Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1896-08-22

] pPchSu 'he leJUer Wnlcn Jne pOSLInhn
had just handed me. / remember it
was a beautiful spring morning, when
my cup of happiness was running over
anyway, and this last drop was almost
too much. l was about to fly into the
house as fast as my disabled ankle
would allow, when l heard the click of
the gate. 1 waved my letter to DR..
Griffin as he came up the walk, and he
smiled at my absurdly radiant face. II
was almost worth while to be so grim
looking, to be so transformed by a
smile, l thought to myself. l did not
wait for greetings or questions.
81 have got a piece accepted by the
- magazine!" l said, eagerly.
"Ah, that's good" he replied. "And
what are you scribbling about?"
"Oh, it's just lovely!" said. Don't
you want me to say it to you?"
go ahead, and don't tumble it," he
replied, dropping down upon one Of the
seats on the porch.
1 clasped my hands behind me and
ratified off my piece, flushing little as
| did it from suppressed laughter at my
own audacity. And then 1 looked at
him for applause. There was blank
silence, and my eyes sank, and my
cheeks grew hot with modification.
"Humph!" he said at last, getting up
from his seat. "Well, how is that ankle
of yours?"
1t seemed my fate always to be seen
by Dr. Griffin at a disadvantage-fro
the time when he just saved me from
numbering papa with the wrong medi-
cine, on through various misadventures
almost to the present day, and have
hated him afresh every time, as if it
were all his fault Some people al
ways see one at her best--he appeared
on the scene invariably when one was
least DESTROYS of spectators.
l started out with rather sinking
| heart not long after the adventure of
the poem-which incident, by the way,
| had ranked not little in my mind-to
| hunt up Sunday school pupil who had
! dropped off, after an attendance of a
Sunday or two upon my class. He was
said to live on small street which /
had never heard of, in a remote and not
especially genteel part of the city which
had never explored, and foresaw that
| should get lost. | stopped on my way
at the house of another pupil of mine,
whom | knew to be i'll, and whom had
been visiting for some time.
His mother received me in a cold,
stuffy little parlor, and entertained me
while Johnnie was being made ready
for company. listened sympathetical-
ly to a long narrative of the heartless
treatment she had received from her
physician. who really did seem to have
neglected his poor little patient, and to
have been rude and overbearing beside.
had passed him once rs l went in, and
had noticed how red and bloated his
face was, and had thought then that he
drank. He was a physician, | suppose,
Of no standing. had never before heard
his name.
And then" she concluded, 81 Just
phoned for DIR. Griffin. My husband
said: Don't you be bothering DIR.
Griffin; he's got more'n he can do tend |
ing TO the rich people, But he's got
time to tend to poor people, too, as well |
| knew. And l 'phoned. and he came !
Al, he's an angel i'm sickroomi"
The comparison struck me as so ludi- |
crous that a smile rose TO my face be- !
fore l could check it.
IF was Queen Victoria and Johnnie |
was the queens son he couldn't be no |
kinder. Now, you can just walk right |
IN and see how peart Johnnie's gettin'." |
After leaving there l walked on, and !
on, and on, as the story books say, and |
it really did seem that had embarked |
upon one of the vague, nightmareIsh |
quests of the Morse tales. The end of |
my journey seemed always just at hand,
and still it heightened, heightened, till |
| could fancy that 1 was lovelorn
princess looking for the castle of the |
clouds. If Bonaparte Plunkett had |
lived east o. the sun and west o. the |
moon, or at any other of the addresses |
given in those veracious histories, he |
could not, it seemed to me, have been
more tantalizingly inaccessible. He took
on, at last, half-mythical character in
my mind, as could find no trace of him. !
Hens and chickens ran squawking
across my path; geese Kissed at me.
to my unspeakable dscomposure; pud-
dies of ill-smelling water appeared on
the mean sidewalks; dirty women and
children swarmed about the doors, and
still Bonaparte Plunkett's place of resi-
dence ever receded from me. ! began
TO have a distinctly disreputable feel
ing, as il were becoming assimilated
to my squalid environments. and
faint fear arose within me, as I real
lied that I had not the slightest idea
in the world of where | was. Yes,
was lost.
l stood still and looked blankly
around me, beginning, as the last straw,
TO feel that my ankle was giving out.
| was just making up my mind to ash
the way to the nearest car line of the
next person whom should meet, when
saw a buggy coming down the street,
A sudden hope took possession of me.
He always came when / was in some
undignified and ridiculous plight And