The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-03-05

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the bayou.
at is Just as I said,' remarked Victor
in a whisper, as he and the host went
down the sandy path under the vines
He is come to get Mo'sieu Rochon. He
is a secret officer, I am sure of it, and he
has no fear. The government, Mo'sieu
Garc1n, the government has sent him."
But Mon Dieu, how do you known
inquired Garcin eagerly.
u was knowing it all the time, but
now, . and here Victor tapped on his pocket
to indicate the letter, "now it is certainly
So"
THE letter." whispered Garcin.
Yes, the letter." responded Victor.
The men halted at the edge of the dock
and looked at each other quizzingly.
He writes to General Orion, at New
York, do you understand, Mo'sieu Gar
Gin? General Ortonl' exclaimed Victor.
lifting up his shoulders and spreading his
hands out before him with great energy.
The emphasis placed on the word general
was tragic. in the extreme.
Garcin was vivaciously silent and
thoughtful for a few moments, then with
sudden earnestness he enquired:
"But how do you know that - that
it is only old Rochon that he is after?"
Victor smiled a queer little smile and
shook his head knowingly. "Don't you
be afraid Mo'sieu Garcin, certainly he has
not come for you" he said with a patron
izing information in his whisper, "I told
him about you and he thinks you a great
gentleman. Certainly he'll not suspect
you, Mo'sieu Garcin, never"
They went down the rough steps of the
wharf and Victor entered the skif.
Garcin leaned over the gunwale and
said: "But if he finds out-if he finds
out!"
"BahI don't be a calf, Mo'sieu Garcin,
he is a gentleman and he is in your house.
Certainly you must treat him well and
hay him to like you. Don't you seer
= IRE safe enough. It's the old man
! hat he's after"
Victor furtively slipped forth the letter
so that Garcin could see the monogram
and superscription. Both men sighed
with the suppressed excitement of the
occasion as their vivid imaginations illu-
minated, with a light that never was on
sea or land, the purport of that mysteri-
Gus package, so grand and official looking
and addressed to a general in New York.
Garcin pulled out his swarthy cheeks and
Victor smiled his gentle Creole smile. He
replaced the letter and made ready to row
away down the bayou.
GOOD bye, Mo'sieu Garcin," he said,
81 hope you will have a pleasant time
with Mo'sieu Orion, good bye"
"But you will return in just a month,
eh?" Garcin called after him as the skif
was gliding swiftly from the shore. az
must expect you then?"
Certainly, certainly" came back the
musical answer. Surely Victor had a
sweet voice, almost as sweet as that
of the mockingbird singing yonder on the
live-oak.
.Garcin stood awhile gazing after the
now fairly galloping skif, then with his
hands in his pockets he turned about and
went back into the house.
The wind had come to be q trife SHARP
and chilly, asst always does when it blows
from the northwest. y negro started q
fire on the hearth in Gfton's room,a fire
of round wood with splinters of fat pine
between, which flung forth a cheerful
light making the dark furniture CLEAN and
causing the curious old pictures on. the
walls to look still more stiff and dusky.
The artist examined his surroundings
with great interest. 1t was difficult to
reconcile the costly movables with the
rude structure in which they appeared SO
out of place and with the extreme isla-
ton Of the region. Through a partly
opened door he could see that an adjoin-
ing room was furnished ever more strik-
and extensively than his own. Some
heavily brocaded curtains, a high-backed
richly cushioned chair and a three-legged
spinet were in the line of his vision.
He noted that the spinet's feet
were exquisitely carved to repre-
sent serpent heads, mouth open and
fangs extended, and that the keys were
of ivory and ebony curiously inlaid. Over
a corner of the instrument hung an India
shawl of rich design, and upon this lay a
jaunty hat of some fine straw trimmed
with scarlet velvet ribbons. These things,
set in such a rough encourage, appealed
with great force to the artists taste for
the and the picturesque. That
a rambling cabin of the coarsest patch
scarcely better than those of a western
articles that a lord might prize was
enough W SCdFG dill SOFCS u Suggestions III
a mind naturally ready to be led toward
romance. Through a little. window he
had a view of the bayou and the broad
grassy marsh-meadow beyond. Looking
that way he saw Victor rowing hard,
a long silver wake behind the
and tossing bright sprays with the
feathering of his oars. Soon man and
were lost to sight and in spite of
himself orion felt a little thrill of loneli-
ness as he realized that for a month at
least he must be shut up in this wild,
queer little region utterly out of the world
and given over, it appeared to him, to the
whims of a very strange people.
When Garcin re-entered presently
light-footed and smiling, Orion turned
from the window to meet him.
at ees beegin to blow varee cole, Mis-
too Orton," the host began saying, then,