San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-04-16

~ on handr'
Then light your pipe, my boy: it will help
you 10 digest my doeful yarn more kindly"
said Ross; then. leaning against the side of
the vessel, his sad eyes fixed on the murky
water, he began his story in dull mOnOtO-
nous voice which never varied until the end,
Irving interupting only by an approving or
sympathetic grunt now and then, which he
did not seem to hear.
Edward Heyland is my name: but Ned
unlucky Ned'-is the earliest one | Temem-
Der, conferred on me, by baptism prior
even TO the ecclesiastical one, three days aft
er my entrance into the world, when | was
rescued half drowned from my bath, into
which | had somehow slipped from the
nurses arms, face dOwnwardS. You sec,
Irving, am letting you off nothing You
are having my biography from the year one.
MY father was a country doctor in the
West OF England; and the day |, his fourth
son, saw the light deprived him of loving
and beloved wife, the mainstay of his hum
bic and crowded home. With my first breath
/ brought misfortune with me, misfortune
from which my poor father never rallied he
became respondent, his health began to fail,
his practice diminished yearly and he died
when was about five. My brothers, many
years Older than |, were already fighting
their way in the world. and maiden aunt,
my gOdmOther, who had a comfortable prop
erty in Government Funds, took pity on my
neglected deSOlate childhood and placed me
in large endowed school, where for several
years | lived, TO earn the nickname so ap-
prOpriately bestowed in the nursery. | was
certainly most unfortunate little wretch-in
fact, my ill-luck was so prOyerbial that |
came to be exc !udcd from all matches of
sporting interest; for. on whichever side |
played in cricket, football, hockey, et-cTterd,
that was bound to be the losing one. do
not know tIrat was more clumsy, stupid, or
incapable than the others; but | know that |
was Caned Oft"nCr than the greatest Ounce in
the school, and that, though naturally of
quiet and retiring disposition, | somehow
found myself miN"d up in every lawless
prank, every row.ly freak on foot, and of
course was always the first found out
When was about eighteen years of age.
my aunt died, leaving me live hundred in
stead o. five thousand pounds She had led me
to expect would b. mine. The change. aft
erwardS learned, was due to some haSty words
of mine, uttered one day in fit of irritation
which forget the next moment that were
repeated to her. And though Heaven knows
] had spoken of her kindly, gratefully, af-
fectiOnatcly scores of tmeS-fOr | was fond
of the Old woman in my way-yet, with my
usual luck, she never heard of this, and her
property was divided between my two sur
viYing brothers, who refused to refund Inc
penny, Cgntending that ! had got quite
enough out OF my aunt during her lifetime.
We parted in anger, and never met them
again.
Il went to London, and got employment
in a wine-merchant'S Office at salary of
eighty pounds per annum. My chief was
Sordid, grabbed old money -gruhber; but he
had 'One fair daughter, and her loved from
the first day | saw her. There was nothing
strange in that, for Alice WllOughby was
the faireSt sweetest woman | ever knew;
but the odd thing was that She should love
me in retum-fOr had nothing attractive in
me. was poor, unknown. shy, awkward,
commonplace bOy-and yet she loved me
my pretty Alice! She had of course many
other SuitOrs, one of them an Opulent mer-
chant and ship-broker, whom her father was
very anxious she should marry; and, when
he discovered the secret of our attachment,
his wrath knew no bounds, and he drove me
with coarse cOntumely from his services. |
did not mind much, for carried with me his
daughters heart and her promise to be true
at all costs. looked about me for new EN-
plOyment, and fell upon my feet in way
most uneXpected-gOt a ClerkShip at one
hundred and eighty pounds per annum in a
new inSurance-Office started on principles
which promised to make every shareholders
fortune In few years. | at once invested
my five hundred pounds, and, after had re-
ceived my first quarters salary, raised hun
dred pounds on the security of my prospects,
furnished a modest little cottage AT Gambler