Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1924-04-02
THE ARRANT ROVER.
Gay Romance of Phianderng Love
By BERTA RUCK
Aufho OF "The WroHg Nr Right "Ths Cowtshp
And what's that other place Oh the
Saa Sh0rp pa

And what's that other place on the
Seashore?"
That is st. Servan.''
Yes, OH Say, Where's
that boat. going to with all those
folksT'
They are going to land where we
put off. Marcus. It's the other ferry
boat going to Dinard."
When momma and ] crossed over
from N'York, we came in a liner.
Have you ever seen a liner? 1t was
lots and lots bigger ,han this; most
forty Thousand million times bigger,
I guess N where are we
gong to land now, Mr.. Lav-er-rock? ?"
Archie pointed, across rail and
water, toward that long island of ST.
Malo, broadly girdled by its stone
ramparts. tagged with roofs Of
buildings set upon varying heights,
and dominated by the spire OF its
cathedral. tall and pale. and GRO
cheted like a stripped kailstalk.
AT low tide we should land there,
just about where | am pointing, and
walk up the rock path to the quay,
But, as it's high tide, we shall land
over there. Do you see?" returned
the young man, and any one watch
ing him as he looked down upon the
small face raised to his would have
noticed a change come into his row.
er'S eyes.
For there stole through the con-
seriousness of Archie Laverock at that
moment a certain wiStful longing
which is supposed TO be experienced
only by the mothefing sex. Not tor
the first time in his healthy young
mans life he found himself wonder
ing what it was like to have a little
chap OF ones own.
Kids, after all Nothing
quite like them.
A topping kid like this little Mar
Gus Wilmot When one was
getting bit old and stiff and off
cne's game, he'd be coming on.
, Fancy coaching him how to hold
! his first-size bat, to throw his first
| fly.
| Cares Of a FAMILY
| Imagine his funny little voice pip
ing up "My governor says"
/ No wonder some of the married
subalterns who'd been in the regi-
| ment with Archie put on faces OF
such fatuous complacency when they
uttered those so frequently recurring
words that youngster Ct mine -
- =" With curious subtle ache at
his heart Archie remembered that he
knew fellows of his own age who'd
got two nippers already
Lord! He was the right sort of
man to banker after the cares OF u
family He. Laverock. who for the
last two years of (what we calD
peace hac only just managed to keep
himself.
! All very well for these feminists TO
talk about how most women wouldn
marry nowadays at all, but that they
wanted child en-. (Not the man! no:
the child that only he could givo)
j That consciously or not, was in the
mind of the bride.
J But he, Laverock, fancied there
might conceivably be something of
that in the attitude of the BRIDE
groom. Men might be drawn (per-
haps subconsciously drawn) into
marriage by that same lure. (Not the
woman! no; the child that only she
could bear) Perhaps that was why
those old Greeks symbolized love by
a laughing. round-limbed baby boy?
! These musings were interrupted by
j the hustle of arrival at the quay and
by the chatter of how the party was
I to divide. Some wanted to do the
Notifications; some to visit the ca
thedral; some to shop.
Still the Rover was for the time
being inseparable from the child,
who stepped over the swinging chain
: OF the ferry wall. then trotted at his
side, away from all those skirts, I'M
! der the deep shadow of the Ponte de
Oman. In the sunlight again he sud-
| denly hung back outside the first
| re ho I, cfr y,
intriguing little shop with carved
wooden things in it's window
! "Say," he murmured GENEROUSLY,
/ look at that little old man in hat
| like Noah and his wife in a funny
: cap: what's those for, Mr.. LAYER
! rock?"
: Archie turned smiling to young
Mrs. Wilmot you wouldn't mind IL
l got him little carved toy?"
) Together the Rover and the child
entered the dim, fascinating den,
redolent of the all-pervading local
smells-of fish. freshly ground coffee.
warm charcoal, the sea-alsO of new :
ly Clipped wood and of the stain used
TO darken it, The young woodcarver
(black- haired, blue-eyed, a typical
Celt of either Brittany or Britain,
wearing a small vandyke beard. n
picturesque modelling blouse and n
Quarter Latin tie) displayed to
, Archie his quaint wares.
| Spoons and salad servers and
ladies had their handles carved into
| the heads of Breton peasants; from
the gas bracket dangled a more
grimly conceived figure-'Le Pen
du:" reminder of dark days when
France took a short way with her
Celtic rebels. The back Of the shop
gave glimpses Of coy kitchen. Of a
/ housewives checked apron and neat
I chignon. of a toddling babe.