Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1898-09-22
HOODOO OR MASCOT.
"where was yer today, Billg"

y
Laid off for a rest. "
The latter speaker was a tall, lank.
raw boned specimen, with a Grecian
nose of noble dimensions. The person
who sat opposite him at the table in
the cheap restaurant where they were
taking their evening meal and who next
spoke might have been his reflection in
a glass.
'If had Bills luck, I'd lay off for
half a year.
whats happened now, Joe?" asked
one of the two other occupants of the
table.
"Stuck the China lottery today for
hundred an seventy dollars.
"That so, Bill? Well, I'll be hanged I"
"Tell yer what I've known Bill to
do said Joe in a tone of mingled
pride and pessimism. i've seen him
fall into the river an come out dry rs
bone, with his pockets full of fish. F."
Eyes" drawled Bill in the tone of
one receiving homage due, IAN Joe put
the fish in the kettle ter boil an left
them so long they all boiled to glue
an spilled the kettle. +"
Only feeble laugh saluted these
passes, as all the hearers knew the pro-
verbal good luck of Bill and the
equally certain i'll luck of his twin
brother, Joe. So unvarying were these
characteristics in the two brothers that
Bill always spoke of Joe in his alb.
sence as the hoodoo, and Joe called
Bill the mascot, and they were pretty
generally known by these terms. Joe's
ill luck made him simulate tone of
pessimism in his conversation, while
Bills confidence in his luck was the
height of optimism. OF course this
was more often assumed than real, for
both had keen sense of humor and de-
lighted to exaggerate their own quail
ties. Still, years of following out this
plan could not help but make an inn
preston on them. 1t was perhaps moIe
so with Bill than with his brother, for
he had almost grown to believe that
fortune could never fail him, but he
would never have forgiven you if he
had discovered that you thought he
looked with pity at times on his less ia
vored brother.
The brothers were day laborers, in
the fullest sense of the California term,
turning their hands to whatever afford
ed employment-at present carpenters.
There existed in each of them fond
ness for certain little dressmaker who
lived across the street from their lodg
ings This fondness was tho one subject
the brothers never discussed The mar
riage question, though, was well worn
theme, and both agreed that bachelor
of 3S was a fool to throw up his life of
ease and independence and bind himself
to the cares and drudging of man of
family. Their fellow workmen, know
ing well their views on this subject,
used to twit Joe about Bills attentions
to the little dressmaker and vice versa,
but the only result would be q gruff
"Bill's fool'' or ",Joe's an ass.
1t would appear that Bill, in IT, IN
fidence born of his title to mascot, 1T
assured of the success of his suit, nd
it was doubtless with sense of ty
for and desire not TO take any advan-
tage over Joe that led him TO say that
night: "Joe, I'm going to ask Mary to-
morrow. That winning / made would
give me a start. | always draw an ace,
You know, so if you want chance
you've got to get ahead of me on the
deal
Joe cast look of establishment or
Bill. "Going to get married, ell? Well
I'll be doggonedP' And he left the
room with look Of supreme contempt
and disgust Nevertheless he accepted
Bills challenge to try his fortune first
and that night offered himself to the
dressmaker.
Somehow the boys found out wha
u was going on and awaited with Interest
C for Bill to make his proposal on the fol
lowing night.
Joe did not show up that day nor the
:. next, and the boys, wishing to get some
particulars of the result of the double
courting approached Bill with, "Well
what luck hoodoo have with the dress
maker?"
: "Usual luck, poor cuss.
"S'pose you'll invite us to your wed
ding then?''
Wedding be hanged.
n "Why, what's the matter? She didn
" throw you over, too, did she?''
5 "Don t s'pose I'm such darned lido
% as to go an get married, too, do yer
= Guess I've got more sense'n that foo
b Joe. -
~ The boys had sense enough to shut NJ
IS at once but in spite of his carriage they
~ felt that the spell of the mascot wa
broken. AS for the hoodoo, it is not 81
certain, for the boys say Joe never for
gave his wife for refusing Bill.-Eliza
y beth Harlow in Boston Post.
n.
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