Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-01
THE PATHS OF PEACE.
PART iii.
CHAPTER I.
In Classic Shades,

In Classic Shades.
The soft haze OF Indian summer had re-
placed the glare, the sharp outlines. the
dazzling high lights OF the western land
scape. The lake lay still and flawless,
framed in mellow crimson. rich. rudy
browns and gold. Oak and maple. sumach
and sycamore mingled in the gorgeous bor-
dering of the silvery flood. On leaf and
vine and tendril the early frosts displayed
their filmy drapery late into each opening
day. The grasses bowed beneath their
weight of sparkling dew. The air was
thrill with e-exhilaration-vigor, and
deep laden with it's gift OF ozone. it's train
of forest odors. its faint fragrance of pun
gent smoke wreaths. The squirrels frisk-
ed and chartered in the branches overhead
The long-eared rabbits darted zig-zag
through the shrubbery. Out in the stub
BILE fields beyond the winding, suburban
wood roads Bob White was piping loud
and clear. while his shy, brown-breasted
mate led Joyously her pretty busting
brood. Aloft, saluted by hundred guns,
brave focks OF biue-winged teal, red-heads
and mallards; drove southwark IN the
slanting rays of the earliest sunshine, seek
ing distant, sedgy refuge for another night
Far and near. from clustering roofs and
scattered homesteads, from lofty taperlns
towers In low ground and cottage CHM
neys on the distant, haze-dimmed heights
smoke clouds scared on high with never
a breath of breeze to swerve them from
their zenith flight. The deep-toned bell
that chimed the hour Of six while yet the
day god dozed beneath the eastward wave
now tolled forth one single, solemn note to
mark the half. Church tower and city hail
among the distant buildings gave answer
ing, harsher clang. railway whistle from
far across the mist-wreathed waters shrilled
Its salutation to the waking town as the
long. unseen train. dull-roaring round some
rocky scarp, came whirling from the night
to meet the glory Of The newborn day, It's
o.
hour agone, now paiing It's inenectuai
fires In the face of natures all-pervading
headlight. Then. unaccustomed sound In
such surroundings, over among the wooded
heights above the tapping shore line. quick.
spirited and martial, bugle thrilled the
tune of the army reveille, and to the peak
Of a lance-like staff above the sparkling
foliage the stars and stripes, in miniature,
SCARED. f1uttering moment, then fell again
asleep and hung browsing in the pulseiess
air.
Here at the brink of the silent waters.
midway between the grove-covered blum
and the powered dwellings, on the edge of
town, a pathway, broad and level. followed
the curying strand; and suddenly, swirl
stepping round a rocky ledge, there came
into view single figure. a soldier, one
would say, even had there been no sign
of soldier dress about him. But this man
wore the jaunty kept of the cavalry: A
dark blue cape. or circular. muffied his form
from the shoulder well down to the thigh.
Below it. straight. sinewy legs In regula-
ton yellow-striped, snug-ftting trousers
strobe briskly on. Under the kept and above
the cape, mustached and thin, was face
we last saw among the sands; OF Arizona.
That was barely six months agone. This
was Fame, looking surely more than six
months older.
Strange th1ngs-lnany things-can come to
pass within a SixmOnth, and strange things,
MANY things, sad things, had come to pass
with Fame. AS feared, indeed. seif-pre-
dicted, the soldier father had been laid
away in the beautiful old cemetery at the
Point, without ever chance to gather his
boy to his heart, without ever having seen
that priceless medal of honor. AS feared
and predicted, there was even less than
the little life insurance for the mother and
for Clare, to whom both Jane and Pet had
resolutely and fondly surrendered their lit
tie share, sturdily saying they would never
need it. Jane had found teachers berth
in a western college, aided thereto by
trustee who in by-gone days had led regi-
ment in the fathers division. Pet had
given her hand and heart to a soldier, In
stead of the stock-broker favored by mann
ma. Glare, who had turned down, sup
posedly, so many swain, was now without
SO much as even an officer offer. She and
the Borrowing mother, with many back
ward glance ard rueful sigh, had looked
perhaps their last upon the revelry and
riches of Newport, New London and Maria
garsett Pier, and had meekly gone with
Rorald to a students boarding house in
that same western college town 1t was
the best that ne or they could DO
And even this. in large measure, they
owed to plain pragmatical Jane. The
Foundation was not wealthy; the fac
ulty was large; the salaries were dis
trihuted accordingly. 1t was one of the
co-educatonal Institutions then in their ex-
detrimental stage. 1t was a state inStitu-
ton, its faculty being in large measure de-
pendent upon and dominated by its board
of trustees, who, being politicians, as a
rule, We're in small measure and in turn
dominated by the student body. The gov
ernor of the state chose the trustees, the
trustees the faculty, and the sovereign stu
dent, hailing from every section of the
state, had no little voice, had indeed con-
siderable influence. in choosing all three.
fact the president of the board well knew
and over well considered. 1t was to this
far western seat of learning Jeanette
Fame, plain Jane Fame" as she persisted
In styling herself, had been summoned to
report the 18th Of September, and had gone
the 18th of August, to shake herself
Down" she said, and study her surround
ngs. AS a young girl, late In the war, when
the beloved soldier father lay wounded in
hospital after Nashville, she had met and
Known and been much admired by the silent
colonel of volunteers who so often limped in
on his crutches to ask for his general, to
salute his generals wife, and to see his
generals daughter. But the colonel thought
himself far palmer than the others thought
Jane. A square, straightforv ard business
man was he. and the generals wife knew
narght of western ways and secuted west
General" looked forward to the command
of tie army, and her lofty disdain had
been too much for him whom even Grant
declared typical volunteer soldier and a
model man. He used to write to his old
general sometimes after the war, which led
to Mrs. Generals pronouncing him push
Ing" Pushing he was In way that told
He pushed in his profession. He pushed In
politics He pushed and prospered In prop
erty and real estate He would gladly have
asked Jeanette Fame, fifteen years his
junior, to be his wife in '6S, but he couldn't
face the awful condescension OF the mother.
He married local heiress four years later,
and still he never lost his love for his aging
division commander. He was prominent as
a trustee of the State Co-educational Col
lege when the news reached him of that
veterans prpstration. Largely due, 1t Is
believed" said Jealous journalist, ITO dis
appointment in his only son. whose In
capacity as an officer was so strongly mani
tested in the recent campaign" That was
early in the year. and not an hour did the
colonel lose In rendering sympathy and aid.
1t was Jane who answered at her fathers