New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-06-08

took her away.
She gave him warm little smile Of farewell as she
vanished from the doorway.
TT was bare twenty minutes since John Stanteld had
come into that a commonsenSe, matter-oi-lact
Young American enjoying his first real hohday ms hrsJ
independence If he trampng about these cornish
hills on foot instead Of viewing them superclhously
from an upholstered motOrCar II was because MS youth
and strength and fine lean hardness liked something
hard 20 do-hked the eXerton and the zeSt OF scrai
bling up these thnclad granite hills with pack on MS
back: liked the freedom 70 leave the road TO lose him.
self in the lanes to find lodging for the night Wherever
the whim seized him.
The fondness for freedom, for adventure, for hard
work, was an honest inheritance. His father had been
a New Englander but in 1899, when Oklahoma Tern
torv was opened for settlement he went out there with
the Young English wife whom he had married only few
How these two had met, John didn't know. Indeed,
he knew very little about either OF his parents lie
knew his father had died and that his mother When ne
was still very Young had brought him back to England,
to her fathers home in this very Cornish village where
he had arrived on foot that morning.
Neither his grandfather nor his mother had sur
vived long after their return. The home had been
broken up There was a year in private school under
the nominal supervision Of various distant relatives
whom he didn't remember and was glad to forget and
then an offer by letter, from Charles Harding,
man who had been friend and nelghbor OF his iather
during his brief and tragic life in Oklahoma:
The land his father had taken up, which the widow
had abandoned on his death had turned out valuable.
The friend had paid the taxes on 1t, had himself pros
pered largely, and now offered TO adopt the boy
So ohn, then eight years old, had been put on
steamer in the Captains care with his ticket bought
through to Oklahoma City, where his new guardian
awaited him. From that point on, his lie had been
typical of the progressive prosperous, democratic
Southwest He and his new father-tor that was the
relation in sentiment well as in law, that soon estab-
lishcd itself between them-saw a village grow INTO
city on the very site where Charles Harding and Henry
Stanicd had made their settlement IN the wilderness
The boy grew up TO his own maturity IN an atiroS-
pherc of social growth and progress and prosperity ta
has been uncxamplcl in this part OF the word
new banks new schools railroads. and, TO add
final dramatic touch TO the picture, the striking OF OIL
The result was that when Charles Harding had died
only few months before his adopted son was lett nc
man-rich too in a good deal more than oil wells and
bank stock and ranches and real estate holdings III
hourishing city. He rich in the self reliance the
knowledge Of men. the capacity for hard work, that
the life he had lived will develop in man provided he IS
lucky enough 10 be born with the germ OF It.
one thing ne had been deprived ot,-thc easier SIDE OF
life the making fine art Of play, the cultivation Of
companonship for It's own sake, above all me society
Of women, were things his reading had gwen HIM a sec
ond-hand intimation Of, but his personal experience
almost nothing. II a consciousness OF tins lack
and he regarded it lack and not as merit that
led him 10 decide upon holiday, when the business
connected with settling up his adopted father estate
left him at liberty. But it was CHARACTERISTIC OF INN
that instead If going straight 10 Paris and setting HIM
self up at the Bristol the Ritz he went to plymouth
put on a suit Of knickcrboctcrs, and set out on loot
across the Devon and Cornish to the village that
had been his mothers home.
THAT was the whole Of his story up to twenty min
utcs ago II anyone had asked him Just before he
came into that room with his black pipe in his teeth
the red mirc Of the lanes halfway up TO his knees the
wet Of that mornings shower dripping from his tweed
coat whether his holiday had turned out 50 tar com
plc,cy according TO his hopes he'd have sad sturdiy
YES II was good % be alone, free from responsibility,
under no human obligation 20 anybody Tie wasn't
homcs.k nor lonely; there wasn't any secret VOID IN
81 f Z it4f J.. f..f .t ..fr f