Year: 1877

Sure enough it was, f9f ] had had
a lightning glance at him about u
year before, and it was enough to
leave a pretty fair miniiture Of him
in memory.


/ jostled my way through the crowd
and made myself known and at once
the cordial nature and sinewy COM
position of the man were told in the
grip that shackled my fingers, and
sent its thrill of earnestness along
the muscles of "my good right arm"


Major Hotchkiss is a man to be
euvied; with a frame as sturdy as
the mountain oak, a face as CHEEKY
as the sunniost September morning,
a voice as musical as the rills that
spray the heights about his home,
and temperament biimming with
the wine Of mirth and contentment,
the average mortal on beholding such
prodigality of good things in one
lump, cannot help wishing that he'd
been lowering somewhere about
when nature baptised the major in
this flood of benefits, that he might
have caught the waste, and thus en-
joyed some conception Of the wonders
of such a healthful combination.


think can recommend the ma
jor as a good Summer resort" En-
nui, molancholia or dependency
couldn't live in the atmosphere of
his presence, and he seems to have
established SO sure a partnership
with health as to control, to great
exteHs risr the latter nleras
Der Of the firm. 4.


The first few words following my
friends initial salutation made me
feel sad. II wasn't enough that his
sturdy presence should grieve me
with the reflection of what my loss
had been by not being born a twin
with him, and co-legatee Of so much
that was to be priced, but l must
listen to an account of what l had
missed by not coming thcday'before,
as had been intended. l edged in
the moss-grown phrase of "bettor
late than never" but really ] couldn't
see its aptness, since wouldn'thaye
known the measure of my regret if
l hadn't come, and yet, in the latter
event, l shouldn't have met the ma,
jor, and after all, one couldn't ask for
better compensation than that.


We boarded the train together, and
thus it happened that the hurdle
business came about, The major
was bent on an excursion to Red
Sulphur Springs on the following
day, and during the time inteFven-
ing between our departure from
Staunton and arrival at Lowell, his
presentment of the advantages of a
ride across the mountains, its exhil-
arating breezes, its ever varying ele-
ments of beauty, its curious revcla-
tions of backwoods life, its beneficial
effects as a digester, proved so resist
less that l hardly needed the addi-
tional stimulus of further draught
of the majors company, to impol me
to an unconditional surrender. So !
left the train at Lowell and was
shortly after slowed away with the
major in excellent quarters in the
not-to.be,dcspised ediGce Of the post
master, merchant, ticket agent and
burgomaster of the town.


/ dropped into the arms of sleep
without the least ado, and woke up
in the morning with the impression
that some drum corps had been prac-
tising on the hoad,board all night,
but the major assured me that it
was only the tread of the drovors on
the stairway, who had come upe every
fifteen minutes or so during the
night to consult him about cars
there not being rolling stock enough
at the depot to provide for their ship
ment of cattle, lie had been in and
out of bed about dozen times during
t the night, studying the situation
answering the demands of a dozen OF
, more hordsmcn, taxing the energy o
/, the telegraph operator to the utmost
) and settling himself to a scant pat
tern of roposo, only after the needec
cars were on their way and the trou
! bled sea of doubts was calm again
7, It's safe to assert that after his fami