Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-03-02
= II \ I LIN I.
NUARLES FREEMAN S LETTER.


CHARLES FREEMAN 5 LETTER.
In the month of July. 1854, my eld-
| est brother. John Freeman, suddenly and
| most uuaccuuntably was taken from us.
! one fine afternoon. being in good health
and spirits. hs went fishing and never
returned. At lunch he was Very pleas
AIT and even iuCu>e. making LIS young
steers laugh 81 imlnuderattly that my ia
thrr was mt last obliged to interfere. and
one IF my brothers was sent out of the
room in disgrace. MI the events of
that terrible day are imprinted on my
mind with the ClcalntsS of visuality. |
can still sec the funny faces with which.
when my father WIS not looking. he
threw L. into uncomfortable laughing
fit. He had hut just returned from
Trinity colleg" for summer vacation
and WIS full of all sorts of joyous plans
and projects for spending ii good time
at home. Poor fellow, he little knew
what this vacation had in store for him.
For Il hoy like my brother. and indeed
fer all IF us. few rural n"ighborhOOds
could have been more delightful than
ours. There were mountain streams
Astounding with trout, and streams
which needed only night 5 rain. some
times merely a heavy shower. to supply
-unl fishing. Wh.E the streams We're
not tiu,d".i. he often brought home a
good basket OF brown tout and white
taken in the pools and holes with Il
mere Shrimpng net which he made
himself ami WAS something like a large
and long handled landing net There
Il hi h..
rdiE> OF SEA fishing, both from boats
and from the rock, he was very fond;
he WIS at the latter spUrt-viz, fishing
for Gunner from Il rOck-when he so mys-
t,riuu>Iy disappeared. The Atlantic,
beating against very wild and almost
ironhOund coast. lay less than Il mile
from our home. My father. clergy
man Of the Church of Ireland before the
world Su>p. cted il to be "A upas tree, "
WAS incumbent of Il very large parish
IN fact. three parishes rolled into one
which extended many miles along the
- acuaSt and far into the interior.
There Were no resident gentry and no
preservation of game. No one but my
brother had gun in all the country
side, 80 that the shooting was all ours.
we'll as winter, for in summer we shot
curlews. cave pigeons, rabbits and
harc>. Pu<s abOundcd in the region,
and while there were no barriers and
no grcyhuunds Jack was. in fact, not
only Il great sportsman. but the only
sportsman in the country. Enemies he
had none. So that his mysterious disap-
p.Irauce could not be ascribed to any
personal maliguity. All the country
people. were fond of him, and | think
proud If him. They were always bring
ing him news Of the Whereabouts of
"tt'r>. ladGerS. coveys of partridges,
,tc., and would run across the fields
leaving their work to learn the contents
of his bag. or would shout from affair
when they saw him returning with rod
or gan. Well. Master John, what
luck" No, we never suspected for IA
moment. not until months after his dis
appearance, that he had been made
away with by an enemy or had met
with any foul play. And yet in broad
daylight. less than mile from the rec
tory, my brother suddenly disappeared,
vanished as utterly us if he had been
sucked down into the bowels of the
earth or drawn up into the sky.
The day was the 10th of July. and
singularly fine day even for that time
of the year. 1t was the day after his
return from college, and he was quite
running over with spirits. When |
awoke early that morning, | heard him
whistling outside the windows ON the
avn. The air was "Vilikins and His
Dinah," Il song much in vogue at the
time. He always came home with
new tune and never seemed to tire of it
till he got another. When looked out,
he was walking to and fro on the lawn
taking the twist ont of a new fishing
line. He had fastened one end of it to
a little holly tree standing there and was
diligently engaged in taking out the
twist, which indeed is tedious process.
During the forenoon and on till dinner
time he seemed keenly and happily alb
sOrbed in similar avOcations-viz, get
ting his fishing gear in order. We young
sters were confined to the sChOolToom
all that time, which we considered I'M
fair, inasmuch as it was Jacks first day
at home, but we could hear him bus
thing about the place and everlastingly
whistling Wilkins and His Dinah."
Once we heard an awful screaming of
geese in the rear regions. We knew
perfectly we'll the cause of it. Jack was
pursuing them and plucking out their
thin wing feathers in order to tie pol
lock flies. a little after noon he came
into the schoOlroom and asked the tutor,
Mr.. Humphreys, to let me go to the viii
lage to buy him some wire. He gave
me a penny for the wire and penny
for myself. In those days l considered
penny a handsome tip. He wanted
the wire to make line eyes for his big
rod, that which he used for sea fishing.
He also had me call at the shoemaker's
and get piece of wax. | mention all
this because on his disappearance some
foolish people said that he had run
away, superstition which no member
of the family harbored for a single in
slant. He was, in fact, brimful of sport
ing intentions. At we djned, when, as
/ have described, he made those funny
faces and set us all on the roar. When
dinner was over and we ran out, there
was q boy at the hall door with box
of bait in his hand, consisting partly of