The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-06-05
DADDY DINKLE's WARDS.


This notice appeared In the Mayville
Index one day, ever so many years ago
Rev. Gustavus Dinklebach proposes to open
in Mayvile. January 1st, private school for
| boys. Particular attention given to tte rlasB-
ics and mathematics. Boys and young men
will receive a careful and thorough training
preparatory to entering college. Rev. Mr..
DinklebaCh respectfully solicits the patronage
of the citizens of MaySille and vicinity.
In other words, twas an old-fashioned
boys academy which Rev. Gustavus
Dinklebach "opened." An old old
fashioned boys academy, now all out
of date, and laughed to scorn by your
new-fangled fellows who turn up their
noses at Plato's dialogues in the origi-
pal, claim that the only present and
future hope for the world is that it shall
be " evolved out of the pattern of the
crook of Herbert Spencer's little finger.
Rev. Gustavus Dinklebach wasn't
that sort, bless his sweet, simple old
heart. He read his Bible and the
Greek tragedies, and believed the saliva
| tion of the word depended on the golden
rule and hic. hBc, hoe. His religion
and his learning were so mixed up that
he couldly tell which was which at last,
and he somehow got it into his queer
old brain that one who was familiar with
Greek and Hebrew and Latin lore, by that
simple fact perforee was made a gentle
man, and that it was hencefOrth incum-
bent on him to walk through the world
as an example to modern degcneracy,
loving his neighbor as himself, being
honest, gentle-mannered, kindly and
dignifed.
Rev. Dinklebach was all that himself,
and he knew no more of the ways of the
wicked world than if he had been a
spotted kitten chasing a spool of thread.
He came to Mayville a very learned
highly recomm ended man, with tender
heart, big bald head, the soul of q
little child, and but two pairs of stock
ings to his name.
Mayville took him under its wing.
He "opened" his boys academy and
presided over it for twenty-five years.
1t grew and fourished apace, and
nobody in Mayville cheated Rev. Dink-
lebach out of all the money he got. 1t
just happened so, as exactly the oppo
site had happened to him in every place
he had been before. To this day many
and many broad shouldered, bearded
man, with his own locks even beginning
to frost little, pauses a minute from
the clashing din of the wide world,
while he calls to mind the green days at
Mayville and remembers Daddy Dinkle
and GnlO G1HdS, dn1dt, with smile, a
tear and a blessing.
Rev. Gustavus Dinklebach was an
old bachelor who loved little children.
He called himself dreary old bachelor,
and part of his valedictory to his big
gest boys was this
My dear young friends, don't you
be an old bachelor"
| don't know how it was, but before
Rev. GustavI.s Dinklebach had been in
Mayville a year everybody fell into the
habit of calling him Daddy Dinkle, and
that although he was an old bachelor
They called him that to his face after a
while, and I'm sure they meant no dis
respect for him, so good and so digni-
fed he was, and so learned withal.
When he first wont TO Mayvil,e Dad
dy Dinkle took up his lodging with a
young Englishwoman who had a big,
stupid husband and frisky little Amer
lean born baby girl, three months old,
not yet named, on account of differ
ence of opinion between its father and
mother. The mother wanted to name
it Frances Mary the father, on the
other hand, insisted that the child
should be called Hannah. Both agreed
to leave the question to Daddy Dinkle
for arbitration, and Daddy Dinkle
named the bright little thing Theodore
gift of God.
During the year the comely young
English wOman's husband died. Daddy
l. L. L., e
widow. A few months after the widow
herself died, and left Daddy Dinkle
alone in the house with a little baby.
With her dying breath the widow had
committed the child to his care, and he
had promised that never while he lived
should the baby girl be homeless or
trIendless.- He promised all this, at
the same time that he had no more idea
what he should do with the child than
If she had been an elephant. But he
p omised, out of the goodness of his
heart. After the funeral he paid an ell
derly spinster stipulated sum for tax
ing care of the child, went to visit it
twice a week, and always carried it a
doll-baby and package of candy. This
was his idea of infantile femininity.
Misfortunes never come singly. Nei-
ther do blessings. Nearly at the same
time another piece of drift came float
ing across the wide sea of humanity into
the open arms of Daddy Dinkle. The
piece of drift was a boy. It was the
orphan child of an old classmate of
Gustavus Dinklebach, also preacher,
who had died of consumption, and the
poor father went across the river OF
death with his eyes looking backward
upon this world on account of the little
boy he was leaving. There wasn't a
soul On earth to stand between the boy
and the orphan asylum but Daddy
Dinkle. Daddy Dinkle accepted fate
and the two young ones. He took the
children, Theodora and little Ned Wal
lace, and set up housekeeping, with the
elderly spinster for his household god
dess, her mother going along to save
prOpriety.
These two children were Daddie
Dinkle's wards.
That's the bones of my story. Now
its ready to be commenced. Let us
string the bones together.
A warm bright room. A
young lady, with brilliant gray eyes, a
firm mouth, dazzling white teeth and
bright pink cheeks, sat on one side of
the cheerful fire opposite her sat IA
slender, elegantly handsome young
man, graceful as a picture, with curling
black hair and eyes which young women
of sixteen adored because they were so
naughty, rowing, brigandish-wicked