San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-04-10
THE BIRD DETECTIVE.

| IrutltullY DICK nau TAKEN HIS 70 VI
crusts with the world, for they seemed to
have been his natural inheritance. He was
put off with crusts when too small to re-
monstrate at the injustice, and every one
| seemed to have followed in the track of his
| parents with their donations of cruSts, sup
| posing him to be receptacle for them. This
! is a way that the world seems to have. This
| stinting and stunting had warped Dicks ma
| ture and given him dry, harsh tone as 1t
had an unlovely face and figure, but he had
never budged at his destiny, taking to the
crusts as they came along and crunching
them bitter or sweet with the logged hope
that some day the people who had been get
ting the gingerbread would change places
with him.
This was not nice spirit for young man
to cultivate, and some peoplea good deal bet
ter off than Dick might criticise it, although
they might have no objection to his eating
their crusts.
1t was, therefore, the fortune of Dick not
to be loved much either by his family or'his
neighbors, while against his greater neighbor,
mankind, he nursed almost insensibly little
well deserved grudge on his own account
Withal, he was prosperous in way, very
humble one, and in an avocation not usually
chosen by Dick, with whom necessity sup
piled the place of preference in a good many
matters.
He was engaged in the sale of second hand
clothing in the great center of that trade, the
renowned Baxter street, of which the sur
roundings although unique, are painfully
unromantc, and where the names of the house
of Isaac predominant over all others, ancient
and modern The store was not the property
of Dick but of the Widow Creecy, upon
whose death it would belong to Dick, his
brother and two sisters.
Dick, however, constituted the manage
ment, as the widow was bedridden, the daugh-
tiers lazy and the brother worthless.
With these conflicting elements it was
| hardly possible to expect an angelic dispo-
| sition of Dick, who, in order to get the crusts
which kept body and soul together, was shut
up eternally in the grim looking store among
| the cast off garments, while the others
amused themselves as they liked best and
| abused Dick for variation.
The drudge confined his attention to bust
ness and let them go, course he had found
to be the most profitable and had consequent
" adopted. By this means he had brought
the affairs of the family from bankruptcy
| into the comfortable condition of a thousand
| dollar surplus.
This thousand dollars was kept in a safe in
a store ready to be expended at any moment
when favorable opportunity presented for
sorting up stock.
The sole companion of Dick during all this
long apprenticeship to patience and thrift
and the miscellaneous virtues which go to
make a successful merchant, was meager
J and dlapitated jackdaw.
Between Dick and the jackdaw existed O
strong sympathy and something of a resem-
blance They both looked Injured to hard
knocks The jackdaw was minus a leg and
an eve. His survival was due to the inter
ference OF Dick, who had purchased its I'M
munity from further mutilation at the hands
of brother by administering Il licking to him.
Since then the bird had devoted itself tC
Dick with the gratitude which the dumb ere
alton invariably shows for kindness from
man. There was even a similarity in The
manner of speech of the jackdaw and it
master for the bird could speak huently {
few sentences Which Dick with some care
had taught it to remember, and the incisivC
style in which it said these things had been
copied unconsciOusly by Dick
j There was also a saGaciOus and seltentiOu
e manner about tho jaCkdaw Which Dick, prob
= ably from studying it, had adopted to ad
vantage.
, But if the jaclidaw's preference for its de
, liverer was marked, its dislik6fOr the brOthe
u who had manned it was quite as conspicuous
II At his approach Jack would select dark an
secure corner, from which retreat it w6ui
never venture till he had left the place From
n this corner, with the red light of its eye
= cleaning like diabolic fire, it would watch it
:, enemy with a malignant look terrible to wit
IS ness even in a bird.
Enthusiastically they loathcd one another
n and it was doubtful if the vanity of the jacb
IS daw could ever have been appeased for tn
e loss of its leg and eye, even il, its hatred a
d been overcome, pride being such a strong il
Of gredicat in its nature.
1t was the custom of Dick TO close up b
store at about 10 p. m, and after boltin
= himself securely in, to retire to a comfortab
~ crib he had made himself in the back of tt
4 store Sometimes, it was true, he console
y. himself for an hour with his story paper, bI
- more often, being tired, he went straight
bed.
g. The jackdaw, perched on a beam some te
to feet above him, watched over the slumbe
re of the young merchant as if it had been
4 guardian angel
in 1t was some two hours after he had a
is. journed to bed, one wet, miserable wiptel
s. night, that Dick was awakened by his fTiel
of t4casackdaw' in the WaE!&SusuallY awoke hi
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