.
tiers Mt his right. ASK Ben? Hanged if
do. And wiH go, though am brayed
in n mortar for it," he said desperately.
From the days of Samson and those of
Mark Antony to the day of Eldrick De-
mile. when love has wantoned with a
mans strength. it has not been the
strength that has got the best oft.
As he sat low in the moonlight at Miss
Glyn's feet. the young soldier reflected
that it was indeed strange that no word OF
affection had ever passed between two
people whose lives must be forevermore
bound up together or strained and broken
apart. Therefore. swept by the painfully
sweet rapture of his first passion among
those ecstatic heights which men some
times reach. hut where no man dwells. he
set himself to watch cunningly for occa-
sion to assure this superb woman that
henceforth aud forever his head would
strike the sublime stars if only she would
once whisper. "Eldrick, love you"
Once upon q time. by the romantic
Rock River. n youth sought maiden with
..l. a Il
question. When youth and maiden part
cd. some hours later. the question was Yet
unuttered. Three times week tor three
weeks that youth braved the perils of that
tranquil river for the same purpose. and
nine times he recrossed it the momentous
werd still unspoken. ''Strange-indeed.
It's passing strange-that she never gives
me occasion to say what wish ~ he muir
INJURED rs he wendell his way Her-ward
the tenth evening.
"What an awful old poke you were,
Ned" said wife year after marriage.
You came to our house every evening
for three weeks intending to pop the ques-
ton. and never dared open my head. for
fear of spelling an occasion vet you never
had the seonce to do il till the tenth eve
ning"'
case,--for certainly his greatest lack was
not Of "sconce. yet somehow the
precious moments came and wore away
bringing no occasion with them.
Miss Giyn chatted continuously in her
sott. slumberous way. grooming little sto-
ries and laughing ut them with sort of
regal,y slow amusement, or signing over
them as Zenobia probably sometimes
sighed. She murmured pensive memories
of those happy ante-war days when she
made her annual visits to Northern wat
ering-places, hummed of her pleasant
years in Europe, of her Madonna-lke
rides in the Holy Land with her little
nephew ON the donkey before her. and
her handsome father walking by her side.
OF her girlhood's dreams and ambitions
now. alas' so ruthlessly shattered.-
murmured and hummsd after the usual
fashion of the fluert Southron. dreamilv.
drowsilv. necessarily. there in the moon
light, till one less watchful for an "occa-
sion'i than her present listener might
have fancied he heard eolian music. uu-
hasting. unresting. sing -songing on for
ever with the eternal stars.
One could scarcely say that Miss Gyms
conversation coruscaied with gems Of
thought; neither would il occur to any