Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1914-02-25

month; why should he go at all?-
Colonel Hampton asked. II he were to
be only year or two in Virginia, why
trouble to set up housekeeping alone
in that big house, when Roanoke house
was here and in order, and only too
glad to keep him. So Francois for a
week or two stayed And found him.
self. shortly. notability. Harry Hamp-
ton. his boyish ambition for adventure
and daring denied every personal out
let, because of that accident in baby.
hood which had started him in life
hopelessly lame, was as proud of his
salvage from the Austrian bird of
prey as II Francois record had been
his own. Much more frankly proud, for
he could talk abcIt it, and did. Alike
had told him a great deal. and the
episode of the headlong rescue of
Prince Louis Napoleon, the capture
and impri comment and final theatrical
escape went like wild-fire about the
couD tryside. and stirred all the ro-
nance of the warm.blooded southern
ers. Every house wanted the hero to
break bread, and under young Harry's
proud wing Francois went gladly to
meet all these friends of his Trend
As the general had said years ago,
his simplicity struck the finest note
of sophisticated high breeding; more
over, he had lived with high-bred
people in more than one country: the
aristocrats of Virginia were delighted
with his young nobleman. as they
thought him-with his charm of man.
ner and his stirring history. with the
lines OF suffering stil in his thin face
and the broad lock or gray--the badge
or that suffertng-in his dark hair:
with the quaint foreign accent too, and
the unexpectedness in the turns of
his rapidly increasing English.
And now he had left Roanoke. and
was living in the great old house on
Pietro's land. the old house which had
been lived in a hundred years before
Pietro's father had bought it, the old
house in which grandchildren of Pie
tro live today.
Something in his odd broken Eng.
fish. something in his vivacity and en-.
ergy, something in the warmth of the
heart which the poor souls felt in
him-none quicker than negroes to
feel n heart-fascinated the slaves
who fell to his unaccustomed manage
ment He had met Henry Clay and
the proud aristocrats of Virginia as
men and women. and given them the
best of himself: he met these thick
Tipped. dim-souled black people no
otherwise, and gave them the same.
by the crystal truth in him the first
had been vanquished and 1t happened
not differently with these other human
beings. Pietros mlshandled property
grew orderly month by month; Fran.
co.'s, In the saddle most of the time.
riding from end to end of the planta-
ton, found his hands fun and his work
interesting, and his health and
strength coming back-though that
was a slower progress.
The people who do most are likely
to be the people who can do thing
more Young Henry Hampton. ruled
out OF the larger part of his natural
pleasures by that stern bylaw OF ma
turo, which had made him lame, ap-
pealed TO Francois sympathy every
day more deeply. The one thing
which the lad could do was riding.
Henry" Francois spoke. as the two
troued together down a shady lane OF
the plantation on the way 10 the far
fields where negroes worked Ia the
autumn sunlight. what would you
think Of organizing & mounted troop
o. militia?"
The boys face famed with excite
meut What would he think Of it? Hs
would think it glorious. wonderful,
half dozen big adjeeuves,
There were many young men in the !
neighborhood; all Of them rode: none
Of them had enough 10 do: Francois
had hold on them-a man may not
spend Eve years in a dungeon because
OK dashlne mad act OF bravery with |