The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-06-06

"And now said he, may I 90 UP
to the house and will you be SO con-
descending as to find your father for
me?"
l gathered up my tackle and having
asked the gentleman's name and given
my own in exchange We walked up
the white shell path between the mag
nolias that led to the house. At that
time Of the day (about II Of the norm
ing) my father was ever to be found
in his library, putting his affairs in
order or writing at his biography Of
Mr.. Washington.
My father looked up kindly enough
when my voice disturbed him, for l
was his favorite child (of all the
fifteen) in spite of his expecting that
l would come to a bad end; and when
I told him that there was a Capt.
Thorn in the hall, come up from the
sea on business and drenched to the
bone and seven feet high at the least
and had four sailors with him and
two boats and a coffin and a brace
Of pistols under his cloak he began
to hustle with pleasure and hospital
ity.
"My lear sir" he cried, Fastening
INTO tuo maj anu pCtSCsvihb ShO to'y
sopping state Of Capt. Thorn. not q
word until you have changed to some
thing dry! Jack. tell your mother to
come and to bring the key of the
wine cooler"
l went reluctantly, for I wished to
hear what Capt. Thorn had to say to
my father. 1t was something about
the hospitality that he so warmly ex-
tended to the living being extended
to the dead-then a lowering Of voice.
and the word wife" and then as I
made the turn at the stair landing I
saw in the tail Of my y how my
father reached up suddenly and laid
his white, scholars hand upon the
others shoulder, as IL in a burst Of ir-
repressible sympathy.
1t came out in due time that Capt.
Thorn, a merchant for his own hand,
sailing in his own ship, together with
his young wife, had of the island OF
Barbados lost the latter by q fever.
The last wish that she had lived to ex-
press had been that her body be not
buried at sea but carried home to her
native Devon. This Capt. Thorn had
sworn to do.
But In the meanwhile his various
ventures and business could not, for
he was low in pocket, permit Of so
long and interfering a voyage. He
had, therefore, first buried his wife in
Barbados, while he himself traded to
the southwark; on his return he had
disinterred the body and transferred
it to his shlp-the Snowdrop-with the
intention OF sailing at once to London.
But meanwhile a sudden and unex-
pected turn Of merchantry once more
calls the captain of from his promise
and. to be shorter, he has begged
of my father the loan of a shelf in our
family vault until UGH time as him
self or agents shall be at liberty to
make a final disposition OF the body.
o must not suppose that my
mother M elder sisters heard this
story of a young M beautiful life
cut of and a honeymoon shattered
without a vast OF sympathy. and even
tears. And my Greataunt Polina. who
was 102 years old and bedridden and
who knew by experience what 1t was
to lose a nate (fve according to the
family Bible). ordered the house SER
wants into the gardens to cut roses
for the funeral and personally COM
posed a set OF elegiac verses on the
occasion. which she caused to be pre-
sented to the captain, together with
her compliments and a book In which