Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-04-21
A PROFESSORS FAD.

Smithers TOddleWinker could afford tC
buy all the rubber bands he chose, still il
was a settled fact that nothing pleased
him so much as finding them or even steal.
ing them off parcels on the sly, and he al
ways kept the little pocket on the inside
of his coat filed with rubber bands Sc
cured in this way.
This was well known among the stu
dents, some Of them even saying he would
hook rubber band off Testament, and
it was a regular joke with them to ask
him for one just to see the wOebegone look
come over his face for rather than part
with one Of his precious bands he would
help on a lesson, or even excuse you alto
gether, and the college journal had squibs
on the professors fad every month.
One clear beautiful day in January the
professor was walking smartly up the
Beacon street mall, whistling cheerily and
observing everything as was his won't. He
felt very happy for that morning a friend
had told him that there was tree on the
common that The Autocrat had immortal
lied in a single line and that was very rare.
First-It had been transplanted from the
Gardner Green estate on Pemberton hill
some years before; therefore it recalled
memories Of old Boston, on which the pro
fessor was a profound student.
Second-lt was the Ginkgo bilboa, of the
thin, sparsely foliaged character, native
of Asia, the trees of which the professor
was just then deeply interested in, and
Thirdly and lastly, it was the only speci-
men Of its kind in the east, probably in
the country, which of course made it vastly
more valuable.
Well he had seen it; of course it being
winter there was no foliage, but he could
imagine that till summer came, and he had
stood and gazed lovingly at it, and viewed
1t from the long path and the mall and
from all sides thoroughly, and had even
cut of a piece Of the bark to examine with
the microscope when he thought nobody
was in sight; continuing up the hill, he
had just got it in his notebook and was
putting the broad rubber band about it
when, CHANGING to look across the street,
he caught the pretty girl who occupies the
window of the infants Outfitting and
furnishing store" the main part of the day
laughing at him.
With an assumption Of dignity he did
not feel, he turned about and snapped it
on, when-horror it broke-the only hand
some large band he possessed and he had
stolen IL from Fred De Jones, one of his
young men, only the day before. With a
groan he slipped the book into his pocket,
and, mounting the stairs to the street,
walked back down the hill.
In thinking of the tree he soon forgot the
band, and, as we said, was whistling cheer
lily, etc, when he noticed quite a crowd of
little children on the opposite side of the
street. They were evidently Back Bay
children out to recess from one of the pri-
vate schools in that vicinity, as they were
in charge of two ladies, evidently teachers,
one Of whom was already half way across
the street with some of them.
She was a little dot of a lady, with an
enormous cinnamon bear boa about her
throat, and a very timid, shrinking man
ner. She was trying to get her detach-
ment out Of the way of large coal team,
which didn't seem disposed to stop, and at
the same time hold a muff, a parcel done
up in a red napkin, and pocketbook with
n wide elastic about it.
The professor looked just in time to see
her drop the pocketbook, and Immediately
ran out and held up the horses, despite the
maledictions of the driver, who didn't
want to stop on the steep up grade, until
both squads of children had crossed, then,
picking up the pocketbook, he started to
overtake them.
They were already on the mall, when at
that moment he noticed the rubber band.
Stealthily pulling it off he advanced his
six-foot-One Of humanity gracefully and in
quired il she had not dropped it, "Why,
yes, Helen said the tall lady, glancing Sc
verely at the little lady, chow very careless
of you" Poor Miss Helen blushed a rosy
red and in her confusion dropped the par
t.. h, II, 1. r 1
ed her the pocketbook, at the same time
skillfully passing the beautiful rubber band
about his wrist and then calamity made a
clutch at the parcel lying on the snow.
Manlike, he got it by the corner, splitting
the contents in every direction. ooh
goody, goody, seed cakesw cried the little
boys and girls, and like common, low priced
creatures they scrambled for them, dirt or
no dirt.
''There, therel Worse and worsei Chill
dren-form in linem said the tall lady
looking more severely than ever at the
conscious professor, who was stammering
apologies and laundering in the snow
helping pick the cakes up. then to the
helpless Miss Helen, Big men are hate
full, think-Thank you, sir, we can get
along very nicely now. Sir" sharply, as
he still persisted in picking them up, "do
you imagine for an instant that we would,
starving, eat them once they have lain
upon the earthY BE so kind as to pass my
friend her pocketbook elastic Good day,
sir. Children, form but the professor
stopped to hear no more
About p. m. that same day the profess
or-his daily duties done-thought he
would take little walk across the Public
garden to clear his brain. He had got
well down the avenue past the Vendome,
when he noticed trim little figure and the
huttering ends of an enormous cinnamon
bear boa Just ahead Of him. by Atridesp'
IN very powerful oath with the professor