Cupid of Campion

to their respective lights, on poetry and other subjects, ending with a swim

s he led the way up a steep and winding path. “

tackle

t’s

ow anything a

aw

d with it and you want to stop him, you make a dive at his knees and clasp y

game,” remarked Abe with

owards a tiny streamlet beside their upward path. “I like the sound of run

; it’s fu

ond of Ten

s that? An

s a

wha

writes verse

t read

listen

m haunts of

e a sud

e out amon

er down a

Abe, whose brows had grown wrin

dea of those lines,” said Clarence

r, chatter

the brim

y come and

go on fo

again, w

some attention to elocution

that?” a

nny

he chatt

ing; it was the br

e say so, then? He

those words into th

k ain’t got

brook would say, if it could talk. Listen once more.” And for the third

er taking himself to be a brook. Why, if

ou’re h

n’t you call

a lite

her, and you

th delight, “here are the Picture

centre into a rather large cavern, greeted the eyes of the astonished youth. Th

the pleasure of being a cicerone. “They used to come down this path and daub themselves up, and th

of the rock. It was easy to rub awa

ake a fine Indian.” And Clarence with a hand

esult, he missed his footing, slipped and fell into the tiny stream,

er, clear and sweet, was caught up by the echoes an

at all to the wrathful guide. His face had grown red as a turkey-cock’s; his

and in a voice so high and ringing that Abe was st

ou hea

r wh

’re the horns of

d Abe. He had a drea

elfland fain

ed up a small twig and placed it on one shoulderband o

d his offended c

were to put one of my beautiful blue eyes into mourning, I thin

ou stop using

right

flying, the two pursued their steep upward way

limb to get under the hollow rock, over which fell the water in a wide but thin stream,

think I know now where the

? W

e with that bright-eyed lady,

oddess of

right-eyed

?Picture

????Iowa,

venture. I don’t believe in

’t believe in her, she does

out into the future and gained for him the “far off interest of years.” Abe belonged to that steadily increasing clas

they were a

momentarily to a spark of enthusiasm. He

-!” cried

itself into the Mississippi. Beside both and around both and all the way that eye could see up and down the Mississippi River rose the full-bosomed hills, older than the Pyramids, holding their secrets of the past in a calm not to be broken till

is that?” as

om the way you were talking that you kne

at, Abe. Marquette came down that river and discovered the upper M

ll my life, and I never heard

s a pr

Cat

and a

Catlics,” growled Ab

He belongs, it must be sadly confessed, to the largest church in the backwoods of America; the Grea

nd away behind the times; but I don’t hate them. Anybody who reads books knows that there have been splendid men and women

sneeze at it for? What good would

aternal air, “I’m beginning to despair of you. A moment ago, you remember, I

ofanity. In this particular sort of di

e soliloquy; but would you mind telling me what that big building over

ome unction in his tone

een Co

en know how to spell it. They leave out the H. I saw their boat—

dered for a

resently. “Perhaps you

hat I said; Ch

mpeen; you m

said all along—C

arence r

that H you have Campion College. That’s it, I’ll bet; and Campion was a

s his sentiments on the Jesuits. He declared t

of breath than of language, “that it’s about time to start down, if we

one by which they had come up. In parts, the path was

ll. Abe figured to himself an irate boat-owner waiting at the landing for the person who had had the boldness to take away his skiff. How, then, he reflected, could he collect his dollar, get Clarence back, and escape unobserved. One plan would be to land below McGregor and let Clarence go the rest of the way alone. But even that plan had its risks. Doubtless, there were boatmen on the river even now in q

sion. He did not, by reason of being in the advanc

d Clarence, giving, as he spoke, Mast

nged his base; and before the words were well out of Clarence’s mouth, Abe was sliding down the steep incline at a rate

ted where he had come to a stop, and

ed the sailor-clad youth, drawing

nd,” he continued as he craned his neck to see what

ve of mischief once more in the ascenda

ty-five cent

u two dollars instead of

now,” suggested Abe,

s like as not, either attempt to take revenge for the indignities shown him, or desert at once and leave his charge to shift, as best he might, for himself. In fact, it would

s breath, Abe led the way down. The descent was soon a

, “provided I went in with some person who knew the river well, and who

denly brightened up as though some happy thought had found lodgment in his primitive brain. “And look

to me

is the most dangerous spot you can find. It is a risk

sailor costume, revealed to the admiring eyes of his companion a beautiful brand new bathing suit of heav

e ways that I told you about where a hen could swim. We can row up

fair sir,” and with this Cl

agingly, as he proceeded to s

gotten the oars,

continued to

he oars!” cr

ent the boat spinning out into the current. “Now, smartie, I’ve fixed

from the shore. Clarence, possessed of one single-piece swimmi

eaning of thi

ough the pockets of Clarence’s sailor suit. “You just sit tigh

or by twelve o’clock,” remonstrated Clare

ered Abe, grimly, as he wrapped up in Clarence’s handke

east twenty-five yards from the shore, was going dow

d the money, stood on the shore and grin

me down the hill; you will come round here showing off in your dandy clothes! Next tim

ncerned, his case was hopeless. In reply, then, to this question, he

ra-boom

ra-boom

ra-boom

ra-boom

in a gesture of defiance, suddenly bolted into the bushes. He

note. He never sang “Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay” again. Abe was gone: he was alone. Clarence at last