Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-07-18
sTAUNToN, VIRGINIA, JULY IS, 1890.

that Dicky didn't understand How could
he, poor boy?
Later on still, just as Dicky had been
told-apropos 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 alight to
force him into his work, no one dare say.
He pounded on, the 700 rupee passage as
far away as ever, and his style Of living I'M
changed except when he 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 have touched man,
and, beyond all, the enduring strain of his
daily life. Gray headed seniors who ap
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, heart,
heart.
And Dicl5y, who fancied he had been
through every trouble that a man is per-
mitted to know, had to laugh and agree,
writ ho Loot limo Of hia ha1a hank
book jingling in his head day and night.
But he had one more sorrow to digest
before the end. There arrived a letter from
the little the natural sequence of the
others if Dicky had only known it-and the
burden of that letter was "gone with a
handsomer man than YOU" 1t was rather
curious production, without stops, some
thing like this "She was not going to wait
forever and the baby was dead and Dicky
was only boy and he would never set eyes
on her again and why hadn't he waved his
handkerchief to her when he left 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
Dicky; and there was no address to write to-"
Instead of thanking his stars that he
was free, Dicky discovered exactly how an
injured husband feels-again, not at all
the knowledge to which 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
xyba If ha ho6 Mrc Hott aftnr
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 HIATT 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 to 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 a 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 carry3" 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 then!-the 700 rupee passage,
and enough to have saved the wife and the
little son, and to have allowed of assured
and open marriage, came then. Dicky
burst into roar of laughter-laughter he
could not check-nasty, jangling merri-
ment that seemed as if it would go on for
ever. When he had recovered himself he
said, quite seriously: ''Im tired of work.
Pm an old man now. It's about time re-
tired. And I WILL
"The boys mad!'' said the head
think he was right; but Dicky HIATT
never reappeared to settle the question
Rudyard Kipling.