Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1894-02-15
(C0ntinue1 from last ,ceek. |

! Perhaps, when a man usually free
handed has poor and penurlous streak
he feels very poor. 1t sertalnIv was the
case with Mr.. Van Allen. He had felt
abused and cheated the whole season
through, as one crop after another
failed, and at times, when plnched by
rheumatism, he felt abused that his
oldest son, the child Of his first wife,
should have inherited the tastes of hls
grandfather and taken to boats and the
water instead of sticking to the farm.
He had wanted to enter the navy, had
Roger. but his farther had opposed him
so tiercely he had yielded. Guns and
water together are too much. the father
had urged, "Your mother didn't leave
me any other children, and If you must
20 on water stick to thu lakes land
Ism tso far off around them, he added
with a shudder, for even the canal
made HIM i'll. In yam old Capn jimmy
'rubbs tried to explain the superior
safety of the ocean. Mr.. Van Allen
would have none ofit,aud now At thirty
Roger was master oil fast reight
boat between Os"ego and Duluth, and
on his last trip he had taken with HIM
his cousin, Pete Hull, who had proven
himself an Inefficient dry goods clerk,
and then ~ dance IN a docters Office,
Something must be made out of Pete
for his mothers sake, for her fortune
was lost in Western mortgages, and she
had been compelled to- lnsve from her
comfortable home to a cheap house on
the fats, the poor quarter Of South
Smyrna Corners.
Axemla prepared 10 set forth on her
errand Of mercy to Aun;l- Hn'', alone
and III leet Duu if Mr. Van Alien was
subject to what his a,te called "spells
he also had plenty of symlathy, and
and coming from attendance upon the
roam colt Just IN time to intercept her,
he insisted on taking her IN the buggy
for, SAID e,unconscious that lie was
destroying the generous lo"k of he o!"r
81 wan, to 20 I" Osweso and learM if
there rs any rews Of the General |
kinder ooAed for Roger last sl.kt. He
was due the eighteenth.
It's terrible We .ther for them who
90 down to the sea in ships, ;gasped
Mrs. Hull, who was in "A paroxvsm Of
asthma IL cannot help remembering
how my Uncle Ton, was lost in fog -
"Oh that Was way out xt SEA, 'nter-
posed Mr.. Van Allen quickly, but the
words stnng into him as he went oyer
the h>l. hIs mare Peggy compelled to
take slowly the gummy red clay. News
OF the General there were none. But
two boats had met with disaster some
where in Lake Huron. and the old
hangers-o about the dock assured
him there hasn't beeu such weather
for shipping, "slnce the @ear eve. AS
Peggy nipped homeward and the drip
of the mist chilled her owner to the
marrow, and the holrse notes OF the
boat whlstled croaked landward as OF
scared creatures 10 peril, memory stirred
n Nicholas Van Allen, and recalled
the time when Mrs. Hull was young and
pretty with eight children abont her
knees. She was not onIv the sister Of
Rogers nother, but a cousin OF his SEC
ond wife. lfnow SIZE was il norninl
wo.an, lncllhed 20 look upon The dark
side, Aas 1t " wondelful? And Aow was
she to get on alone in her poor home on
the Flats among all sorts Of people diff
rcrent from Ierself7 She mad neve'
asked any iayo"s, or see ned to need
help, but she was certainly lone and
orn, and IT. in spite OF himself the
tb,egbt wonld word Itself. if ANYTHING
should happen to Roger, and the twins
and their mother, and Axena, how
would be himself be? Why should he
expect to be ,aose fortunate than his
slstAr-in law?
The Van Allen house wss large
There was the son,l room IN which his
fathers sister, Ruth. had lived as long
as he could remember. Her father had
willed her tile room; AMI it STOOD nst
as sue had left it., furnished with quite
old things. pretty and comfortable.
He had thought vaguely that perhaps
when the twins were grown and we're
married, he and his wife might retreat