The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1900-11-24
The Flight From. London.
r. 1.

member, were spent at an old farm
house in Oxfordshire, and there 1 was
like to have been utterly spOilt, for the
would have made an attempt upon the
moon had 1 expressed a wish to have
had that luminary for a %plaything.
Two OF three times a year a gentle
man came to stay with us, n so ex-
citing an event did his advent be-
come by reason Of the nan good
things he brought me, that I grew to
Took for him anxiously; and when I
was old enougfv and it was announced
to me solemnly that he was my father,
I had no objection whatever to take
UPON my young shoulders all the re-
responsibilities of sonship seeing that
my sire was SO pleasant a parsonage.
"Jack"-by the way, I was known as
Jack Temayne-tJack," said he to
me one day as i sat on his knee. I'VE
must begin to learn something"
J. stared at him in surprise, for I
took his 1--WE" literally.
w must lave a primer, and before
the winter comes we ought to be able
to read; and when I asked him
with all the %solenlnity of puzzled
childhood why it raj that he couldn't
read. 1 was answered with a merry
laugh.
TIN speaking of you,' he said:
ss'and a kind gentleman a promised
to come over and give you lessons.
and I know that for my a X you'll be
a good boy and work hard"
1 gave this promise readily enough,
but the carrying of it out vas another
matter, as the kind gentleman found
to his cost; for though ne labored
with me conscientiously enough for an
hour every day. I Just az conscient-
fously thwarted his good endeavours.
and tried to learn nothing, and was
eminently successful. And he might
have been teaching me with the same
result through all the days of my
childhood had not my Mary'-for I
speedily appropriated HEROINE upon
the scene.
/ thought her the sweetest lady in
existence, and I would fain have adj
opted her for my mother had she given
me the slightest encouragement to
do SO, for, in my innocent way, I ar
gued that, since I a so nice a man
for a father, and as he had. so to
speak, ''proceeded' to the relation
ship. I couldn't seq why the sweet
lady shouldn't qualify for the honours
of maternity. I did not, of course, put
It to myself exactly in that way, but
no doubt 1 should have done so had I
been able.
my Mary was a visitor who had
come to spend the summer with us,
and she took me in hand, and matters
soon went smoothly. so smoothly, in
al of the story that Russia a begun
deed. that I had quite mastered the
rudiments of reading, when a giant
came and tool my business away.
1t was the leafy month of June. and
l. had made myself happy and my
knickerbockers airy by ~clambering to
a high perch III an old oak tree, and 1
was contemplating a still loftier flight,
with the prospect of a rapid descent,
when I heard voices beneath me, and,
looking down. I saw Mary and a gen.
tTeman With her. and the gentleman's
arm was where I considered it ought
not to be. for it was around her waist.
And he kissed her. not once, nor twice,
but many times, and presently. when
he had called her names hat set my
boyish heart beating flor I knew, by
h way she allowed it, that he had
the right he drew her away. y
You must come and sing my old fa-
vorite for me. Mary" he said, and. as
Boon as they were out of sight. I
slipped down and followed, n pres
eutly, Nesting by the rose bush that
grew near the best room window. I
heard her playing the old piano softly,
and singing a song thai she had often
sung to me, an Irish melody, set to
words that. began
sI'd mourn The hopes that leave me-"
Two days afterwards the mail with
the blue eyes and the big beard came
for my Mary" l chung to her. but at
last she put me from her gently. and
kissed me and bade me "good-bye."
and then she promised to come back In
a few days-and she was one who al
ways kept her promise if h could. I
never saw her again while I was at the
farm house. That was the first blight
the Ragged Thirteen put upon my, life.
though many years passed before /
knew who We're the authors Of my
trouble.
The leafy month of June had given
a to the much more satisfactory
fruity July, when one night. as / was
preparing for rest. my father suddenly
appeared, and. even to my childish.
eyes and understanding. it was plain
that he was in great trouble. He took
the old lady and gentleman into an in-
ner ROOM. and some quarter of an hour
afterwards / was dressed for travelling.
and when dear oldsdaddy and nanny
had wept over me- drove away with.
my father to the station.
The next day a steamer carried us
TO the continent, and for years we
wandered through the by-ways Of Eu-
rope. avoiding the: large cities and
staying in the neighborhood Of none
0f them for any long time.
NY father became ~nny4teacher. and Q
better gilmore patient master no child
ever and while he did his best 70
develop my intellect, he spared no
pains IA: gettine me physically At for
my observation-disclosures with the
work: shne scholar though ~
Aa4eSty0asshe was aaInnch pleased
sw1hStaeeSiidsspt AI bgsathss
eIoNasgsl1is9aaS pladthactedtt
Nhe n eaAnnss1A as;s