The herald., 1894-05-06
WANDERING WILLIE.

Late in the afternoon of golden Sep
TENDER day canalboat was traversing
the Erie canal at the sluggish rate Of
progress peculiar to that manner of nav
igation Perhaps its locomotion was I'M
usually slow, for not only was the boat
eastward bound and therefore heavily
laden with the lumber it had shipped ut
Buffalo, but it was of a decidedly grave
and sedate aspect generally and was so
extremely large stolid and clumsy that
most of its compeers were as fairy shall
lops beside it for grace and ightness
1t was old-that is old for canalboat
which carries grain five years, lumber
five years more and then is past its use
fitness the paint was worn and bis
tered, and the gilt letters on the stern
were SO defaced by time that one could
with difficulty, decipher the words, The
Wandering Willie
Had any, one read this inscription on
that September day he would have
thought it most absurd MISSIONER.
willie" was unsuitably light and ten
der, while the epithet Wandering"
was surely i'll applied to vessel whose
migrations were strictly confined to the
long and narrow extent of a canal. Bat
perhaps it had seemed a more fitting IL
tie some 90 years ago when it had been
chosen fer a somewhat less ponderolH
craft than the present possessor Of the
name when, too, the Erie canal was
new, vast and magnificent enterpris
and voyage along its placid watc
seemed almost as memorable as q
to Europe does to us now.
No one, however, bestowed any scru-
tiny upon the stern of the old boat that
afternoon, for ii was passing through
district very tf1inly settled. Now and
then distant farmhouse, with its red
rooted barns, gave touch of human
interest to the landscape, and occasion
ally the boat crept slowly between wide
stubble fields lying warm and glow
ing under the late sun, as if full of a
pleasant consciousness OF a summers
work well done But most of the time
the canal lay through vast woods, so
dense that oak and elm, beech and ma
pie leaves mingled together in indistin-
guishable confusion. The boat in these
leafy sohtudes was as isolated as q ship
at sea, but its loneliness was not desc
late, for it was broken by the twitter Of
many birds and by the sense of the in
tense life in the myriad growing trees
and vines.
There were five persons connected
with the boat. One man was lazlly
guiding the mules some 200 feet ahead;
another was doing in the bow of the
=. v6TN1 %
pairing supper on the forward part of the
deck; young man was holding the till
er, and near him sat an elderly woman
knitting. These latter two saw in their
different ways much Of the beauty and
poetic possibilities Of the scene. The
young man theught that ''far in forest
deeps unseen, such as these, Lancelot
and Guinevere had ridden side by side,
and in inst such boslly dells Orlando
and RosaGrd did eject the time care
lessly, as they did in the golden world. "
The woman, unfamiliar with the Ca
reers of these distinguished personages,
merely put down her coarse knitting to
listen more intently to blackbird' S pip
ing or to inhale with underlined delight
the cool fresh odors of the ferns and
MOSES, or the warm breath Of the fields.
Presently she broke long silence by
saying to her companion:
lyon haven't told me bout that
there letter you got yist day"
eve been wanting to, but I hardly
knew how 60 begin, said the young
man, with an effort to speak lightly.
cts FROM that banking firm in Chica-
go l told you about They offer me q
good position now and chance to rise,
/ must make up my mind tonight 1t
would be great thing Tor me, mother
Until he spoke the last word one
would never have suspected the relation
between them. The young man looked
like a gentleman. The straw hat pushed
back on his head revealed face at once
keen, thoughtful and refined His suit
of blue flannel fitted him we'll and was
scrupulously neat. The woman wore &
calico dress and apron and a ginghaIn
sunbonnet She was not much past mil
die life, but seemed rather older. Sey,
and incessant labor had bent her frame
as it had hardened and misshapen Eoc
hands But with that word mother a5
O key an observer could have traced the
latent resemblance in the two faces
There were the same soft brown eyes
and wide brows surmounted in one
case by thick curly brown locks, in the
other by scanty gray ones. There were
the same square jaws and firm set lips
that told of indomitable energies and
each countenance as it turned toward
the other bealned with tender affection.
make up yer mind, Joe:" the WON
an said slowly, evidently startled. You
don't mean that you air RELY thinl1in
of it?''
"Motherl'' he said with passionate
earnestness he strovo in vain to conceal,
''you must see for yourself that an
not fitted for tho life on a canalboat II
is too quiet, too dull; it has no opp
tunities. / have seen and learned t
much to settle down willingly to {
work. If / am to dc no,hing else T.
this in the world, it Was mistake
you and Gather to send mo 20 school aGa
college"
Don't say that, Joo!" cried his moth
er in quick reproaah. eyer father an
yer gfan'fathe often felt 'shamed O
havin no edaication. They allus earned
fair Hgig, to be sure, an had every
body's good word. But it's fine thing
to have schoolii, jan we was bound you
sha713d Have IL 5AS wa worked fur it. -