The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-02-26
Chapter EJu,ta Armstrong.


blank but for door and two steps,
stands in very pretty lane The hap-
table aspect of the house is on the
other side. and commands a wide pros
pect of sloping fields and river and
green sweeps soaring into eninence
thiekly clothed with trees. A brass plate
upon this lonely door bears the simple
inscription, 'Dr. Hardy"
The lane runs down to bridge, and
the flowing river carries the eye along a
scene Of English beauty; the bending
trees sip the waters surface; the
bright meadow stretches from the bank,
movement of cattle; lofty trees sentinel
the lane, and in the early summer the
notes Of the thrush and the blackbfrd
are clear and sweet.
One autumn evening. at about o'clock,
the door bearing DR.. Hardy's plate was
pulled open, and a young fellow, with
something nautical in his lurch and dress,
stepped into the road and began to fill
his pipe. Immediately behind him ap-
peared another figure-he was a thin.
pale, gentlemanly looking man. and his
white hair was parted down the middle.
He gazed with great deal of kindness,
not unmingled with the shadow Of sor.
row, at the young fellow who was fill
ing his pipe, and said:
You have pleasant evening for your
walk"
Il am sorry to leave this place. said
the young man. There Is nothing like
this to be met on the open ocean, And
whilst he pulled out q match box his
eyes went away to the green, evening
clad hills, which showed between the
trees in a sweep Of skyline pure as the
rim Of a colored lens; and now two or
three of the stars, which shine upon cur
country and which We all know and love.
were trembling in the dark blue Of the
coming shadow
The young man lighted his pipe with
several hard sucks not wanting In emo
ton.
God bless you, father" said he, st
shall be turning UP and finding all well
within twelve months, I hope"
God bless you, my dear son, and
pray that He may continue to watch
over you,' said the white-haired old
gentleman in shaking voice.
The young man started to walk with
his face set toward the hill DR.. Hardy
stood in the doorway watching him I'M
til he had disappeared round the bend.
He then stepped back and closed the
door upon himself.
1t would not be dark for little while.
and even when the dusk came UP ovei
the hills a piece of moon would float up
with 1t. The water flowing In the val
ley lay in short lines and sweet curves
in a moist dim rose. A clock was strfk-
ing; wagon was runbffng In weak
note of thunder past some low-lying
hedge that skirted d road. The young
fellow stepped out lesurely with his pipe
hanging at his teeth; he was going
away to London and was walking to
the station, and was without even a
effn TIa xTyaG ahJJCt
type of young man, clean shaver, OF
cheerful cast of face, but with some.
thing singular in the expression of his
eyes owing to the upper lids being mere
streaks and scarcely visible, and the
colored matter black and brilliant, so
that when he stared at you his look
would have been fierce but for the quail.
flying expression of the rest OF his face.
He walked with slight roll of the SEA
in his gait, and If you had noticed him
at all you might have supposed him a
sailor Yet man need not be sailor
to look like one. I lfaNe met nautical
looking mef who would not be sailors
for the value Of the cargoes of twenty
voyages. On the other hand, have met
sailors who, had they called themselves
greengrocers' assistants Or tailors' cut
tiers, would heve been believed.
The young fellow. smoking his pipe and
walking along through the fine autumn
gathering evening, was the only son of
the white-haired gentleman who had just
withdrawn into the house He had been
to sea since he was fourteen years of age,
and his name was George Hardy, and he
was now chief mate of the York, an
Australian clipper, twelve hundred and
fifty tons burthen, then lying in the East
India docks. He was going to Join her,
and why he was without baggage was be-
cause he had sent his chest aboard in adj
vance.
Formerly the railway station stood not
very far distant from DR.. Hardy's house;
but all about here was unimportant-it
was more a district than place. Hardy's
patients, for instance, were scattered over
miles, and like the pluuls in a sailors
pudding, the houses were scarcely
within hail of one another. The railway
company, two years before this date, re-
moved the station seven miles higher up
the line to the great CONSERVATION of the
unfortunate man who had purchased the
Fox Railway Inn,' then conveniently
seated within short walk of the station.
Figure his horror when one morning he
saw men with pickaxes uprooting the
platform The Fox Inn" was left as des-
oIate as Noah's ark on Mount Ararat, and
1t needed three men to go through the
bankruptcy court before matters began to
look little brighter for this unfortunate
tavern.
There was plenty of time and Hardy did
not walk very fast. He enjoyed the sweets
of the country, all the aromas Of the
darkling land which came along in the
faint cold evening air. When sailor
arrives from a. long voyage he makes up
his mind to button the flaps Of his ears to
his head. and to steer straight course
for the deepest fnshore recess. He does
not do so because he usually brings up at
the nearest grog-shop on his arrival, or
makes his way to the boarding house
where he was robbed and stripped when
he was last IN the place, and In a short
time he is away to SEA again with no
clothes but what he stands up in, and no
bed but the bundle of hay or straw which
he filings. with curses deep as the sea and
dark as the ships hold, down the hatch
under which he sleeps. But 1t Is an IL
lustration of his hatred of salt water that
he should resolve to bury himself deep In
shore when he lands.
George Hardy did not belong to the
class who live In boarding houses and
wear knives on their hips. He was the
son of a gentleman he was a man of
taste and feeling which his sea -faring life
had heightened and enlarged; he had the
eye of an artist and the spirit of poet,
and was toe good for calling that does
not require these qualities.
The road for about four miles was very
lonely. One little cottage on the right
stood in an orchard and grounds which
sloped to a hedge almost three-auarters
of mile down. He met nobody; once
or twice a squirrel ran across the pale
dust; the birds had gone to bed, there
was no song: the sun had sunk, and the
evening had deepeled into the first of the
night.
Suddenly, soma distance ahead Of him
on the left, Hardy spied what was TN
doubtedIy human figure. It lay In a
dry slalIa5u ditch with The I1nn,r mart