Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1910-10-21
CHAPTER TX.

For the first rev vacation days Tom
rose with the sun and lived with the
industries, marking all the later expan-
sive strides and sorrowing keenly hat
he had not been present to see them
taken In detail.
One morning he ran plump into
the Major. stalking grandly along the
tile-paved walk and smoking a war;
time cheroot of preposterous length.
The despot Of Paradise, despot now
only by the courtesy of the triumphant
genius of m%odernity, put on his eye
glasses and Stared Thomas into re-
spectful rigidity.
why, bless my soul!-if 1t isn't Cap
tain Gordon's boy! Well, well, you
young limb! If you didn't faveh youth
good fatheh in eve'y line and lineament
of youth face, 1 should neveh have
known you-you've grown so. Shake
hands. subj"
Tom did 1t awkwardly. 1t is a gift
to be able to shake hands easily; a
| gift withheld from most girls and all
boys up to the soulful age. But there
was worse to follow. Ardea was some-
| where on the peopled verandas. and the
| Major, more terrible In his hospitality
than he had ever appeared in the old
time rage-fits, dragged his hapless vic
tim up and down and around and about
in search of her. mot say 'Howdy' to
Ardea? Why. you young cub. where
are youth mannehs, subj" Thus the
Major, when the victim would have
broken away.
1t was a fiery trial for Tom-a way
picking among red-hot plowshares Of
embarrassment. How the well-bred
folk smiled, and the grand ladies drew
their immaculate skirts aside to make
passing-room for his dusty feet! How
one of them wondered, quite audibly,
where in the world Major Dabney had
unearthed that young native! TON
was conscious of every fleck of dust on
his clothes and shoes; of the skilless
knot In his necktie; Of the sc~hool-desk
droop in his shoulders; of the utter
superfluousness of his big hands.
And when, at the long last, Ardea
was discovered sitting beside a gor-
geously attired Queen of Sheba, who
also smiled and examined him minute.
ly through a pair Of eyeglasses fas'
tened on the end of a gold-mountei
stick, the place Of torment, wherever
and whatever 1t might be, held M
deeper pit for him. What he hat
climbed the mountain to find was
little girl in a school frock, who ha,
sat on the following grass with on
arm around the neck Of a great dog
looking fearlessly up at him and tell
ing him she was sorry he was goin,
away. What he had found was a yer.
staturesque little lady, clad in fluff,
summer white, with the other Ardea'
slate blue eyes and soft voice, to b
sure. but with no other reminder of tn
lost avatar.
From first to last, from the momen
she made room for him, dusty clothe
; and all, on the settee between hersel
, and the Queen Of Sheba, Tom was con
, scious of but one clearly define
i, thought-an overmastering desire
4 get away-to be free at any cost. Du
, the way Of escape would not disclos
: itself. SO he sat in stammering miser!
answering Ardea's questions about tn
sectarian school in bluntest monosyl
a tables, and hearing with his other e,
a terrible Major tell the Queen of She
> ba all about the railroad invasion, an
how he-Tom Gordon-had run to fin
: a. punk match to fire a cannon In tn
Dabney cause.
a He escaped finally from the entar
clements of Major Dabney's hospital
|. ity. On the way down the cliff pat
a the fire burned and the revival zeal wa
/. kindied anew. There had been time