The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1884-08-13
THE CLERKS TALE.

lt was q sutfocating evening early in
august, and left my work at the For
elgn office to plod home to dinner through
the dusty parks in the worst spirits. The
wrongs of a junior clerk whose long prom
lsed holiday had just been snatched away
from him on the eve of fulfillment were
boiling in me. ( felt that they cried out
for justice in free country. Everything
was prepared for this months leave,
which was to have begun next day. NV
iather had taken house on one of the
most attractive slopes above Grasmere.
and the family residence in Lancaster
Gate already bore that dcnuded and for
lorn appearance which precedes a gener-
al domestic flight. We had breakfasted
gayly, picnic fashion, with old and mad
equate implements, we had psophesied.
with unabated cheerfulness, dining with
still fewer of the appliances of civilza-
ton, the family plate being not lost but
gone bef re to Grasmerc. The house was
IN as uncomfortable state as much pack
ing and putting away could make it, for
my people intended to spend between
two and three months at Emerald Bank.
Here was !, with my wings out
spread for flight, caught back and
doomed to remain in solitude, with dis
mantled rooms and furniture lurking un.
der dust sheets for company, and all be
cause an unstable senior clerk suddenly
declared that his health demanded in
slant change of air, instead of waiting to
take his holiday later on, as he had in
tended. The tale of woe is not COM
nPlete, for Olga Fielding, to whom l had
Sbeen but three weeks betrothed, was
/ coming with us to Grasmere, and we had
promised ourselves month of unalloyed
bliss among the Westmoreland hills be-
fore she was obliged to go back to her
tilial duties in Copenhagen. There. as
her mother was dead, she had to preside
over all matters, social and domestic, in
her fathers extensive establishment.
Great heavens! what an ill-arranged
planet is this, and what disorganized
constitution was that miserable T.'s to
choose such moment to be out of repair /!
In the first week of September Olga
would have to follow her father. who
had r1turneG TO Copenhagen, and we
should meet no more till after Christmas.
Was 1t not enough to make a worm
blasphemel and the bang l gave the hall
door on entering covered vigorous ex-
preston of feeling.
Well, the news was broken to dis
mayed and sympathetic circle. OLGA.
who had hitherto professed to consider
me as likely to prove very small addi-
ton to the natural features of the lake
scenery, was quite overcome; there was
some small balm in that. My mother was
very unhappy. Even Barbara, the young
est OF the family, and strong in the scorn
OF seventeen for matters of sentiment,
forebore to jibe, and gave utterance to
violent exclamations of regret, coupled
with equally violent abuse of vague per
sons unknown.
My father, after the first natural shock
Of disgust, endeavored to console me
with unpalatable philosophy and the cool
light Of reason, remedies which always
seem an insult offered to affiiction, when
applied to ones own case. "It's hard on
you, Harry. my boy, no doubt, and I'm
sorry for It," he said, in that SOLDERING
tone which strikes a chill through the
greatest moments of excitement, and
makes all previous emotion appear an
noyingly ridiculous; ''but now YOU have
entered on the serious duties of life. YOU
can't learn too soon that work and not
play is the object of mans life. I'm
not at all sure that "Ah how horli-
ble," broke in the soft voice of my be-
trothed, with the pretty, careful intona-
tion and long-drawn ripple of the which
she had inherited from her Danish mother
"Dear Mr.. Richardson, do not let us be
reasonable tonight No, that poor boy
is very badly treated, and it is all
fr-r-rightful" And my lady, unclasp-
ing her eloquent hands, approached the
iron-gray parent for whom our affection
had always been largely tempered with
respect, and flinging one arm tightly
round his neck, laid her pretty head
with its crown of bronze ripples conhd-
lngly on his robust black cloth shoulder,
My father no doubt experienced
slight shock; he was unaccustomed to
such audacious treatment from the young.
But he liked it, he certainly liked it and
planting firm parental salute on the
breezy coils he left us to pour out our
mutual woe at leisure.
That night l found it impossible to
sleep. The atmosphere was so close and
oppressive there seemed to be no air to
breathe, and dull feeling of underlined
apprehension haunted me persisteRtly
through long hours of wakefuness and
miserable brief dozes, refusing to be
charmed away by the voice of reason
Haggard, unrefreshed, and still conscious
of the same vague foreboding clawins at
my heart, l left that bed of suffering at an
unwonted hour in the morning and de-
.scended 10 the library, now a desert of
bare boards, dotted about with precipi-
tous islands under dusty cloths. Here
pipe, that unfailing comforter of de
Jected manhood, restored some balance to
my disordered mind but l still felt very