The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1885-03-25

my days. Once out of this scrapc,
never VIII get into another, so sure as
my names Dick Blackthorn. I'll 60 to
the Half Moon as straight as a crow,
and wait as long as you please.
"And perhaps by that time, " thought
Stephen, n little savagely, lit will strike
him that it might be decent to ask after
his father and his sister, and that it's
hardly good manners to take all a fel-
lows got to give him without so much
rs Thank you Well, I'm not going
TO help him through for thanks sake.
so mustn't complain. | must get his
father to forgive him; and | must get
him to Millport, and put him to work
under my own eye. It'll be stiff job;
but, hang it, what beast l am TO
grumble about doing for Patience and
her father the first thing that's like to
come hard. The harder the better,
whatever it is; they've done ten thou
sand times more for me. Poor Dick. |
can't think he's bad fellow at bottom.
It's not in the Blackthorn breed. "
Perhaps the only impossible thing in
the world is to be set on helping man
and at the same time TO think of him
unkindly. No doubt Dick did look
hopeless case, but then Stephen was in
the humor tor unlimited hoping. He
waited minutes enough for the coast to
be clear, and then scrambled back out
of the copse in decidedly less repu-
table plight than he had entered. Not
that there would be anything particu-
larly out of the way n his crossing the
few remaining fields hatless and coat
less; for, as he had said, good deal Of
his recent work had been done in his
shirt-sleeves as well as in his brain.
Moreover, the mud and moisture he
had gathered in the copse would only
look as if his out-of-door work had been
anything but a sham.
Of course he gave up his idea of going
round by way OF the church; nor was
he particually anxious, for once, to
meet Patience herself all at once; he
had dreamed that he should never have
secret from her, and the discovery
that one was inevitable, though he
hoped but for a few hours, was not
agreeable, though it was for the good
of all. At the price of a secret, even
from Patience, her brother $50 at least
he thought) must be kept clear of Legs
Croft till all risk was past, and till
Dick could come home, not to be hid
den as u deserter from his colors, but
as a clerk in the firm of Prestons d
Harlow. For, at any cost, Patience's
faith in her brother must be kept whole
and pure; forever, if it might beat
any rate, until the last chance OF keep
ing II was gone.
"Blazes, now, II I didn't know twas
in there he'd be! There, ye rascal il
We funk French bullet, stand aisy, if ye
don't want an English wan. I'm sorry
for ye; but if ye're after tryin' to be
troublesome, I'll have to be sorrier
still"
Stephen, all hatless, coatless, and up
to the eyes in mire, had emerged from
the copse, not only into the sunlight,
but also into party OF four soldiers in
undress uniform, but fully armed, all
carrying their muskets save the man
who spoke, and who appeared in com
mand. His eyes were half dazzled
from the twilight of the copse, and he
was certainly startled by such a recep-
ton. But there was no doubt as to its
meaning-the deserter had been fol-
lowed, and had no more than thrco
minutes start of his pursuers, if so many.
Well-then the three must be made
thirty, or more.
"Why, who do you take me forP" he
asked, shading his eyes, and trying to
see whether Dick was still in sight or
safe beyond the nearest hedgerow on
the way to the Half Moon.
take ye for-and after the trouble
and all! Why, for Private Blackthorn.
deserter from me own Fut; that's who l
take We for, and that's who ye are"
Worse and worse-so Dick had en-
listed under his own name.
TO BE CONTINUED.