The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-07-31
FOURTH COUSINS.

In the early summer of 1860 l went
upon a visit to a distant relative of
mine who lived in one of the Shetland
Islands. It was early summer with
myself then; l was a medical studcut
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 a small library
with me; there was nothing in the
shape of study / did not mean to do,
and to drive at; tho fora of the Ultima
Thule, its fauna and geology, too, to
say nothing Of chemistry and therapeu-
tics. So much for good intentions, but
II may rs well confess it as not-I
never once opened my huge box of
books during the five months lived at
R, andif l 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 I completed my journey,
with my boxes, next day in an open
boat.
1t was q 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.
/ ever envied the seals | saw costly
asleep in dry, sandy caves, at
the foot of the black and beetling
rocks. :
How very fantastic those rocks were,
but cherries, sc cherries! Even the
sea-birds thai circled around them
seemed screaming a dirge. An g
ing in a wall of rock took us at length
into a 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 moment, then bleated
and fled. Right at the end OF this rock
stood my friends house, comfortable
and solid-looking, but unsheltered by
a single tree.
Il shan't stay long here" l said to
myself, as l landed.
An hour or two afterward I had
changed my mind entirely. l was
seated in a charmingly aud costly fur
nished drawing-room upstairs. The
windows looked out to and way
across the broad Atlantic. How
strange it was; for the loclf 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 us. The immense depth of
its waves could be judged of by keep
ing the eye fixed upon the tall, steep1e-
like rocks which shot up here and
there through the water a little way
out to sea-at one moment these would
appear like lofty spires, and next they
would be almost entirely swallowed
uD.
Beside the fire, in an easy chair, sat
my gray haired old relation and host,
and not far off his wife. H%ospitable.
warm-hearted aud genial both Of them
we're. If marriages really are made
in heaven. l could not help thinking
theirs must have been, so mnch did
they seem each oniler's counterpart.
Presently Cousin Maggie entered,
smiling to me as she did so; her left
hand fingered fondly for a moment on
her fathers gray locks, then she sat
down unbiddcn to the piano.
On the strength of my blood rela-
tionship, distant though it was, for
we we're really only third or fourth
cousins, Twas made a member of this
family from the first. and Maggie
treated me as a brother. | was not
entirely pleased with the latter ar
rangement, because many days had
not passed ere / concluded it would
be a pleasant pastine for me to make
love to Cousin Maggie. But weeks
went by. and my love making was
still postponed; it became a sine die
kind OF a probability. Maggie was
constantly with me when out Of doors
my companion in all my fishing and
shooting trips. But she carried not
only a rod but even arihe herself; she
could give me lessons in casting the
fy-and did; she often shot dead the
seals that ! had merely wounded, and
Der proves in rowing astonished me.
and her daring in v~enturing SO far t.
sea in our broad. open boat, Otter
made me trcmble for our safety.
a frequent visitor for the first TIVE
months of my stay at RI was
youDg and we'll to do farmer and fisher