Kerr

“ His son, young Kerr, a fine boy about ten years old, is the present acknowledged chief of the Six Nations, in his mother's right, the hereditary chieftainship being always transmitted through the female, though passing over her. Mrs. Kerr, the eldest daughter of Brandt, is a squaw of unmixed Indian blood, and has been described to me as a very superior creature. She has the good sense to wear habitually her Indian costume, slightly modified, in which she looks and moves a princess, graceful and unrestrained, while in a fashionable European dress the effect would be exactly the reverse. ”

“ He is handsome, accomplished, and a poet; so mind ye, ladies, I have warned you—be on your guard. Kerr," she now called out to a page in waiting, "go to the hostelry whence this letter came, and say to the gentleman by whom it has been sent, that we desire to see him forthwith. Let him accompany you, Kerr."
The page instantly departed; and we will avail ourselves of his short absence on this mission, to say briefly who Chatelard was—what was his object in coming to the Scottish court—and of what nature were the fears which the queen expressed regarding him. ”

“ The people fled from the town, and we find that one William Kerr, a blacksmith, thought it a good opportunity for helping himself to property not his own, and was hanged in December for having opened the doors of several of the empty houses.—Bir.
June 15.
‘The men of Black Ruthven and Huntingtower cuist turfs on our burgh moor at command of the comptroller, Sir David Murray, captain of his majesty’s guard, and our provost for the time. The town rase aught hundred men in arms, and put them off. Angus Cairdney died of the apoplexy there. No ma harm, but great appearance of skaith.’—Chron. Perth. ”

“ A man on the frontier seldom got anywhere if he were always counting costs. If Rock had not got anywhere, he was at least on his way.
They walked over to the bar and stood near the farther end from the main entrance. Rock was not a tall man, perhaps a little over medium height. Even so he towered over his companion. Kerr barely reached his shoulder. He was a little wisp of a man, with a gnomelike face. Small bodied, but big-hearted, full of humorous quips and kindly impulses, Al Kerr was the type of Texas cowman who never figures in song and story. He had never killed any one. ”

“ Now, the horse swerves, and Kerr Mudgeon takes the lateral slide. Again the steed bows—with politeness enough—and Kerr Mudgeon is a flying phenomenon over his head—gracefully, like a spread-eagle in a fit of enthusiasm. When he is down he says he never gives up to a horse. ”

“ Kerr shook his head. "You are an observant young person! The fact is, I've never met him—of that I'm certain, but I believe I've seen him before, and for the life of me, I can't think where. At the moment you spoke I was trying to remember."
"Was it in this country?" Flora prompted, hopeful of fishing something definite out of this vagueness.
[Pg 91] "No, it was years ago. It must have been in England." He looked at her inquiringly, as if he expected her to help him.
"Oh, Harry's been in England," she said quickly ”

“ Andrew Kerr, a boy of nine years of age, welcomed him at the gate in ‘ane Hebrew speech.’ At the banquet in the great hall, the English and Scottish nobility and the magistracy of Edinburgh met in the utmost amity and satisfaction. By the desire of the king, who wished to advance his native country in the eyes of the English, the wives and children of the Scottish nobility appeared in their finest dresses, shining with jewels, and were treated with great distinction. ”

“ But she hadn't proved it and the simplest way was just to ask Kerr. Her chance for that was the chance he had fought so hard for, the chance of their meeting the next day.
She hadn't wanted that meeting when he had first asked her for it in the box. She had feared it then, and all the more she feared it now, because now she would have to do more than defend herself. She would take the offensive; she would make the attack, now that she had a question to ask. Why should the thought of it frighten her? If this was not the Crew sapphire she would be no worse off than she had been. ”

“ Kerr dodged sidewise. And for the first time Duffy seemed to see and recognize Rock. He stared briefly. Rock looked back at him, expressionless. Duffy turned on Kerr again. His hand crept toward the gun in his belt.
“You’ll buy a drink, or you’ll dance,” he said meaningly. “Look spry, little feller! Buy drinks or dance.”
He punctuated the last sentence with a shot into the floor at Kerr’s feet. Whereat Rock stepped between the little man and his tormentor. His Colt was in his hand. Like Duffy’s, it pointed at the floor. There was a swift surge of men away from the bar. ”

