Year: 1876

finally to allow another printer to take
his place in the Clarion Office
FAIRLY, and as his ''sub" only, for the
editor would not like it, he said, if he
should give up his cases 'smerely be-
cause he wanted to loaf few days and
get the malaria out of his system" He
visited the office from time to time to
see how his "sub" got along, and to
take a look at the exchanges. They
showed him the first number of the new
paper at Konomo, which was to be the
CEarto,a's contestant for the county
printing, and he curlcd his lip at sight
of its double advertisements, and said
the grave yawned for paper
that started out by leading its selected
matter. Some days he would relieve
the g Sub" for half an hour, or read
two or three galleys of proof for the
overworked editor; but usually he re-
manned only few minutes, and many
times he came only to the door, looked
in as if seeking for somebody, then
turned and went away without speaking.


He had abandoned his customary ram
bles nearly month before; and this
fact, though no longer new enough to
be in itself remarkable, served to give
unusual interest to the report that Perky
had been seen going leisurely down the
road again toward the woods the morn
ing of the important Saturday when
"the grim chieftain," General Jim Lane,
was to deliver his first speech in Seward
Center. Aunt Naomi Seybold had called
to him three times from her open win
dow, but he paid no attention to it eN-
cept to quicken his pace Il little, and she
watched him Gas stiddy as if she had
a. bin a-settin' for to have her picter
TOOK" she said, until he passed the
Widow Hainline's and disappeared over
the hill. Then she fastened up to the
store and the printing office to tell what
she had seen, and an hour later the sur
With the afternoon, however, came '.the
grim chieftain'' with his speech, and
after the early supper they had a bon
fire and another speech, and in the
novelty and agitation of it all, the
incident of the morning was for
gotten, and nobody noticed that Perky
did not return. 1t must have been
quite o'clock of Sunday evening when
his absence was first observed. That
some harm had befallen him seemed
the only reasonable solution of the mat
ter; and there was no time to lose in
delay or in speculation. The editor,
accompanied by such of the townsfolk
as he could readily get together, prompt
ly started in search of him. They called
to make inquiry of Aunt Naomi Sey-
bold, and she went on with them to the
Widow Hainline's, repeating to them as
she walked along her story of the day
before. The widow could give them no
additional information; indeed, the
whole of it was an astonishment and a
shock to her, she said and she question
ed them very eagerly about it, while
Benny listed with indefinite dread and
wished they would 60 on and look for
him before night came. They started
directly, down the road to the river.
Benny went with them, upon his own
suggestion, to point out the places where
he had been with Perky; and as he glanc-
ed from the familiar old leaning beech
half way down the hill, he saw that his
mother and Aunt Naomi were following
closely after them.


They found him just where Benny
had fancied they would find him. Twas
hardly stones throw from the road
and the ford, but such quiet, soothing,
winsome little nook that it might have
been fragment of some other world.
He was lying upon the grass, with his
arms under his head, and his feet hid
den from sight by the fallen leaves. He
could almost have reached the river
with his hand, but the murmuring of it
there in the bend among the bewilder-
ing roots and stones was so soft and so
uncertain that it seemed only an echo.
A cluster of haw bushes, bending be-
meath an overplus of fading and shriv-
cling woodbine, shut off the vision on
the south, as the river bank did on the
west and the north; but on the east, up
the steep bluff, beyond the massive de-
caying tree-trunk that lay in the edge
of the thicket of hazels like some great
broken-hearted giant, was the little ar
Dor in the rear of the Widow Hainlinc's
house, where the honeysuckles grew,
and where the widow often sat in the
cool of the late afternoon with her sew


ing. When they reused him, Perky
turned his eyes in that direction a mo-
ment, then closed them again, and said,
as if in reverie, ssI must have been
dreaming"


They stood waiting around for some
minutes in an undecided way, and then
the editor gently raised him to a sitting
posture, and he tried to smile as he
| looked from one to another of them and
said, "Go on with your picnic: don't
mind me-" No one spoke when he
sank down again upon the grass and
leaves; but Aunt Naomi Seybold took
off her shawl and made pillow of ii
for him, and buttoned his open coat


over his breast, for it was nearly sun


down, and there was a chill in the air
from off the river. He appeared to be
sleeping, the Widow Hainline thought,


as she leaned over and gazed intently
upon him out of the shadow of the ma


pie just back of where his head lay; and


Benny knew she. must be very, very


pale, she trembled so as he felt her put
I