Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1914-04-18
CHAPTER XVII.
Once More at Home.

In fewer words, with less told, Fran
co.'s raightforwardness metamor-
phosed the angry lad Harry Hampton
into follower more devoted than he
had been even in the first flush of en-
thusiasm for his rescued prisoner.
Again the boy logged his footsteps
and adored him frankly. And Francois,
enchanted to be friends again with
his friend, wondered at the goodness
and generosity of the people of this
world. 1t is roughly true that one finds
life in general like a mirror; that if
one looks into it with a smile and a
cordial hand held out one meets smiles
and outstretched hands in return
Through all his days it had happened
so with this child of a French village.
So that when the day came at last
when he stood once more on the deck
of the Lovely Lucy, loaded with her
| cargo of tobacco for foreign ports,
| Francois felt as if he were leaving
home and family. The long green car
| pet of the rolling lawn of Roanoke was
| crowded with people come to tell him
good-by. All of his soldier boys were
there, the lads trained by him, one and
all ready to swear by him or to die for
| him. Lucy and Harry stood together,
and the servants were gathered to do
him honor, and people had ridden from
all over the county for the farewell
His eyes dimmed with tears of CRATE
| fulness, he watched them as the gang
plank was drawn up and the sails
caught the wind and the ship swung
slowly out into the stream.
Come back again-come back
again. they called from the shore.
Francois heard the deep tones of
| he 1od <fP6 nf no
groes and he knew that some there
could not speak, even as he could not.
So he waved his hat silently, and the
ship moved faster and the faces on
the lawn seemed smaller farther away,
and yet he heard those following
voices calling to him, more family:
Come back again-oh, come back
againI"
And with that the negroes had
broken into a melody, and the shir
moved on to the wild sweet music
Way Down Upon de S'wanee Ribber
the negroes sang, and the ship was at
the turn of the river. The stately walls
of Roanoke house, the green slope
crowded with figures of his friends
the sparkling water front-the current
had swept away all of the picture and
he could only hear that wailing music
of the negroes voices, lower, more fit
full; and now it was gone. He had left
Virginia; he was on his way to friends
And for all his joy of going, he was
heavy-hearted for the leaving.
The weeks went slowly at sea, but
after while he had landed, was in
France, was at Vicques. He had seer
his mother. with her hair whitened by
those years of his prison life-a happy
woman now, full of business and re
sponsibility, yet always with a rap
look in her face as of one who lived il
a deep inner quiet. He had talked Ions
talks with his prosperous father anC
slipped into his old place among hi.
brothers and sisters, utterly refusing
/ \ to be made a stranger or great man
5 And over and over again he had tolC
5 the story of his capture and the stor,
of his escape.
) AT the castle the returned wandere
e picked up no less the thread dropped
D so suddenly seven years before TIL,
4 general, to whom the boy seemed hi
boy risen from the dead, would hardl,
j let him from his sight; Alike kept hin
in tingling atmosphere of tenderness
I. and mockery and sisterly devotion
!. which thrilled him and chilled him an,
. made him blissful and wretched il
g turns. The puzzle or Alike was NOR
unreliable than the puzzle of tn
t sphinx to the three men who loved hel
t to her father and Francois and Pietrc
:, The general and Francois spoke of
guardedly, in few words, once in
long time, but Pietro never spoke
d Pietro was there often, yet more ofte
b away in London. where the exiled Ma;
:. zini, at the head OF ons wing of TIA