Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1911-01-13

| lOSh uAuOllS lHc CSudTSt dHu IUF dHOln-
er, among all the wild creatures of the
| mountain, your moonshiner is the shy
est, being an anachronism in a world
of progress. One bit of news. however,
ioated in on the gossip at Little Zoar.
1t related that Mans mother was dead,
and that the body had lain two days
unburied while Ttke was drowning his
sorrow in sea of his own pine top"
| Vaguely it had been understood in
the Gordon household that Mr.. Dux-
| bury Farley was a widower with two
children: boy, some years older than
Thomas Jefferson, at school in New
England, and a girl younger, name and
place of sojourn unknown. The boy
was coming South for the long vaca-
ton, and the affairs of the Chiawassee
Coal and Iron-already reaching out
subterraneously toward the future re-
celVership-would call the first vice
| president North for the better portion
OF july Would Mrs. Martha take pity
on a motherless lad, whose health was
none OF the best, and open her home to
Vincent?
MRS. Martha would and did; not I'M
gruoglngly on the vice presidents ac-
count, but with many misgivings on
1homas Jefferson's. She was finding
the surcharged industrial atmosphere
OF the new era inimical at every point
10 the development of the spiritual pas
sion she mad striven to arouse in her
SON. TO paving the way for the realiz-
ing OF that ideal which had first taken
form when she had written Reverend
Ihotnas JEFFERSON Gordon" on the mar
gin OF the letter to her brother Silas.
AS II fell out, the worst happened
that could happen, considering the ap-
parent harmlessness of the exciting
cause. Vincent Farley proved to be IN
anem1c STRIPPING, cold, reserved, with
J no surface indications of moral deprav-
lty, and with at least veneer of good
breeding. But In Thomas Jefferson's
heart he planted the seed of discomfort
| with his surroundings, with the home
} ~ old house on the pike, unchanged as
yet by the rising tide of prosperity, and
more than all, with the prospect of be-
coming a chosen vessel.
! IL was of no use to bark back to the
revival and the heart qualking experi-
ences of year agone. Thomas Jeffer-
son tried, but all that seemed to belong
10 another world and another life.
what he craved now was to be like this
) envied and enviable son of good for
tune who wore his Sunday suit every
day, carried beautiful gold watch and
. was coolly and complacently at ease,
even with Major Dabney and foreign
: born and Travelled Ardea.
Later in the summer the envy died
down and Thomas Jefferson developed
pronounced case of hero-worship,
something to the disgust of the colder
hearted older boy 1t did not last very
long
scars; but before Thomas Jefferson
! was fully convalescent the subtle fiat
terry of his adulation warmed the sub
ject of it into something like compan-
ionship, and there were Dragging
stories of boarding school life and Of
the world at large to add fresh fuel TO
the fire of discomfort.
Though Thomas Jefferson did not
know it, his deliverance on that side
was Nigh 1t had been decided that
he was to be sent away to school. CHA
wassee Coal and Iron promising hand :
somely to warrant the expense; and
the decision hung only on the choice
of courses to be pursued.
Caleb had marked the growing hum
ger for technical knowledge in the boy.
and had secretly gloried in 1t. Here,
at least, was strong stream of his
own craftsmans blood flowing in the
veins of his son.
ut d be thousand pities to spoil a
good iron man and engineer to make a
poor preacher Martha" he objected:
this for the twentieth time, and when
the approach of autumn was forcing
the conclusion.
II know, Caleb; bou you don't under
| nd - xxyac fpxr ria u
You know that side of him, because
it's your side. But he is my son, too:
and-and, Caleb, the Lord has called
himi"
Hes only q little shaver yet. Let
him try the school in the city for a
year r SO, goin' and comm on the rail-
roads, nights and mornin's, like the
Majors granddaughter. After that, we
might ses.'
: Thomas Jefferson took his last after
noon for . rambls in the fields and
woods beyond the manor-house, in that
part Of the valley as yet unfurrowed
by the Industrial pillow. 1t was not the
] old love of the solitudes that called
r him; it was rather a sore-hearted de-
. sire to go apart and give place to all
the hard thoughts that were bubblinp
: and boiling within.
: A long circuit over the boundary hills
r brought him at length to the little glade
e with the pool in its center where hs
i had been fishing for perch on that day
d when Ardea and the great dog had
s come to make him backslide He won.
d dered If she had ever forgiven him
Q Most likely she had not. She never
e seemed to think him greatly worth
o while when they happened to meet.
# He was sitting on the overhanginl
l. bank, Just where he had sat that othe
8 day. when suddenly history repeated
h itself. There was rustling in TIL,
Is bushes; the Great Dane bounded out
10 thought not as before to stand men
Is acing; and when he turned his heat
le she was there near him.
g "Oh, it's you. is it?" she said, coolly
y. and then she called to the dog and mad
Is as If she would go away. But Thoma,
IN Jefferson's heart was full. and full
l. hearts are soft.
lie You needn't rum" he hazarded. s
oil reckon I amt going to bite YOU.
10 don't feel much like biting anybody To-
&c day. I'm going to be preacher"
Your" she said. with the frank AMI
OF unsympathetic surprise of childhood
10 Then pOliteness cana - tl =. x..a,.. : -