The Elk Mountain pilot., 1920-08-19

troops. War must be learned, my
young friend, just the same as the
farming of sheep"
Pooh I" said l. not to be outcrowed
by foreigner. "If we had thirty
thousand men on the line of the hill
yonder you would come to be very glad
that you had your boats behind you"
Sometimes, when he talked,
thought he was Joking, and at other
times 1t was not quite so easy to say.
l well remember one evening that
summer when he was sitting in the
kitchen with my father, Jim, and me,
after the women had gone to bed, he
began, about Scotland and its relation
to England.
"You used to have your own king,
and your own laws made at Edin-
burgh." said he; "does it not fill you
with rage and despair when you think
that 1t all comes to you from London
nowT
Jim took his pipe out of his mouth.
ut was We who put our king over
the English, so If there's any rage
1t should have been over yonder,"
said he.
This was clearly news to the
stranger. and 1t silenced him for the
moment.
down there, and surely that is not
good" he said at last.
mo; it would be well to have a
parliament back in Edinburgh" said
my father; "but am kept so busy
with the sheep that 1 have little
enough time to think of such things"
1T is for fine young men like you
two to think Of it." said De Lapp.
'When a country is injured 1t is to its
young men that It looks to avenge it,"
AYE, the English take too much
upon themselves sometimes" said JIM
"Well. If there are many of that
way Of thinking about, why should
we not form them into battalions and
march them upon London?" cried De
Lapp.
'That would be a rare little picnic"
said I, laughing; land who would
lead us?"
He jumped up. bowling with his
hand on his heart in his queer fashion.
honor!" he cried and then. seeing that
we were all Laughing, he began to
laugh also, but am sure that there
was really no thought Of Joke in his
mind.
could never make out what his age
could be, nor could Jim Horscroft
either. Sometimes we thought that
he was an oldish man that looked
young, and at others that he was a
whole, we thought that he might be
about forty or forty-flve. though 1t
was hard to see, how he could have
seen SO much Of life in the time. But
one day we got talking of ages. and
then he surprised us.
had been saying that 1 was just
twenty, and Jim said that he was
twenty-seven.
'Then am the most old of the
three" said De Lapp.
We laughed at this. for by our
reckoning he might almost have been
our father.
But not by so much." said he. arch
ing his brows. II was nine-and-twen-
ty in December"
And 1t was this even more than his
talk which made us understand what
an extraordinary life 1t must have
been that he had led. He saw our as
tonishment, and laughed at it.
II have lived. 1 have lived" he
cried. II have spent my days and my
nights. led a company in a battle
where five nations were engaged when
was but fourteen. made a king
turn pale at the words whispered In
his ear when 1 was twenty. had a
hand in remaking kingdom and put
ting a fresh king upon a fresh throne
the very year that came of age.
Mon Dieu have lived my life"
That was the most that ever heard
him confess of his past life. and he
only shook his head and laughed when
we tried to get something more out
Of him. There were times when we
thought that he was but clever i'm
postor-for what could man of such
influence and talents be lettering here
in Berwickshire for?-but one day
there came an incident which showed
us that he had, indeed. history in the
past.
7 You will remember that there was
an old officer Of the Peninsular war
who lived no great way from us. the
same who danced round the bonfire
with his sister and the two maids. He
had gone up to London on some busi-
ness about his pension and his wound
money and the choice of having some
work given him. SO that he did not
come back until late in the autumn.
One Of the first days after his return
he came down to see us, and there for
the first time he clapped eyes on De
Lapp. Never in my life did I look
.,-.- ootNnluhaH (oro ond ho