Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-03-09

! Yin VIC hinuNflllllS WIS DOll, DeaNN
and intensely masculine Uses stub
Dan thought, as he ran the blade of his
penknife along the edge of the envelope.
| whoever can he be? l don't know
anybody in Virginia. This proved to
/ DE mistake, as he found ON CHANGING at
i the signature, the sight of which elected
an exclamation of pleasure.
! dear Stewart, the letter ran. 81
CHANGED on your advertisement in q stray
Nation day before yesterday, and the
sight OF your name made the memory OF
/ the old days crop up through the drift
| pretty strong. | want to tie together
! LSain. Times have changed with mo
slnce we shook hands last in Chippewa
Gulch. I've done some of the things we
talked of. Here followed a concise
sketch OF his fortunes and brief mention
Of his pecuniary success. However
much boasting Ned might be guilty of
orally. nobody could confront him with
written orations on the theme. I'm
back in Virginia now" the letter pro
, ceeded land have bought a part of the
Did place | told you Of, where was borp
ER raised, and where my father lived
long us old Mr.. Bevel'ley's overseer. Per-
haps you'll remember about it. Queer
how things swop round, isn't it? Any
| how, I'm here, and I've bought the land,
and am going TO knock up a decent
house and settle down if things go as
want them. There's a shanty that we
used TO live in on my farm. but no
house: I'm in it now, and there's
room for you besides, if you will
fall III with my scheme The old
homestead is on the other part of the
plantation, and the Beverlcys own it
still ! wanted it, but they wouldn't
sell; so, as | say, I've got to build, and |
want you to come down here and put up
Tor year with me and do up the thing
in style. Money is no object, but taste
Is. and rs | have plenty of the one and
you of the other, we ought to make
success of my house. | see that stone
and mortar are in your line now. Come
down and pay me visit anyhow, and
as soon as yOu can, because l never was
a hog after delay. I'll meet you at our
doghole of a station any day You name,
and we can talk things over and arrange
shout the business part. Bring a gun,
too, If you still banker after the petit
coats. The old state can show a pretty
woman or two yet, and we've got some
sport left, in spite of the niggers and the
claybank mongrels." The letter was
signed his faithfully, Ned Anthony"
and across the top was scrawled hastily
an evident Observation-Disclosures what
day | shall meet You"
Dan returned the letter 20 its enveIope,
amused and pleased and interested. So
old Ned was back in the ueighborhood
he had left twenty years before bare
footed boy without a second shirt to his
back, in the plumed helmet and golden
spurs of knight of Plutus He won
dered how his former chum had been
received in the stately, old fashioned So
clety of conservative country neigh
Observation-Disclosures they were gracious
or turned their backs on him because
OF his father having worn shabby home
spun and superintendent another mans
plantation and slaves and gone down to
his grave IN ignorance of a written Ian
Suage. He wondered also whether Ned
grated on his neighbors, or whether the
original grain of the man had com
pacted with the growth OF years and be-
come susceptible of polish. To him Ned
seemed improved; he liked that open
reference to his father and his fathers
calling; it showed an absence of that
meanest of all qualities, false pride.
There was a delicacy about his reference
to his business matters also which did
not escape Dams notice-it was so unlike
the Anthony OF old. Most decidedly, he
thought, his friend had improved.
The little romance they had discussed
was doubtless in process of completion
was rounding into the circle of a mar
riage ring, as he had always said it
should. The cheerful tone of Ned's |
letter, its hopefulness, this talk Of build
ing and of settling down ''if things go
as l want them" all pointed the same
way. And Dan, who liked Ned, and |
loved romance like a schoolgirl, loosed |
the reins of his imagination and took a
breezy canter of conjecture and arrange |
ment.
The things" to be bent to the con. |
quering hero's viii We're. of course, pri- |
marily Miss Mary Beverley's affections, |
and secondarily the aristocratic proclivi- |
ties of Miss Mary Beverley's family. |
With the young lady the romance of |
having lived the solitary sentiment and |
b!ossomed the solitary flower of a strong |
mans nature for twenty years of toll |
and roughness and struggles and adven- |
ture would. ne thought, be better want
age ground than most lovers possessed |
at starting With the family-ah, well, |
most locks turn to keys of gold, and if |
this one should prove obdurate Ned An
thony had strength and skin enough to |
pick it. \ man who could unhorse
Fortune and bind her captive was not
likely to let himself be endorsed by pref
udice.
He would HE him down to Old Vir-
ginia, and shake his friend brown hand,
and have chat about old days; perhaps
entice a few James river bass to respond |
to his soft advances. Then, if things
went we'll with Anthony he Iyo1IId 20