3 THE MICHIGAN TRADESMAN. When Mark was seventeen, and had finished his course at the Chloride School, he was put in charge of a tutor to pre- pare himself for college, and the next year saw him off for the East to enter one of the leading New England institu- tions of learning. Here, lam sorry to say, he failed to conduct himself as well as he might. Lord Byron kept him supplied with all the money he could possibly find use for, and Mark, as boys of his nature will, did not take long to identify himself with the ‘‘rapid’’ class of students. and was soon known as one of the liveliest fresh- men at college. Of course Lord Byron kuew of all Marks doings, but never a_e word did he write to him on the subject. The weekly letter from the old folks and all ealled-for remittances came with unfail- ing regularity, and Mark went on his easy, happy-go-lucky way rejoicing. Once in a while, it is true, his conscience rose and smote him, but it never troubled him for long, and he went home at the end of his freshman year with a lot of fash- ionable clothing. a large stock of slang, an insatiable appetite for cigarettes and aclass record of merit barely sufficient to elevate him to the rank of sophomore. If Lord Byron felt that the object of his lavish benevolence had not made a fair return in his conduct and progress for all that the old gentleman had done for him, he did not say so. It is more than likely that, while he was hardly satisfied with Mark’s behavior, he at- tributed it tothe overflowing spirits of youth, upon which he was wont to look with lenient eye, and trusted to time to bring the lad through with flying colors. And so, during the few weeks Mark spent at home, the only difference in the feeling of the old folks for him made itself manifest mainly in the greater warmth of affection they bestowed. In October Mrs. Hutchins died sud- denly, and Lord Byron took her body to Ohio to bury it on the old homestead where she had lived when he first knew her and which had always been ‘‘home’’ to her. Mark met his guardian at Chi- cago, and together they went onto at- tend the last rites. It was all over, and Lord Byron was “‘lost,””’ he said. Ever since meeting Mark at Chicago he had clung to him and leaned on him, so to speak, and now he felt as if he could not possibly leave him. They sat in the room at the hotel in Cleveland, whither they had gone from the little cross-roads town where they had ieft all that remained of her who had been so dear to both. *“‘T reckon I won’t go back yeta bit— not yet,” said Lord Byron unsteadily. ‘I ean’t doit, Boy. Seems like it'd plumb kill me t? go back an’ not seema. Y’r Aunt Lucindy was asplendid woman, Boy.”’ Mark nodded assent, for a great sob choked him and he could not speak. “I reckon I'll go ’ith you, Boy, t’ll I get sorter used t’—t’ bein’ alone. She loved ye, Boy, ma did, jes’ like I do, an’ *twon’t seem nigh so lonesome ef I c’n see you once’n a while.’’ So together they returned to the little college city, where Lord Byron could see “Boy”? at almost any hour and comfort himself with his company. “Uncle By’ ’”’ stayed over a month, dur- ing which time Mark was hardly out of his sight an hour, when his duties per- mitted him to be at liberty. As time went the old man’s presence grew irk- some to the young fellow. He missed his larks with his roistering fellow- students, whose revels were now carried on without the light of his presence. And afew of the fellow-students, with the heartlessness peculiar to certain of their kind, did not hesitate to throw out sneering remarks about ‘‘cow-punchers” and ‘‘corn-feds,’’ with an oceasional ref- erence to Lord Byron as the ‘‘sage-brush cavalier’’—all of which Mark failed to resent. Had any of his fellows made any direct remarks about the old man he would have lost no time in silencing them; but as the sneers came in a rather indirect way, he could not muster the courage to resent them. One day Lord Byron went to New York on business, expecting to be gone about three days. On the second even- ing after his departure there was a “*soiree,” as the boys termed it, at Mark’s | temporary | quarters, in honor of his “emancipation,” as his room-mate called it. At midnight the members of the com- pany were somewhat the worse for wine. ‘“‘When, me boy,’’ asked Barton, a big sophomore, **d-do you ’xpect your ’llus- triously named nurse t-to return?”’ “To-morrow night,’’? answered Mark, sulkily. “Ah!” said Barton. steadying himself against a table. ‘‘And will he g-gladden us with his ch-cheering p-presence for some t-time?” ‘Not if I can help ii,’? returned Dun- ton, feelingly. Then, for he was quite sober, he felt he had said enough, and turned away to bring more ‘‘refresh- ments.”’ Lord Byron, standing just outside the door, through which he had been about to enter when he heard the sound of rev- elry inside, turned sorrowfully away without reclosing the door, tiptoed softly back to the street and returned to his hotel. “Poor boy,’’ he thought as he walked along; ‘‘I reckon ’tis purty tough to have the old man mopin’’round ’n’ watchin’ ye. But—but I wish’t ye hadn’t said it, Boy,’’ he said, brokenly, aloud—‘‘I wish’t ye hadn’t.” The early morning train bore the old man West, and from New York he wrote Mark that he had been obliged to leave suddenly, and had not had time to see him again. He inclosed a draft for a liberal amount, and hoped Mark would be a good boy and would not ‘‘go back on his friends’’—which latter injunction the old man could not, for the life of him, resist adding. And while Mark was again entertaining his chums that night, in honor of the arrival of the draft, Lord Byron was lying awakein the sleeping-car, speeding westward, his honest heart full of tears. Mark did not return home the next summer. He had several invitations for the holidays, which Lord Byron urged him to accept, much to his secret relief. At the end of a yachting cruise later in the summer Mark received some start- ling news. It was nothing more nor less than that Lord Byron had been married! Mark remembered the new-made bride. It was one of the numerous daughters of old man Gordon, a neighbor of Lord By- ron, Sophie Gordon—Mark remembered her as a plump, rosy, rather pretty and very romantic damsel, rather more than five years older than himself, somewhat light-headed and given to reading slushy Are You Obliged to Wash Your Hands after drawing a gallon of oil before you can put up the next customer’s sugar, or sell a bottle of perfume, if so save time and money by ordering one of the WAYNE Self-Measuring Tanks. Are you in the business for money? 1F SO ORDER A FIVE BARREL TANK and be able to order your oil in large quantities, save a good discount, return your barrels and get full price for them, and do away with the continual loss of oil by evaporation and leaky barrels. First Floor Tank and Pump. In the construction of our tanks only the best galvanized iron is used. The | appearance of the whole is ornamental, the tank being encased in a cabinet of |Southern pine. 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