ete 
Both Sides 
of 
The Shield 
By Major 
ARCHIBALD W. BUTT, 
One of the Heroes of the 
Titanic and President 
Taft's Military Aid. 
Copyright, 1905, by J. B. Lippincott 
company. All rights reserved. 
SYNOPSIS 
Palmer, a Boston newspaper man, is 
sent to Georgia to report social and indus- 
trial conditions in a series of letters to his 
paper. Colgiel Turpin, a southerner, 
thinks Palmer is a lawyer and has come 
co foreclose the Turpin plantation’s mort- 
gage. 
Palmer undeceives him, and the colonel, 
thinking that Palmer is a kinsman, in- 
vites him to be his guest at the Pines. 
Palmer meets Ellen and Bud Turpin and 
is hospitably received. 
He becomes 
learns that the Turpin home is in grave 
peril through lack of funds. He wants to 
confess that he is not really a kinsman, 
but falls to do so. 
[CONTINUED.] 
kL Se | 
“This delicious fluid should be sipped 
only while sitting, but as the family is 
assembled for dinner I will ask you 
to forego the pleasure of a chat over 
our juleps and drink standing. I 
pledge your health, sir, and that of 
your kinsfolk, the friends of my young 
manhood.” 
It was the first julep I had ever 
tasted, and I shall never forget with 
what delicious force the straw threw 
the liquor against the roof of my 
mouth. The goblets were soon emp- 
tied, and I was ushered into the parlor, 
where we were evidently expected, for 
the occupants were standing. 
“Mr. Palmer, let me present you to 
my wife, Mrs. Turpin; to my daughter, 
Ellen, and to my son, Howell Cobb, 
whom I hope you will soon address as 
Bud. Ellen, my dear, bid our guest, 
Mr. Palmer, welcome, for he is a kins- 
man of my old friends the Palmers of 
Kentucky, of whom you have so often 
heard me speak.” 
“Any friend whom my father brings 
to us is welcome, Mr. Palmer, but we 
make you doubly welcome on account 
of the ties which bind our house to 
yours.” 
She extended her hand, which I took 
and for the first time looked into that 
frank, open face. I did not think her 
beautiful then, but I was unprepared 
for the subtle ease and grace of man- 
interested in Ellen and > 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
ner and the exquisite poise of her head 
and the patrician face that was turned 
to me without any sign of embarrass- 
ment whatever. Her eyes were large 
and brown and her hands small and 
white. These were the only things 
about her that sank them into my 
memory. 
“Mr. Palmer, father has taken us 
CTT ee 
“Mr, Palmer, let me present you to my 
daughter, Ellen.” 
somewhat by surprise, and you must 
excuse many things, but we make you 
right welcome, and when you get tired 
of playing billiards with Ellen and 
talking politics with father I have a 
good dog and gun at your disposal.” 
The young man who was addressing 
me was tall and big, and when I had 
first entered I had mistaken him for a 
lubberly farm hand, but here he was, 
making me welcome with the ease of a 
courtier, Mrs. Turpin was a small, 
delicate looking woman, but was gown- 
ed in a faded royal purple velvet, evi- 
dently the remnant of an anterior date. 
“You young people can make plans 
at the table. In the meantime EIl- 
len’s roast is getting cold,’ said the 
colonel. Then I remembered about the 
cooking and thought for a moment 
what a sacrilege it would be to devour 
anything prepared by those lovely 
hands, but a sudden convulsive pang 
of hunger banished my sentimental 
thought, and I offered my arm gladly 
to Mrs. Turpin, while she led the way 
to the dining room. It was, in fact, an 
immanse hall. wainscoted with oak. 
but the walls above the paneling were 
stained and, as far as I could see, even 
moldy. It was a gloomy looking place, 
but the table was made bright and 
cheerful by two big candlesticks. On 
the table was a profusion of dishes, 
some silver, others of rare old china, 
and, as I saw later, there was hardly 
one of the latter which was not broken 
or chipped, but each steamed with 
some savory vegetable or meat, and I 
soon fell in the way of handing plates 
around the table and helping others 
from the dishes in front of or near me, 
just as we were wont to do in the rail- 
road eating houses in New England 
when I was a,boy. The conversation 
was easy and homelike, and I saw 
at once that I was not looked upon as 
a stranger. No questions were asked 
me about myself, for which I was 
thankful, and I soon saw, too, that the 
colonel did not intend to relate the 
details of our meeting that morning or 
to account to the other members of the 
family for his sudden impulse to in- 
vite me to become a guest at the 
Pines. So, as if by mutual consent, we 
refrained from making any reference 
to the matter, and I determined to 
leave it to the colonel to make any ex- 
planations which he might think to be 
best. 
CHAPTER III. 
“Waiting For a Prince to Come.” 
HE colonel told Miss Ellen what 
the girls had said about Jim, 
i at which she laughed heartily, 
but grew very red and showed 
some annoyance when he related what 
they had said about choosing a farm 
in the country and especially when 
reference was made to Squire Haw’ 
kins. I shall never forget how my 
plate looked after it had gone around 
the table. It had left my table empty 
and had come back piled to the brim 
with every sort of vegetable on the 
table. Miss Ellen laughed when I con- 
fessed that - did not know how to eat 
rice, nor would she rest content until 
she had taken my plate and arranged 
it according to the manner of eating 
rice in that section. She covered it 
with butter and sprinkled a little salt 
on it and, handing it back to me, bade 
-me eat it, telling me that it was a part 
of my education. She laughed again 
when I wanted to put pepper on it, 
but she would let her father put a lit- 
tle dish gravy over it if it were not 
palatable. I ate it, not because I liked 
it then, for I would have eaten so 
much sawdust had she told me it was 
good and asked me to do so. 
Every now snd then, after I had 
swallowed some rice, I would look up 
to find her eyes fixed roguishly on me, 
and then we would both laugh. She 
seemed to relish the idea that I did 
not like the rice and that I was eating 
it because she had fixed it and told me 
to do so. I made this fact very plain 
to her by the faces I would make in 
OE LT 
