The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-10
THE WESTERNERS
BY STEWART EDWARD WHITE.
Copyrighted by Mcclure, Phillips & Co.
BY STEWART EDWARD WHITE.
CONTINUED From Last Sundays News)
CHAPTER III.
HE
Copyrighted by Mcclure, Phillips & Co.
THE MAN WHO STOOD "es. d"


been able 10 explain satisfactorily their
reasons for being SO easily persuaded,
o. their obstinacy in adhering to the
determination 50 suddenly made. Prue
Welch would have thanked a divine
providence for It. The doctor. her hus-
hand took il as quite in the natural
course Of events.
He was a queer man. the doctor. a
pathetic little figure in the worlds
progress-an outgrowth of it. in a GER
tain way OF thinking.
Born Of good old New England
stock. he spent his studious, hard
working boyhood on a farm. At six
teen he went TO the high school. where
he was adored by his teachers because
he stood ntnety-nine in algebra. In
consequently. but inevitably. this rem
dered him shy in the presence Of
girls and unwarrantably conscious Of
his hands and feet So when ne went
10 college. he spent much time in the
library, more in the Is boratory, and
none 1t all in the elemental little
chaos OF a world that can do so much
for the wearers OF queer clothes and
queerer habits Of thought. He grad
uated. a specialized grind, bowed Of
shoulder. straight of hair, earnest of
thought.
Much reading of abstract specula-
tion had developed in him a reverence
for the Impractical that amounted al
most 10 obsession. Given a bit OF use
less information and q chunk Of solid
wisdom. he would at once bestow his
preference on the former. provided, al
ways. i were theoretical enough He
knew the dips of strata from their pre-
MONETARY surface wiggles 10 their
final plUnges into unknown and heat
ed depths. He could deliver to YOU
cross section OF your pasture lot.
streaked like the wind-clOuds of early
winter: and he could explain II in the
most technical language. Nothing
roCk-ribbed and ancient esca ped him
in his frequent walks. He saw every
thing-except. perchance. the beauty
that clothes the rock-rfbbed and an
cient as a delicate auro. invisible 10
the eye Of science-and he labelled
what he saw. and ticketed it away in
the piEeon-holes of his many-oham-
bered mind. where he could put his
finger on il al any given moment in
the ea siest fashion in the world.
the Paleozoic has faulted and how; or
why the qualifications Of the ice age
do not show glacial scorings in GER
tain New England localities. To verify
IN regard 10 laminatiOn green volumes
Of obese proportions. or TO recognize
the projection into the geological ply
steal world of the thought OF a master.
this is fine. is noble: this makes TO
glow the kindly light in spectacled
blue ewes.
Adoniram WEIGH left college with
many honors. He returned to his lit
tie New England village, and for q
space was looked upon as a local cell
ebrity. This is a bad thing for most
yachts but Adoniram il affected not
al all Il awaited only TO draw upon
him. IN sweet contemplation. another
pair Of blue eyes. womanly. serious
blue eyes. under a tRngle OF curly gold
en- hair.
And 50. although Prue welch was a
homely man, and Prue Winterborne a
beautiful one. when AdOniram accept
ed the chair Of geology offered him by
his alma mater, the owner Of the blue
eyes went with him. and the new pro-
fessor's thick spectacles somehow
glowed with a kindly warmth. which
even fine specimens Of the finest fos-
sils had never been a bic to kindle. He
settled down into a little white house.
II little blOssomy yard under a
very big. motherly elm. and gave his
days 10 the earnest mental dissection
Of the cuticie of the globe. His wife
attacked the problem of life on six
hundred dollars year.
Now. from this state of affairs
sprang two results. The professor
evolved a theory, and Mrs. Professor,
although she did not in the least un-
derstand what IL was all about came
- ~ -, - -
slider il quite the most important af-
fair OF the age. The professor thought
so. too: and so they were happy and
united
The theory was tremendous affair.
having 10 do with nothing less than
the formation of our continent. II was
revolutionary in the extreme. but shed
such illumination in hitherto dark cor
ners Of this ard allied subjects that
its probability. prima facie, was prac-
tically assured. To Prue WeIch il
seemed 10 be quite so: but the inexor-
able eve Of science discerned breaks in
the chain of continuity. gaps in the
procession Of proofs, which. while not
OF vast importance in a specious ar
gument designed to furnish with pep
toDized intellectual pabulum the more
frivolOus-minded layman. nevertheless
SufHced TO destroy utterly its worth as
a serious hypothesis. These breaks.
the professor explained. could never be
filed except by actual field-work. The
proper field. he assured her, was the
country Of the Black Hills of South
Dakota. then as distant as the anti
podes. He proved this scientifically
Prue agreed. but did not understand
A number of years later she did I'M
derstand. from hearing Billy Knapp
joking with Alfred.
These var hills" said Billy. was
made last. The Lo'd had a little of
everything left when he'd finished the
rest, so he chucked II down on the
prairie. an called il the Black Hills -
However, the mere fact of her CON-
prehension mattersd not one iota. II
AdOniram said a thing was so. 10 Prue
its truth at once became age-old.
So it happened that the great theory
hung fire wofully. and the country OF
their dreams came to lie beyond the
frontier wilderness whose tide was
but just beginning to ebb back from
the pine woods of Wisconsin and the
oak openings of Illinois. This was
fnality. What lay beyond they did not
trouble 10 inquire The professors wife
believed, with beautiful trust, that a