“ Kerr was appointed senior Lieutenant of the Narcissus, then commanded by Captain Minchin, with whom he continued until paid off in Oct. following. Previous to the commencement of the French revolutionary war, we find him joining the Boston 32, Captain George W. A. Courtenay, in which ship he lost the sight of his right eye by splinters, and received a grape-shot wound in the shoulder, whilst engaged with l’Ambuscade, a republican frigate of superior force, near New York, Aug. ”

“ Lieutenant Kerr was wounded in the leg by a splinter, and had his face very much burnt: of 40 men who landed from the boats, only 18 remained uninjured. On this circumstance being communicated to the committee of the Patriotic Fund, they distributed rewards to the wounded sailors, and voted Lieutenant Kerr 100l., for which a handsome sword was afterwards substituted at his particular request.
On the 27th Jan. 1807, the Jason captured la Favorite French corvette, formerly a British sloop, mounting 29 guns, with a complement of 150 men [2] . ”

“ She felt as if she had lost her identity. She went to the nearest counter and asked for veils. Partly concealed behind the bulk of the woman next her, she kept her eye on the door. She saw Kerr come in. How absurd to think that she could escape him! She turned her back and waited a moment or two, still hoping he might pass her by. Then, she heard his voice behind her:
"Well, this is luck!"
She was conscious of giving him a limp hand. He sat down on the vacant stool next her, laughing.
"You are a most remarkably fast walker," he observed.
"I had to buy a veil," Flora murmured. ”

“ Kerr and an accomplice, Graham of Fintry, were brought before the Council and confessed the plot; and a few days after the arrest of Kerr, before the report of it had spread through the country, the Earl of Angus, having occasion to come to Edinburgh, was seized by the magistrates and confined in the Castle.
The King was absent from the city at the time attending the marriage festivities of the Earl of Mar, and an urgent request was sent to him by the ministers of Edinburgh and his own Council to return and take [Pg 75] steps to bring the conspirators to justice. ”

“ No: Tommy Kerr's unconscious soft carolling of Glan Meddwdod Mwyn as he had crossed the sandhills on that torrid Sunday afternoon had held no real personal reproach for Llanyglo. For Porth Neigr, perhaps yes; for other places, yes; but not for Llanyglo.
But since then things had changed. Things had changed since they had been able to tell themselves that what went on in the "Cambrian" lounge was no concern of theirs. They had begun to change when Llanyglo had been no longer able to shut its eyes to the beer-drinking of the navvies and bricklayers and the brothers Kerr. ”

“ He may have a joker up his sleeve as well as an ace in the hole,” Kerr warned. “I have heard of Buck Walters plenty down South. He’s a smart man. He’s got to be that an’ a cattleman, besides, or he’d never got in so strong with Dave Snell. If you get the goods on him, don’t give him a chance—the dirty dog. Gosh, a man that hires his killin’ done is lower’n a snake in the bottom of a forty-foot well.”
CHAPTER XIV—HOT ON THE TRAIL Rock chewed a pencil butt until it looked as if it had been mouthed by an earnest puppy. ”

“ On this understanding he was sent, at his own request, into Scotland. For the next ten years this clever adventurer contrived, without serious difficulty, to combine the characters of a zealous missionary priest, a political agent of the Scottish catholic earls in rebellion against their king, and a spy in the employment of Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil. In Scotland he resided generally with Lord Seton, and acted as confessor or spiritual director of Barclay of Ladyland. When George Kerr was captured, on his starting for Spain with the 'Spanish Blanks,' 31 Dec. ”

