The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-04-06


his letters, and the old housekeeper super
intended his pothooks and hangers with
great diligence. When the rescuer and
his rescued came to be on familiar terms
Phil was easily pursuaded to set forth his
own simple annals. For the most part
they related to his Ayah, syce, called
Jeb, and a pony called Ben. He had
picked up one or two things-as children
willard he knew that mamma was q
widow, and that the commissioner wanted
to marry her, and that she did not like the
commissioner. But all their talks to-
gether revealed no trustworthy clue, and
time went by, and nobody asked for Phil
or for Mrs. Maurice at the London agents
offices. Mr.. Penruth's advertisements re-
manned unanswered, and Phil was uni
Identified.
The people Of Gorbay and its neighbor-
hood were not to be Modified III respect to
Tregarthen, either by the courage he had
displayed or the kindness of heart which
prompted him to give his ocean waif per-
manent refuge. A mans wife is his own
flesh and blood, and charity begins at
home. There were ladies and gentlemen
who knew-by second sight, perhaps-every
had travelled before his wickedness drove
her from him, and these gifted people were
able to recite, and did recite to interested
audiences, long conversations between the
nl.assorted pair. On the whole, Tregar
then's desire to be lonely began to win such
practical acceptance that the island was
almost another Juan Fernandez to him, and
Phil became his boy Friday
The boy in a little while began to know
that there were hours when his protector
was not to be disturbed, and he
gathered from the few with whom he
came in contact vague uoti0ns OF
mystery and of evil in connection with
these periods of seclusion. Tregarthen
had gone back to his mad studies and, in
course of time, he became more deeply alb
sosbed than ever. He took to the practi-
cal pursuit of chemistry, and had labora-
tory set up in a sound chamber in the de-
serted side of the old house. Thence
glowed strange lights at unholy hours, and
the islanders made up their minds that the
last Of the Tregarthens had sold himself 10
the powers Of evil
Few children have had so curious .
breeding as fell to the lot Of Tregarthen's
prOtege, yet the lad throve, and grew lusty
in mind and body He swan and boated
and fshed and bird's-nested, and spent
whole nights tossing out at sea with the
island fishermen, to the great terror Of the ,
housekeeper, who grew to love him and
tremble for him as if he had been a child
of her own. He hated books, and would
have none of them if he could help it; but
he loved yarn with all his soul, and spent
rapt hours in listening to the rambling
stories Of any old mariner, brown with |
sea-salt and speckled from head to foot |
with fish-scales, whom he could persuade to
talk to him. He learned all the legends of
the coast and all the ballads known to the |
island. These last he sang in ludicrous
imitation of the local tone and style; but |
though he began to see less of Tregarthen |
than of anybody else in the place he
seemed to catch his phrases and his cul- |
tured accent, as if he felt-as perhaps he |
did-that there was closer kinship be- |
tween the master of the island and himself |
than the rougher sort of folk could claim
with him. The legends and the ballads
gave healthy stimulus to his Imagination,
and there was no danger OF a lads mind
being starved while he was allowed such
free communication with nature as Phil
enjoyed.
There are chronicles of prodigious events
in the worlds history where great spaces
of time go by in the ticking of
watch. Unto Eber the son OF Selah,
were born two sons, and the name of
one was Peleg, because in his days the
earth was divided In that curt but as
,hr of
and ceases. The modern historian handles
people and events with greater fullness and
more particular precision, but even he |
may be forgiven if in a moment or SO he
dreams of the lapse Of uneventful years.
A lad growing up in heavens free air |
and storms TO be man, and to know the |
ways of birds and fishes, and trees and |
flowers, and clouds and winds, and to love |
and wonder with an open heart and soul.
A man growing down in cramped labora-
tory, intent on mastering secret which he
knew to be worthleSs-a secret which would
be very gift Of the devil to any man who
might surprise it, even if it existed-shut-
ting out the better half Of himself from
communion with the baser, and thereby
feeding the baser with all his native forces
and starving the better to a shadow.
There in the main is the history Of seven
years.
Phil by this time strapping lad, who
could thrash the young Penruths, respec-
lively three and four years his senior,
whenever they ventured on the island, and
who pretty generally did it being provoked
thereto by homegrown satire in the first
instancel, was hunting one day in the IL
brary for outline which he remembered
to have slowed away a month or two be-
fore, using one of Tregarthen's neglected
volumes as winding-block. After lit
tie time he found it and began to unwind
1t from the book.
The fact that the volume that he thus
handled was an early and somewhat rare
copy of the Tempest" by Mr.. William
Shakespeare, was nothing to Phil; but
though he knew as little as he thought, his
hour for entering on another life than the
one he had hitherto known had stolen
upon him. The hooked end Of the line
had been set within the book, so that a
firm purchase upon the rest might be
taken, and now the hooks were fastened
in a page or two AS he went about to
disentange them his eyes fell on passage
that interested him;
1.-THE strong based promontory
Have / made shake, and by the spurs
plucksd up
The pine and cedar; graves at my command
Have walked their sleepers, oped, and let
em forth,
my potpnt n -