The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1914-07-09

i r.
ted to join the circle one afternoon
when lot of them sat on deck smok-
ing and reading aloud. Nolan took the
book and read to the others, and he
read very we'll, as know. Nobody in
| the circle knew a line of the poem
only it was all magic and border chiv-
airy and was 10000 years ago. Poor
Nolan read steadily through the fifth
canto. stopped minute and drank
something and then began. without a
thought of what was coming:
''Breathes there the man with soul so
dead ~5 - .'..s
Who never to himself hath said,
" This is my own. my native land?'"
Then they all saw something was to
| pay, but he expected to get through,
suppose, turned a little pale. but
plunged on: .e
Whose heart hath ne'e within him burned
| AS home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on foreign strand?
IT such there breathe, go. mark him WELL"
By this time the men were all beside
themselves. wishing there was any
way to make him turn over two pages,
but he had not quite presence of mind
for that. He gagged a little. colored
crimson and staggered on:
For him no minstrel raptures swell.
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim.
Despite these titles. power and pelf,
| The wretch. concentrated all in SELF
And here the poor fellow choked. could
| not go on. but started up, swung the
book into the sea, vanished into bis
stateroom. land. by Jove," said Phil
lips, I'VE did not see him for two
| months again. And had to make up
some beggarly story to that English
surgeon why did not return his Wal
ter Scott to him. -
That story shows about the time
when Nolan's braggadocio must have
broken down. !. At first they said he
took very high tone, considered bis
imprisonment a mere farce. affected to
enjoy the voyage. and all that. but
Phillips said that after he came out of
his stateroom he never was the same
man again. He never read aloud
again unless it was the Bible or Shake
speare or something else he was sure
OF. he was always shy afterward
when | knew him-very seldom spoke
unless he was spoken to, except to a
very few friends. He lighted up occa-
sionally, but generally he had the nerv.
GUS, tired look Of heart wounded
man.
Nolan's transfer at sea to the War
rem was the first of some twenty such
transfers, which brought him sooner
or later into half our best vessels, but
which kept him all his life at least
some hundred miles from the country
he had hoped he might never hear OF
again.
1t may have been on that second
cruise-it was once when be was ND
the Mediterranean-that Mrs. Graft,
the celebrated southern beauty of those
days. danced with him. They had
been long time in the bay of Naples,
and the officers were very intimate
in the English fleet. and there had been
great festivities, and our men thought
they must give great ball on board
the ship. They wanted to use Nolan's
stateroom for something, and they hat
ed to do it without asking him to the
ball. so the captain said they might
ask him if they would be responsible
that he did not talk with the wrong
people, who would give him intelli-
gence." For ladies they had the fam
lily of the American consul. one or two
travellers who had ventured so far and
a nice bevy of English girls and ma
irons, perhaps Lady Hamilton herself.
AS the dancing went on. Nolan and
our fellows all got at ease. as said
so much so that it seemed quite natu
raj for him to bow to that splendid
Mrs. Graft and say:
II hope you have not forgotten me.
Miss Rutledge. Shall have the hon
or of dancing?"
He did it so quickly that Shubrick.
who was by him, could not hinder
him. She laughed and said:
Il am not Miss Rutledge any longer
Mr.. Nolan. but will dance all the
same" just nodded to Shubrick as if
to say he must leave Mr.. Nolan to her
and led him Oft to the place where the
dance was forming. .-t
Nolan thought he had got his chance
He had known her at PHILADELPHIA.
and at other places had met her and
this was a -odsend. He said boldly
little pale, she said. as she told me-
the story years after:
And what do you hear from home
Mrs Graff?"
And that splendid creature looked
through him. JOve! how she must
have looked through him: Home:
Mr.. Nolan!! | thought you were the
man who never wanted to hear or
home again. And she walked direct
" up the deck to her husband and left
poor Nolan alone. as he always was
He did not dance again.
A happier story than either OF these
! have told is of the war In one OF
the great frigate duels with the Eng.
fish. in which the navy was really bap-
tlzed. it happened that round shot