East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1862-09-23
LOST AT CARDS.
[From Fraser's Magzine. ]

~
life of most men, we will hope, is bright.
er at its close han its begining,-
emerging from the grossness and cruelty
of the schoolboy and the passions of
youth into the light of reason and
knowledge; but that of him | speak of
was FAR otherwise The height he reach
ed VAS amidst thunderclonds, and the
road before him was no lighter, though
the way he came up was only misty,
and the place from whence he started
lay open to the sun. He was, indeed,
glorious boy, with spirits inexhaustible
as long as his pocket.money lasted, and
both ever ready to he employed in the
entertainment of his friends, too clever
by half for the majority of his compan-
ions, aud snubbed and bulied in conse-
quence. but having little knot of ar.
den. admirers all his own; the fate of
most wits at school, where practical
jokes and drinking.songs are chiefly nc.
ceptabe, and higher kinds of humor
are contemned and stigmatized by the
all.degrading term righteousness"
"What may yolr name be-" drawl
ed senior boy to Montjoy, upon his
first arrival.
at may be Beelzcbnb, but It isn't"
replied that youth; and he was thrashed
upon the spot for the repartee. Never
theless he soon got TO be liked for his
other qualties-his generosity, activity,
and beanty, gift which prepossesses
boys in favor of its owner, as it does the
lowest classes and savages, in an un-
common degree. | seem TO see him
now beside the ''grub cart" where ev-
cry enemy of the digestive organs from
cocoa-nuts to tofy had a o le. standing
treat to all comers with rmile of wei.
come, or bounding over the play fields
with his golden hair streaming in the
wind, and his eyes lit with the light
which glows from happy heart.
Laurence Mountjoy was good at
most things in the sporting way, but he
was best of all at rafiles. He would
have ratified his teeth if he could have
got anybody to put in for them. and ac-
tually did take ticket cheerfully on
one occasion for the chance of the re-
version of another body's boots. Upon
the eve of the Derby day-which was
his great festival-he would employ him.
self for hours in cutting long slips Of
paper, and inscrihing them with the
names of the running horses for sweep
purposes, and despite the strict disci
pline to which we were all subject, he
never failed to see that great race run.
Over the high wall with the broken glass
and along the dusty road ior miles and
miles, now whipped off from behind
some aristocratic "drug"--now hanging
by his hands to the back Of coster
monger's cart, elbowed by pickpockets,
pushed about by policemen, and catch
ing only glimpses of the course through
legs and arms, returning in the like un
pleasant fashion to certain floggiDg and
Imprisonment, he went and came, con.
tent and even boastful Whenever a
pack of cards was confscated, whenever
dice-.of home manufacture, AMI cut ont
| (for silence sake) of india rubbcr-were
forfeited, Laurence was sure to hc their
owner. He bet upon the number oi
stripes that would be given him, and on
what crop of blisters the cane would
raise upon his hands, and he invented a
hundred games with slate and pencil,
paper and pen, for school.times. In a
word, what whiting and expectation
are to the Yankee, gambling in all lis
branches was to him; it compensate!
for pain, for toll, and for loss of liberty,
and never came amiss to him in any
place or time. He came to school one
winter evening, at the commencement
of the half.year, in a handsome cab from
London with another boy. They had
bought great Roman Catholic taper,
and held it by turns between their knees
(although it struck them somehow as ar
impiety,) and plaped crabage all the
way A terrible voice cried down unto
them. on a sudden, ''two for his heels,
for Laurence's adversary had omitted
TO mark the knave, and the cabman ha''
become so interested spectator through
the little hole at the top, that he coult
not help rectilying the error. 1t terri
fed them immensely at the time, bn
Mountjoy never took it las the other did
as warning.
But 1--WE all have our weak points,
we said, and his is the pleasure he takes
in losing his own money, or in winning
other peoples to spend Il on them again
aud for my part, when / left school fo
college, there was none whose hand
claspcd 40 tcnderly, none whose com
panionship was so 10th to part with
as that of Laurence Mountjoy.
/ was bis senior by year or two
and when he came up to Cambridge
, was within few terms Of my drgree
so we were not much together. He wa
grown very graceful and handsome, an
; the qualities which had been ignored a
school were at the university gladly r,
cognzed. 1t would have been impo'
sible, amongst freshmen, to have pickle
out one more popular, and deserved
so, than he lie did not read yer
much, indeed, but no talked of readin
. as though he would be Senior Wrangle
He subscribed to the Simeon Fund, th
Dag aud the Pusey Testimonial; wa
, fluent speaker at the Union" tole