“ Her pomp less, her purity more: they had more of antichrist than she, she more of Christ than they: in their reformation something of the beast was reserved; in ours, not so much as a hoof. When the Lord's ark was set up among them, Dagon fell, and his neck brake, yet his stump was left; but with us, stump and all was cast into the brook Kidron. Hence king James his doxology in face of parliament, thanking God who made him king in such a kirk that was far beyond England (they having but an ill-said mass in English) yea, beyond Geneva itself ”

“ Then, after a short prayer, the principal priest uncovered the maro; and Otoo rose up, and wrapped it about him, holding, at the same time, in his hand, a cap or bonnet, composed of the red feathers of the tail of the tropic bird, mixed with other feathers of a dark colour. He stood in the middle space, facing the three priests, who continued their prayers for about ten minutes; when a man, starting from the crowd, said something which ended with the word heiva! and the crowd echoed back to him, three times, Earee! ”

“ That I was King in Kerry, and you were Galway’s Queen!
[p 51]
A KERRY LAD
There ’s a Kerry lad a-wandering across the dipping sea,
A Kerry lad a-wandering the foam,
And oh, the swelling joy of it, the joy that there will be
When that wandering Kerry lad comes home!
There ’ll be glad voices calling him, glad voices in the street,
And hands to clasp the hands of the gossoon;
There ’ll be soft winds a-whispering above the fields of peat,
And little birds a-carolling in tune! ”

“ I heartily wish that the same tenderness of conscience in all things may be seen, which if not, it will hardly be called a scruple of tenderness, but a cavil of malignity. What now remains but only prayers, that the great God of our judgments and consciences, would so clear and satisfy our souls in these leagues and bonds, that without reluctancy we may all swear to God, and, having sworn, we may have a care to keep the oath inviolable; that as once Israel, so all England may rejoice because of the oath: and God may be established, and His kingdom settled ”

“ Widow Horner did not long survive that night of intense anguish—she died of a broken heart in her son's house. It was remarked by all, that, while Thomas Kerr prospered, Walter Horner, who was at one time much the richer man, gradually sank into the most abject circumstances, and died a pensioner on his incorporation, more despised than pitied. And thus ends our tale of Major Weir's famous night airings in Edinburgh.
THE DIVINITY STUDENT.
"So fades, so perishes, grows dim, and dies,
All that the world is proud of." ”

“ Kerry, listening, became aware that the speaker was a man of cultured intellect. He wondered greatly, but:
“My time is valuable,” he said rapidly. “Come to the point. What do you want and who are you?”
“One moment, Chief Inspector. An opportunity to make your fortune without interfering with your career has come in your way. You have obtained possession of what you believe to be a clue to a murder.” ”

“ A rainwater-pipe was within reach of his hand on the right of the window and, leaning out still farther, young Kerry saw that it passed beside two other, larger, windows on the floor beneath him. Neither of these showed any light.
Dizzy heights have no terror for healthy youth. The brackets supporting the rain-pipe were a sufficient staircase for the agile Dan, a more slippery prisoner than the famous Baron Trenck; and, discarding his muffler and his Burberry, he climbed out upon the sill and felt with his thick-soled boots for the first of these footholds. ”

“ He is too great a king to want a spouse, and My supper is too good cheer to be lost; therefore go and fetch in the Gentiles. I thank the Lord that ye are come in. I know not a town in the kingdom of Scotland that is not come in, except one, and I am afraid for the wrath of God to light on that shortly. Always God hath His own time. But trow ye, that God will give that honour to every one? Nay. I protest in my own silly judgment (howbeit I cannot scance upon kings crowns) that it were the greatest honour that ever king Charles got, to subscribe the covenant. ”

“ I get so low in my mind I'm almost bedsick. Abner's all I've got, you know, Peter." She turned and looked at the judge with such love and devotion in her eyes that the Honorable Peter turned his gaze away.
"So you see, Peter," said the judge, slowly, "why I have decided to devote my life to writing and give up my active practice and my lecture courses."
"But-you know, Abner," cried Janey, "I don't want you to. I'd ruther die than be a stumbling-block to you." The little woman's eyes filled with fond tears. She turned to Peter impulsively. "He's the best husband in the world, Peter," she said. ”