Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-10

ing that the dinner Is eaten and that you
will have to take some scraps in TIE
! pantry.
They were just sitting down on Mr..
Waggle's TOP step when the door flew
| open, a loud whistle like q call wa.
blown, and there stood the angry in
mate, while music played on behind
| him.
Marietta was aware that the brown
man answered aud ran from the garden
| She stood and shook with Lucy, but
| tried to be dignified.
ave didn t want to disturb you, Mr..
Maggie. We were only listening to your
music You play it so nicely
eyes, - responded MIR. waggle. put
ting his kuuckles in his side and lifting
the corners of his nose. "Only twenty
FIVE of you have been up this stairway to-
day. Any boys down there, Aloha?'
mo boys, MASTER" answered the
brown man.
"Then go back to your plants, said
Mr.. Maggie, and he reached down from
his doorstep with unexpected dexterity +,
pulled Marietta aud Lucy into his house f,
and locked the door.
Lucy cried In high, tiny squeal, like
q Guinea pig, but Marietta told her Mr..
Maggie would not hurt them.
He stood and looked at them, with the
fez pushed back from his forehead. He
always wore a jacket and fez. His face
was scanned with many wrinkles, yet it
had no look of age.
"There are ten music boxes here, -
said he, land l intend TO keep them
playing until 10 o'clock Tonight. You
will get enough OF the nice musio.''
Though Marietta was appalled, at the
thought of staying there until 10 CLOCK
at night, and Lucy squealed in n higher
Key, they saw the sumptuous, room Mr..
Maggie inhabited, its floor like polished
glass, spread with tutted rugs, and its
space divided by rich screens into many
little apartments. Square windows ana
square mirrors alternated until the house
seemed many times expanded. Light
bamboo sofas furnished the space not
shut IN by screens. and Marietta thought
nothing was lacking to this palace but
paper.
The music boxes played like enchant-
ment, aud Mr.. Waggle spoke as if they
were working spell.
'fNow what can you do, said he,
'to break the charm and get out before
10 o 'ciock?'
Inc girls WERE 1ulS was lutlE
nearest approach to the queer citizen of
the tree, aud he was quite different from
other folks.
''Cun you dance a cachuca?' de-
manded Mr.. Maggie.
Marietta had read of the cachuca, but
her family had never let her dance any
thing.
"Can you whistle an entire opera?"
did nv mother WOull IyhIn
me, - sobbed Lucy.
''There is but one chance left,' said
Mr.. Maggie. "Can either of you make
a rhyme?"
eyes. sir, cam" responded the
genius quickly.
''She can, - testified Lucy, showing
red eyes above a moist apron.
al mean, +" added Mr.. Maggie, Sc
verely, ga long rhyme, out of your own
head; it must he at least three stanzas
long, with six or eight lines in q
stauza.'
al can do it, said Marietta. At last
1.-THE Knight and the Lady" would
come to paper! Her eyes shone, and
she stood like an athlete ready for action
as Mr.. Maggie moved screen aud
showed her u desk furnished with every
blessing hungry author could desire.
There were even paper weights of curl
Gus design, aud painted quilts, and ivory
and silver knives, to distract the eye.
But what were these compared to the
piles and piles of creamy paper. the other
stacks of thin, firm leaves and beautiful
tinted sheets, visible in that open deskl
Marietta made three copies of 1.-THE
Knight AID the Lady, before she got
one free of blots. 1t was wicked to
spoil paper, but We are all prone to
wallow recklessly when we find our
selves in sudden clover.
She was at last ready to tap on a
screen behind which Mr.. Maggie had re-
tired. The music boxes played on IN O
taugle of tunes. He put on his eye
glasses. Lucy waited on sofa and
Marietta waited before him. She could
see the summer laud far out of the win
dows, and her own eager, pink, hair
touzled face repeated and repeated in the
mirrors around.
When Mr.. Maggie had read "Ths
Knight and the Lady, he looked search
ingly at the author and demanded:
'w hat made you write this?"
"Because it the first chance I've had
to write i'll" she answered truly.
"Do you often make rhymes?''
eyes, sir, confessed the little girl,
hanging her head. But she fastened to
add, 81 would rather write things down
IN stories, without any rhyme, only it
takes SO much paper. :"
"And you write stories, too? And
they cont try to whip 1t out of you at
school?''
Marietta was used to Indifference and
ridicule, but hardly to condemnation;
and Mr.. Maggie really seemed fierce.
She pleated the bottom of her apron and
muttered that the girls liked to have her
help them with their compositions.
"Don't you see what this will bring
you to- demanded Mr.. Waggle.
"You'l IL be every body's drudge. The
trouble OF the whole world will run
through you and if profit comes OF 1t In
the course of time your glorious star
spangled- banner country will rise TO the
occasion and rob you by its laws
Marietta flung the bottom Of her apron
against her face and burst into sobs.
She had lived punched life, and the
prospect which Mr.. Waggle set before
her must be terrible indeed. But shs
ierked the truth out of her laboring
breast:
"I ca-ca-oan't help It. I g-g-got to
write-what comes IN my head-if have
IN ri m, no bar