The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-09-25
ON BEAvERKILL'S BANKS.

Eevoort also belonged to an old New
York family, and here again the name
speaks for itself. Georges branch of
the Schuyler family was poor. Helen's
branch of the Ganzevoort family was
The parents of both these young peo-
pie had been the staunchest kind OF
friends since they had ben old enough
to know what friendship meant ana
friends had the ancestors been for gen
erations back to the time of the stump
legged Peter George Schuyler was
five years older than Helen Ganzevoort
There was enough of the Dutcn iuea
left in George to make him dutiIu ll
son as there was enough OF the same
Dutch in Helen to make her dutlfui
daughter George Schuyler had been
brought W to believe that one day ne
must marry Helen Ganzevoort and
Helen Ganzevoort had been brought up
to believe that one day she must marry
George Schuyler
The Schuylers were not rich, as has
been said. and when George was 16
instead of being sent to college he was
shipped west to see if he could pick UP
q fortune Helen was at that time II
years old, and she did not feel keenly at
all the parting with her prospective
husband and it must be confessed that
George didn't shed many tears wher.
he said goodbye to this plain little
girl with her hair in pigtails.
George Schuyler went to San Fran
cisco, and there in the course Of nine
years he did manage to pick up what
the farmer calls tidy bit Of money"
George went east twice during his San
Francisco stay, but both times Helen
Ganzevoort was abroad. They wrote to
each other once every three months.
and while there wasn't a line of affec-
ton in the letters on either side, there
was enough in them to show that each
'elt that the old marriage arrange
nent made by the parents still stood.
George Schuyler was 25 years old. HIS
income now was large enough to jus
tify him in marrying, and in. FEELING
that he wouldn't have to go to the
bureau drawer every morning to find
back to take a bride that he hadn't seen
in nine years, and it's Just barely pos
sible that he didn't feel overly COM
Portable at the prospect. AS a matter
of fact, George Schuyler liked bachelor
hood No woman ever as yet had
stirred his pulse. His gun and his rod
were more to him than all the women
in the world. But George had been
getting letters from his aged parents.
who said that it was time he came east
and went to wooing in earnest he
but that on his way he was to stop for
a few days fishing with an old friend
on the Beaverkill. that ideal trout
stream which tumbles down the south
ern slope of the CatskillS on Its way
to the Delaware.
George Schuyler took his fly book and
his split bamboo rod on the first morn
Ing after his arrival at his friends will
the stream for speckled beauties. He
was in wading boots hip high and
down the stream he went, dropping his
coachman'' lure on the surface of every
pool where 1t looked as though trout
might Turk.
Luck was only fair and the sun was
getting high. Trout don't like the glare
of the midday sun, and they keep
away from the surface. no matter how
tempting the morsel offered for con-
sumption. George Schuyler was think
Ing about reeling in and going back to
the lodge, when suddenly at a place
where the Beaverkill broadened he saw
country girl, in calico dress and
sunbonnet, sitting at the waters edge.
She was listening to the song of
brown thrasher that, fitting on low
tree top, was pouring forth his medley
for the benefit of his sunbonneted
friend.
George Schuyler stopped in mid
stream. He did not wish to disturb the
birds solo, upon which the listening
girl seemed SO intent. He stopped. but
slipped on round stone and solashed
the water. which was calm and still just
there. The thrasher went into the
thicket ike flash and the girl turned
her head just as quickly. George
Schuyler saw a face under the shadow
of the huge country bonnet that was
much more than pretty and which had
In 1t that which men rightly call char
acter- Georges fisherman's cap was off
in an instant. Good mornings" are
allowable in the wilderness without the
Iormai1ty OF an introduction.
I am just about to stop fishing and
go back to TIE lodge Of my friend, Mr.
Payson- Can you tell me if there is a
shorter oath than the stream itself?"
The girl nodded brightly. Yes she
said, you can take the trail through
the tamaracks. 1t begins just here.
Then the girl turned her attention once
more to the brown thrasher, who gave
symptoms of being willing to start his
solo again.
Schuyler thanked the girl courteously
and after reeling in his line started
along the trail indicated. When he
reached his friend James Payson's lodge
the first thing he said was: Jim in the
name of all that's lovely. who is your
sunbonneted neighbor with voice like
a bubbling spring and eyes like those of
the girls in old Herricks poems?"
Jim Payson laughed. You must have
run across old Cheney's daughter. He
has four or five hundred rocky acres
with a little house on them Mary is
his only daughter, and he put her
through Vassar and made quite the
lady of her She is a beauty and ITO
mistake. Hit you first time, Ell, old
rnan?'
Schuyler colored a little and said:
Well not exactly hit. Jim. must not
tive and no mistake"
That evening Jim Payson asked his
guest If ne wouldn't like to go over and
call on old Cheney. There was no hesi-
fancy in falling in with the proposal.
They found old Cheney on the porch
smoking his pipe. He was a white
haired old fellow of the farmer TYNE.
and while he admitted it was hard
Wrlng1ng crops from the stony Catski1l
slope, yet he said he wouldn't Give nm
bis mountain side with its air and its
scenery for the best valley land on the
continent Then George Schuyler met
Mary Cheney James Payson did the
Introducing. Schuyler found this morn-
tam flower all that he had expected
from the glimpse that he had caught of
us beauty in the morning The girl
was refinement itself, and as SCHUYLER
looked at the old fellow sitting in the
'Pofch corner putting contentedly at his
corneop pipe he wondered how this slim
could have come from such a narent
E-on. p~A az
Well, it's better to make If short
George Schuyler stayed a week and
then iinrered for two more He xxrota
to New York that he was enfoyine tfss.
fishing So he was for about an bo,,y.
every morning. One day he braneht
Iinse1 uD with a round turn He
thought of his duty to Helen CAME
Voo--.
He knew in his heart that he loved
TINS girl of the mountain side who had
voice like one of the veeries that sang
every day at sunset
Ihat nIght he went to Mary Cheney
ana toio her ALL He knew somehow
that the girl had grown to love him as
he had grown to love her They stood
On the porch looking down onto the far
OH valley. 1t was twilight and tba