Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-02-15

1t was moment of dread suspense.
The two little old men sidled around
each other one way, and then sided
back the other. Each seemed quivering
with eagerncss for conflict. Round and
round up and down the hallway they
sidled and ambled, silent, furtiye and
watchful; the startled groups giving
way and closing in about them in turn,
as they came and went. Suddenly there
was crash in the air of stick and
sword, and the onlookers closed their
eyes and shuddered. But it was not u
crash of conflict. A little gurgling cry
came from Tother's lips.
samuel! Samuel n
Almost thrilling was the shrilly-
pitched, piping response:
"Lemuel! Len.uelp
Samuel p'-"Lemuel r'-"Lemuel p
"Samuel % and "Bless me, bless me,
bless me y with "Dear, dear, dear; :"
smothered and choked by embraces and
hand-wringings between the Other and
Tother Pipperchirp, now came so fast
and furious that the most wonderful
stenographer the world ever knew could
not have set them rightly down for
printing; and all the other little old men
of the dormitory fell a Misunderstanding,
embracing, calling each other by their
Christian names, and wriggling about
the fipperchirps to get a kindly hand
upon them, or word OF blessing in
their happy ears; while handkerchiefs
waved and tear-ducts, closed for half a
century, flooded copious mists into I'M
used eyes; and even the disordered
chamberlain, burying his face in a
corner OF Others door-frame, tilliped u
solitary tear from the tip of his CULVER
ing nose and hoarsely murmured to him
self:
BLOW my buttons but this eres tn
wettest go since hever TIL Flood an TIL
Hank p
From this moment the ancient twins,
'the Other and rother Pipperchirp," as
the smokingroom tradition hath it to
this day, became the mild and gentle
lions OF the Slavistork. They fitted
around London town like a pair of
lovers, as they were, arm in arm to-
gethcr. They trundled about the ancient
bookstalls, haunted the Tower and
Monument, "Hutted" and "Tutted"
fromthe Strangers Gallery at obnoxious
measures in Parliment, wandered ut
Epping and Hampstead like boys un.
loosed from school, chaffed with the
costers and peas.shellers of Covent
Garden, basked like contented turtles
beneath the Piazza or read to each other
from "The Newcomes" by the huge
fireplace in the reading room or beside the
CHEEKY CRATES in their own apartments.
One was never at his ease without the
other. If one was late at breakfast,
nv fna Nhb
fumed until the cause was ascertained.
II one was ailing, the other fretted HIM
self i'll in his curing. Like lovers, still
they quarrelled; quarrelled and avoided
each others society for at least an hours
time. At last the office bells would ring
furiously. The hall porter always knew
what it meant. 1t made no difference
which door he tapped at first. When
opened, Other or Tother always stood
there with a note and tip in his hand
Turning to the opposite door, the porter
would always find the other little old
man waiting behind it, with note and
tip in his hand. Before the servant
could exchange the notes, clap his tips
into his pocket and turn his back con-
siderately upon them, they were in each
others arms; for, bless them, neither
had need to read what the other was
sure to write.
For many years they ambled on in
this way together. But one morning
they did not come to their accustomed
breakfast in the coffee-room. Then the
other little old men who met them there
were troubled. They waited long, and
many left their breakfast untouched.
Then they gathered in anxious groups
in the smoking-room, in the office, and
In the hallway Of the dormitory. They
finally knocked at one of the doors.
There was no response. They opened
it and 1t was vacant. Then they entered
the opposite door. For moment they
felt they had intruded. There sat the
brothers in their easy chairs at opposite
sides of their little table, an open volume
of "The Newcomes" between them,
upon which laid two hands closed softly
together. The old men were as if in
slumber, peaceful and resting. For
Death had come still as the moonlight
to that little chamber and gently beck
oned the Other and Tother Pipperchirp
away.