The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-10

! pOrtunity for added reputation.
For number of years the kind
+ hearted little professor looked stead
+ tasty out Of the window during ex-
aminations in geology. and turned a
I resolute deaf ear 10 the Tustling of
/ leaves as the despairing student man
I ipuatcd q cleverly concealed volume.
/ For NUM- Der OF years he came home
/ Al four o'clock in the afternoon, and
/ feverishly corrected blue books until
{ six. in order to ransom from profess
I sinnal duties the whole of the precious
/ evening. For a number OF years he
| consulted authorities in German and
| other difficult languages. and waxed
/ ever more enthusiastic over the new
| theory OF erosions. During the interim
I the bahy learned to walk and Prue's
/ belief in its father strengthened. IL
such 9 thing were possible. In time
( The professor and his wife grew to be
quite old. He looked every bit of his
+ thirty, ard she was an aged dowager
/ of twenty-five. Little Miss PTue was
/ Just two and a half.
/ one day, early in the spring. the pro-
/ fessor was called TO the door of his
4 classroom 10. receive telegram. He
I read it quietly, then dismissed his
/ class, and went home.
"Prue." said he to his wife my
father has just died. ] must go up
4
| left in the world. and It is not seemly
| that I should be from his side"
You can see from his manner OF
| speech that the professor had by now
read great many bookish books.
We will go together replied PT7le.
So they put away mortality in the
old Puritan fashion. standing wistful.
| but fearless. hand in hand. on the
| hither side of grief; for though in per-
| spective the figure OF the old New
/ Englander doomed with a certain
| gloomy and ascetic grandeur, in the
/ daily contact he had always held him.
self sternly and straitly in fear of God.
| For him the twin lamps of Science and
| Love han burned but darkly.
Adoniram Welch found himself sole
! heir Of few thousands and the old
/ home.
! on the way back to the college town.
| they planned the Western trip The
| professor was TO resign his chair at
/ once. He and Mrs. Prue and little Miss
/ Prue would travel by rail to Kansas
! or Iowa, there to Join one Of the wag-
| on-trains which now. in the hight of
| the first great gold excitement, con-
/ tinually braved savage warfare and
4 brute thirst 10 gain the dark shadows
/ OF the hills.
During the next three weeks Prue
VAS busy woman. The professor re-
/ signed, becoming thereby only the
/ doctor had an explanatory interview
/ with the president of the college, and
/ gave himself over TO a series of de-
/ lightful potterings. He pottered about
among his belongings. and personally
| superintended just how everything was
/ not slowed away. He pottered about
/ among the faculty, to the members of
| which ne talked Hysteriously with i'll
/ concealed eXultation. for the theory
| Was also secret. He lovingly packed
his books and papers and small por-
ton of his clothes, all of which Prue
had to hunt out and repack. Altogeth-
er, he had a delightful abssnt-minded
time. seeing in the actual world no
further than the end Of his nose. but
in the visionary world of his most
technical hopes far beyond the farthest
/ star.
But Prue had a New England VIII
| lage To answer: she had the family's
| belongings 10 take care of-nO great
/ task in itself: she had little Miss Prue
| 10 oversee. Grave men who were pro-
| fessors of astronomy. or Greek anti
| quities, or Hebrew. and who, there
fore. knew all about it. told her. in
/ language of whose correctness Addi-
son would have been proud. that the
aborigines of the American plains were
| blood chirsty in the extreme Fluttering
omen detailed anecdotes of sudden
death at the hands of Indians. One and
| all babe her good-by with the firm
| conviction, openly expressed, that she
/ would never return; upon which all
| whom weeping became wept while
others displayed their best handker-
chiefs as a sort of defiant substitute
| for more open emotion. Prue saw the
! little town fade into distance with
| mingled feelings. of which terror was
| the predominant, until her husband ex-
| planned TO her, by the aid of an airy
| little octave which he had stuffed into
an inadequate bag. that Prof. MIN
| combs theory of glacial action was
! not only false. but would be Conclu-
sively proved to be so by the new the
| DRY of erosion. At this she frightened.
| Prue owned TO a vague impression that
| glacial action had something to do
| with the North Pole, so the argument
per Sc had little weight with her But
Prue was New Highlander. and de-
vout in the New England fashion, and
she settled back on Divine Providence
with great thankfulness. She argued
that no scheme OF things could dis
pense ruthlessly with so wonderful an
| affair as the theory of erosions. There
| fore the scheme of things would take
| care of the only possessor of the the
! CRY. Indians lost their terrors. she and
| little Miss Prue fell asleep together
| leaving the doctor still porting excited
ly over the octave of Prof. Ninconh.
Their first serious difficulties were
/ encountered at Three Rivers. or
| course, in the circumstances. the mild
/ little doctor quite failed in his at
| tempts TO secure transporta ton How
should he. a scientist, know or care
anything about gold excitements? The
| hustle confused him, the crowd stun
Led him, the fierce self-reliance and
lack Of consideration of these rough
| men alarmed him.
He came back TO the board hotel
very much discouraged. There is not
| a conveyance of any sort to be found {"
he Informed Mrs. Prue, "and there Is
| great difficulty in estimating the pre-
| else duration of the present state Of
| affairs. 1t may continue into next sum
mer; or SO. at least, 1 was informed
| by very estimable person"
That was unbearable. Think of lit
tie Miss Prue being required. in the
third year of her diminutive life. to
face the heat of the plains in midsum-
mer. Think of the cost of living a
twelvemonth in such place as Three
Rivers! Prue put on her hat and went