Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-08-03
AN INGERFIELD.
.. 1ERoME K. JEROME.
eo,.,~,,bt. 1896. I

sTs so ar ipconprehensible, subjects
 pssssu dame to severe examination,
 p0m .,. to elicit anything further.
 ia''G ;s the meaning of it? What
 Thn can have compelled John,
 s'lnss ten weeks has never let the
 DO sos seape his lips, to leave her like
 Fa0 . ,;tbout a word, without kissP
 ''-S Ssuddenly she remembered the in-
 bsu of few moments ago when she
 dsp. ssllod to him, thinking she saw
 aa . .ad he did not answer, and the
 Ba '1 tr,,th strikes her full in the
 bsSs rofastens the bonnet strings she
 'le s.an slowly untying and goes down
 0 aat into the wet street.
 pu o,s v. makes her way rapidly to the
 0u' If the only doctor resident in the
 'a',s aa'',sshorhood-a big, brusque hammered
 who throughout these terrible two
 pla ,hs has been their chief stay and
 psns ", He meets her on her entrance
 e,s 'S an embarrassed air that tells it's
 W. ,sle and at once renders futile his
 n ,amsy attempts at acting.
 How How should he know where John is? usa h told her John had the feyer-a
 % .sst strong, hulking fellow like that?
 " E has been working too hard, and has 'y 2. iayer on the brain. She must go 2 x work together and help each other, 's,y must not hinder one another.
 I ss vet John does not understand all ,sis The idea is new and strange to s,n, s.,, He feels as the child in fairy t0rv a on suddenly discovering that the ,sss and flowers he has passed by care ,.ssly thousand times can think and ,,Ik Once he whispers to her of the bbor and the danger, but she answers Smuly: "They are my people, too, l 1ohn It is my work. And he lets her have her way.
 Anne has true woman's instinct for ,ursinQ, and her strong sense stands ,er instead of experience. 4 glance into ,ne or tro of the squalid dens where bese people l4e tells her that if her ,ahents are to be saved they must be ,ursed away from their own homes, md she determines to convert the large bunting house--a long, lofty room at he opposite end of tho wharf to the re- temporary hospital.
 Selecting some seven or eight of the ,ost reliable women to assist her, she roceeds to prepare it for it's purpose. edgers might be volumes of poetry, ills of lading mere street ballads for all le respect that is shown to them. The derclerks stand staring aghast, feeling nat the end of all things is surely at and, and that the universe is rushing 1wn into space. until, their idleness aing detected, they are themselves .omptly impressed for the sacrilegious ork and made to assist i'll the demoli- on of their own temple.
 Anne's commands are spoken very geetly and are accompanied by the geetest of smiles, but they are never eless commands, and somehow 1t does * occur to any one to disobey them. masterful, authoritative ,hn, who has never been approached ith anything moro dictatorial than 8 mid request since he left Merchant ailor's school 19 years ago, who would we thought that something had sud- nly gone wrong with the laws of na- TO if he had been-finds himself hurry s along the street on his way to & uggist's shop, slackens his pace an in- ant to ask himself why and wherefore
 is doing so, recollects that he was Id to do so and to make haste back, aryels who could have dared to tell m to do anything and to make haste ok. remembers that it was Anne, is [ quite sure what to think about it, t hurrtes on.
 He makes haste back" is praised having been so quick and feels sased with himself, is sent off again
 another direction with instructions nat to say when he gets there He .rts of Che is becoming used to being 1ered about now). Half way there, eat alarm seizes him, for on attempt to Say over the message to himself be sure that he has it quite right, he 'coyers he has forgotten it. He pauses, rvous and excited, cogitates as to lether 1t will be safe for him to con 't a message of his own, weighs anx- lsiy the chances-supposing that he es so--of being found out. Suddenly, nis Intense surprise and relief, every 'rd of what he was told to say comes ck to him, and he hastens on, repeat ls over and over to himself as he 'iks, lest it should escape him again. ana then few hundred yards farther there occurs one of the most extraor- nary events that have ever happened that street before or since--John h. rfield laughs.
 sonn ingerfleld of Lavender wharf, 'er walking two-t thirds of Creek lane, a'tering to himself, with his eyes on ground, stops in the middle of the 'o and laughs, and one small boy, V 'eils the story to his dying day. sees U and hears him and runs home at eop of his speed with the wonderful "s and Is consoientiously slapped by mother for telling lies. All that day Anne works like hero 2, E, John helping her and occasionally s'ing In the way. By night she has