The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1897-04-17

ernor, since he never went out of the way
to do any mischief knowingly in his Off
cial capacity, and was really kind hearted
His only fault was that he confided too i'm
plicitly in a sort of factotum named Boris
Rain and delegated to him at times too
much authority. That, however, is one of
those things which right themselves even
tually, as they did in this instance very
finely.
The generals distractions to which al
lusion has been made, were, as he persuad-
ed himself, scientific. AS everybody knows,
the newspapers of Russia are permitted to
publish almost anything except news, and
one that came every week from St Peters
burg to the governor of Kabarda gave
much of its space to scientific expert
ments. Under the head of Electricity
it taught show to make battery with a
shaving mug and very little fowerpot;'
under" Acoustics, ''"how to makean Holi-
an harp with threads in Window" under
Chemistry, chow to make crystals of
rock salt;" under "Natural Philosophy"
chow to balance fork on the edge of
wineglass;" under Magic, ""how to cook
an omelet in hat" and so on And
the old general amused himself by doing
all those things. The one that pleased him
most was chow to reproduce Dionysius'
ear" 1t cost him a good many rubles to
fix up pretty little room so that he, at
his desk in another apartment so feet
away, would hear even u whisper in that
reproduction of the fabled chamber of the
Syracusan tyrant. Luckily he kept the
knowledge of his triumph to himself and
the one person who aided him, his charm
ing adopted daughter Maria, the child of
his friend Colonel Karatevnik, who, dying
in his arms on the battlefield, bequeathed
her to his care.
Only one thing troubled the good gen
eral-he vehemently suspected his nephew,
Vladimir, and Maria of contemplating
marriage, to which he would have offered
no objection had they asked his permission
before falling in love with each other, but
which stirred all his antagonism when he
deemed they had ignored him.
''If such important Matters he said to
himself, "are to be settled in my own
household without my consent or even
knowledge, God knows into what disorder
and riot the rest of the province may plunge
without even a thought of me. IL will be
quite forgotten that l am governor
And he grew exceedingly impatient for
the time was short for certain programme
he had outlined to himself
"My dignity he reflected, twill not
permit me to ask questions. l must seem
to discover the situation by accident. Then
I shall be furious and punish them by
little wholesome terror-she of being sent
to her agonizing cat of an aunt, he of be-
ing shipped off for years journey. But
at our Easter Sunday feast / will forgive
them and announce the betrothal. Yes,
but it is Good Friday already, and / know
nothing yet of the affair-officially
just then Maria poked her pretty head
in at the door of his study, where he sat
smoking, and said timidly and hesitating
ly, May talk little to you, dear father,
of something private?"
"Aha," he thought, "the sweet child
comes to confess. l shall be good to her.
Now will not even shake at her that
grisly terror, Aunt Anastasia. And, to