Cavalier County farmers press. (Langdon, N.D.) 1920-1921, 1920-07-08

to us, as they passed, that the North
Berwick law-fre was blazing, and that
it 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
minds set at ease It was gray and
cold, and my mother had gone up to
the house to make a pot of tea for
US, when there came a 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 hui
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, a 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.
"It's all a lie," shouted the doctor,
as he passed. .Yhere has been no
landing, and all the fools in Scotland
have been gadding about the roads for
nothing" His o 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
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 mind with
out a dozen others trailing out behind
it. And yet, now that I come to think
of it, this had something to do with II
after all; for Jim Horscroft had 50
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 senG
me also. .
: There was from the first q great
friendship between Jim Horscroft, the
doctors son, and me. He was cocl
boy Of the school from the day he
came, for within the hour he haG
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 ther
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 breeches
pockets. I can even recall that he haG
a trick Of keeping a straw in the cor
e of his mouth, just where he used
afterward to hold his pipe. Jim was
always the same, for good and for bad
since first I knew him.
Heavens! How we all looked up tt
him! We were but young savages
and had a savage's respect for power
What tales we used to whisper abou'
his strength; how he put his fs1
through the oak panel of, the game
room door. How when Long Merri
dew was carrying the ball, he caugh'
up Merridew, ball and all, and raj
swiftly past every opponent to thu
goal. 1t did not seem fit to us tina
such a one as he should trouble hi:
head about spondees and dactyls, O.
care to know who signed the Magnt
Charta. When he said in open class
that King Alfred was the man, WE
little boys all felt that very likely Il
was so, and that perhaps Jim knew
more about it than the man who wrote
the book.
For two years we were close friends
for all the gap that the years haC
made between us, and, though in pas
sion or in want of thought he die
many a thing that CALLED me, yet
loved him like a brother, and wept as
much as would have filed an inl
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, ant
when I left I had become cock myself
for I was as wiry and as tough al
whalebone, though I never ran tt
weight and sinew, like my great prede
cessor. It was in jubilee year that
left Birtwhistle's, and then for three
years I 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 a hand in lifting that
shadow forever from our people?
CHAPTER ~.