Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-02-06

have been different. A great resolve
sprang up in my soul, and / took
solemn vow in those June woods.
That very night | sold the old shop
(my father was dead, and / had taken
to the business), and with the money
| bought an outtitand started straight
for Gambia. 1t was pretty tough work
at first, but worked like a galley
slave, starved and pinched and saved,
and never spent penny on myself
except for the books | sat up half the
the night to read and study. Well,
in this country the man who works
and doesn't drink is sure to get on,
and had mighty purpose in my
head. By-and-by bought some land
dirt cheap, and sold it for three times
what | gave for it-then / began to
make money fast. l should call my
luck wonderful if | believed in luck,
and didn't prefer to think l was help
ed by Power farabler than my own.
AT last, ten years to the very day
after set my foot on Gambia soil, 1
bought Indian Creek farm, and began
to build this house. All the neigh
bors thought my good fortune had
turned my brain, for fitted it up and
furnished it for a lady, down to a lit
tie rocking-chair by my study-table,
and work-basket with a tiny gold
thimble in it. And when all that was
finished, took the first ship for Liv-
erpool.
Ten years builds city over here.
1t doesn't make much change in a
Devonshire village. The very gates
We're still off their hinges, as / left
=. them, only the people were a little
older, and tritle more stupid; and
there was new vicar. Old Mr..
Branscome had been dead six months;
died very poor, they told me; there
was nothing left for Miss Winny; my
heart gaveone great leapwhen | heard
that And Miss Winny? O, she had
gone governessing with some people
who were just off to Canada, and the
the ship sailed tomorrow from Liver
pool.
The Liverpool eXpressneverseemed
to crawl so slowly before. | got there
to find every birth taken on board
the Antarctic, and the Captain raging
at the non-appearance Of two Of the
crew. Without a seconds pause |
offered for one of the vacant places. |
was as strong as a horse, and active
enough, and though the Captain eyed
me rather askance-I had been to a
, West End tailor on my way through
London-he was too glad to get me
, to ask any questions. So | sailed on
the ship with my girl, little as she
knew it. / saw her the first day or
| two, looking so pale and thin that
, she was like the ghost of her old self,
. and yet sWeeter to my eyes than ever
before. The children she had charge
of We're troublesome little creatures,
I who worried and badgered her till /
I longed to cuff them well. But there
was a gentlensss and patience about
p her quite new to my idea of Miss
, Winny, and l only loved her the
more for it. After the second day
out, the wind freshened, and / saw
, no more of her.
q We had an awful passage. 1t was
late in November, an early winter,
q and the cold was intense. 1t blew
one continuous gale, and some of oul
/ machinery was broken-the screw
o damaged and we could not keep oul
a course. AS we drew near the Other
o side of the Atlantic, we got more and
o more and more out of our bearings,
: and at last the fogs told us we were
{ somewhere off the banks of New
i foundland, but where no one was
quite sure. 1t seemed to me it haC
= all happened before, or | had read i
i or dreamed it. At all events, it was
1 hardly a surprise to me when, on the
I tenth night, just after midnight, the
awful crash and shock took place.
n sensation no one who has not felt i
4 can imagine in the least-and W.
Il knew that the Antartic had struck.
Y It's a fearful thing, if you come tt
d think Of it, a great steamer tillet
J. with living souls in the full flow o
). life and health, and in one momen
IL the call coming to each Of them to die
| Before you could have strucka mattel
;; the whole ship was in panic-cries
e terror, confusion, agony. Oh, it wa
7, awful! / trust never to see such
i scene again. made my way through