Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-10-20
Chance or Fate =?
A Short Story.
BY LEDYARD BRYCE.

ments nearly or quite independent
of each other, or is 1t like q dis
u sected picture puzzle, whose queer
est concave contours have correspond
ingly queer convex contours to fit
them, making altogether perfect SYM
metrical whole?
This question has been variously an
swered by philosophers of ancient
times and theologians of the present
day. 1t is variously answered by our
selves at different periods. according
to the mood that governs us and the
circumstances that surround us.
So much by way of preface.
Once there was q man from Fall
River, who thought it q deep and
damnable sin to travel on Sunday. To
avoid committing this sin, he altered
his original plan of going to Chicou-
timi on the Saturday boat, and went
up on Thursday instead, so as to come
down the Saguenay on Friday, trans
act some necessary business at Quebec
on Saturday, and spend the Sabbath,
as he called it, at the hotel, where he
passed a restful, happy day in finding
fault with his food, sending his steak
back to be little more cooked so
many times that the little kitchen maid
from Beaufort lost her opportunity to
20 TO o'clock vespers, to the discom-
fort of her conscience and the disap-
"a
had come all the way from st. Anne to
escort her.
In Kankakee there lived a boy who
was passionately fond of two things,
mechanics and going to sea. The last
was purely theoretical taste. He had
never seen the sea, and only once (on
occasion of a Sunday-school excursion
to Rock Island) had he seen vessel of
any kind.
Our boy got chance in a machine
what is better, saved it. The white
winged vessels that SKINNED over the
waters Of Lake Superior revived his
dormant passion for adventure, and
when his vacation came he took trip
through the lakes and down the st.
Lawrence. He called it going TO sea.
But what can you expect from West
ern boy?
AT Quebec he met the Fall River man
In the office of the hotel. 1t was
Wednesday, and to a group of men he
was describing the voyage up the Sag
uenay that he meant to make the next
day, in manner as glowingly realistic
as If he had made it the day before.
When he paused for breath the group
had melted away, the boy alone re-
mained, his contemplative gray eyes
fixed upon the narrator.
What is the matter with my going,
too?" he said in his artless, boyish
fashion.
The Fall River man would be
charmed. And so the next day, good
and early" as the boy said they set
out together for Chicoutimi, the boy
asking countless questions, the man
framing elaborate answers. And each
was happy because he was doing the
thing he liked best to do.
For six years a quiet little Yankee
woman of Eastport, Me-, had been en-
gagged to an officer in her MajestyS
Navy whom she had met at n ball at
Halifax. At the time of this story
Lieutenant Crowninshield was on leave
go; his little fiancee was spending the
summer with an aunt at Caconna on
the lower st. Lawrence. A slight mis-
understanding had arisen between
them. The Lieutenant was piqued
when they parted
If they had seen each other the next
day, kind word, a tender glance
would have ended the trouble at once.
But letters are poor things; instead
Of bringing these lovers together. they
seemed to widen the breach. and after
time CrowninshielI realized that
heroic measures must be adopted or he
would lose his little love altogether.
3 Accordingly he smoked pipe of
cogtation, and then penned the follow.
ing:
Dearest Mary.-Why risk our happi
ness for trite? Let us drop the mat
ter. And to prevent its coming VI
again, let us be married at once, say
next week at Caconna. If you write
you will find fifty reasons for delay
So just telegraph one word, Come
If you want me. II do not hear from
you by Saturday. shall leave for Van
couver, where l shall apply TO be ex
changed into the North Pacific Squad
ron. Devotedly, JACK.
address, Hotel Corvette, Chicago"
"There," said he, folding the letter
anG knocking the ashes out of his pipe
az think that will produce the desiret
effect"