The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-12
CHAPTER xxx.
Education by Correspondence.

EuucaIlOn bN correspondence.
 Valley Manse, November 16th. Dear Mir. Norris
 The letter which you were so thoughtful as to address to me gave my father and all of us much pleasure. We are glad to hear of your safe ar rival in Spain, and my father charges me to thank you for the money sent to his poor folks whom he finds all too numerous at the beginning of winter. He appreciates highly the mistakes and Scriptural interpretations in your letter. Indeed, I have rarely seen him in such high spirits of late. Please write again.
 He advises a sound course of Bible reading to you; and, if you have not copy by you, my father has friend in the Bible Society's distribution work at Madrid, who will send you one, "earriage paid But he wishes me to add that ignorance of the origi- nal languages will seriously handicap you in your researches-in which case he professes himself very much at your service.
 This, I have already pointed out, is not genuine Protestant doctrine. but it is what my father says. and 1 have faithfully reported 1t to you. You complain, dear MT. Morris, of the lack of conversation in Spain. and yearn, you say. for mine. The lack of it cer- tainly did not seem to trouble you while here. But, since you cannot see my plain face perhaps we shall get on all the better because of the inter Yening distance, you and I.
 At least we shall try-upon condi- tions Foreign paper is cheap. I can use fathers ink, and my handwriting carefully restrained, will look as well on paper as another er's-fathe er's. for in- stance, I mean. Then the charge is one shilling per sheet, which, if you find the article supplied worth the money, you will kindly remit-no more, no less-to be used for the benefit of my poor-gloves!
 Well, Kirktown is KirlStown again. The storm has passed over. The com pany has not yet turned out the widows. No. is standing full of wa ter, and they say it will be four or five months before the poor fellows in the east workings are got out.
 Phil Calmont is proving the truth of your instructions. He has defied Kahn on two occasions-but he had they say, Grinding and MT. Romer be- hind him. He visits all the pits every day and the new exits in No. l, No. 8, the Carron, and the Long Dock are all being finished according to your plans. Father told me this. He is writing his sermon or Che says) he would write to you himself.
 ''Id est. He would mean to- but he would never really do it-writing is a pain to him. No so to me so to be just have taken enough out of his Poor drawer to pay the postage of this to you. If you do not consider me poor or If, appreciating the value of my s-af ff,v, you are not prepared to refund the postage of my letters to you-please tell me. and I will hereafter forever be silent But the present f1vepence (5d) you will never recover-never, never, neverl Not even by an action of law! So there!
 ''Raif has gone off to college and taken his terrier-named after you with him. The youngsters, Ali, Tim, and Violet, fight most of the time, and poster me the rest. If I were Niobe, and had lost my family, I should not be all tears. No. MT. Morris, I should well, it is no use saying what I should do--for are not they all three beneath the window. yelling like young hyenas, and my father at his sermon! He will be calling out to know what l mean by it in a moment. Could you not export a good 'empoisoned dagger or bowl of poppy or mandrago gora, warranted to bring about enduring peace in a Christian home, without causing awkward police interference?l
 "Yet, I should miss them, too. For I cannot be all the time conversing upon paper with you-and they do not have to go two thousand miles off in order to remember the color of my eyes I am, dear sir. your obedient servant, JANET FOWLER.
 "To Ludovic Marris, Esq"
 Such was Miss Fowler's first letter. Simple fooling, I daresay, and very forward and uncalled for. But, then, Vie Morris had been looking for the coming of that letter long while. And every time one like 1t did come something swan across the heavens, bluer than the blue. It, was not Vida's swarthy, glowing face of falcon blood, with dark flashing eyes, that he thought of. But, on the contrary, he saw eyes mild and sweet and dream ing-the sole feature, except her wavy hair. which Janet Fowler had received by ordinary generation from her hand some father.
 The hard sky of South Spain a sky which had not known rain for months. arched over the brown hills and tawny-russet rocks of Rio. The mail came up on the little English built railway, with the spiky agaves and Figs of the Moor" growing be- tween the rails. Every morning Vic Morris went over to the office to get his letters. They were purely on bus mess. and sitting down at a desk he had them answered In a quarter of an hour.
 It was with a kind of joy that he had left the Hotel Colon and the port of Huelva, to put himself again at work But after a week or two the barren wilderness of Rio Tinto and the high-set nestling towns, nicked and pinnacled among the sierras, palled upon him. At the works all was going we'll. save that he had had one first class TOW" with his home directors. This occupied him In the absence of an answer from Janet Fowler.
 The matter was this. There was a mode of smelting which consisted in sprinkling the ore at a particular state with salt and water-nothing more and nothing less. The discovery was supposed to improve the quality of the product. Vic proposed to do with out this. According to him the salt only retarded the action. But, then, a certain director was paid percent age on each ton manufactured by this meana Naturally, the director ob- tected. and Vic had his battle to fight against vested interests. He was for hidden to dispense with it-entirely.
 He solved it by sprinkling salt and-water over one ton per week, and allowing the director to collect what was due to him on this moderate out put.
 It chanced that upon another Satur- day. a month after. Vic Morris, pressed
 by the needs of society and the de- s;ra for a change took the coast train
 Ccata dnct Th air