The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-09-23
occasional thcater ticket ard f.

saId Alexander.
linen the mail orderly gave Osborne
letter from the girl. Osborne loSx,-i
himself in his workroom, and read if
ana believed every word of it. And liy-
shS-elen for others-seemed hard
thing for the next few days.
Alexander felt his oats PROMPTLY. He
| cxcelled at baseball, he learned tennis
and dancing by magic and he rode wei,
osborne had never been so popular, lie
had served the Mammon of Amb;t;o,
exclusively until he had transferred his
allegiance to the God of Love. Sine,
then he had been a martvr-,nd
martyrs are more pleasing in stained
glass than in life. And now he re-
turned to the first cult, and ambition
filled him. lie rejoiced in his brothers.
beauty, which was of the BERTHE Cecil
type, in his magnificent stature. in his
agility and his athletics. He mounted
him on the finest horse to be had in that
part Of the country-and wore shah
by uniform himself all winter. He read
with him for two hours daily, and was
well pleased when the boy remembered
just enough to give his conversation
pecullariy brilliant turn. He argued
great things from this when Alexander
should go to school. But when he went
to school, Osborne saw the truth,
Alex, the account of you is very bad
You've barely scratched through on two
things, and you've failed on mathe-
matlcs altogether. I've told you that
mathematics is the test at the Point" ;"
Osborne admonished.
"Oh! come, l say; let up, Herbert.
I'm trying to learn this piece" He
picked on with beautiful absorption at
the guitar the lieutenant had given him,
PUT up that thing and listen to me. -
Alexander obeyed, as all men did
when Osborne willed.
Il am going to get you into Wes.
Point at 20. When say am going to
do it, you know it is going to be done.
Don't you? None of it depends on You
except. the study. | can't make you
drink, but I'll take you to water and
keep you there until you find it will be
easier to drink. You can go back to the
ranch if you like, but I'm not afraid
you'll like. l don't want to treat yol
as small boy unless you act the part
of one. You can learn, and YOU must
learn, or the theaters will stop, and
the hops will stop, and the guitar will
stop-also the tennis. You have been
cutting time, but henceforth you will
study four hours day and l will sit
with you to help you and see that it is
done"
So four hours out of every "a Os-
borne put to the use of teaching one
who did not wish to learn. Density can
be bored through with patience. 1t
is the india rubber of Indifferent clev-
erness that resists. After some of the
struggles, Osborne would lie awake
for the rest of the night from sheer
nervousness. The boy slept with I'M
ruffled brain. The lieutenant almost
came to forget the girl. But never
quite. A letter would come when Alex
ander was most inert, and Osborne
would stare straight in front of him
and grit his teeth, and wonder that a
man could live with both sides of his
nature thwarted and cut back.
But he had his reward. Alexander
went into the academy at 20. He was
the handsomest and most popular cadet
i'll his class-and he failed in the first
year.
just how such things are done no
one is ever quite sure; but in Osborne's
case it must have been sheer force of
determination. Alexander was reap
pointed, and he himself was made in
structor at the Point.
He stood over the cadet with the
singing lash of his ambition; and AL
eXander was graduated Is. Osborne
unwIsely took some credit to himself.
Nonsense" said Alexander, I'D have
done it alone. The first miss was ONLY
bad luck; don't think it's your circus"
1T doesn't make any great difference
to me whose circus it is, so that you
come out all right. I'm only glad you're
getting some ambition.'
ambition be hanged! It's the one
word in your lexicon. I'm sick of the
sound OF it. 1t is the sin by which the
angels fell. Look out you don't tall,
angel brother"
I'm not likely to fall, but | shouldn't
mind it, if it put you on a mountain
height"
mo heights for me. can't breathe
rare air. answered the younger.
Now, in the course of army events it
came to pass that strange fate made
Alexander Osborne second lieutenant
in the troop of which his brother was
first lieutenant. And the first lieu
tenant continued his ambitious goad-
ing. Alexander was independent at
present, and resisted to some purpose
He would not spend his nights in study
and his days in wire pulling. The war
department did not reward that sort
of thing, he said: it was action it an
proved. Wait until his time for action
came-then he would satisfy his
brother.
And the time for action did come.
But the action was disappointing. They
marched 200 miles, and then marched
back again Alexander cor,rlained