The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-09-22


anything that would be an excuse to see what
might be going on, and to learn why Phil was
going to the city. Pills parents had pre-.
pared what they supposed would be sufficient
explanation: the farm and the house needed
some things that could better be selected from
large stocks and variety than bought nearer
home. But they had moderated the persist
ency of local curiosity; numberless pointed
questions were asked, and if in the course of
a week there had been any visitor who did
not ask in one way or other, whether Phil
would go to see the Tramlays, the family did
not know who it had been; they were sure
they would have gratefully noted such con-
siderate person at the time, and remembered
him-or her-forever after.
There were scores, too, who wanted Phil to
do them small services in the city. Farmer
Blewitt had heard that the car companies
often sold for almost nothing the horses that
broke down at their hard work and needed
only plenty of rest and pasturage to make
them as good as new; wouldn't Phil look
about and see it he couldn't get him bar
gain?-and bring it back on the sloop. if he
wouldn't mind feeding and watering it on the
home trip! Old Mrs. Wholley had been find
inc her spactacles so young that she didn't
know Oh: she needed stronger glas-aS 49,
nay be a Bible with larger print; II nm
would price both and write her, she would
Try to make up her mind what she ought to
10. Samantha RoobleS had been telling her
husband James for the last five years that
their best room carpet was too shabby for
people who might have a funeral in the fam
ly at any time, James stepmother being very
old and sickly, but James wouldn't do any
thing but put off, and as for her. she wasn't
going to be cheated out of her eye teeth at
the stores at the depot, when year before last
she saw in a York newspaper, that the wind
blew out of the hand of somebody leaning out
of a train window, that good ingrains were
selling in New York at thirty-five cents
yard; she wished Phil would pick her out one.
Besides many requests like these, Phil had
to make promises TO dozens of young men
and women whose wants were smaller, but
none the easier to attend to; so the prospec-
tive traveller and his parents had the pains of
parting alleviated by the thought that not
until Phil departed would any of them have
peace. The day of sailing brought a great
throng of visitors-so many that the minister,
who was of the number, extemporiZed q
| ''reighborhood prayer meeting" at which
Providence was implored to 'save our dear
young brother from the perils of the deep"
and informed of so many Of Phil's good quail
tiles that only an Unborn respect for religious
forms restrained the modest youth from
sneaBing out of the back door and hiding in
the hull of the Sloop until there was broad
expanse of water between him and the shore
Then the entire throng, excepting two or
three old ladies who remained with Mrs
Hayn ito help her bear up, poor soul, !"
escorted Phil to the sloop. Among them was
predominance of young men who looked as
! if in case Phil should want a substitute they
were ready, and of young women whose faces
indicated that if Phil should care to say any
thing tender to anybody, just to have some
thing to think about while away, he should
( have no excuse to leave it unsaid.
! Sol Mantring cut the parting short by re-
marking that prayer was all very well in its
place, but he didn't believe in it keeping a
sloop in a shallow river while the tide was
falling and no wind to help her out. So Phil
hurried aboard, though not before his father
had almost crushed his hand with a grasp
that had been developed by many years of
training with bride reins, ak helves and pa
ternal affection.
I Some one cast off the sloop's hawser; the
mainsail was already up, and the craft began
/ to drift out with the tide. This was the sig
nal for a futter of handkerchiefs and q
chorus of cheers, during which Farmer Hayn
plodded along the river bank beside the sloop,
regardless of mud, stones marsh grass and
cattails. He seemed to have no last injunc-
lions for his boy; indeed, his occasional shouts
were bestowed principally upon Sol Mant-
! ring, who stood at the wheel, and they had
no more relation to Phil than to the khan Of
/ Khiva In like manner Phil seemed less in
/ terested in his father than in the maze of
cordage at the foot OF the mast. Neverthe-
less, when the river bank ended at the shore
of the bay, and could be followed no longer,
the old man stood there, as Sol Mantring
said afterward, ''lookn' as if he'd lost his last
/ friend, never expected to git another, an
! he'd got ten year older all of sudden, and
Phil, when he saw this, Strengthened in front
! of the friendly mast which hid him from the
remainder of the crew, and threw kisses to
his father, with the profusion of early child
hood, as long as he could distinguish the dlngy
old coat and hat from the stones of similar
hue that marked the little point.
The perils of the deep were happily
averted Indeed, Phil would willingly have
endured more could the wind have blown
harder. The sloop finally made her pier in
! New York about dusk of the second day.
! Phil hastily donned his best suit, and as the
part of the city in which the iron merchants
4 cluster was not far away, and Sol Mantring
knew the streets of that portion of the city,
! Phil started, with minute directions from the
! skipper, to call on Mr.. Tramlay. His single
ness of purpose made him unconscious that
he was acting in a manner not common to
/ him, but as lie climbed the side of the pier
and hurried toward the mass of light before
him Sol Mantring remarked to the remain
der Of the crew, consisting of two men:
4 "Eknowed it"
/ ';Knowed' whatE"
! ''He's gal struck. Got it bad"
Phil made his way up the principal
thoroughfare from New York to Brooklyn,
wondering at the thronged sidewalks and
brilliantly lighted shops, but he did not
neglect to eye the street names on corner
lamps. Soon he turned into a street which
was part of his course as laid down by Sol; at
the same time he turned from light to dark
ness, the change being almost appalling in its
suddenneSs. Still he hurried on, and after
another turn began to look for numbers on
hefronts of buildings. His heart bounded
within him as he suddenly saw, by the light
of a street lamp, the sign, Edgar Tramlay.
In-an instant his hand was on the door knob;
but the door did not open. Through the glass
door he saw two or three dim lights within.
Probably the proprietor was at his desk; per-
haps, too, he should have knocked; so knock
he did.
''What dye want there, young feIlerT'