McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1885-05-14
FOURTH COUSINS.

In the early Summer of 1860 l went
upon visit to distant relative of
mine who lived in one of the Shetland
Islands. 1t was early summer with
myself then; l was medical student
with life all before me--life and hope,
and Joy and sorrow as well. / went
north with the intention of working
hard, and took quite small library
with me; there was nothing in the
shape of study l did not mean to do,
and to drive at; the flora of the Ultima
Thule, its fauna and geology, too, to
say nothing of chemistry and therapeu-
ties So much for good intentions, but
I may as well confess it as mott
never once opened my huge box of
books during the five months lived at
R, and if | studied at all it was
from the book of nature, which is open
TO every one who cares to con its
pages.
The steamboat landed me at Ler-
wick, and l completed my journey,
with. my boxes, next day in an open
boat.
1t was very cold morning, with a
gray, cold, choppy sea on, the spray
from which dashed over the boat, wet
ting me thoroughly, and making me
feel pinched, blear-eyed and miserable
! even envIed the seals l saw costly
asleep in dry, sandy caves, at
the foot of the black and beetling
rocks.
How very fantastic those rocks were,
but cherries, so cherries! Even the
sea-birds that circled around them
seemed screaming dirge. An open
ing in wall of rock took us at length
into long, winding ford, or arm of
the sea, with green bare fields on every
side, and wild, weird-like sheep that
gazed on us for a moment, then bleated
and fed. Right at the end OF this rock
stood my friends house, comfortable
and solid-looking, but unsheltered by
single tree.
81 shan't stay long here" 1 said to
myself, as l landed.
An hour or two afterward l had
changed my mind entirely. l was
seated in a charmingly and costly fur
nished drawing-room upstairs. The
windows looked out to and away
across the broad Atlantic. How
strange it was; for the loch that had
led me to the front of the house, and
the waters of which rippled up and
down the very lawn, was part of the
German ocean, and here at the back,
and not a stones throw distant. was
the Atlantic! Its great, green, dark
pillows rolled up and broke into foam
against the black breastwork of cliffs
beneath u.s.. The immense depth of
its waves could be judged of by keep
ing the eye fixed upon the tall, steeple-
like rocks which shot up here and
there through the water little way
out to sea-at one moment these would
appear like lofty spires, and next they
would be almost entirely swallowed
ND.
Beside the fire, in an easy chair. sat
my gray haired old relation and host,
and not far off his wife. Hospitable,
warm-hearted and genial both of them
were. If marriages really are made
in heaven, could not help think NC
theirs must have been, so mnch did
they seem each onher's counterpart.
Presently Cousin Maggie entered,
smiling to me as she did so; her left
hand fingered fondly for moment on
her fathers gray locks, then she sat
down unbidden to the piano.
On the strength of my blood rela-
tionship, distant though it was, for
we were really only third or fourth
cousins, was made a member of this
family from the first, and Maggie
treated me as brother. l was not
entirely pleased with the latter ar
ranpement, because many days had
not passed ere / concluded it would
be a pleasant pastime for me to make