Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-08-28
CHAPTER XNNI.
GRAY DAYS.

But, after all, that first plunge into city
life had had something of the excitement
of novelty 1t was the settling down there
after to the dull monotouous round of
labor in this lonely room, with the melan-
cholv gray world of mist surrounding
him and shutting him in, that was to test
the strength of his resolve. The first day
was not so bad, for now and again he
would relieve the slow tedium of the hours
bv doing little carpentering about the
room and the sharp sound of the ham,
mer and nail served to break in upon that
hushed, slumberous murmur OF the great
city without that seemed mournful, dis
tant oppressive thing. But the next day
of this solitary life (for it was not until
the end of the week he was to see Mr..
Weemsy was dreadful. The dull, silent
gray hours would not go by. Wrestling
with Ewarts Agricultural assistant, or
Balfour's Elements Of Botany,
or with distressing problems in
land surveying or timber measuring, he
would think the time had passed, and
then going to the window for moment s
relief to eye and brain, he would see by
the clock of the railway station that bare
ly half an hour had elapsed since last
he had looked at the obdurate hands. How
he envied the porters, the cab-drivers, the
men who We're loading or unloading the
wagons! They seemed all SO busy and
contented They We're getting through
with their work they had something to
show for their labor they had compan-
ions to talk to and joke with. sometimes
he thought he could hear them laughing.
And. ali how much more he envied the
traveller who drove up and got lelsurely
out of the cab, and had his luggage car
ried into the station, himself following
and disappearing from view hither
was he going, then, away from this great,
melancholy city, with its slow hours, and
wan skies, and dull, continuous, stupefy-
ing murmur? Whittier, indeed away
by the silver links of Forth, perhaps,
with the castled rock of Stirling rising IN
to the windy blue and white; away by the
wooded banks of Allan Water and the
bonny Braes of Dome by Strathyre, and
Glenogle and Glenorchy and past the
towering peaks of Ben Cruachan and out
the far glancing waters OF the western
seas Indeed, it is Il sore pity that Miss
Carry Hodson. in a fit of temper had
crushed together and thrust into the bot
/ tom of the boat the newspaper containing
an estimate of Ronalds little Highland
poem. if only she had handed it on tc
/ him, he would have learned that the sen
| timent of nostalgia is too slender and fal
lacious thing for any sensible person tC
bother his head about, and instead OF
wasting his time in gazing at the front OF
railway station, he would have gone res
/ olutely back to StraChan's Igr{cWtufd
TubloS and the measuring and mapping OF
| surface areas
On the third day he grew desperate.
"In Gods name let us see if there's moi
bit of blue sky anywhere >" he said t(
himself and he flung his hooks aside, anC
put on his Glengarry cap, and took a stick
in his hand and went out.
Alas, that there We're no light patterinl
steps following him down the stone stair
The faithful Harry had had to be left be
hind under charge of Mr.. Murray of the
inn. And indeed, Ronald found it 81
strange to be going out without som,
companion of the kind that when he passed
into the wide, duh thoroughfare, he looked
up and down everywhere to see if he could
not find some wandering Cur that he coulC
induce to go with him. But there wa
no sign of dog life visbile-for the matte
of that there was little sign of any othe
kind of lfe-there was nothing before hin
but the wide empty, dull-hued street ap
parently terminating in great wilderness
of India-rubber works and Oil works ant
the like, all of them busily engaged il
pouring volumes of smoke through tai
chimneys into the already SUFFICIENT.
murky sky.
But when he got further north he founC
that there were lanes and alleys permeat
ing this mass of public works and event
ually he reached canal, ana crossed
that, deeming that if he kept straight OF
he must reach the open country some
where As yet he could make out no dis
lance: bloCKs of melancholy SCOT -bcgrimet
houses, timbcryards, and blank ston
, walls shut in the view on every hand
moreover there was Il brisk north wine
blowing that was sharply pungent will
: chemical fumes and also gritty with dust
/ so that he pushed on quickly anxious t,
get some clean air into his lungs, and anX