The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-11-21
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! HIS TH|RT|ETH BIRTHDAY 5
On That Day He Decided to Re-
nounce Preferment For the
Girl He Loved.
BY Lloyd Osborne

v
81 BY Lloyd Osborne. e
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His thirtieth birthday! His first
youth was behind him, with all its
heartburnings, it's failures, its mani
fold humiliations. What had he done
these years past but drift, forlorn, pen
niless and unattached, over those shall
lows where others had stuck and pros
pered7
In the colonies he had toiled unre-
mittingly in half hundred characters,
groom, cook, boundary rider, steamer
roustabout, always sinking. always
failing Had life nothing more for
him than an endless succession Of not
empty days on the farthest beach of
upolu, with scarcely more to eat than
the commonest Kanaka and no other
outlet for his energies than the barter
ing Of salt beef for coprah and an oc-
casional nights fishing on the reef?
The noise of an incoming boat drew
see the pastors old whaler heading
through the pass. A half grown girl
leaped into the water and FASTENED up
to the store with something fastened
In a banana leaf. 1t was letter,
which she shyly handed to the trader.
Walter Kinross looked at it with sur
prise, for it was the first he had re-
ceived for four years, and the sight of
its English stamp and familiar hand
writing filled him with something like
awe:
Ny Dear Nephew-I know you're pretty old to
come back and scarf life afresh here but If you
haven't had the unmitigated folly to get married
cut there and tied by the leg forever I'll help
you to make new start, il you have the grit to
do It. You shan't starve il $500 year will
keep you, and if you will try and turn over
new leaf and make man of yourself In good ear
nest am prepared to mark you down substan-
tally in my will
But mind, promises; payment strictly by
results You're no longer boy, and this is prob
ably the last chance you'll ever get OF entering
civilized life again and meeting respectable folk.
nclose you draft at sight on Sydney for Sl,25O,
for you will doubtless need clothes, ETC.. as well
as your passage money, and il you decide not to
return you can accept it as present from your
cid uncle. Atectionately yours,
ALFRED bAFFOCA.
The house could not contain him and
his eager thoughts; he must needs feel
the sky overhead and the trades
against his cheek, and take all nature
into his puny confidence. Besides,
yaiala had now a new charm for him,
one he had never counted on to find.
Hard and lonely though his life had
~, ;o Lor IN
him by thousand pleasant memories
and even by the recollection of his past
unhappiness. Here he had found peace
and love, freedom from taskmasters,
scenes more beautiful than any picture
and, not least, a sutficiency to eat.
A little money, and his life might
have been tolerable, even happy
enough money for a good sized boat, 8
COW or two. and those six acres Of the
Pascoe estate he had SO often longed to
buy. How often had he talked of II
with Leata, who had been no less eager
than himself to harness their quarter
acre to the six and make them all his
little paradise. Poor Leata, whom be
had taken so lightly from her fathers
house and paid for in gunpowder an6
kegs of beef; his smiling, soft eyed
Leata, who would have died for him
What was to become of her in this new
arrangement Of things.
BY this time he had worked quite
round the bay, and almost without
knowing it he found himself in front Of
Paul Englebert's store. Englebert wa!
the other trader in Vaiala, a peppery
middle aged Prussian, who had been s
good friend of his before those sever
breadfruit trees had come between
them.
He recalled Englebert's rough, joyia
Kindness, remembered how Paul hat
cared for him through the fever, ant
helped him afterward with money ant
trade. How could he have been so petit.
as to make quarrel of these bread
fruit trees? Poor old Paul! 1t was
shame they hadn't spoken these tw,
years.
On the veranda, barefoot and il
striped pyjamas. was Englebert. pre-
tending not to see him. To Kinross, a
he walked up the path and mounted
tie veranda stairs, the man looked OLE
and sick, and not little changed
GLOW do you do, Englebert?" he said
The German looked at him witt
smoldering eyes. Cant you see In
busy 2" he said.
''You might offer man chair
said Kinross seating himself on TIL
tool chest.
"Dere is no jare for dem dat isn't wei
come said the German
II used to be welcome here" sal
Kinross. "There was a time when yo