Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-03-05

reader at tr>t instead of at second
hand, so wrote to my friend ID OK Fen
ton. of Frenchay, Worcestershire and
begged him, if he found himself capa-
Bile of so do ng. to put in simple nara
tive form his impressions OF certain
events which happened i'll January.
lS6J-events in which we two werc
concerned. He has been good enough
to comply w tn my request His COM
munication follows.
PART H.
TOLD ny RICHARD FENroN, ESQUIRE, OF
FRENcHAY, WORCESTERSHIRE.
l.
AS my old friend Phi Brand has
asked me to do ia S. suppose / must
Brand is n right good fellow, and a
clever fellow. but has plenty of crotch
cts of his own. The worst | know OF
him is that he insists upon having his
own way with people, With those who
differ from him lie is as obstinate as a
mule Anyhow. he has had his own
way with me. This custom. so far as l
am concerned, commenced years ago
when we were boys at school together,
and have never been able to shake Oft
the bad habit of giving in to him. he
has promised to see that my Queens
English is presentable; tor, to tell the
truth. l am more at home across coun.
try than across foolscap, and my fin
gers know the feel of the reins or the
trig -er better than that of the pen.
All the same l hope he won't take
too many liberties with my style, bad
though it may be; for old Brand at
times is apt TO get-well, bit prosy
To hear him on the subject of hard
work and the salctity thereof ap-
proachcs the sublime!
Wat freak took me to the little God
forsakcn village of Mdcombe in the
depth of winter is entirely between my
and my conscience. The cause,
b ''ng no bearing upon the matters
:, asked to tell you about. is no ones
business but mine. Twill only say that
now would not stay in such place a,
such time of the year for the sac OF
t. prett.oSt girl in the world, let alone
t bare chance of meeting her once or
twice. But ones ideas elangc l am
n w good bit older. ride some two
stone heavier, and have been MARI ed
ever so many years. Perhaps, after all,
n, l |, OF, back l can find some excuse
for be NC such an ass as to endure for
more than Il fortnight all the d.scom-
FIR hcaped upon me in that village inn.
A man who SO. ourns in such a hole
rs Midcombe must give some good rea-
son for doing So My os:cnsiblc rea-
so ~ was hunting. hal horss witt
me and q second-rate subscription pack
o ow-gon~ mongrcls did meet some
wner'' in e neigh. orhood so no one
cou Il gan>ay my explanation. But if
hunting was nv object, | got lrecous
It'll. OF it. A few days aftcl my a riv
Il BIT cr, biting frost set ina frost as
black rs your hat, and as hard as nails.
Yet still ! sta i on.
From pr vat" Information receive -
no matter how. when. or w ere I
knew at som pc pie in the ne gi!bor-
hood ha organi ell II party TO go skat-
ing on ccrta n dav ut Iiymcrr, fine
sheet Of water some distance from Md
combc. l guessed that some one whom
pa ticufarly desired to meet be
ther,, and as the skating at Lilyme:c
was free to any one who chose to take
ne trouhle OF ge ting to such an out Of
thrway Place, hired a horse and an
apol 'gy for Il dog cart, and at ten in the
morning started to drive the twelve
miles to the pend. l took no one with
me, had been to Liymere once be-
fore, N bright summer weather, so
tanCled | knew tie way we'll enough.
The sky When | started was cloudy;
the wind was choppirg round in a way
which ma !e the eiftte rustic old hostler
pred CT change OF weather. He vas
right; before / had driven two miles
light snow began 10 fall; and by the
time l reac,n d a wrc:c hcd Little way
side inn, about q mile from the mere,
a film of w lie covered the whole coun-
try. | stabbed my horse as we'll as |
could, then, tax ng my skate, with me-,
walked down to the poud.
Now, whether l had M staken the
day, or whether the threatening fall of
snow had made certain people change
their minds, don't know; but. to my
annoyance and vexat.on, no skaters
were to be seen, and. morto over, the
uncut, white surface told me that none
had been on the pond that morning
Still, hoping they might come in spite
OF the weathcr, ! put on my skates and
went outside edg ng and gra, ev:ning
all over the place. But us there WAS no
person in part cular-in fact no one at
ALTO noe my powers. | soon got
tired. 1t was, indeed, drcary, dreary
work. But | waited and hoped until
the snow camS down so fa and furi-
ously that felt sure that waiting was in
vain, and that had driven to Lilymcre
for nothing
Back l went to the little inn, utterly
disguised with things in general. and
feeling that to break some ones he d
would be relief to mo in my present
state of m nd. OF course a sensible
man would at once have got his horse
between the shafts and driven home
But whatever l may be now, in those
days | was not a scnsib e man Brand
will, l know, cordially indorse this re-
mark. The accommodate on of tho inn
was not such As to induce one to Iinger
with its precincts; but tie fire was
r ght good one, and drink, which |
skiilfully manufactured out of some hot
beer. not 10 be d,spiscd. and proved
warming to the bod, and soothing to
the ru fled temper So fingered over
the b g fire until began to feel hungry.
ami upon the landlady ssuring nue. thai
she could COOK ~ rasher, decided it
Il 1,.,