Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1920-08-27
CHAPTER VII.
The corriemulr Peel Tower.

The corriemuIr Peel Tower.
Well, II would weary me. and am
very sure that II would weary you also
II I we're to attempt TO tell you how
life went with us after this man came
under our roof, or the way In which
he gradually came to win the affec-
lions Of everyone Of us. With the
women II was quick work enough. but
soon he had thawed my father, too,
which was no such easy matter, and
had gained Jim Horscrofts good will
as we'll as my own.
One of his first acts was to give
my fnther the boat in which he had
come, reserving only the right to have
II back in case he should have need
of Il. The herring were down on the
coast that autumn, and my uncle, be-
fore he died. had given us fine set
of nets. so the gift was worth many
pound to us. Sometimes De Lapp
would go out in the boat alone, and
I have seen him for whole summer
day rowing slowly along, and stopping
every half-dozen strokes to throw over
stone at the end Of n string.
could not think what he was doing I'M
til he told me OF his own free will.
81 am fond of studying all that has
to do with the military" said he,
land never lose a chance. I was
wondering II 1t would be difficult
matter for the commander Of an army
corps to throw his men ashore here"
"If the wind we're not from the
east" said I.
"Ah. quite so. II the wind were not
from the east. Have you taken sound
lngs hereT
"No."
"Your line-of-battleships would have
TO lie outside, but there is water
enough for forty-gun frigate right up
within musket range. Cram your
boats with tlrailleurs. deploy them be-
hind these sand-hills, then. back with
the launches for more, and n stream Of
grape over their heads from the frig-
ate. 1t could be done It could
be donew His mustaches bristled out
more like cats than ever. and
could see by the flash Of his eyes that
he was carried away by his dream.
"You forget that our soldiers would
be upon the beach," said Indignantly.
'Ta, Ia. tai" he cried. "Of course,
IL takes two sides to make a battle.
Let us see nowl Let us work II out !
What could you get together7 Shall
we say twenty-thirty thousand7 A
few regiments Of good troops. The
rest, pouf l-conscripts, bourgeois with
arms, how do you call them-yolun-
teers."
"Brave men!" shouted.
"Oh yes, very brave men, but i'm
beetle; ah, mon Dieu, II is Incredible
how imbecile they would be. Not
they alone, mean, but all young
troops. War must be learned, my
young friend, just the same as the
farming OF sheep"
"Pooh" said I, 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 II 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 Edn-
burgh," said he; "does II not MI you
with rage and despair when you think
that 1t oil comes to you from London
now?"
Jim took his pipe out OF his mouth.
ut was we who put our king over
the English. so II there's any rage
II should have been over yonder,"
said he.
This was clearly news 10 the
stranger, and II sllenced him for the
moment.
well, but your laws are made
down there, and surely that is not
good" he said at last.
No; II would be well 10 have a
parliament back In Edinburgh" said
my father; "but am kept so busy
with the sheep that l have little
enough time to think OF such things"
ut Is for fine young men like you
two TO think OF it, said De Lapp.
when country IL injured II is to Its
young men that II looks TO avenge IT."
--ssa s--4ras4l