The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-08-11
THE EVENING STORY
Done by a Canoe.
(By Donald Allenl


That's makes no difference. Your
mother is not running this family"
Isn't Mr.. Graham of good family %
He may be, but he doesn't own the
clothes he stands in, and as near as ]
can find out he's dawdler anG will
never amount to shucks."
But Mr.. Graham is an artist and is
making his way. He has already paint
ed and sold"
He has daubed paint onto canvas
and roped some idiot into buying il for
a landscape. Don't talk about it any
more. When it is time for you to fail
in love I'll take the case in hand and
see that it is with a proper young
man"
Judge Talbot was a brusque and
blunt husband and father He prided
himself on being practical. He hai
known in a general way that VIII Gra-
ham. the artist, had been calling at the
house far more frequently than any
other young man. and had had moth
ing to say about r. 1t was only when
Mrs. Talbot timidly wondered if Elsie
and Will were engaged that he sudden
ly sat up and roared out:
What What! Our Elsie engaged to
be married! What are you talking
aboutr'
But think-think-
And then the judge said he would see
about it, and the daughter was sent for
and told what was what, and sent
away with tears in her eyes and q
fact the father had made no inquiries
concerning the young man in the case.
Had he done so he would have learned
nothing to Graham's disadvantage.
On the day after the judges dictum
two young ladies paid a visit to VIII
Graham's studio. While one of them
wandered about looking at the pictures
on the wall, the other had something to
say that was strictly private. Ii was
a hard thing to say that the young
man had been forbidden the house, and
she got it over with as soon as posi-
BILE, to add:
''And you were telling me a few days
ago that you had a married sister liv-
ing down near Bayshore and that you
might spend a month there this sum
mer?''
Yes
well. papa has rented a cottage
Is that good news?"
But if I can't see your
"Oh. but you can. That is. you can
after awhile. That is"
THAT is what?"
''That is. if you save fathers life
Fathers are always grateful when their
lives have been saved. aren't they?'
And then Miss Elsie lowered her
story, and even if the other girl had
been listening with both ears, she
couldn't have caught a word.
Judge Talbot's sole reason for want
had suddenly got it into his head that
he wanted to paddle a canoe. Now,
the judge weighed two hundred pounds,
and he could not swim, but there is no
accounting for a mans fads- He had
been neither encouraged nor discour-
aged at home, but after that talk in the
studio Miss Elsie began to take fervid
interest in his fad. She went with him
to see canoes; she offered to get his
paddles hand painted; she held up
Island Sound in the dusk of evening in
search of Hiawatha. All this, but not
another word about, the artist. -
At last Judge Talbot and wife and
daughter were installed in their cottage
at the shore. A birch bark canoe rest
ed on the sands nearby. Will Graham,
too had taken up his abode at his
sisters half a, mile down the shore,
with a skiff drawn UP on the beach
ready for an emergency.
Judge Talbot never had known what
fear was until he had that canoe ready
to launch. He made ready five differ
ent times before he gave a trial, and
five different times his daughter hung
q white rag on bush as a signal. Then
the judge grew desperate. He ridicaled
himself and called himself a coward
and marched forth to do or die. He
took his practice cruise in the mouth Of
a creek. How he got from the canoe &c
the bottom of the creek he never could
explain, but the feat was accomplished.
1t was worked successfully three times
in one day. On the fourth trial he re-
manned in the canoe, much to his own
surprise.
Wherein the birch bark or any other
sort of canoe deceiVeS everybody but an
Indian is in giving the canoeist con-
fdence too soon. The judge reasoned.
like many another, that because the
little barkie had ceased to play circus
it had decided to be good, and he re-
fused to believe that an ambush had
J-ad 70, h
The sun was going down on the sec
ond day after the first capsize. when
he made ready to enjoy the pleasures
he had long anticipated. The swallows
were flying homeward-the whip-pocr-
wills putting in their best ticks, and the
spirits of dozen Indian maidens SEEM
ed to be lowering over the waters and !
bidding him come. AS he was getting
ready the white rag was hung on the
bush for the last time, and as he was |
gently pushed from shore by his daugh- |
ter's hands a long rakish craft took To |
the water half a mile below.
1t took the judge five minutes to as
certain whether he was frightened or |
exultant. It took him three more to
decide whether to use the paddle or /
wait for steam boat to come along and /
low him back to shore. He finally lift |
I'd the paddle and made a stroke One !
was sufficient. The canoe had been |
waiting for it. 1t turned bottom up like |
fash. and there were screams from
he shore. There were also shouts
rom the man in the rakish craft 1t
arrived just as the judges head ap-
1eared above the surface. He sputter-
ID and coughed and gasped. but he Was
lot to be cut down in his prime. A
hand reached r~-''- and clutched his l.
lair, and with the other hand using an
oar, the rescuer tOwed the victim to
he beach,
BY and by. when the canoeist could
ak he expressed his gratitude IL
words that came from a wet but Crate
ul heart. All at once he remembered |
o ask for the name of his preserver.
Miss Elsie took it upon herself to re-
by:
Father. this is Mr. Graham. tie
lrtist. Wasn't it splendid that he hap
,ened to be so near at hand?"
The judged turned and went into the