The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1889-05-24
A LARGE EGYPTIAN LAD.

One man rose from sitting on his
heels, put aside the lantern he had
been hammering at all the morning,
n reached down a covered bassin of
curds and a lump of bread from a
shelf, placing them beside the spot
where he was in the habit of sitting.
Then he looked out of the front of his
little shop as far as he could see up
and down the market, his large dark
eyes moving with slow reluctance, as
though to prolong the illusion that
something that he knew would not be
there might have been conjured thith-
er by some friendly sprite.
His search ended, he hooked a cur
tain across the open front of his booth
and hid himself and his doings from
sight. Yet, though he had put away
his ostensible employment, the lantern,
he must have gone to work again on
something, after a very hasty meal,
for, from behind the curtain, came
clear the sound of his solitary hammer,
tap, tap-tap, tap, tap. Greedy of
money perhaps, grudging the rest that
others freely took; but no one, it
seemed, troubled themselves very
much about him-he was only Selim
the unsociable. There was nobody of
any account just now to be interested
in his movements; the brass-workers'
bazaar contained besides him only
dogs and boys, and only the boys were
awake; the dogs were as sound asleep
as good Moslems, lying all together in
a heap, with heads resting on and
backs against each other, and legs
sticking out very straight in every
direction. They complained a good
deal in their sleep, having perhaps only
time in their slumbers to realize the
full pathos of the numerous kicks and
disappointments that they underwent
when awake. Now and then one
would start and turn over, and there
would come fierce snarling snaps from
those whom he disturbed.
The boys were left to look after
the various shops while the owners
were away, a boy being the only thing
that can remain energetic through an
Eastern monday. They were mostly
noisy, squabbling little Perslans; but on
the steps of the largest and wealthiest
booth, wherein there was a store of jew
els and jeweled work, sprawled a large
Egyptian lad-a picturesque black
guard from Cairo, in crimson fez and
white garments, with a pair of turquo-
iSe-encrusted pistols stuck in his waist
shawl. He affected a superiority over
the rest, and smoked his hubble-bub-
BILE with q erown-up air as he reclined,
disdaining the whispers and amuse-
ment about him. As q big boy the
others accepted his pretensions; had he
been a man they would probably have
conspired to make his life a burden.
They conversed in snappish whispers,
~interrupting one another continually;
he smoked 1azily, rolling from time to
time a crafty eye in the direction of the
booth of Selim the u%nsociable, at
tracted by the restless tap-tapping that
went On within.
A raid was being concerted on the
fruit and sweetmeat bazaars; three of
the strongest and sharpest lads we're to
execute it, whilst the rest of the boys
looked after the brass workers shops.
A few final directions and explana-
tions, and the three boys sunk STEALTH
ly out of sight, ~concealing their faces
as much as possible.
Then silence reigned in the brass
workers bazaar except for the ham,
mering of Selim. His hammer struck,
it could be heard now, at irregular
intervals. A fellow craftsman could
have told that Selim was finishing some
piece of work, turning it over and
over, giving a skillful stroke just now
and then where it was needed; now
stopping sto use the file on a rough
edge, or the knife to chip off a piece
of the pitch bed on which it had been
beaten out, and fragments of which
still chung to its ~intricacies.
A distant barking and shouting IN
nounced that the raid was beginning.
The very smallest boy in the bazaar,
IS he sat trembling on the steps of the
sooth he guarded, opened his eyes to
their full width, and looked burdened
with guilt. The cap he wore was made
Of an old piece of stuff that had once
been green, and in the badinage OF the
brass market he was called the des-