Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1895-10-17
LIME BURNER.

For a man in whose life there had
been tragedy he was cheerful. He had
habit of humming vague notes In
the silence of conversation, as If to put
you at ease. His body and face were
lean and arid, his eyes oblique and
small, his hair straight and dry and
straw-colored; and it flew out crack
ling with electricity to meet his cap as
he put it on. He lived alone In q lit
tie hut near his lime-kiln by the river,
with no near relatives, and few COM
panions save his four dogs, and these
he fed sometimes at the expense of his
own stomach. He had just enough
crude poetry in his mature to enjoy his
surroundings. Forihe was we'll placed.
Behind the lime!kiln rose knoll on
knoll, and beyond these the verdant
hills, all 'converging to Dalgroethe
mountain. In front of it was the river
with its banks dropping forty feet,
and below, the rapids, always troubled
and sportive. On the farther side of
the river lay peaceful areas of meadow
and corn land, and low rooted, hover
ing farm houses, with one larger than
the rest, having a wind mill and flag
staff This building was almost large
enough for manor, and indeed 1t
was said that 1T had been built for
one just before the conquest Of 1853,
but the war had destroyed the ambi-
tious owner, and it had become farm
house. Garrtte always knew the time
of the day by the way the tight fell
on the wind mill. He had owned this
farm once, he and his brother Fabian,
and he had loved it as he loved Fa-
bian, and The loved it now as he loved
Fabian's memory. And in spite of all,
they were cheerful memories, both OF
brother and house.
At twenty-three they were orphans,
with 200 acres of land, some cash,
horses and cattle, plenty of credit in
the parish, or in the county for that
matter. Both were of hearty DISPOSE
tons, but Fabian had taste for
liquor, and Henri for pretty faces and
shapely ankles. Yet no one thought
the worse of them for that, especially
at first An old servant kept house
for them and cared for them in her
honest way both physically and NOR
ally. She 'lectured them when at first
there was little to lecture about. 1t is
no wonder that when there came a
vast deal to rcprove, good Agatha de-
sisted altogether, overwhelmed by the
weight of it,
Henri got a shock tho day before
their father died when he saw Fabian
lift the brandy used to mix with the
milk of the dying man, and pouring
out the third of:n 'tumbler. drink it off
smacking his lips as he did so as
though it were cordial. That gave
him cue ito Ills future and to Ia
bans. After their father died Fa-
bian gave way ITO the vice. He drank
in the taverns; he was at once the
despair and the joy Of the parish; for
wild as he was, The had gay temper,
humorous mind, strong arm and
was a universal lover. The cure, who
did not, of course, know one-fourth Of
his wildness, had a warm spot for
him in his heart. But there was a
vicious streak lin him somewhere, and
it came out one day in a perilous fash
ion.
There was in the hotel Of the Louis
Quinze an English servant from the
west :ajled Nell Barraway. She had
been In a ilntel in Montreal, and it was
there Fabian had seen her as she
waited ON the table. She was a splen-
did looking creature, all life and en-
ergy, tall, fair-hGired and with:a charm
above her kind. Ghe was also IAN ex-