Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1893-02-02
PROF. MORGAN'S RON ANCE.
BY KATE LEE.

BY KATE LEE.
Professor Morgan was an antiquarian
and archeologist. He loved things that
were old and things that had been long
dead, and passed all his days among
bones and stones and ponderous books.
Nothing fresh and living played any
part in his life, and he persistently with
drew himself from intercourse with
his fellows. His prematurely bald head,
his large bumpy forehead and the studi-
Gus stoop Of his shoulders made him APP
pear much older than he really was, and
superficial observers imagined him to be
as hard and as incapable of emotion as
one of his own fossils. 1t was rare
thing for any one to get look from the
gray eyes half hidden under the prom
inent brows. To those who by chance
did obtain full, direct glance from
them, and who had the wit TO read them
Alright, they were Il revelation of the man.
They were eyes that spoke, and the in
tensity of expression concentrated in
them gave the lie to his otherwise
emotionless aspect. The Professor was,
in fact, no fossil. His heart could beat
warm and quick, and romance lay
hidden under his outer husk of hardness
and reserve.
Ten years ago, Hugh Morgan, solitary
unknown, embittered in spirit and
broken of heart, had come from abroad
and taken up his residence in lonely
house fronting the sea on the outskirts
of a Welsh seacoast village. 1t seemed
an abode as congenial as possibly could
be found. The neighborhood for many
miles round abounded in antiquarian re-
mains, and the house itself looked out on
the Atlantic for three centuries or more.
An isolated house and an isolated life.
A house with story to tell, could it but
speak, human life with hidden I'M
told past Those were the parallels
Hugh Morgan drew between himself and
his chosen home, feeling dreary sort of
kinship with it, and half imagining
sometimes that it possessed a human
soul, a soul that was as sad in its loneli-
ness as he in his. Here year after year
he lived in solitude, devoted apparently
to science alone, the man to all outward
appearances merged in the antiquarian.
His tall figure, surmounted by a broad
brimmed hat drawn low over his capac-
ious brow, became well known to all
the inhabitants of the village and the
neighborhood around Now and then it
would be missed for six months or more
at time, when "The Professor" as he
came to be called long before the title
was his in reality, had found occasion to
return abroad for scientific purposes.
But, as rule, it was to be met with
every day. eithr pacing thoughtfully
beside the wide sea, or passing rapidly
across the green waste behind the strag-
Cling village, on the way to the noun
tains beyond.
The years went by. Professor Nor
gan became a shining light in the world
of Archaeological. science; but each year
as it passed seemed to bind him down
more and more irrevocably to solitude of
hesrt. The stunning of all companion
ship, which at first had been but the in
stinct of a wounded and sensitive spirit,
became at length fixed habit, which he
was too shy and reserved to break
through. Each year increased the stoop
of the Professors shoulders, the bald
ness of his head, and the terrific develop
ment of his forehead. Each year the
sad, shy eyes grew sadder and shyer and
were more and more rarely lifted to
meet the undiscerning. unperceptive
eyes of others. Little did anyone divine
what bitter hours of heart loneliness the
misanthopic, unsocial Professor passed
in the grim, museum-like study of his
lonely house, or what painful thoughts,
quite unconnected with barrows and
cromlechs and Druid circles, were his
daily companions.
One August day the Professor made a
journey miles away among the mountains
for the purpose of taking observations of
famous cromlech. He had been for
two years at work upon a history OF
cromlechs, and was at this time gather
ing material for n chapter on the differ
ences between British cromlcchs and
those of the nations of Germanic de-
scent. The journey took him all the
morning, and when he came within sight
of the village on his return the afternoon
sun was blazing at its hottest. About a
mile and half from the village the road
passed through rough field, in the
midst of which, on a slight elevation,
stood the ruins of an ancient British
house.
TO any but an antiquary the house had
the appearance of being nothing more
than shapeless heap of stones. The
Professor had theory of his own con.
corning its origin and history; and in.
tended one day writing a magazine arti-
Gle about it by way of recreation from
his laborious and exhaustive work on tho
cromlechs.
AS he drew near the ruin to-day he
saw coming toward it, from the direc
ton of the village, in the hot glare Of
the sun, two tiny figures in black dresses
and white sun bonnets. Between then
they bore hamper, from which yellow
cat raised its head and gazed around
with inquiring eyes. The little faces be
meath the sun bonnets were crimson Will
heat and haste, and. as soon as t1el
reached the foot of the mound on which
the ruin stood, the two little traveller
| put down their burden, and sank besid
| It, painting with fatigue.
The Professors interest was transfcrre,