— 
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 
gent 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 
wo 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 interested in Ellen and 
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 fails to do so. 
Squire Hawkins, an elderly man, is 
courting Ellen. A party is planned in 
honor of Palmer, who writes his impres- 
sions of the place for hie naner. _ 
(CONTINUED. ] 
She looked with surprise at me, and 
I thought I saw a faint color come to 
the surface of her skin, but I could not 
tell, for she was lighting the fire. She 
saw that I was earnest in my question, 
and, still kneeling in front of the stove, 
she turned her frank face toward me 
and said: 
“T would resent the question, Mr. 
Palmer, did I not know that a kind 
heart prompted it. Yes,’ she added; 
‘St is as necessary for me to do this 
as it is for Bud to plow. Of course 
you must have heard from your rela- 
tives that the Turpins were greatly re- 
duced. The house is heavily mortgag- 
ed, and to meet the interest we have 
to save in every legitimate way. Bud 
wants to hire a cook, but I will not lis- 
ten to him. [Father is determined that 
the moment he defaults on the inter- 
est that minute he will give up the 
Pines to the owners, for such they are 
who hold the mortgage on it. And, oh, 
Mr. Palmer, you don’t know what it 
would mean to father and mother to 
move from here now. Besides, too, we 
would be no %etter off—even worse, I 
think, for we would have no place at 
all. Bud and I would be glad to go 
into the world and run our chances, 
: 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
but it can’t be thought of, not now.” 
She sighed and continued to make the 
fire. 
By degrees I found out all there was 
to be known of the family, for there 
were no skeletons there. After the 
war it seems that Colonel Turpin had 
lived in a reckless sort of way, still 
keeping up the style of living he had 
grown accustomed to before the 
change of fortune in the southern 
planter’s life. It was not until Bud 
had finished his college course and 
Miss Ellen had completed her studies 
that the real condition of the family 
became known. It was these two who 
Sis it really necessary for you to do 
this work?” 
had finally saved the plantation and 
home by pledging the interest on the 
mortgage. There was one more child, 
a boy of sixteen. The brother and sis- 
ter were keeping him at college now 
and had planned that he should take 
the course in law after his academic 
studies were completed. Was there 
more courage in New Hngland, I won- 
dered, and was it not the blood of the 
cavalier that was telling now? She 
had given me her confidence without 
restraint, for she believed me then to 
be one with the Kentucky Palmers, 
and I, weak creature, dared not dis- 
abuse her mind for fear of losing that 
confidence and friendship which this 
fictitious relationship had inspired. 
“And now, Mr. Inquisitive,” she said, 
‘Sf you have finished your catechism, 
I will mix the batter and you will go 
for a long walk and get an appetite for 
breakfast.” 
She had rolled up her sleeves in order 
to knead the dough, and with her arms 
bared to the elbow she pointed out to 
me a road which she advised me to 
take, telling ine it would bring me to 
the old Oglethorpe bridge. 
“But your father promised that you 
should take me there,” I said, “and 
that is a debt of honor you must pay.” 
“Very well,’ she laughed, as if pre- 
paring to go, ‘‘but you will go without 
your breakfast, and, what is worse, 
Bud will call you out for making him 
lose his, for he comes from the fields 
hungry and out of temper sometimes.” 
*T would not mind going without 
mine,” I said, “but heaven forbid that 
so fine a fellow should go without his.” 
Tears came into her eyes, but she 
soon brushed them away and with a 
Sinile said: 
“You touched a weak spot then. Bud 
fs the salt of the earth, and he deserves 
to find diamonds in this dull soil in- 
stead of fighting out his life for a few 
pounds of cotton.” 
I started down the road which she 
had pointed out, wondering what had 
rome over me when my life in Boston 
had seemed a thing forgotten in a few 
hours and my work and literary career 
become a secondary matter with me. 
I passed through an old orchard, where 
the opening apple buds lent their fra- 
grance to the air, and by my side it 
seemed to me that the unseen presence 
of Miss Ellen walked. 
The dogwood was blossoming down 
by the branch, and when-I reached the 
pine trees their crisp needles, stirring 
in the breeze, seemed singing some 
blithesome air instead of wailing 
mournfully, as they had done the even- 
ing previous. I saw her little rose 
garden and, picking the only flower 
then in bloom, hid it away beneath my 
waistcoat. There was an impassioned 
picturesqueness in the unkept lawn, 
and out of the cedar and underbrush I 
might have expected to see some dryad 
come. I found the bridge by the path 
Miss Elleu had pointed out and for 
an hour sat reclining upon its ivy 
colored arch conjuring up such scenes 
as I imagined had been enacted here 
when its owners lived in affluence and 
when women in silks and satin and 
powdered hair sat in the oaken dining 
hall and danced the stately minuet on 
rich carpets and under many lights. 
In my mental vision I thought I saw 
one with the features of Miss Hllen 
who glided past all others and stood in 
gay colored brocade waiting to be 
wooed like a princess. The picture 
faded, and I saw the real Ellen, none 
the less regal, but in place of the scorn 
the other wore upon her lips there was 
a gentle patience, and about her form 
there hung a simple cotton gown more 
beautiful than the stately gown woven 
in my dream picture. I must have 
been asleep, then, after all, I thought, 
looking at my watch, for it was past 
the time when she told me to be back. 
Hurrying home the way I came, I 
AL CEE ER RSE SAE ET SL SE RT TN TR A a 
