National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1871-05-05

/
place Do YOU dare to speak that way to
mv r'
He had raised his voice, in his rage, SO
that some Others heard it. There was a
little pause Of pressing people, lor that was
chivarous age as to the manner of men
to women, and the young officer. just then
returning, ayaied himself OF the pretty
girls dilemma to say:
MAY | assist you, Miss ! ] presume
you are not in very agreeable company"
"Thank you, SIR" answered Miss Rideau.
81 would De obliged to have some one
find my aunt for me she is here some
where"
"Will you accept strangers arm I"
I" In this misfortune. will"
! Dibdo took of the pretty girl, and one
oil his naval companions, looking after him,
/ exclaimed. "What a genius Dib. is with
| the ladies ~ But the companion, feeling
trembling, unsteady hand upon his arm,
tuned about and met young Utie's despe-
rate face. Il want to know the name of
that fellow ~ said Utic.
"That is Charles Dbdo." said the naval
companion, " lieutenant Of the L. ). irigate
For and | recommend you, my boy, to
address him in civil tone. For me, |
never mind drunken man."
/ Thoroughly demonized now, young Ro-
/ bert Ute turned blndly about for imple-
ment as revenge. He found 1t IN Tiltock,
a fellow clerk, a novitiate, and ninny,
who was visible in the crowd.
Tiltock are you a man of honor I"
II hope so, Bob"
"Can you carry challenge I"
so yes! | guess so, to 'blige old
friend"
"Can you write it ~
I'm afraid not"
Then take it by word ofmouth. That
scoundrel there, Lieutenant Dibdo, has
insulted lady, and me too. must have
his blood. Follow him up and meet me
at Gadsby's with his answer"
Full of self-importance at this first and
safe opportunity to stand upon what is
known as = the field of honor" Tiltock
kept the lieutenant in his eye, and took
him finally aside and demanded meeting
in the name Of Utie. The naval officer
answered that he had simply relieved a
lady from n drunken boy; but Tiltock, in
the dramatic way common to halcyon old
times, refused to accept either " drunken"
or boy" as terms appropriate to 1.-The
CODE and pressed for an answer. In five
minutes the naval officer replied, through
hi naval companion, that having ascertalned
MIR. Ute to be a gentcman's son, and he,
an United States officer, not being able
to decline a challenge, the latter was ac-
cepted. The weapons were to be pistols,
the place the usual ground at Bladensburg,
and the time the afternoon ofthe next day.
There was good deal of drinking and
boasting at the hotels that night. Ute
and Tiltock telling everybody, as partic-
ular secret, that there was 10 be "an fab
honah," otherwise ''juel," at " "Bladens-
burg, sab ~ The gn-drinking, cock-fight-
ing, sporting element of the town was
aroused, and Ute and Titock were invited
on all sides to imbibe to the significant
toast of "The Field" Very NOISY, very
insolent nuisances, indeed, these two mere
lads-the offspring of vain and Ignorant
social period of which some elements yet
reman-borrowe the money to hire
carriage, and at midnight they set out with
some associates by the old, rutty, clay
road for the Maryland village of Bladens-
burg. That night they caroused until
nature, despite her revolt, put them to
bed. In the morning, with swollen and
sallow face, dry hair, unsteady hands,
aching eyes and dim vision, Robert Ute
awoke to the recollection of his folly and
his rashness, and he realized the critical
period which he had provoked. His clerk
ship lost, his selt-pride poignant, his pockets
nearly empty, his respectable career IRE
trievably terminated, his sweetheart in
suited, and his life in danger There was
no escape either from despair or fate.
Tiltock was strutting about below stairs
with a drunken old doctor, misnamed
surgeon. who deposited behind the bar
rusty case of surgical Instruments, and who
took deep potation to the toast of The
fawcLuns of waw" The Bladensburg peo-
pie were well aware of the occasion, and
the old tavern was surrounded by loafers
and gossips, many of whom were boys who
had walked out from the city as we go to
prize fights in our day. To fill up the
time a dog fight and chicken fight were
improvised by the entcrprisng stable boys
in the back yard, on the green slopes OF
the running Branch While Tiltock strut
ted out of town at an imposing pace to
examine "The Field" Robert Ute retired
to his room, sought with an emetic to
relieve his stomach, and then sat down to
write some letters and an epitaph. The
paper was thin, and the pen and ink
matched it. but the drunken boys eyes
marred more than all for suddenly the
secret fountains of his lost youth were
touched as by the prick of his pen, and the
drops gushed ont upon the two words he
had written:
.ln...
Not his sweetheart, who was nothing to
him now, not his " honor" which had been
only vain glory and deceit, not anything
but this earliest, everlasting faith winch Is
ours forever, whether we be steadiast or go
astray; the tie of home, OF childhood, and
Of our mothers prayer and kiss-tbis was
the soft reproach which glidcd between
wasted youth and the 4" field of valor" he
had attempted. He wept. He sobbed.
He threw himself upon the bed, and press
ing his temples into the ragged quit, felt
the panorama of childhood pass across his
mind like something cool, sorrowful, and
compassionate. The sickness she had cured,
the bad words she had taken from his
undutiful Kps, the whipping she had saved
him from at the cost Of her deceit, the lie
she had never told him, the teas he had
found her shedding upon her knees when
first he had been drinking, the money be
mad never given her out of his salary but
had spent with idlers, his ruined soul
which to that mothers thought Was pure
as a baby's still, and watched by all the
angels of God; these were admon,tlons
from the green meadows Of childhood.
Before was the barren field OF honor. How
short is the struggle betwixt youth and