The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-03-03
Chapter IJuIia Armstrong.

Chapter I-JuIia Armstrong.
A house with a wall, which would be
blank but for a door and two steps,
stands in a very pretty lane. The had
liable 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 eminencc
thickly clothed with trees A brass plate
upon this lonely door bears the simple
Inscription, "Dr. Hardy"
The lane runs down to a 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,
and is tender and gay from the tints and
movement OF cattle; lofty trees sentinel
the lane, ana in the early summer the
notes of the thrush and the backbird
are clear and sweet.
one autumn evening. at about o'clock,
the door bearing DIR. Hardy's- plate was
pulled open, and young fellow, with
something nautical in his lurch and dress,
stepped into the road and began 10 fiji
his pipe. Immediately behind him APP
peared another hgure-he was thin,
pale, genuemanly looking man, and his
white hair was parted down the middle.
He gaZed with great deal of kindness,
not unmingied with the shadow of sor-
ing his pipe, and said:
You have a 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 ne pulled out a match box his
eyes Went away TO the green, evening
clad hills, which showed between the
trees IN sweep of skyline pure as tho
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, 'I
shall be turning up and finding all well
within twelve months, hope
God bless you, my dear son, and ]
pray that He may continue to watch
over yOu,' said the white-hared old
gentleman in a 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
I'll lie had disappeared round the bend.
He then stepped back and closed the
door upon himself
1t would not be dark for a little while,
and even when the dusk came up ovei
the nils piece OF moon would float UP
with it, The water flowing in the val
ley lay in short lines and sweet curves
In q moist dim rose A clock was strik-
ing; a wagon was rumbling In a weak
note of thunder past some lOw-lying
hedge that skirted a road The young
fellow stepped out leisurely with his pipe
hanging at his teeth; he was going
away to London and was walking TO
the station, and was without even
stick. He was square, robust a nautical
type of young man, clean ShaVen, OF
cheerful cast of face, but with some.
thing singular in the expression of his
eyes owing TO the upper lids being mere
streakG and scarcely visible, and the
coloTed 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
sailor. Yet man need not be a sailor
to look like one. I have met nautical
looking men 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
ters, would have 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 ne
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 10 Join her,
and why he was without baggage was be-
cause he had sent his chest aboard in ad-
vance.
Formerly the railway station stood not
very far distant from Dr. Hardy's house;
but all about here was unimportant-it
was more district than place. Hardy s
patients, for instance, were scattered over
miles, and, like the p.ums in a sailor S
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 a 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-
plate as Noahs ark on Mount Ararat and
It needed three men to go through the
bankruptcy court before matters began to
look a 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
larkling land which came along in the
faint, cold evening air. When a sailor
. arrives from q long voyage he makes up
MS mind to button the flaps of his ears TO
his head, and TO steer a straight course
Tor the deepest inshore recess. He does
not do so because he usually brings UP at
The nearest grog-shop on his arrival, or
mal1es 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. wl,h curses deep as the sea and
dark as the ships hold, down the hatch
nnder which he sleeps. But 1t Is an IL
usration Of his hatred of salt water that
he should resolve to bury himself deem in
shore when he lands
George Hardy did not belong 20 the
class who live IN boarding houses and
wear knives on their hips lie was the
BON Of a gentleman; he was a man of
taste and feeling which his sea-farInr Iifo
had heightened and enlarged; ne had the
eye Of an artist and the Split Of a poet,
and was too good for calling that does
not require these qualities.
The read for about cour miles was very
lonely One little cottage on the rIoht
stood in an orchard and grounds which
BlOped 10 n hedge almost three-ullartere
Of mile down. He met nobody; once
or twice a squirrel ran across the male
dust; the birds had gone to bed. there
was no song; the sun had SUNK. and the
evening had decpe led Into the arsf OF tho
night.
Suddenly, son distance ahead Of hin,
on the left, Hardy spicd what was I'M