The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-18

| called. The same ManicheAn divinity. whose
name begins with S. but shall not be mentioned
| again. led her to take down the calendar men,
| toned beforehand, and to try the screws. She
| twirled them this way. She twirled them that,
OF sudden she heard Kate Common. the girl
4 who made the beds.
Gertrude feared detection; she hung up the
calendar hastily, and fed. But alas. she left NJ,
| which stands for Monday, aud 10, which stands
for the tenth day of the month, both one notch
too high t., W., TIL, f. and the rest all fol-
lowed M, and the engagements for the month
were all set one day wrong.
Kate Conner did not, in fact, enter the room.
But guilty Gertrude thought she would, and the
result was the same. Gertrude was called by
back again, and was made ready for tennis par
| ty at Mrs. Fishers. And now it is that, strictly
| speaking, this story begins.
George Clipsham caiiae home to dress for dim
ner. He stopped moment and took down the
Cyciopedia TO look at the account Of the battle
of Bennincton for he had been turning
/ speech he was to make at the Grand Army gath
ering and he remembered that Plunketts moth
| er was Stark. lie wanted to make good alln
! sion TO Molly Stark and her widowhood. But IN
| he passed his desk, he took this fatal calendar.
/ which guilty Gertrude had not had
time to hang on its peg Clipsham
| hung 1t up without thought, but did
/ look, to see to his amazement that the Grand
Army dinner was done and gone Yesterday. The
| calendar said he to dine. with the graduates
of the Western Reserve College to-day. Lucky
did not fire the Battle of Bennington on the m.
said Clipsham TO himself s'But what Will
| Plnnket sayf'
The truth was that Clipsham had this dread
| full cold which you all had. And just yon
| and declared that we would 60 to Florida
other winter if our lives were spared Ciipsham
| had determined. Handkerchief He was bank
! rupt in buying them. Hearing2 He had been
| stone deaf all the weak He did not cough very
badly, but the cold was just on that jnnriure
| OF the pharynx with the iarynx where 1T is SO
l e.. - \ Y
| the day before and nursed ir-glyceiine and
whisky, taken with very small spoon, was his
remedy-and he had persuaded himself that he
could 60 out to-day.
To tell the whole truth. his sister Prne had
| had pea soup and salt Goldfish for dinner yester
day. aud the children had been very noisy.
Ciipsham had determined to change the SCENE.
So he had determined to dine with the Grand
Army to day, and nov the calendar said ih-
Grand Army dinner was dome AMI gone.
We'll" said ClipshaYn TO himself. II could
not have spoke aloud any way. And ! should
not have heard word they sand. Western Re
serve. 1t is to-day, Lucky looked" And he
went on with his dressing, and thought over
some old Harvard stories which would do to
tell the Western Reserve graduates
AS he went out furred and even yelled, and
with those horrid aretics on. which made him
limp with pain, Prue met him at the door.
Dear George, you are not going cut with that
dreadful coughl Why was sure of you
have asked Mrs Oliphant and the Bryces to
meet you, and have such a lovely pair of can
vas backs"
George intimated that he did not hear her.
Prue shouted her bill of fare, physical and meta
physical, into his ear.
George was sorry But he was ali ready.
And to the hotel dinner he went, and left those
canvas backs behind Prue's would be warm,
alas! And at the Hotel Jeferson-that was more
doubtful.
The waters ali knew George to man. and he
was shown TO the reception parlor instantly
s1ndny apAc hot n
why third of the guests were in uniform. OF
course they were For it was the Grand Army
of the Republic But George, who thought it
was the Western Reserve dinner was surprised
that the college men wanted to bring out their
old blue frocks and bright buttons. "But that
was all right" he said, 'if they chose to-"
Oddly enough his friend Colonel Plunkett was
receiving the guests, and Clpsham slipped
into his hand the note of apology he had written
Plunkett slipped it into the little pocket of his
uniform coat, and found it there two years after
wards when he dressed for the same anniversary
again Clipsham mumbed an apology to Punk
EFT, to which, almost of course, Plunkett, In
shaking hands with half the soldiers of the
State, did not hear
Clpsham is bright man. and one would have
said that he would have caught the thread of
the occasion earlier than he did, But he did not
hear one word in five that any said. AS for
the uniforms, all the world knows that five
sxths Of the college men of the West served in
the war. Besides, they had introduced Clipsham
10 TfOlesSOr SullugruU6f, VINO udQ JUST arrived,
as the agent from the government of Hesse-
Cassel to study Western education. Clipsham
was interested in the savant, and they talked
very earnestly, the savant speaking directly into
Clipshams ear.
So it was, that when Clipsham got card at
| the dinner table from Plunkett, who was pre-
siding which said "You next" he knew that
now was his time to speak, without having
known much of what had been said before him.
And very good speech it was Not one word
n
American soldier, or Molly Stark, as there
would have been had Cpsham understood the
truth that he was speaking to a Grand Army
post Instead of this he spoke, with serious
| feeling, on the work which educated men can
render in any community. What he had been
| saying TO the German, he now said aloud. There
| is the secret of good speech. He spoke to the
men before MIN as If they We're all scholars. all
men of conscience, and all leaders in the villages
| or towns where they lived. He told some good
| stories he made some good jokes, but his speech
was not in the least commonplace, and it ended
with very serious pledge as to the duty they
would all do for the country.
! 1t was received raptnrously-yes wildly.
Indeed, the reader will understand, il was
better received than 1t would have been by the
| graduates whom Clipshanl thought he ad-
/ dressing. Every one of these good fellows
/ pleased, that one of the most accomplished men
/ of letters in Tamworth spoke to him as an equal
| with equals. They had only too much of sol
| er-talk, and were glad to hear something sung
or said to another tune. Ciipsham had gone
| deeper down than the average and commonplace
| as he was apt to do.
| Now you will say that before he left the
| hotel he would have found his mistake, or
| that, at all events he would have understood
| il from the newspapers the next morning.
But there you quite wrong. In the first
| place he only stayed Ito listen TO two more
| speeches" as he said. For it did not seem cour
| teous to go away the moment he had himself
| spoken. In fact. he did not hear word of
either of them As for the newspapers, Clip
sham generally looked at them, though not al
ways. He never looked, however. at what the
reporters called their sketches of his speeches
"Why should make myself m,serabIeiv said
Clipsham. Nobody else reads the things
and why should IT. If he had stayed
| long at his Office the next morning. or