, 1881-08-26
OUR COLONEL'S STORY.

''You all knew Sandy McPherson?"
said our Colonel.
''Intimatelyr ''PeFfectlyp 'As well as
my own brother siri" most of us replied,
though. if the truth be told, there was
not a man at that table who had ever
heard of Mr. Mcpherson before. You
see it was the commanding officer who
spoke, and it was risky saying him nay
when he expected yea.
''They used to call him, you recollect,
The Great Unwashed;' vulgar but ap-
propriate sobriquet nevertheless" con-
tinued the chief Great, on account of
his burly and previously ugly person;
unwashed by reason of his accredited
scant acquaintance with brown winsor,
spring-water and the functions of the
tailors and washermen of the land.
ION his coffee estate in the mountains
and among his undraped and unscrubbed
coolies, this disregard for the comforts
and conveniences of life went for moth
ing, perhaps it was even in keeping with
the surroundings; but when he came
down to the city, walked In its public
gardens, or showed with its swells at the
band, his appearance was too outrageous
and his brother X. G. BIS, meaning
.
You might suppose, of the Order of the
Bath, dressy men hereabouts, whatever
else they are on their plantations, east
him completely into the shade by their
get-up and gorgeousness.
''As for the spinsters and young wild
ows of the station, there was scarce one
but who fought shy of admitting him
into her presence as a morning visitor,
much less a suitor, though many of these
blooming ladies were on the sharp look
out for the silken chains of matrimony,
and Barkis, that is to say, McPherson-
was, as they knew, willing.
but disadvantages of person and at
tire Notwithstanding, he was a right good
fellow. He was honest, hard-working,
thrifty; and from being a mere advent
urer without interest, friends or money,
he had, self-helped only, saved up the
bawbees little by little; had bought acre
after acre of virgin soil; cleared it, plant
ed it; and now he had squatted down
free from encumbrance on Ailsa Craig,
as he called his property, as pretty and
fruitful small coffee estate as could be
found in one of the most picturesque
districts of this lovely island.
II wish could give you even faint
idea of the exquisite beauty of its seen
"
looking out on still higher mountains,
clothed to their very SUBMITS with hoary
forest trees. / wish / could paint that
mighty waterfall almost beside the house,
as it came tearing over beds and powders
of rock, tumbling with an incessant roar
into fOaming river below. I would |
were able to picture the slopes green
with scented grass, the fields white at
one season with the snowy blossoms and
at another red with the ripening fruit of
the coffee bushes, the towering crags
glowing with bright tropical flowers, at
the steep declevities verdant TO their very
base with ferns and lichens. | can't do
it, boys, and won't try. All that want
You to know is that it was deuce nice
sort of place, this habitat of the Nc
Pherson; and that to be settled there
with ones household goods and coffee
selling at 70 or so shillings per hundred
weight in the market, would pay a pre-
cious deal better than does her most
gracious Majesty-God bless heri-and
the command of this dear old corps with
its unruly subs.
$50, no doubt, too, thought its owner
as he lolled and smoked at his cottage
front and gazed at the silver bloom or the
ruddy cherries of his trees growing al
most up to the very door. But it was a
poor, ungarnished, comfortless, higgley-
piggley sort of homestead that same
dwelling house; for whatever else friend
Sandy had done toward identifying and
fertilizing of his land, his roof-tree, like
his wardrobe, had been utterly neglect
ed. Both wanted just exactly what he
thought they did-the wife element to set
them shipshape and presentable; and as
you have heard before for that desider-
atum he was on the 'qui yive.'
"Now, you young gentlemen who are
in the habit of lawn-tennising, afternoon
teaing, talking, spooning, walking, driv-
ing, with all the feminines, plain and col
ored, of this place, and who think that
you have only to ask and be received =
which beg and entreat you will not put
to the test, cutting up the mess, and so
on-can't perhaps realize to yourselves
the difficulties the worthy am speaking
of had met with in even this overstOcked
matrimonial emporium. The AnglefraIls,
the Hunters, the Hookers, lots of girls
whom I will not name. had snubbed or
turned up their pretty noses at him when
he came a wOoing; and so nolens vplens,
he remained bachelor, anathematzing
his ill-luck, and venting his disappoint-
ments upon the backs of shreking and
recusant Tamil coolies the recognized