Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-10-12

outside: so cold that the child cried, and
the rain clouds were coming mp fest, 50
she hurried back 20 the hut. aud, together
with Dick, made her breakfast oil some
biscuit and some roast penguin's eggs,
which we're not at all bad eating. she
was, indeed. quite faint with hunger, hay
ing swallowed no food for many hours,
and felt proportionately better after it.
Then she turned to examine the condi-
ton Of Mr.. Meeson. The viii had been
executed mons TOO soon, Tor il was evident
TO her that he was ia q 0ry bad way in
deed. His face was sunkea and hectic
with fever, his teeth were chattering, and
his talk. though be was now awake, was
quite incoherent. She tried 10 get him TO
take some food, but he would swallow
nothing but water. Having done all that
she could for him, she went out TO see the
sailors, and met them coming down from
the flagstaff, They had evidently been at
the rum cask again, though not to any
great extent, for Bill looked sheepish and
shaky, while the ill-fayored Johnnie was
more sulky than ever. She Cazed at them
~reproachfully, and then asked them 10 col
lect some more penguin's eggs, which
Johnnie refused point blank TO do, saying
that he wasn't going to collect eggs for
landlubbers to eat; she might collect eggs
for herself. Bill, however, started on the
errand, and in about an hours time re-
turned, just as the rain SETH in good earn
est. bearing six or seven dozen fresh eggs
tied up in his coat.
Augusta. with the child by her. sat in
the miserable hut attending to Mr.. Nee
son: while outside the pitiless rain poured
down In q steady, unceasing sheet of wa
ter that came through the wretched roof
in streams. She did her best to keep the
dying man dry, but it proved TO be almost
an impossibility; for even when she sue
ceeded in preventing the wet from falling
on him from above, IL got underneath him
from the reeking floor, while the heavy
damp Of the air gathered OF his garments
till they were quite sodden.
As the hours went on his consciousness
came back TO him, and with it his terror
for the end and his emo for his past
life, for alas, the millions he had amassed
could not avail him now.
Il am going to dier' he groaned. ~ nm
going to die, and I've been a bad man: Two
been the head of 4 publishing company al
ms life"
Augusta gently pointed ont TO him that
publishing was a very respectable bust
ness when fairly and properly carried on,
and not one that ought to weigh heavy
upon a man at the last like the recors OF a
career Of successful usury or burgling.
Meeson shook his head. Yes, yes" he
groaned, but you are talking Of private
firms. They are straight-most of them
far too straight, | used always to say.
But you don't know Meeson's-you don't
know the customs Of the trade at Nee
sons"
Augusta reflected that she knew a good
deal more about Nelson's han she liked.
Listen" he said, with desperate energy,
/ sitting up upon the sail, 'and viii tell
you'll must tell you"
Asterisks. so dear TO the heart OF the
lady novelist. will best represent the con
| fession that followed; words are not equal
10 the task.
y
Augusta listened with rising hair, and
{ realized hoU very trying must be the life
OF q private coafessOr.
''Oh, please stop..' she said family, al
last. II can't bear it'll can't, indeed"'
"Ahrn he said, as he sank back exhaust
cd. II thought that when you understood
the customs at Nelson's you would fee
for me in my present position. Think
girl, think what I must suffer, with such
past, standing face TO face with an IN
known future"
Then came a silence.
''Take him away! take him away.'' sud
denly shouted out Mr.. Meeson, staring
around him with frightened eyes.
"Who." asked Augusta; ''who!'
"Him-the tall, thin man, with the big
book. know him; he used To be No. 81
he died years ago. He was a very clever
doctor; but one of his patients brought
false charge against him and ruined him,
so he had TO take 10 writing, poor devil
We made him edit a medical encyclopedia
twelve volumes for three hundred
pounds, to be paid on completion; and hi
went mad and died at the eleventh vol
N So, OF course, we did not pay his
widow anything. And now he's como FOL
mel know he has. Listen! he's talking
, Don't you hear him? Oh, Heavens! lis
says that / am going to be III author, ant
he is going TO publish for me a thousand
years-going to publish on the quarter
profit system, with al annual account, IN;
usual trade deductions, end no vouchers
Oh! oh! Looki-they are all coming
they are pouring out Of the Hutches, thel
are going TO murder me-keep them OF
keep them OFF, and he howled aud bea
the air with his hands.
Augusta, utterly overcome by this awfn
sight, knelt down by his side and tried Il
quiet him, but in vain. He continued
beating his hands in the air. trying 70 keel
of the ghostly train, Till at last, with Oh
awful yell, be fell back dead"'
And that was the end of Meeson. Ant
the works that he published, and thu
money that he made, and the house tina
he built, and the evil that he Gid-are the.
not written in the Book Of the Commercial
kin-sy
"Wel." said Augusta family to her
self, when she had got her breath back
little. II am glad that it is over; anyway,
DO hope that ] may never be called on e
nurse another publisher"
"Auntie, Auntie!' gaspcd Dick. 'wh,
cid the r'ntleman shout sol"
Theu, taxing the frightened child by tn
hand, Augusta made her way through III
rain 10 the other hut in order TO tell tn
two sailors what had come TO pass. itha'
no door and she paused on the threshol,
TO prospect The faint foggy light was s.
dim that a. first she could see nothing
Presently, however. her eyes got accus
toned to it, and she made out Bill ant
Il Johnnie sitting opDosite To each other ol