The Mena weekly star., 1910-09-08
CHAPTER xxIII.
A oreat Purpoae.

A GFCot ruFRooOs
 Late springtime in old Virginia. The climate was not unlike that of the is- land during the cooler portions of the year, thought the man. standing on the
 porch of the high-pillared old brick house set upon hill overlooking the
 pale green waters of Hampton Roads, which stretched far eastward past Newport News and Old Point Com fort to the blue of the Chesapeake and far beyond that to the deeper blue of the ocean Back of him thousand leagues of land and more than thou sand leagues of sea intervened be- tween him and the object of his thoughts. Not for day, not for an hour, scarcely for moment even was that island out of his mind There was pleasure and pain in the recollec- ton of 1t.
 Upon the mans face stern mel
 ancholy had settled. Not the melan-
 choly of ineptitude and indifference. not the melancholy that made him do nothing, unmindful of the large issues of life in which he had been suddenly plunged, not ths melancholy that par aiyzed his activities, but the melan- choly that comes from the presence in the heart of an unplucked sorrow that neither time nor ohence nor occupation could uproot; a melancholy that came from the sense of bereavement ever growing more keen and more poig- nant as the period of bereavement heightened and which sprang from consciousness of imperfections and failures for which no after achieve ment could atone.
 It had not been difficult to establish ais rights. Whitaker and the chap tain, armed with tine dispositions, had taken the man across the continent when the ship had been put out of commission at San Francisco. and pre- sented him to his uncle, the Charnock In residence in that great house on the Nansemond shore overlooking that estuary of the James by Hampton Roads. The old man, childless and alone, had welcomed him gladly. The newcomer was of the Charnock blood. It was strange moment for the is- lander when they took him into the great drawing-room and showed him the pictures of his father and of his mother. He was the living image of the man. tempered with some of the mothers sweetness. This remarkable ikeness-indeed he was not unlike his uncle as well-coupied with the material proofs. the ring, the Bible. the evidence of the ship, together with what was known, removed every lin- rerina doubt from the minds of those most concerned.
 The family was reduced to those two. the uncle and the nephew. The old man formally and legally recog- nized the relationship and offered to transfer the property rightfully bis. which since the discovery of coal had increased enormously fin value. to the newcomer, but Charnock would have none of it then. He recognized his unfitness to deal with such things If the older man would retain it, he could give 1t to him at his death. Meanwhile he could teach and train him how to use it. Bereft of his one guide, his one inspiration in life. he would need wise counsel and careful leading indeed.
 In addition to the formal recogni- ton, the elder man legally adopted the younger and constituted him the heir to his own property which was almost as extensive and as valuable as that which rightly belonged to the nephew. And then these formalities being com pleted, the lieutenant-commander and the chaplain summoned elsewhere by their duties. bade the two farewell and left them.
 Charnock could not have fallen into better hands. Education was his first requirement. and he applied himself to it with fierce energy and grim determination which presently. from tho splendid foundation which had been laid enabled him to progress suf. ficiently to take his place and hold his own with men and women. It was