The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1900-12-14
CHADTER IL

grieve to say that besides being one of
the greatest ounces in the school l
was also, so the master said, the most
troublesome young scapcgrace lie ever
had the misfortune to cane. He told
my father that he could not consccn-
tiously take any blame to himself for
my deplorable ignorance and dcprav-
ity, as he would warrant that there
was scarcely square inch Of my un-
calmly carcass that his ferule or birch
| broom had not scored. l was innately
wicked, he declared, and my poor IA
ther groancd and said he feared the
schoolmaster was right.
There was really some justification
for this belief of my fathers, for all
my ten brothers Q was the youngest Of
~ were either doing well or giving
promise of It, and l was the only one
who had ever given my worthy par
ents the least trouble. The others
were mostly parsons, or on the way to
become parsons; so, as my father, too,
was in the church, there was plenty of
piety in the family, but I am very
much afraid that the collective good
ness Of all my relatives was more than
balanced by my individual depravity.
1 have heard my mother say-and it
has never occurred to me to doubt it
that the first use I made of my legs
after l learned the art of locomotion
was to walk straight into a scrape. 1t
is a habit | have not dropped with in
crease of years
Now, however, l had for the first
time companion who, like myself, ap-
/ rod n IN honninct whom IN frn,,hIa
and for the next two years Alec and l
continued to live in state Of intermit-
f.Sint rebellion with those in nnthnrity.
and tie buffsaRt ffaRt 81 II eed8htfffndafitfwfpt
into hot water. Now it would be
scuffle with his lordship's men for snar-
ing his lordship's grouse, now brawl
in n tavern and now, again, threat of
| severe punishment for soaring half the
! town with turnip lantern on dark
winters night. Once we went off for
a whole week and lived like comics
| among the hills, and on another occa-
| sion we hid ourselves in n ships hold
and sailed down to Scarboro IN her
and then tramped the whole way back
over the moors on foot.
: Adventures like these cemented our
friendship and taught us to be quick
and ready in emergencies, but they did
, | not tend to increase our popularity
with those in authority, and to such an
| extent did our i'll repute spread that
| when anything went wrong or any evil
] / was committed Of which the perpetra
t | tors were not at once discovered every
e finger pointed to Alexander ireland
and John Topp as the culprits. And
;, truth to tell, these judicial digits die
q not often point askew.
Alec, indeed, pursued his studie:
with some amount OF diligence; but a.
for me the perpetual war which
waged with the schoolmaster was IA
too bitter to admit of my profting b.
/ his efforts to instruct me. l increased
l therefore, in very little except stature
but in that bid fair to be pre-eminen
in Whitby.
My eventual sudden departure fror
the town was caused by the unexpec,
| ed boiling over Of a pan Of water, an
this is how it came about:
had gone to see my sweetheaI
Inez, and Alec had, as usual, accom-
panied me. He still took great pleas
ure in the sea songs she used to sin
to us, and, besides, his presence was
help to our lovemaking, as he was
ways willing to converse with Dan
CARAT and so divert her attentiC
from Inez to me when we happened
wish to speak of anything Of an esp
> cially private nature. We had pr
:, - arranged system of signals by which
''' could always let him know when
~, wanted him to talk louder than usuf
iN +on hn lnnyylp10a
the code was in no danger Of grown
:. rusty from want Of use.
~, On this particular night, howevt
- the conversation had been OF 9th
times and places than our own. v
had been discussing the marvelo
~, wealth of the new world, and Alec al
u 1 had fought a wordy battle about t
NJ relative merits of glory and gold. l
'e was all for glory, and ! was for &c
first and glory only as an afterthoug
=, when the gold was safe below hatch
A Jack" said Inez to me when A
and had. In our despair of converti
one another. come to n controvers
u deadlock, "there are other ways
ck making gold than by fighting for it,
nu Eyes, sweetheart, know there ar
se I answered. "but you would not ha
me to become SNUG faced merchan
hg "No, but there are other ways still
"HowW
"By alchemy" -.
. "rhe devils work. cried.
wy "My fathers work, Jack" repi
Inez gravely.
"Yes, sweetheart, and wish 1t W