The Miller sun. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 190?-19??, 1907-04-06
The sans was composed of rascal. ..

who was almost as masterful as the &C
knowledged captain. The two Peters
quarreled, and there was q split in the
camp, when French Peter, to be avenged
on his enemy, fired a keg or two of gun
powder in the cavern, and brought down
an enormous slice of the cliff, completely
choking the cavern and making it unap-
proachabe from the sea. That ruined
English Peter and his faithful adherents;
and, his occupation being gone, he sold
the cottage to my father, who had then
lately married Susan Beamish, my grand
fathers only child.
My father was captain of a coaster.
He was wrecked soon after my birth, and
my mother, taking her loss 70 hear, died
year after, leaving the cottage and all
that she possessed to me by will. Just
then my great-grandfather came to grief
and got seven years Imprisonment, and
my grandfather, seeing that smuggling
was no longer a profitable vocation, re-
formed.
He had always hankered afte. a sneak
ing, safe, respectable way of living, and
being released from thraldom to his faith
er, he took possession of the Halfway
House, signed the pledge-several times
and undertook to bring Inc up in the
way l should go.
When my great-grandfather came out
of prison he was disguised with the
change in men and manners that had
taken place during his seclusion. The
day of smuggling was past He refused
to dwell in the Halfway House, declar-
ing that the smell of whitewash made
him sick. How he lived was a mystery.
He spent great part of his days and
nights in the alehouses for comfort in the
villages round and about; sometimes he
was to be seen sitting on a spar at the
end of the pier at BOnport sCowliHg out
at the sea, but regularly every month he
came over to the Halfway House and
stayed there for two days to 'let the boy
go out for a bit Of a vacation" as he
put it. And old Ben availed himself Of
this opportunity, going off to some village
where he was not well known. But why
they should never leave the house to-
gether was a fact that often perplexed
me.
And now, reaching the crest of Dead
mans Point l saw the square, one
stored cottage on the cliff, with the sea
bursting over the detached mass at it's
days.
To my surprise found the doors lock-
ed and the blinds drawn when l reached
the cottage. There was no response to
my knock, and l was beginning to think
that my grandfather for once had left the
cottage unguarded when the rattle of
piece of mortar on the tiles caused me to
lift my eyes, and l caught sight of my
grandfather peering through the half
opened shutter of the dormer window in
the roof.
I'm coming down, sonny" said he,
blandly, finding himself perceived, and
soon openSd the door to me.
He was a fair-skinned, apple-face old
man, with pleasant blue eyes. On the
table was a dish of smoking hot potatoes,
l did not then wait to consider why he
should make secret of eating his din
ner, but struck at once into a subject
| had come there to discuss. In a 3ew
hasty words l told him that I had left
The Chase for Ter and was going abroad.
He looked at NE in mute establishment
for a moment, and then, slapping his leg
gleefully, exclaimed:
What, you've done the trick and cut
your cable, sonny? Well, | didn't think
it was in you, that l didn't. What a
mortal pity father amt here This would
have been a treat for him. And him that
thinks so mean of you, too, that he al
ways spits when he hears your name
Give it me-" he said, stretching out his
hand for my portmanteau eagerly.
No" said l, Il can't stay. l must be
off at once"
a.,
me that, boy. Oh, if father was here
now, wouldn't he be all agog? Give it
me; I'll warrant I'll put it where no
one can find it."
NO shall take it with me-" said
holding on to the portmanteau, which he
would certainly have taken from me il
he could.
What" he exclaimed, going to run
your cargo in broad day."
II don't understand you at ALL"
well, if l didn't make sure you'd
bolted with the family plate" said he,
land had come here to get your old grand
father to keep it dark till you'd got out
of the way"
Il want money"
"You amt going to ask me rent for
this cottage, which your mother, if she'd
had any sense of respect and duty, would
have left to me, are you? Look here,
sonny, sent you to a good school and
kept you there till you were rising six
teen, and gave you a eddication fit for
lord mayor, so as you've been able to
move in the highest suckles as secretary
ever since, and I've reckoned it out that
the expense of that covers all ever re-
ceived as trustee for Susan"
I knew exectty how much money my
mother had left in addition to the house
and how much my grandfather had spent
on my education. There was still a bal
duo 70 he h.