Litchfield enquirer., 1881-05-12
From Blackwood's Msgazinel
 MIR. COX's PROTEGE
IN TWO PARTs.

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 ,t5h.1.ir = III fa5a5is lsss Il
 -.a. E $, ra1 gno0it# sas4fiy To my fancy, there IS nothing much finer in the way of river scenery than the Danube be- ween Ratisbon and Passau. As wien Camp bell sang of the river, so it is stil l-lonely almost within sound of the rattle q the rail-
 ways, and all the more loveable for mans neglect. A greater contrast to the Main can hardly be imagined than the swift, Hoad cur
 rent of the rushing water-now weeping round the base of beetling precipce, now running in rapid shallows threugl the low highlands of pastoral wilderness. apn may be carried down the waterway for Hague at time without seeing even a herdshan or forester on the ''untroddeB shore. And SO long as we went smoothly though swiftly with the stream, and had merely to do a lbtle easy navigation, Lurcher appeared to fljoy it amazingly 1 can't say that Cox vas very successful ia bringing out his latent asthetical instincts; he contemplated the woodland scenery and the occasional ruin Of some picturesquely situated castle or conyeht with
 very moderate enthusiasm. But he Iaddled away m quiet animal enjoyment of thf balmy ar and the lazy exercise. 1 should say that he mght have been perfectly happy had it not been for the ever abiding appreninsion of troubles and dangers ahead. But every now and then, when the canoe began to dance in the bubbling turmoil of inciplent wiirlpools, he showed anmistakable signs of alara by the
 nervous jerking ot the paddle; and had it
 been question of his salety in an awkward
 moment, 1 should have been sorry hdeed to
 have insured him from shipwreck. What he felt. however, he kept to himself he said
 ;ttl,, ,nt, ho xrn,,lA fi,,,oc shrink together: and liked him all he better
 for not giving expression to his alam. But all at once more formidable sound came to our ears though mellowed to surly ymurmur
 by the distance ;.and at the next sharp turn of the river we got full front view of what
 awaited us. It was nothing very perilous, after all, when you made a calm survty of the hydrography. There was nothing inkhe rush
 that the small river steamers were rot in the
 habit of breasting daily; and there vas side
 channel where the water flowed over rshallows
 where an upset need have no seriorB conse-
 quences to fair swimmer. On that dannel,
 Abraham, as commodore, decided at dnce. Il
 shall lead" he called out You ctn come
 next, Hooper, and leave Jim there p follow
 in your wake, There's nothing to le afraid
 of, Jinl," he added, encohragingly 'You
 know Tvet taught you to swim vGy well.
 and MT. Hooper and 1 will be below to wait
 for you" -sis '.+
 We had been, during our rapid consultation,
 holding on to some reeds on the bank Of he
 him with malicious alacrity. For Abraham's protege and my darling aversion was evidently
 infinitely more ill at ease than he had been at
 the table q hote the evening before. He bal
 anced himself on the brink of the abYss ike crippled jackdaw on a perch, and tfere was an unpleasant scowl on his sallow fate as he
 looked after the receding shoulders of tis mas
 ter. It was the sight of the scowl that hasten ed my departure, relieving mo of my lingering cOmpuncton. There was nothing for he un- fortunate James but to harden his heart, and commit himself to his destinies. And so,
 with muttered curses he made stat in his turn and when had leisure to look dver my shoulder and observe him, he reminded me of nothing SO much as monkey gone tp sea in a washing-tub. His paddle seemed 10 sway
 wildly in the air, like the sails of an ill-regu-
 lated windmill; the canoe as often as not swung half broadside on to the current: and it needed no great gift of prophecy to divine that he must come to inevitable grief.
 So indeed it proved. When thecanoe cap sized and "spilled him in the drink" as the Americans say, he made some spasmodic at tempts to strike out; but immediately he swallowed gallon or so of water, lost nerve altogether, and came bObbing down the cur. rent. In that supreme crisis Abraham aston- ished me- It is true that. as we were both on the look out, there was no actual danger. At the same time, his protege was far more to be ptied than when he complained of aches in the back on the Main few days before. 1 fancy that Abraham was bracing himself to play the stoic, in the knowledge that his pr0tege was having magnificent moral lesson He knew we should bring the castaway to the shore somehow, and then he would be all the better man for the adventure and the escape. Calmly wading over the knees, his legs plant ed solidy apart, he calculated hls distance and watched his opportunity. AS Jim came swirling by, he reached out powerful arm and caught him in clutch of iron by the back of the neck. And I am bound to say that if James was as miserable as he looked when we laid him out upon the bank to dry, he must have been very wretched indeed. He disgorg- ed good deal of fluid, taking in good deal more in the shape of cogniac, and then he be- gan to recover. Abraham hung over him like B mother over her child, and was as sympa- thising now as he had been impassive before. But the halt. drowned rat we had been lab0ur- ing to revive did anything but respond in similar spirit. In his state of irritable semi I fancied could read his real feelings for this time there was DO possibility of misinterpreting the malicious glare with which he looked up in the benign face of his 80 much so, thatI could not help speaking of it subsequently, to Cox. Of course might as well have spared my pains Indeed Abraham spoke decidedly sharply for him. My good fellow, you have always been hard on him. No man could be expect tNl v1tn nk asr ! begin to be sorry 1 let him risk such fright. We overdid the training, and that is the fact Besides" he added after moment, "even if the lad is not all we could wish him to be, I have reasons for sticking to him-and stick to him will"
 Naturally, the cenvalescent and his canoe which we had succeeded in rescuing as well as himself-were comfortably forwarded per train to Vienna. There the remoraeful phi lanthrodist did all in his power to console him for that naGycais Sgstart e heur and it's conse- quences. For Jim had made tbe most of his ducking and his fright-getting up. as it struck me, very creditably, short, hacking cough, and inventing hectic flush which, for the life of me, could never detect When he had not his meals served Tn his chamber, he was content with a seat at the couriers' table in the luxurious Imperial Hotel. But, 0a re- OSfSOfse3 "C teOn hiut nuout Wltu uo kO cCC many of the sights, and did our best to bright en him' while improving his mind. What cheereG him up most we're the beer-gardens and cqtss, where Cox used to have him seated at an adjoining table. and saw his wants care fully attended to-. For man with severe theories as to condition, Abraham believed firmly in beer and there his protege thorough ly agreed with him. That was all very well; and 1, for one, should not have been hard on him on that account, adnliring Herr Dreher and his brewery as do. What I disliked more was his demeanour when we took him to the Schatzkammer. It is one of the choicest collections of artistics rarities in the world the Viennese. assert that it is even su- periof to the more famous Grune Gewolbe of Dresden. It was not to be expected that Jim should show and great enthusiasm over the miniature masterpieces of exquisite sculpture. But for Cox's sake, and the hopes of his mor- al experiment, hardly liked the ugly lustre of his protege's eyes as they lighted up over gems of priceless value. He seemed fully to the value of tiny cup chiselled out of a single emerald 1 could realise his raptures had he been permitted to bathe hands covered with bird lime in some of the trays of