Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-12-06
OVER THU BORDER.
by WALTER BEsANT.


Now tho truth was this: My father was
the most sanguine of men. and the most
ready to deceive himself He lived con
tinually IF may presume to say so with
out breaking the fifth COMMANDMENT In
FOOLS paradise When he was a boy
nothing would do for him but he must go
to London. refusing to till the acres which
would afterward be his own, because he
was ambitious, and ardently desired to be
another Wilmington. See the dangers of
the common chap books. in which he had
read the story of this great lord mayorl
He so far resembled Wilmington that he
went up to London (by wagon from New
castle) with little in his pocket.
except a letter Of recommendation
from the then vicar of Wark-
worth to his brother, at the time
glover in Cheapside. How he became
apprentice-like Whittington-to this
glover, how he fell in loye-like Whiting
ton-with his masters daughter, how he
married her.-like Whittington--and in
herited the business, stock, capital, good
win and all. may here only be thus briefly
told; but by the death of his master he
became actual and sole owner of London
shop, whereupon, my poor fathers brain
being always full of visions, he was in
famed with the confidence that now, in
deed. he had nothing to look for but the
making of an immense fortune. Worse
than this, no thought that the fortune
would come of its own accord. How
man living in the city of London could
make so prodigious mistake. | know
not Therefore he left the whole care of
the business to his wife and his apprentice,
and for his own part spent the day in coffee
houses or on change. or wherever mer-
chants and traders meet together. This
made him full of great talk. and he pres
emily proceeded to imagine that he him
self was concerned in the great ventures
and enterprises Of which he heard SO
much, or perhaps. because he could not
actually have thought himself merchant
adventurer he believed that before long
he also should be embarking cargoes to
the East and West Indies, running under
convoy of frigates safe through the enc
my's privateers. 1t was out of the profits
of these imaginary cargoes that he was to
obtain that vast wealth of which he con-
tinually thought and talked until. in the
end, he believed that he possessed it.
Meantime his poor wife. my mother, left
in charge of the shop. and with her house
hold cares as well, found, to her dismay.
that the respectable business which her
father had made was quickly falling from
them, as their old friends died, one by
one, or retired from trade. and no new
ones coming in their places; for. as have
been credibly informed. the business Of a
tradesman or merchant In London is so
precarious and uncertain that, unless it
be constantly watched. pushed, nursed,
encouraged. coaxed, fed and battered. it
presently withers away and perishes.
For want of the masters presence. for
lack of pushing and encouragement, the
yearly returns of the shop grew less and
less No one knew thu except my
mother 1t was useless to tell my father
If she begged his attention to the fact, he
only said that business was, in the nature
Of things. Huctuating; that bad year
would be succeeded by good year; that
large profits had recently been made by
traders to Calicut and Surinam, where no
had designs of employing his own capital.
and that ventures to Canton had of late
proved extremely successful Alas, poor
mani he had no capital left, for now all
was gone-capital, credit and custom.
Yet he still continued to believe that his
shop. the shop which came to him with
his wife. was bringing to him. every year.
great and steady return. and that he
was knassing fortune
One day-it was a Saturday evening in
May-in the year 1770. six years after the
fight of Ralph Embleton, when ! was in
my seventeenth year. and almost grown to
my full height, saw coming slowly along
the narrow road which leads from the high
way to Warkworth country cart. and in
1t two persons. the driver walking at the
horses head stood at the garden gate
watching this cart idly, and the setting
sun behind it. without so much as won
dering who these persons might be. until
presently it came slowly down the road,
which here slopes gently to the river and
the bridge. and pulled up in front of our
gate When the cart stopped a lady got
quickly down and seized my hands
you are my Drusilla?" she asked. and
without waiting for a reply, because she
was my mother and knew could be no
other than her own daughter she fell upon
my neck in a passion of weeping and sob
bing, saying that she knew | was her
daughter dear, and that she was my most