The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-12-11
THE RED TAssEL.
at is the Spirit, After An, That
Makes the Man."

4LcA60o ~ a
As I sat before my open crate to-
night, taking a tired mans ease in
dressing-gown and slippers, my thoughts
wandered idly back over the events of
the day and settled, singularly enough,
upon on elegant red tassel that / had
observed, with q physicians distracted
glance, depending from a window-cur-
tain in Madame Maystone's chamber.
Madame Maystone being the wealthiest
and healthisst patient on my list, it is
not strange that, during the detailed
and eaonotonous recitals of her physical
phenomena, the choice furnishings of
her sick-room should sometimes thrust
themselves upon my notice, for / was
reared, not in luxury, but in homely
comfort, upon a remote and Jagged
strip of the New England coast. Yet
as I sat and unused this evening, drowsy
with the genial heat of my dancing
red tassel passed constantly before my
eyes, not IS a type of riches and Al
easeful life, but as a reminder of that
talisman which unlocked for me the
door of my profession and of that one
and only guerdon bestowed by my gen.
tie lady upon her ungraced knight. 1t
is too late for work, too early for sleep,
and SO, while the golden flame flickers
cruelty and beautifully, like a dream of
love, about the dumb heart of the log,
1, the scribe of memory, will take my
pen and write.
About forty years ago, as the unfiat-
tering calendar has it, / awoke one
morning with a sudden, vivid conscious
ness of impending destiny under the
weather-stained roof, which is still
pointed out in Skipperville as the .old
Rainford place. and clambered with
double my usual speed out of the bill
lowy recesses of the feather bed, al
though in truth, what with the pain and
nervous rights at night. it was never
nv wont TO be a. sleepy-head. For YOU
NAV have seer already, If you have the
bad manners to peep in at an old doc
tors office window, that / am of small
figure and misshapen-an unpicturesaue
circumstance that has long ceased to
trouble the patients who need nv skill
and paw nv charges. but has never en-
tirely ceased to trouble me. Yet I am
twice the man. let me tell Won. in cor
poreal inches as well as mental. that 7
was ever expected to be. You would
have thouohf me a pitiful in
deed. If YOU could have seen me ON that
gray March morning sacred to recol-
lection. imuinp down the old-fashioned
staircase. thin and white and twisted to
one side by unseemly deformity. nv
wretched bit of a body fopped by a
great, square head. with brown eve
5eerino mournfully out from under a
thickct of TANGLED hair. You would
have topned to sneak To me tenderlv
as to a child. maybe. and would have
answered with increduIous gaze NV
shriIl retort thatI was eighteen wears
old last Christmas day and wanted no
mans pity.
But # Won had once heard INV mother.
with tears and sobbings and hidings
of the face in her matronly white apron.
tell the story of her only son-how she
had dropped him, a hearty baby of
twenty months, from her fainting arms
upon the stones of the wharf, when she
had fastened there with her neiohbors
to see my fathers ship come in and the
bronzed, rough-bearded sailors, turning
from the embraces of their wives and
sweethearts, had told her with stam-
mering speech that she alone should see
her husband never more until the sea
gave up its dead, you would not have
forgotten speedily in what wise it came
TO pass that the last of the Rainfords
was a weaklino and a crinple. If I NV
self had been able to refrain from brood
ing over that bitter truth. there was one
member Of mi little household who
would not have suffered me to FORGET il
for a day. Nv grandfather. known
to all Skipperyilie as Old Can,n
Reuben, was the scourge of INV child
hood. being stern of tonoue and miobty
of 5ulk and gifted with n confempf as
huge az his bodv for avery son IF tbe
RaSnfords who was found ON his fxyantv
FIRST birthday 10 stand below the bauch.
ty Rainford measure of six feet one. /