The Ekalaka eagle. [volume] (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920, 1913-12-19
A Letter From England.

O~~@ 1855
Percival-had been a resident
in the island for four or five
years. Perhaps, when he ar
rived he had entertained hopes Of
introducing energy and activity of
mind and body into the lazy colony.
All such hopes, if any existed, We're
pow gone. In person he was shorter
than most; he made up for that by
being broader than most, and was al
most a Frenchman in his admiration
Of all pretty women
There vas n other guest whom one
should notice among all the rest. 1t
vas the padre.
He was young, quite young, and en-
thusiastic. When he left oxford to be
ordained a bishops chaplain for Pal
miste, he thought he was coming to a
place which was crying aloud for the
guidance of the church. He dreamed
Of IN obedient and docile flock, pat
emily awaiting instruction. He would
instruct them; he would guide them.
AS they came out upon the veranda
of the pavilion one by one they began
to dispense. The assistant colonial
secretary, observing the remarkable
neatness of the padres dress, the
length Of his skirts and the glossiness
Of his trousers, proposed to take him
for a pleasant walk among the hills.
They set off together. Those who saw
them start reported an ominous twin
kle in the secretary's eyes and a cour-
tesy in his demeanOr not always re-
markable in his treatment of the cloth.
When they returned, about 8 o'clock,
the padres long 0 in ribbons and
his glossy trousers held together by
pins and bits Of string, they reelem-
bered that twinkle, though the cecre-
tary now takes blame to himself and
says that he ought to have taken
thought Of the Chinese raspberries and
other thorny underwoods on tina hill
side. He may be very sorry, but his
impersonation of the padre in a thorny
thicket caught by the skirts is funny
and has been known to make even the
bishop laugh. AS for the professor, he
went into the garden and cut a pine
apple and found a shady place to eat
1t in. Then he returned to the pavil-
ion and threw himself into the ham,
mock, there to read a French novel,
which the pink boy thought was a
learned treatise and therefore would
not interrupt. Sandy McAndrew took
a gun and went to take pot shots at
the bo's'n birds in the rav1ne. His
partner, with an eye to business, bor-
rowed an umbrella and went to in
spect the canes. And the pink boy,
left alone because NJ n invited him
to join his party, ventured timidly
to the veranda of the house in hopes
of finding Miss Ferrier alone. She was
not there, but the squire was, and they
went for a walk together.
The Hon. Guy Talbot Ferrier was in
his twenty-eighth year. he was at
drst sight a singularly handsome
young man, whose features were reg
ular. figure tall and upright and eyes
Of a solt dar--. blue. 1t was his ex-
preston which spoiled him.
V~irtuous resolution and high moral
principle are not always necessary
qualifications for making a young man
popular. There We're many men much
beloved in Terriers regiment who We're
not im%placably virtuous. Yet Ferrier
himself was a man with no friends.
Many reasons might be assigned to ex-
plain this fact. One will be sufficient
the young man not only thought of no
one but himself. but did not pretend to
think about anybody.
Now, the man who desires not be-
fore all other things, but to the exclu-
sion of all other things, his own per
sonal qualification is always in the
long run. If it IN in his way, main
ly attracted by gambling.
Ferrier would have played all day.
He was ready to play all night. The
result so far was a quagmire of debts.
The house of Terrier had never been
rich. Lord Ferrier was not rich as a
country gentleman. AS a peer he was
certainly poor.
This morning he awoke raspy in his
temper, as often happens when men
sit up till 9 in the morning to play
ecarte and drink too much soda and
brandy. And he remembered that the
major had taken another I o U from
him when they parted.