Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1896-05-14

NA she spread her.
Nm broad wings and
S&s caught the ocean
swell of Sandy Hook, nothing had
been farther from my thoughts
than voyage round the Horn.
a trip by balloon, an exploration,
of African wilds, or or raid on the.
north pole would have seemed a propo-
sition as feasible as this venture to the
southwark, to a young physician strug-
Cling Intellectually to prove that the
community had need of him and that
the years of preparation for his profess
sion had not been thrown away.
1t was chance the first that Capt. ABB
ner Peck should come back from a
voyage to the west coast to find the
wife of his bosom in failing health, and
&c resolve to take her with him on his
next ruin to the farther side of the sis
ter continent. 1t was chance the sec
ond that, in his anxiety for his spouse,
the skipper should decide to ship sur
geon; as part owner of the Mary Peck,
he was entitled to some luxuries. 1t
was chance the third that the captain
and I, Alfred Morris, NJ. D., should meet
at the house of friend in the New Eng
land city in which was striving to earn
my daily bread and it may have been
chance the fourth that we fraterniZed
with uncommon cordiality. The sea-
man told me something of his plans;
I confided to him the story of few
skirmishes of my uphill fight. The talk
npIa1 iy,b iC l-iycr n dafinifsa T1rnnnGi-
ton. I asked As hours to consider it
and accepted it in 12. In going to sea
| / gave up little. A few patients, chronic
as to maladies and uncertain as to pay
ments, would be forced to seek new
medical adviser; in exchange for them,
l bargained for passage on fine ship,
forgetfulness of the landlord bugbear,
and pay sufficient to supply spending
money at the ports we might touch at
and to bring me home with little
loose silver in my pockets.
Once the die was cast, the thought of
the voyage filled me with glee; for it
| offered q first prospect of adventure,
| though from boyhood mine had been an
| existence of vicissitudes. Leftan orphan
| in childhood, had grown up into my
teens under the care of an uncle, an
| elderly bachelor, who treated me with
q mixture of the fondness he felt for
| kinsfollI and the distrust he manifested
| toward those debarred from the suf-
| frage by circumstances of age or sex.
| He did not understand children, and he
| feared women. He owned a small fac
| tory in Rodneytown, village on the
| New England coast which had closed
its days of progress about the middle
! of the century, but which still main
tanned activity enough to keep 1t alive.
My uncle seldom attempted to inter-
| fere with my amusements, which, as it
happened, generally took me out of his
sight and hearing, thereby, no doubt,
gaining his tacit approval. 1 was a
/ rather solitary little fellow in those
days, with liking for prowling about
the fields and along the beach or pad
| ding a crazy raft up and down the
shallow tidal streams in which the
neighborhood abounded, and On the
banks of the largest of which Rodney
| town was built. Behind the village
rose long low ridge, and beyond that
in turn was n rolling country, well
wooded and fairly fertile. Between the
ridge and the beach stretched lowlands
fringed on the seaward side with salt
marshes, and penetrated in many places
by the tidal creeks of which mention
has been made. For farming purposes
the lowlands were of little value, and at
no time had they many dwellers. In
fact, to this day there is scarcely a habi-
tation to be found from one end of the
| plain to the other, though little way
up the slope of the ridge which bounds
it are several clusters of farmhouses.
l found q fascination of kind, in this
waste region, which seemed to belong
hardly more to the land than to the sea;
and spent many happy days exploring
! it, Here and there, rising from the
| marsh, were rocky hillocks, steep
sided, and dotted with dwarfed trees
and bushes wherever, by accident, suf-
ficient soil had collected to give the
roots a covering. On one of these islands
as they may be called for want of a
better term-I discovered house, old,
and long untenanted, but not dilapi-
dated. Why its builder had chosen its
for he had long been dead and buried !;
but his work remained to prove that
he, like most of his contemporaries, had
been an honest constructor. This old
house enchanted my fancy. To the
cast it commanded n view of the bay, a
broad expanse of water sheltered from
ocean gales by long cape jutting out
from the mainland some miles to the
south and then curving so as to extend
almost parallel with the line of the
inner beach. To the west was the plain,
and beyond it the ridge. To the north
and south was the amphibious region
where marsh and dry land joined. But
the great attraction of the place was
its isolation. Nobody dreamed of in.
vading my retreat, and there / could
imagine myself monarch of all l sur
veyed, ruling realm so deserted that
the very loneliness of it, for which i
loved it, sometimes terrified me.
My uncle's death, cutting short my
stay in Rodney town, led to my removal
TO the far different scenes of n small
citvin central Illinois, where dwelt an
other of my fathers brothers, child
|
intensely practical, and well calculated
TO cure me of the romantic moods had
learned to cherish, had we but come to
terms of affection. Unlucldly, however,
we had too little in common to reach
even amity. At IS was told the time
for study was over, that the time for
toll had arrived. lie took me into his
shop-he was merchant in small
way-and for n year strove zealously
to discover some trace of business ca
pacity In his assistant Failing utterly
in this, he called me before him, gravely
passed his verdict on my manifold de-
ficiencies, aut inquired whether had
arty plans in mind
One of my friends-a few had been
acquired, perhaps by force of circum-
stances-had entered q medical school
in neighboring city; and, on the spur