The Portland daily press., 1881-09-19
The Chances of War and How
One was Missed.
rHarper's IAlonthly for september.l

There were certain conditions in the life
of my hero, whom | shall call Rex, which
made it easy for him to live out certain
romance that came to him when he was just
twenty five.
These conditions were an adored and
adoring mother, and widowed sister with
two small people who felt as free to borrow
his knife and suggest their fayorite sweet
meats to him as ii they bad been his own. So
his family was quite complete. 1t filled his
DAYS with cheerful work, and his evenings
were not at all those of the typical bachelor
His home was as merry and noisy and tur-
buent, and his nights just ''as devoid of
easen as if he had been Benedick For
his sister had come home before his nephew
and namesake, little Rex, had weathered
through his first three months of collie; and
many a night had he risen from his comfort
able bed in response to the walls that came
from his sisters room, and he and little Rex
had made a procession of themselves, the
good uncle sturdily singing, where, oh,
where, is good old Daniel?' his dangling
suspenders Tapping soberly above his slip
pered feet, as he trudged contentedly up
and down the hall. The conquered Rex
junior would finally sink heavily and more
heavily against his shoulder, until, when
Just about TO learn the fate of the Hebrew
children, he would succumb to the COM
bined effect of warm fannels, the charms of
music, and the solace of camomile, and
SSjiefoh %sre 9 edic Is dnfno 5Hi
Sometimes on these night marches his old
soldering days would come back to him
with great vividness and with them his ro-
nance. At such times Rex Junior would be
treated to a long walk, so long, indeed, that
his mother would sink into such profound
slumber that when she was awakened to
have him returned to her, she always rous-
ed up 10 the firm conviction that Rex senior
was burglar intent upon stealing her pre-
cious boy. As if any burglar in his right
mind would steal three-months-old baby,
when there we're spoons or ything else III
the house to be taken. His romance he had
never told in words but somehow his moth
er and sister knew there had been one, and
they arranged it to suit themselves He
was treated with additional tenderness be
cause it had failed, and so, doubtless were
they. Often one or the other said, "Poor
Rex, | wonder who she was?-what pity!'
b t ia her decetful heart she did not think
il pity, for this dream Of his did not dis
,urb their hold on him, and realization OF
il might have done so. Altogether it was
much nicer for things TO be just a. they
were. The tender mystery which shrouded
a certain time of his life offered an excuse
for the tide of motherly and ssterly love to
ebb and flow in constant waves, the rdiS0n
d etre for the ebb beiLg only to gather fresh
strength for the flow.
I've no doubt that they invested the TO-
nance with more magnitude than it deserv
ed. They even at times detected a sad
shade lingering around their hero's admira-
bic mouth, or giving far-off look to his
eyes, as he sank into the easy-chair which
his adoring small relatives tngged forward
for him lat rvbaft fhpea small rolafvoe
who had batteued upon CORY giant stories
from their uncle's lips until they were APP
peased, and afraid of their own shadows,
were being put TO bed, the daughter would
say, SUCCESSFULLY, to her mother, Poor dear
Rex looks tired tonight then, severely,
to her children: ''You children have no
mercy upon your uncle. You are always
riding him when he is in the house. | do
wish you would not forever worry him for
stories. could tell you just as nice ones"
This would raise a derisive laugh; and
backed up by the fact that there was notion
ly lamp burning brightly, but mother
cious small ones would suggest to each other
topics for mothers stories," which, after
the substantial fare in that line which their
uncle had accustomed them to, they regard
ed as very weak diet indeed.
eyes, the dear boy is not in his best spirits
tonight. | dare say he has been thinking
/ must hurry back to him, so he will not be
too lonely, poor fellow"
1t had come to have a perfectly clear
to those good ladies when either of
them accused this interesting man of hay
ing s'been thinking" and was in no wise an
intimation that, save periodically, he exist-
ed without thought They simply meant
that natural regrets were filling his mind
and depressing his heart.
II is true that, as he walked home from
bis Office the very night in question, he had
'sbeen thinking;' but his thoughts ran some
thing in this fashion: "If could see through
the game Sharp and Swindle are playing,
I'd feel better. That stupid old Fresh, to
let himself be trapped sol If clients only
knew how much gold there is in silence,
their lawyers wouldn't find out so often ho@
much money there is in their pockets"
And his mind had flown back to these legal |
worries when the niece and nephew, ceas-
ing to act as counter-irritants, had flown to
bed. But when his mother re-entered the
room, AID he caught her look of sympathy,
be threw his cares to the wind once more
and dispeled her solicitude by saying, cheer
fully, well, mother, which of us is to beat
at chess to night?"
1.-The dear unselfish soul does make
such an effort to be gayp' she had conse-
quently remarked to her daughter.
If Rex had set about writing out this ex-
perience, which was supposed to have alter
ed his whole life, being one of the concise
lawyers, he would very probably have put it
all into six lines. But he never had written
it out; he had only thought about it very
often. At first the recollection had beeu full
Of tantaliZing regret, because it seemed
to him unnecessary that the episode should
have been left unfinished. When he first
had come to know why he had been so ruth
lessly snatched out of Paradise, and to find
that "some one had blundered," and made
it imperative for the Union army to draw
in It's lines, he had ragged and called the gen.
eral hard names. Then later he had con
soled himself by saying that he was at pres
ent but enduring the fortunes of war; and
being determined man, he promised that
when once the war was ended he would fly
back 70 Paradise.