Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-09-06
CHAPTER XVI.
PALETTo AS A FRIEND.


Jameson was walking sorrowfully home
ward when he met Palette. He was in NO
humor for conversation, but he could not
civiily avoid the painter, who evidently was
waiting to speak TO him.
~Glad to see one man that isn't a capital
ist. You and /, Jameson, are independent
of banks and brokers'"
Jameson family smiled.
"This is a deadly time here in New York
a horrible stagnat.on. Every man avoids his
n~eighbor as though he had the plague: and
we have no Boccaccio to tell us stories while
the dead-carts go by"
"1he dead-cart went through our street
to-day"
"You don't tell mel Who is the lucky
corpse that is out oahis miseryg"
"Mr. Sleavin. Our house is shut up, and /
am a vagrant."
"a pair Of usi For the last month l have
performed the Wandering jew all by my
self. Now | have company. What shall We
do to lie jollyf'
"Jolly!"-with a tone of melancholy sur
prise.
"N hen should a man De jolly. if he CAM
when he's nothing to doc | am the slave OF
gold, you understand. If any rich magi-
clan rubs his dnuble-eagles hefore4me, woe is
me, if don't painti When the magicians
send their eagles on other errands, / am free
from their d%rudgery. Meanwhile, | live on
air, fattened out and packed away, like a
Mexican horned frog, or "a dreaming toad, in
a ifs Ire of a preadamite rock. But tell me
how it happened"
81 trusted my all to a man whom / thought
not only honest, but my friend, and he has
proved a s~coundrel."
"You shouldn't nave led him into temta-
ton. You are particeps criminis, and the
parfaker is as bad as the thief. Don't trust
without taking security, my friend; its offer
ing a premium to crime. Who is the luck
less r~ersonE'
aNorcrossln
Il knew it. | expected it. He was too
good by half. don't blame him for his
wilow-and-orphan business; somebody must
do it; but | made up my mind some time ago
that lie would come to grief.'
"Ihe worst of it is, he has dragged innocent
people down with him."
:" 'Innoceut,' yes, you have the word. A
man that trusts all he has without security
to any fair-sposen financier, is an innocent,
truly. But don't be discouraged. | don't
doubt you will find something to do in good
time
"But | must earn something at once.D
1.-THE danger of being made to work isn't
pressing. Ships will have time to get well
rested. Truckmen are actually growing, civil
with a little starvation. The beggars don't
hold out their hands for coppers; they make
more money by hauling out their oldsstock
ingsand lending at five per cent. a month"
"You will laugh me out of misery in spite
of myself"
81 hope so; but / am not sure that a man
can be laughed out of n thing he wasn't
laughed into. Now, Jameson, | am going to
surprise you. l am going to bore you, annoy
you for | am TO soc you every day for the
next week. Can you bear itg
Jameson pressed his friends hand
aCome, by all means. And now we are
near my house; go in and take tea with us"
"No, not to-day. food byei"
Twirling his grizzly moustaches and hum
ming to himself, Palette turned back. He did
not go to his room, however, but went Town
a quiet street. apparently guided by instinct,
and rang the bell of a well N door.
ais MIR. Osgood at homer
The servant girl nodded and smiled, and
Palette entered. MIR. Osgood was emphatic
cally at home, for he was ON all-fours, his
three children riding cock-horse, with merry
shouts, varied by harmless tumbles and
1aborious clamberings up, Mr.. Osgood rose
with afushed and happy face, and the child
rem rushed at once to clasp the knees of their
familiar old fIaead.
w all have to come dow at times, / be-
lieve," said Mr.. Osgood, smoothing the few
thin hairs on his handsomely arcbed crown.
Certainly; a man that can't be a boy with
his children deserves to have none. Now the
reason | am a bachelor is that | feared could
never unbend, being somewhat remarkable
for my perpendic-"
The word was cut off by a sudden move
ment; the children in their playful struggles
had, IN fact, thrown him down. In a mo-