The Winslow mail., 1897-02-06

He pointed out the picture.
though / wished to ask the missionary
about his interview with Teddy Catty,
and had of course, rational human mo-
tives for such an interest in the lad, one
puerile triviality after another preoccu-
pied me, so that l had just word with
him before the ships company parted
at Liverpool
We were in the custom house. The
missionary's wife, thin, pale, shabby,
quietly executive and lady, kept Or
der among her children in a corner OF
the great, bare, overlighted, ugly place,
and beside her sat Teddy Catty, with
his hat pulled over his eyes.
1 felt that could not speak to him
there. To do so would, it seemed, en-
phasize the cruel, bold publicity of the
place. So l went to where the mission
ary stood over his bags and boxes, a
queer lot, and asked him, if the worth
lessness of the words did not choke him,
to tell the boy goodby for US and to say
that we felt for him. stopped short,
shamed with the thought of how little
we felt, realizing for once not only the
powerlessness of human sympathy, but
its painfully absurd deficiency in guam
tity, the unnecessary thickness of our
wadding of stupidity. Then I reflected
as l stood there that this whole little
episode of our acquaintance with the
missionary and the clown, so slight, yet
so dyed in the primary colors of life,
its grotesqueness and comedy and in
consequence, its mystery and tragedy,
was ending. or rather. as is the way of
life, fading, passing, like cloud, into
something else, and that soon the
quaint pair would exist for me no more,
and | rebelled against the mutability Of
existence. l said to the missionary: 81
shall be in London in week or two l
ion't suppose I'll ever be the least good
to you or to Teddy Catty, and there is
40 reason in keeping up such an ac-
1uaintance as ours, but for no smaller
reason than that we are all human be-
ings''- The missionary's eyes respond
ed so adequately with humor and good
deal beside that for moment it did not
occur to rae to finish my sentence, and
Shen l concluded: "Let me come to see
you or your wife a moment to hear how
things are. You'll probably know some
thing of Teddy Catty for as much as a
fortnight longer" "
Yes, he thought his friendship with
the clown might survive all devouring
time so long, and he said he would be
glad to see me again.
Yet / had been in London week and
had not looked up my fellow passen-
gers, when one day as Amy and I were
going through the amazingly crowded
rooms of the Royal academy whom
should we see but the little clown. He
was sitting on one of the divans, dress
ed in the conventional mourning of a
law loving Englishman, frocl1 coat
and Grape banded silk hat dignifying
Teddy Catty's little figure. We saw
him furtively wipe his eyes as he gazed
at the gilt and canvas covered wall be-
fore him, and we knew Emmy's picture
was there. We soon found it. 1t was
little one, hung rather high, and like
several thousand others in that home of
English art it was of baby, and, again
like the majority of them, it was poor
picture-dull, conventional. Whatever
had been in poor Emmy's heart when
she painted it was concealed under a
false, frigid method faithfully carried
out
Teddy's face worked convulsively for
a moment when he saw us. Then he
pointed out the picture and gave Us his
place to sit in while we gazed. There
was plainly no need of talking about it.
He did not think of comment as becom-
ing the occasion.
SIT belonged to one of the dressers at
the theater," he said softly after
time. 'tShe had lot of children, and
her husband died, and-Emmy-Emmy
helped her, and she was tremendously
fond of that baby. She used to keep it
at the house days and days to get
chances to paint it." Teddy's voice
failed him again.
After awhile in the moving of the
throng he got seat beside us, and l
noted, as if it were something surpris-
ing, that in taking it he arranged his
coattails with the same odd funniness
of movement as of old. 1t did seem
quite strange for a moment that his
grief had not lifted him into LEGAL grace.
He looked from one to the other of us
and said: 81 was going to try some
way to see you ladies, but the mission
aIy said you were going to come to see
him. l wanted to tell you that I'm 60
ing back with him to China, and I'd
never have known him if it hadn't been
! for you. y
'Going with him?"
Eyes. Miss Milman. I'm going to see
if can help him-help him be mis-
sionary, you know" Teddy's unfamil-
iarity with the phrases of the ''work"
pleased my ear. ''I've got a little mon
ey," he went on, ''and l feel as if Id
like to do something-something reli-
gious-some time, and it seems as if this
was my chance. fancy Emmy would
like it. But 1 never could turn in with
church or chapel people here at home
know l couldn't. They think circus
man ought to repent lot, you know,
and that ought to throw over the show
business for good, and don't see how
can, and 1 don't know that l want to-
Long as Emmy didn't cut it altogether
[ don't know as | want to. +"
'But-what-how are you going to
manage out in China?"
why, you know, the missionary's
different from most religious folks. He