Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1888-12-16
AMONG THE LAVENDER.
CHAPTERI.

Il told you So" said my friend, JACK
Csrlyon, looking across at me with that
peculiarly sggravating expression of coun-
tenarcs that always accompanies the utter
ance Of the above sentence,
was out of sorts, and easily irritated.
''If you did, it doesn't make it any the
better or the pleassnter," answered. II
could better have afforded to take spell
of the entire and complete rest this fool
pirates about at any other time than Just
now.n
81 never knew a fellow that didn't
say that when he'd got his back into
job, and had to give it up for q bit don't
you know?" said Jack, curling up one
corner of his tswny mustsche with his
strong, little fingers, and looking the
personifcstson of perfect health and manly
strength; while l.
Well, well, it was all very we'll for me
to call Dr. Msrcbmont fool II let the
steam off, somehow, but a long array of
sleepless nights, backed up by an army OF
lesser symptoms, which my own medical
knowledge told me spelt the word over
worked, p" convinced me that his kindly
and urgent counsel was true, and thst few
men in London stood in greater need Of
spell of rect and recruiting than Stephen
Allardyce-meaning myself.
When you get ''overworked" the next
station on the journey is "broken down"
| l did not wish to attain this last. l re-
solved to leave London, bury myself
among green fields, apple orchards, aud
hsystacks, and give myself up entirely II
the copjugation of the verb, ito lazy"
Not manuscript will | lock at, much less
writs; not proof will correct. All my
intellectual faculties shall lie fal' ow for
this needful space for rest. My thinking
powers are my stock in trade; / must
needs husband them.
The problem how best to attain to this
perfection of rural happiness and idleness
faced me pitiessly.
Country lodging? Bah! Bad cookery,
iil-ventilated rooms, long-leggsd spiders on
the bread and batter. Perish the thought.
country hote,p Worse still. Yokels
keeping festival on Saturday nights; min
gled smell Of tepid beer and stable yard
pe1vading everything. The very thought
was irritating, and l opened my morning
paper with an unsmisble jerk.
Ill temper ought not, ore would think,
10 DC I6HhIueu- Dlluc WIS
An advertisement stared NE in the face;
q message that might almost seem TO have
been sent straight from heaven.
"Address: NJ. R., Orchard Farm, near
Wortlebury. A single gentleman can have
the use of two airy rooms and attendance.
Terms moderate. Good fishing
Now love fishing. look upon ii as
delicious phase of idleness.
Halt my days swinging in hammock
underneath the checkered shadow of the
apple boughs, with 10 companion sivepips
or cigarette, as the mood dictates, the 9th
er half lounging on q rivers brink. crush
ing the forget.me-nots and the gO'den king
cups, and watching my Iod-not esge;ly,
Only liziIy-for the bite which may come
or not, ss it pleasss. A month OF such
life as this and ! should become vulgarly
robust: should sleep like one Of the
Seven Seepers, and relish the plsinest
food like plowboy. But then the plain
f,oi must be we'll cooked and clearly
served. Therein lies the difference be-
tween my possibilities and the plowboy,s.
Twas, however, of mind TO think the
food would bs well dressed and c!esnly-
nay, perhaps, daintily served. For wrote
10 M. K and M. K. replied, and her let
ter was the letter OF gentlewomau.
o chard Farm! How delightfully."- sug-
qestiye a name! Doubtless apple trees
thfre grow in iuxtapositicn exactly tilted
for thA needs OF that hammock in which
am to swing beneath earth and sky,
thought to myself doubtless the grass is
deliciously green; the apples nesting on
the boughs deliciOusly pink on one plump
cheek, and the thrushes laugh softly as,
with eager beak, they test the juices of the
ripsning plum. This last idea is perhaps
hardly correct from the farmers point Of
view, and might offend N. RS thrifty
soul: but love the sound of the thrush's
gurgling laugh, 90 let it stand even at the
sacrifice of plum or two. -,
Don't you get scribblipg now" said
Jack Carlyop, ss he took leave Of me on
the Paddington platform. lyon We over
done il. YOU know; and tell you what it
ia, you'll break down, you know, If You
don't look out.
Like bird that sings TIE same few
notss over and over ag,ip, Jack has piped
the same tune to me perslsteutly for some
while back. 1t is the most unpleasant thing
to be told the same thing over and over
again. It is ever 80 much worse when the
thing ia true almost hated Jack as the
, train craw!ed out of the station, and then
set its mind to going in earnest and pulled
away into the open country.
And, to say the truth, this drifting away
was welcoms enough to me. In spite OF
: all nv asseyerations to Jack CarlyoD, was
conscious Of many symptoms that, beirg
interprt ted, meant worn out" | knew
that a life without proof-sheets was, for o
J time, a necessity; and yet, like every true
slave of the pen, | hug my chain, and love
to liDger lovingly in the company OF my
own creations. ~
Yet must / change the rustic OF first
proofs" and "revises" for the rustic OF
woodland Whispers above my head. !
must lay the busy pen aside, and let il
+ sI eak no more for awhile.
{ 1t is far cry from busting Paddington
. 10 the sheltered rock in tie Miolsnds
, where Orchard Farm is to be found, and,
what with delays in catching trains on
side lines and ouch like tiresome incidents
, cftravel, dusk had almost grown to night
before reached my temporary home. The
, sky had become overcast, and fine driz'
2 z1e was falling as alighted from ram
! shackle kind of vehicle which the driver
! called gig--but which struck nee as bear
! ing considerably more resemblance to 8
worn ont t,xcAIt-st the gate Of Orchard
/ Fam.
could see the misty outlines Of dose
growing trees and amid them shone the
q CLEAN of light here and there, while the
I patch of radiance cast by an uncuItained
! lattice lay almost scIoss my pathway.
Through the faint mist Of rain came
, ,-raat soarts innumerahle sTeetbrie'