The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-27


married men when they are out of sorts.
He had no pension 20 look. to. What if he
should die suddenly and leave his wife IN
provided fer2 The thought used to hay
hold Of him in the still, hot nights on the
roof, till the shaking Of his heart made
him think that be was going to die then
and there Of heart disease. Now this is q
frame Of mind which no boy has right to
know. 1t is strong mans trouble; but,
coming when it did, it nearly drove poor
punkahless, persparing Dicky HIATT mad.
He could tell no one about 1t.
A certain amount of screw is as neces-
sary for man as for a billiard ball. 1t
makes them both do wonderful things.
Dieky needed money badly, and he worked
for it like horse. But, naturally, the men
who owned him knew that boy can live
very comfortably On certain ipcome-pay
in India is matter of age, not merit, you
see, and If their particular boy wished to
work like two boys business forbid that
they should stop himi But business forbid
that they should give him an increase Of
pay at his present ridiculously immature
agel So Dicky won certain rises of salary
ample for boy, not enough for a wife
and child-certairly too little for the
200 rupee passage that he and Mrs. HIATT
had discussed SO lightly once upon time
And with this he was forced TO be content
Somehow all his money seemed to fade
away in home drafts and the crushing ex-
change, and the tone of the home letters
changed and grew querulous. ''Why
wouldn't Dicky have his wife and the
baby outi Surely he had salary-s fine
salary-and it was too bad of him to enjoy
himself In India. But would he-could he
make the next draft little more elias
tic9" Here followed list of baby's Kit
as long as a Parsee's bill Then Dicky,
whose heart yearned to his wife and the
little son he had never seen-which again
Is feeling no boy is entitled to-eniarged
the draft and wrote queer half boy, half
man letters, saying that life was not so
enjoyable after all, and would the little
wife wait yet q little longerf But the
little wife, however much she approved of
money, objected to waiting, and there was
a strange. hard sort of ring in her letters
that Dicky didn't understand. How could
he, poor boyi
Later on still, just as Dicky had been
told-epropos Of another youngster who
had made fool of himself, as the saying
is-that matrimony would not only ruin
his further chances Of advancement, but
would lose him his present appointment
came the news that the baby, his own
little, little son, had died, and behind this
forty lines of an angry woman's scrawl,
saying the death might have been averted
if certain things, all costing MONEY, had
been done, or if the mother and the baby
had been with Dicky. The letter struck at
Dicky's naked heart, but not being official
ly entitled to baby he could show no sign
of trouble.
How Dicky won through the next four
months, and what hope he kept ahght to
force him into his work, no one dare say.
He pounded on, the TOO rupee passage as
far away as ever, and his style of living I'M
changed except when be launched into a
new filter. There was the strain of his
office work and the strain Of his remit
tances, and the knowledge of his boys
death, which touched the boy more, per
haps, than it would hare touched man,
and, beyond all, the enduring strain Of his
daily life Gray headed seniors who APP
proved of his thrift and his fashion Of de-
nying himself everything pleasant remind
ed him of the old saw that says:
If a youth would be distinguished in his art, art
art
He must keep the girls away from his heart, hearA
heart.
And Dicky, who fancied he had been
through every trouble that a man Is per-
mitted to know, had 10 laugh and agree,
with the last line of his balanced bank
book jinglng in his head day and night.
But he had one more sorrow to digest
before the end. There arrived letter from
the little wife-the natural sequence Of the
others if Dicky had only known it-and the
burden of that letter was "gone with
bandsomer man than you" 1t was a rather
curious production, without stops, some
thing like this: "She was not going to wait
forever and the baby was dead snd Dicky
was only boy and he would never set eyes
on her again and why hadn't he waved his
handkerchief to her when heleft Gravesend
and God was her Judge she was wicked
woman but Dicky was worse enjoying him
self in India and this other man love the
ground she trod on and would Dicky ever
forgive her for she would never forgive
Diclly; and there was no address to write to-"
Instead of thanking his stars that he
was free, Dfcky discovered exactly how an
injured husband feels-again, not at all
the knowledge TO which a boy is entitled
for his mind went back to his wife as he
remembered her in the thirty shilling
'suit" in Montpelier square, when the
dawn of his last morning in England was
breaking and she was crying in the bed.
Whereat he rolled about on his bed and
bit his fingers. He never stopped to think
whether, if he had met Mrs. HAITI after
those two years, he would have discovered
that he and she had grown quite different
and new persons. This, theoretically, he
ought to have done. He spent the night
after the English mail came in rather
severe pain.
Next morning Dicky HAITI felt disin-
clined to work. He argued that he had
missed the pleasure Of youth. He was
tired, and he had tasted all the sorrow in
life before three and twenty. His honor
was gone-that was the man; and now he,
too, would go to the devil-that was the
boy in him. So he put his head down on
the green oil cloth table cover and wept
before resigning his post, and all it offered.
But the reward of his services came. He
was given three days 10 reconsider himself,
and the head of the establishment, after
some telegraphings, said that it was most
unusual step, but in view of the ability
that Mr. HIATT had displayed at such and
such time, at such and such junctures.
he was in a position to offer him an inf
nitely superior post-frst on probation, and
later, in the natural course of things, on
confirmation. And how much does the
post carry?" said Dicky. six hundred
and fifty rupees" said the head slowly, ex-
pecting TO see the young man sink with
gratitude and JOY.
And it came thenl-the To0rupee passage,
and ernnnrch u have saved the VITA and the