The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1901-12-26
CHAPTER |.

was a great sOlildIy Wnen was
young. / made it my pride to keep
aloof and suffice for my own entertain
ment, and i may say that had
neither friends nor acquaintEnced until
/ met that friend who became my
wife and the mother Of my children
With one man only I was on private
terms. This was r. Northmour, Esq
OF Garden Easter, in Scotland. We had
met at college, and though there was
not much liking between us nor even
much intimacy, we were so much of a
humor that we could associate with
ease to both. Misanthropes we believ-
ed ourselves to be, but | have thought
since that we were only sulky fellows
1t was scarcely a companionship, hut
a co-existence in uusociability. NCrth-
mour's exceptional violence of temper
made it no easy affair for him TO keep
the peace with any one but me; and as
he respected my silent ways and let me
come and go as j pleased, / could toll
crate his presence without concern. l
think we called each other friends.
When Northmour took his degree,
and l decided to leave the university
without one, he invited me on a long
visit to Graden Easter, and it was thus
that / first became acquainted with
the scene of my adventures. The man
sion house OF Graden stood in a bleak
stretch of country some three miles
from the shore Of the German ocean.
1t was as large as a barrack, and as it
had been built of soft stone liable to
consume in the eager air of the seaside
1t was damp and draughty within and
half ruinous without. 1t was impossi-
BILE for two men to lodge with comfort
in such dwelling
But there stood in the northern part
of the estate, in a wilderness of links
and blowing sandhills and between a
plantation and the sea, small pavilion
or Belvedere of modern design, which
was exactly suited to our wants, and in
this hermitage. speaking little, reading
much, and rarely associating except at
meals, Northmour and / spent four
tempestuous winter months. / might
have stayed longer, but one March
night there sprang up between us a
dispute which rendered my departure
necessary. Northmour spoke holly,
remember, and / suppose / must have
made some tart rejoinder.
He leaped from his chair and grap-
pied me; / had to fight, WITHOUT exag-
geration, for my life, and it WAS only
with great effort that mastered him,
for he was near as strong in body as
myself and seemed filled with the devil.
The next morning we met on our usual
terms, but judged it more delicate to
withdraw, nor did he attempt to dis
suade me.
1t was nine years before / revisited
the neighborhood. / travelled at that
time with a tilt cart. a tent, and a
cooking stove, tramping all day beside
the wagon and at night, whenever it
was possible, gypsying in a cove of the
hills or by the side of wood. / be-
lieve l visited in this manner most of
the wild and desolate regions both in
England and Scotland, and as had
neither friends nor relations I was
troubled with no correspondence, and
had nothing in the nature Of headquar-
ters, unless it was the Office of my So
licitors, from whom drew my income
twice year. 1t was a life in which /
delighted, and fully thought to have
grown old upon the march and at last
died in a ditch.
IL was my whole business to find des-
olate corners where / could camp with
out the fear of interruption, and hence
being in another part of the same shire
i bethought me suddenly of the Payil-
ion on the Links. No thoroughfare
passed within three miles of it. The
nearest town, and that was but a fisher
village. was at a distance OF six or
seven.
The pavilion stood or an even space;
a little behind it, the wood began in a
hedge of elders huddled together by
the wind; in front, few tumbled
sand hills stood between it and the sea-
An outcropping of rock had formed a
bastion for the sand, so that there was
here a pTomontory in the coast line
between two shallow bays; and just
beyond the tides, the rock again crop
ped out and formed an islet of small
Dimensions but strikingly designed.
The pavilion-it had been built by
the last proprietor, Northmours uncle
a silly and prodigal presented
little signs Of age. II was two stories
In height, Italian in design, surround
ed by patch of garden in which moth
ing had prospered but a few coarse
flowers, and locked, with it's suffered
windows, not like a house that had bef n
tenanted by man. Northmour W S
plainly from home; whether, as usual
sulking in the cabin of his yacht, or
!n one of his fitful and exrayagant APP
pearances in the world Of society, had,
OF course, no means OF guessing.
found den. or small hollow, whore
there was spring of pure water, and
there, clearing away the bramblas,
= n