The Connecticut labor press. (New Haven, Conn.) 191?-1921, 1920-07-17

| upon his knee as though he meant to
read to US, but he shut it again in
silence and hurried out. We went
down to the gate which, opens out
upon the highway. From there we
could see the red light of the big bea-
con, and the glimmer Of smaller one
to the north of us at Ayton. The old
road had more folk on it than ever
| passed along 1t at night before, for
many of the yeomen up our way had
enrolled themselves and were riding
now as fast as hoof could carry them
| for the muster. Some had a stirrup cup
! or two before parting, and I cannot
| forget one who tore past on a huge
| white horse, brandishing a great rusty
sword in the moonlight. They shouted
to US, as they passed, that the North
Berwick law-fre was blazing, and that
1t was thought that the alarm had
come from Edinburgh castle. There
were a few who galloped the other
way, couriers for Edinburgh, and the.
laird's son and Master Clayton, the
deputy sheriff, and such like.
But early in the morning we had our
minds set at ease. Tt was gray and
cold, and my mother had gone up to
the house to make a pot of tea for
us, when there came gig down the
road with Doctor Horscroft of Ayton
In it and his son Jim. The collar of
the doctors coat came over his ears,
and he looked in a deadly black hu-
NOR, for Jim, who was but fifteen
years of age, had trooped off to Ber-
wick at the first alarm with his IA
theirs new fowling piece. All night
his dad had chased him, and now there
he was, prisoner, with the barrel of
the stolen gun sticking out from be-
hind the seat. He looked as sulky as
his father, with his hands thrust into
his side pockets, his brows drawn
down, and his lower lip thrust out.
sIt's all a 1ie," shouted the doctor.
as he passed. "There has been no
landing and all the fools in Scotland
have been gadding about the roads for
nothing" His son Jim snarled some
thing up at him on this, and his father
struck him a blow with his clenched
fist on the side of the head, which
sent the boys chin forward upon his
breast as though he had been stunned
Now all this has little enough to do
with what I took my pen up to tell
about; but when a man has a good
memory and little skill he cannot
draw one thought from his ind with
out dozen others trailing out behind
it. And yet, now that come to think
of it, this had something to do with it
after all; for Jim Horscroft had so
deadly a quarrel with his father that
he was packed off to Birtwhistle's
Berwick academy; and as my father
had long wished me to go there he
took advantage of this chance to send
me also.
There was from the first a great
friendship between Jim Horscroft, the
doctors son. and me. He was cock
boy of the school from the day he
came, for within the hour he had
thrown Barton, who had been cock be-
fore him, right through the big black
board in the classroom. Jim always
ran to muscle and bone, and even then
he was square and tall, short of speech
and long of arm, much given to loung-
ing with his broad back against walls,
and his hands deep in his breaches
pockets. / can even recall that he had
trick of keeping stray in the cor
ner of his mouth, just where he used
afterward 10 hold his pipe. Jim was
always the same, for good and for bad,
since first I knew him.
Heavens. How we all looked up to
him! We were but young savages,
and had sayage's respect for power.
What tales we used to whisper about
his strength; how he put his fist
through the oak panel of the game
room door. How when Long Merrf-
dew was carrying the ball, he caught
up Merridew, ball and all, and ran
swiftly past every opponent to the
goal. 1t did not seem fit to us that
such one as he should trouble his
head about spondees and dactyls, or
care to know w signed the Magma
Charta- When he said in open class
that King Alfred was the man, we
little boys all felt that very likely 1t
was so, and that perhaps Jim knew
more about II than the man who wrote
the book
For two years we were close friends,
for all the gap that the years had
made between US, and, though in pas
sion or In want Of thought he did
many a thing that CALLED me, yet |
loved him like a brother, and wept as
much as would have filed an ink
bottle when at last, after two years,
he went off to Edinburgh to study his
fathers profession. Five years after
that did I bide at Birtwhistle's, and
when I left had become cock myself,
for 7 was aS wirv opd &c tOTph nc
whalebone. though I never ran to
weight and sinew. like my great prede-
cessor. 1t was In jubilee year that
left Birtwhist1e's, and then for three
years l. stayed at home, learning the
ways of the cattle; but still the ships
and the armies were wrestling, and
still the great shadow of Bonaparte
lay across the country.
How could I guess that I, too,
should have hand in lifting that
CT,