The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-05-18

miss: Enclosed please find draft for $4,000;
same would have been sent before but for
Wells-Fargo' Office being closed the day of
your fathers funeral. The weather here is
fine, but we suppose is fur different with you
in the east, as your deceased mother often re-
marked to the writer. Business is dull and
ores are running light, most O the claims on
the North Fork sharing the fate OF your faith
eTs property You see," continued Captain
Rats, with the glow of successful authorship
mantling his cheek, that kind OF letter mout
be written so that by the time she got
through with it, it would seem as if she'd
knowed it all before, aud she couldn't get
nary soul to sympathize with her, and help
her take on" The feeling of tne majority
was so strongly in favor of the last compost
ton that they all turned impatiently to the
only dissenter Joe Fleet. But at this mo-
ment knock on the door checked further
discussion.
1t was Jack Foster, expressman-alert,
vigilant, familiar and fateful-holding letter.
For John Meritoe," said the Serran Mer-
curry, crisply. Gas we don't have no offs nor
agent at his present address, we deliver at
his last residence He tossed the letter on
the table, winked, and was gone
1t was for the dead man-the great Ist
cause of their perplexity. For a few mo-
ments it lay there undisturbed, while the
Capt. Rats, with decision aud independence
new to him, took it up. Thar's no one, boys,
hez better right to it than we has," he said.
81 propose that we open it here afore each
other and read it.''
"As to opening it, second the notion"
said Joe Fleets voice, "but we'll see who it's
from before we read it," added that honor
able man.
:. The letter was opened. 1t was signed
"The girl herself" said Fleet promptly:
s'read it,"
With hesitating voice, that at last seemed
to almost simulate what might have been the
hestating youthful accents of the writer,
Capt. Rats began.
How shall describe it? 1t was simple, it
was girlish. it was most affectionate, it was
real. Against its candid frankness and SIM
plicity, poor Rats's previous rhetoric assumed
the appearance of the most monstrous du-
plcity and deceitful sophistry. 1t was evil
dent that the writer had seen but little of her
real father, and that the rather common place
homely, often somewhat despicabe figure
known to all the men who now listened to
her yearnings was not the ideal parent of her
dreams. At last Capt Rats finished. There
was slight huskiness in the Captains voice,
slight dimness in his eyesisht as he ended,
and blur upon the fair page that was not
there when he began.
The Colonel had dropped his head between
his two hands. Horton had never taken his
eyes from the paper. Fleet, who had
walked to the window and had been appa.
rently absorbed in staring at the staring sun
light without, suddenly turned, advanced to
the table, and held out both hands. In an
other moment they were locked in his com.
panions, and the four men, holding hands,
closed round the table and the letter that lay
in its center.
"We don't want no letter of coincidence,
Captain Rats" said Joe Fleet, sturdily, "for
there amt anythin' to condoIe for. l don't
see just how it is, or how we can fix it, but
kn0w that that girls parents amt dead, ez
long. please God, ez we are livingP'
The men pressed each others hands in
silence, until Captain Rats, with burst
of revelation, disengaged his, and suddenly
brought it against his right leg with resound-
ing emphasis:
"That's t-and it makes the whole thing
clar. We don't write no letters of condo
lence-why? We goes straight on and writes
ez II we was the old man. He's let on
enough to me about hisself and his affairs
to make IL as easy as fallin' off log. Well
just chip in whar he left of. Well take his
hand as it is, play out his little game, win or
lose, and ii four sharps like us can't make it
easy for that child aud rake in the pot every
time, We'll leave the board. Yes, gentlemen"
continued Rats, taking up the letter, ''I'l
answer this tonight, myself. I, Captain
Rats, late Meritoe, deceased"
PART H.-How THE TRUST WAS FULFILLED.
When the combined guardians of Lagrange
first pTactised to deceive, they did not fore
cast the tangled web whose pleasant intri-
cacies and sinuosities they were presently to
weave. And when Captain Rats calmly an
nounced to his gentle eonfederates his inten-
ton of writing his first letter-in loco paren-
tis-to the orphaned girl with his left hand,
explaining to her the thereby changed chiro-
graphy through the ingenious fiction of an
accident that had happened to his right-it
was accepted with reclamation. ''You see"
said the captain, sententiously, "every man
sings ink with his left hand at about the
same gait. The style amt so pretty nor
plain, but she'll never find out it amt the
Id MANS"
The possibility of detection thus obviated-
and, indeed, it afterward appeared that the
simple minded girl dwelt more anxiously up
on the dscomforts of the accident to her IA
Their than on his changed and almost illegible
hand-varous other gentle frauds and deceits
were introduced in the correspondence. A
certain emulation of the captains skill and
Importance as correspondent grew up a.
~o~0 s~S NSNASA
make suggestions of their own, until at last
steamer day brought them generally together,
IN conclave, in the back room of the saloon,
where the fortnightly epistle was dictated fin
ally by all. Captain Rats pride. which at
first resented this Interference, was placated
by the compromise that the composition or
"wordin'' OF the letter should be his own, al
though the subject matter might be various
contribution.
Tho racnlt nj this pbo1l
was series of the most extraordinary letters
ever inflicted on single correspondent. II
was not long before their fame passed beyond
the horizon of their fair recipient. ''Do you
know, papa DEAR" wrote the simple girl from
the secusion of Nine. Brimborion's academy;
do you know your letters are very, very in
teresting. could not help showing them to
some OF the girls here? Your account 1.-THE
colonePs) OF the fight with the bear, was so
real that almost saw it. laughed till
cried over that funny story of the Chinaman
mending your clothes Ia characteristic con-
tribution from Horton), but then did cry
really too, papa over what you, (Fleet), said
about your feelings that Sunday you saw the
sunset from the poor little forlorn cemetery
on the hill. Oh, papa? it was just lovely
and so sad-so very sad! Mary Ricketts, said
it was Just like Shakespeare. and she knows,
oh, so much, and is considered very, very
lucy oil buIuh 1 OuSuL W Ut 80 IOQO
of my dear papa, as if wanted anything to
make me love him! She, Mary, asked me if
you were very old, and I said you couldn't be
very-are you? Then that was very good
about the mines that you 1.-THE colonel )wrote.
Niue. Brimborion asked permission to copy
that part where you 1.-THE colonel) describe
the manner of reducing ores; she said it was
so instructive and valuable. Dear papa, how
much you do know! But think like you
better when you're little-just little sad,
and say such sweet things. about the land
scape and your longings. Pm sure you're a
real poet, papa-aint your"
1t is scarcely necessary to say that when
this letter was read Fleet coughed slightly,
colored perceptibly, muttered something
vaguely about ''really having forgotten it ALL"
but remembered only that be had dictated to
Captain Rats some suggestions that he
Thought might please the young thing"
etc.; nor that slight feeling of jealousy
crept into the breast of all but the compla-
cent captain. Indeed, the Colonel is said to
have atterward remarked aside to Horton,
that he was of the opinion that Fleets slap
doodle''' and ''purp stuff wasn't exactly the
thing ITO ladle out'' to young girl that was
already ''overdosed with chewing gum and
licorice" and Fleet is reported to have eau
toned Captain Rats against the freedom of