Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1886-12-18

NiNA NtA WIN bil-to w "a NNNh
generally useful boy last Saturday for
being so awkward as to upset 4 strange
gent, and | should like very much in
deed to have his place, I've had eX-
perience in the business and l~llpromlse
not TO spill anybody on the floor, and
to endeavor to promote the interests
of the firm in every way | can
The superintendent burst ont laugh
ing. $50 along to your work. he
said.
The new boy was the old boy-that
scamp Todd. And yet this intensely
respectful youth, before the day was
over, had replied 10 some question adj
dressed him by the digniied senior
member of the house with: IN be
blowed if | knew, sir
But with all his faults there was one
thing Bob was not. He wa not talka-
tive. Not that he would have found
any II disposed to talk with him if he
had been, with the single exception OF
the porter Il good-natured German
who often shared an abundant lunch
with him and discoursed meanwhile of
Gretchen, Nina, Peter and others of
the Seiger family. But not a word OF
his own family did the boy say in re-
turn for these condolences, and so
Seigor knew no more of him and his
belongings than did any one else. I.
tell the truth no one in that busy place
had evcr thought of him as having any
belongings, or in any way at all save
as that scamp Todd, until December
%, 1888, when a clerk on the floor level
with the street, who was calling ont
some numbers in a monotonous tone
from . big book which lay on the desk
before him, said numbers being re-
peated in an equally monotonous tone
as fast as they were called by a fellow,
clerk who stood some distance
from him, became suddenly
aware of 4 strange ~presence-as they
say in the ghost stories-and lifting his
eyes saw the prettiest girl he had ever
seer in all his twenty-five years stand
ing before him. Il bee bardon,' he
stammered, ~snatching oil his hat and
reaching for his coat, "can | do any
thing for you?' BY this time the re-
peater, thinking he had waited long
enough for the next number, shouted
"Why the dev-' and then raising his
eyes, also saw the prettiest of young
women and also snatched of his hat
and reached for his coat.
The girls sweet face grew rosy as a
summer dawn. Il would like she
said in low, falterng tones, ito sec
Robert Todd. He IS my brother.
should not have come had it not been
something very important
"Oh! I'm sure you're eXceedir ely
welcome began the first enumerator
"That is, it doesn't make any ditler.
encc. should say-Hey, Seiger,' he
broke off to call to the porter, who
happened to be going by, "tell tina
scam-I mean tell Robert Todd hi.
sister would like to see him.
"Robert?' said the porter wonder
ingly "a the second enumeratol
brought forward a chair, which The
lovely %apparition accepted with a mu
steal THANK you
"Yes, Robert Todd, Don't you know,
Our boy
''Ya, ya," said Scigcr. "Robair
Tott. fetch him
And away he trottcd with a comica
twinkle in his small gray eyes and ,
backward glance at Robairt's sister.
cant imagine how it got all over tina.
large establishment in a few moment,
that that scamp Todd had a grown-ul
sister; that she was d~istractingll
pretty; and that she had come to SCI
him, aud was waiting in the enumera
tors room, but it did, and almos
every man employed there managed t,
get down stairs-it being lunch time
and take a peep at her.
"Who would have thought of a Mis-.
Todd said Brooke, being not only
pretty but decidedly charming?'
Great Scott" was Wheat's irrele
want reply, "what hair and eyes sh,
has. Looks something like that sea
| mean like Bob, too
Poor thing!' exclaimed Gibson
''She seems to be very poorly clad 70.
such a cold day
That's So said Brooke. ''rha
jacket looks like a summer jacket an,
makes a fellow feel ashamed of havin!
IN o%yercOat.'
As for the cnumerators, one of then
called out '1S" when he should hay,
called out some thing away up in tn
hundreds, and the other repeated "lS'
in an idiotic manner when he mus
have known better, and Just then Il
Bob walked with his sister to the door
Mr., Prince, the junior and bachelo
member of the firm -and very fine
looking he was, too-came down o
the elevator, and the young men di,
appeared as suddenly as they had al
peared.
Bob was very much ostonished this
evening when. as he was leaving til
store, Brooke hailed him with:
Hold on, Bob; I'm going you
way"
Thought you lived t'other side
the city, said Bob.
Il do, but | have q commission
execute in your neighborhood,' IN
swered the unblushing untruthGr, 80
q store round the corner from where go
live" And he and the u%nsuspectin
Bob went off together.
The next morning Brooke had ha
scarcely time to don his working jack
when his chums surrounded him an
inundated HIM with questions. AZ,
heavens sake, give me time" said h,
"and III tell YOU all | know. The
live in an old ramshackle building thi
was once some kind of a factory, BIT
has been turned into a cheap tencmeI
house. There's an old father so bad
crippled that he hasn't walked for iil
years; a middle-agcd mother vii
nurses him and also nurses her mothe.
who is bedridden. Vienna that h,
name-isn't it queer-and that seam
i mean Bob-earn all the money ii
family have. She'sa drcsSmaker. An
the L6r~sd only knows how they manag
to get along at all.
"How, in thunder, did you find enh'
out?n asked Wheat. you've got Il
good deal of cheek-in fact, | don't
know any fellow that's got more--but
l don't believe even you have quite
enough to walk into Il house and de-
mand information of people about