Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-03
COPYRIGHT. lssa ~
Bran Stoker.
ENIrREp At 'srATIoNERs HALF. r.
ALL RIGHTS REseRvgn

and Harold had become his own man
again. Norman said
to me. You know. my. dear boy. that
am your fathers oldest. friend, and right
sure am that he would approve of what
say. You must come home with me to
live. know that in his last hours the
great concern of your dear fathers heart
would have been for the future of his
boy. And I know, too. that II was
comfort to him to feel that you and are
such friends. and that the son OF my
dearest old friend would be as son To
me. We have been friends. you and I.
long time. Harold. and We have learned
to trust and. I hope. to love one another.
And you and my little Stephen are such
friends already that your coming into the
house will he joy to us all. Why. long
ago. two or three years ago when first
you came. she said to me the night YOU
went away: Daddy. wouldn't 1t he nice
II Harold could come here altogether"
The remembrance of those pleasant days
came back to Harold so strongly. and
with them SO keen a sense of his great
loss, that his grief broke out afresh. The
other was patient with him: he under
stood. When the second burst of grief
was over he went on:
.And 1t will be great comfort to me
to have you with me. After all. Stephen
10 only a little girl. and you will be her
big brother and look after her and keep
her from harm. And you have been
educated SO we'll that you can help her
with her lessons. We two. my girl and I.
shall. I know. be happy. and I hope you
will also be when time has dulled a little
the edge Of your grief. Don't ever be
afraid to cry. my dear boy. now or here
after. when you think OF that good, good
man.
And so Harold An Wolf came back with
the squire to Normanstand, and from that
day on became a member OF his house
Sfanhan'S
at his coming was. of course. largely
qualified by her sympathy with his grief:
but 1t would have been hard to give him
more comfort than she did i'm her own
kissed him. and holding his big hand in
both Of her little ones. she whispered.
softly:
Poor Harold. You and I should love
each other. for we have both lost our
mother. And now you have lost your
father. But you must let my dear daddy
be yours. too!'
At this time Harold was between four
teen and fifteen years old. He was we'll
educated In so far as private teaching
went. His father had devoted much care
to him. 30 that he was well grounded in
all the academic branches Of learning. In
this was included logic, in which his
father had firm belief. thinking-and
thinking rightly-that was the base of the
organization and correctness of thought.
most Of the manly exercises. He could
ride anything, shoot straight. fence, run.
jump or swim with any boy more than
his age and size.
In Normanstand his education was con-
tinued by the rector. The squire used
often to take him with him when he went
to ride. or fish, or shoot; frankly telling
him that as his daughter was. as yet,
too young to be his companion in these
matters, he would act as her locum
H. T. IL
helping as he did I'm Stephens studies
made familiarity perpetual. He was just
enough her senior to command her child
ish obedience: for I'm young days real
obedience is that which is given willing
ly, and not either as a matter Of course
given. not to the older generation, but to
the older members Of the new. There
were certain qualities in -Harold's nature
which were eminently calculated to win
and keep the respect of women well a
Of men. He was the very incarnation OF
sincerity. and had now and again, in GER
tain ways, a sublime self-negation which.
at times. seemed in startling contrast to
manifestly militant nature. BY a sort
of unconscious chivalry he was generally
Harold's father had been very proud OF
his ancestry, which was Gothic through
the Dutch. as the manifestly corrupted
prefix OF the original name implied, and
u
of the sagas something OF the philosophy
which all unconscious to themselves lay
behind the ideas of the Vikings. For a
parson. DR.. An Wolf held particularly
militant ideas; 1t was with personal feel
ing that he used to say to his son:
There never was, my boy. such phil
osophy making for victory as that held
by our Vikings. 1t taught that whoever
was never wounded was never happy. 1t
was not enough to be victorious. The
u
that complete immunity was impossible.
Look at the result! A handful of them
from the bays and creeks of the far
northern seas would conquer cities and
whole lines of coast. Why. their strength.
and endurance and resolution. perfected
by their life of constant hardihood and
stress. became so ingrained in their race.
that to this day. thousand years after
they themselves have passed away, their
have some OF their fine quail
tiles Go where you will throughout this
or any seaboard Of Europe. and
you will find that where the old type re-
mains they dominate their fellows Az,
even where the passing of centuries has
diluted their blood with that of weaker
races. Fight. my boy. fight! Look at
that hecatomb of skulls in the crypt at
Hythe and see the wounds all in front:
better still. see the cicatrices of the old
wounds. Clean cuts they are, each of
which looks as il made with a pickax.
strength and endurance and resolution
of this mighty race Let your cause he
ever just one, and you need never lack
such while sin and crime and wicked
ness and weakness and shame are in the
world. Then fight, fight against any oddss
If you go down. you go down In truth and
honor! And the battle of truth and honor
Is Gods battler'
Naturally the normal playtime of Ste
phen became somewhat different after
the coming of Harold. The compensa-
ton to the little girl. who studied more
under his assistance, was
that she was to play more vigorously
under 1T also. Together they rode dis
tances long for her. They had walks
the woods and over the wods.
and when now and again she was over
tired. the boys strong back was avail
able for her help. The cricket field took
new and more definite organization. And
the many pets, fish. flesh and fowl. were
Inspected from headquarters with regu-
larity hitherto unknown. Stephen was
beginning to learn the real lesson of her
life. and her father watched with secret
delight to see growing I'm her mind more
and more of that constant regularity OF
intention which makes the mental atti-
tude Of man. 1t really seemed to him
that his old hope regarding a son was
now taking a practical shape. To Harold
when once the shock of his great sorrow
began to lift and the natural residence
Of youth to manifest itself. His blind
alteration Of the beautiful child became
In reality intensified: but inasmuch 1t
was now brought into daily use. and as
the human littlenesses began to point out
to him that his divinity was after all but