Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-10-01
DESTINY" BROWN.

novel than Theophilus, and he signed him
self "Theoph.h
Theoph, or Destiny, lived with two
weird sisters in "A small, gregarious house
off High street, Peckham. He issued
that is to say, from it at Q o'clock on week
day mornings and at 10 on Sundays, to 1t
he returned day by day at supper time
bearing his sheaves with him in the form
of chops or mackerel. Exactly at $50 by
the little German clock, whose short band
was consistently a quarter Of an hour In
front of it's long one, he would mix him
self a little glass of tepid grog. When the
long hand pointed to 10 and the short
hand to IA quarter past, Destiny blew out
his candle and resigned himself to the GIN,
brace of the darkness.
For the modest remuneration of $40 per
annum he sang every Sunday morning in
the gallery Of IA neighboring Catholic
church. OF the congregation non but his
sisters was aware Of having seen him at
any time, and SO far as he was present to
their thoughts he was of heroic stature
and herculean proportions, a redoubtabls
Apollo, whereas, in fact, those thunder
GUS notes shook the little fragile form to
its foundations; Its calves quiyered, and
the blud gray hands trembled as they turn
ed the leaves.
There had been n time when Theoph
was no more than five and thirty, and
when the lingerers of his early friends
had not yet ceased by fits and starts to ex-
hort him to "oome out to "do things"
to take a line," to "make a move"
"My dear fellow, - wilkins used to say
through the smoke as they sat putting
wilkins was subeditor on an evening pa
peri, 81 want you-now I really mean 1t
Ito do something. 1t is getting serious.
Here are you. a man of ability far beyond
mine, for example, with ten times my ed
u~oation, and you are doing nothing with 1t.
You let the chances slip by; man after man
pushes you aside. That IL what they do"
he would repeat rhetorically-'push you
aside and mount Oh your shoulders, up the
ladder, out OF sight and away" Where
upon the speaker would pause for q reply
81 know" Brown would reply, reoross.
ing his puny legs and smoking thought
fully, while his sincere little gray eyes
searched the fire. "It seems rather futile,
doesn't its But If you know However,
I am patient; l can wait. The hour will
come, tho opportunity-and the prize.
There will come a knock at tho door, " he
went dreamily on, land destiny will be-
there, the dear lady, bearing 1t in her
hand. | am waiting for her rata -tat-tat
at the door"
''Eosh! Destiny be blowedi A man is
his own destiny"
But Theoph only murmured rhythmical-
ly to himself in his ponderous dulcet bass:
with a rat-a-tat-tat at the door"
The two weird sisters, in proportion as
they regretted the passing Of their own In
nooent hopes with the creeping years, grew
more pressingly anxious, dear souls, for
Theoph's happiness.
"It Is time, Theoph," they would say
shyly and contidentially, sit really Is time
you should think Of settling. With your
voice and appearance (they had never re-
covered from their girlish establishment
that their own flesh and blood should have
put forth SO bushy a mustsche) with
your accomplishment and appearance
But Theoph would cut them short with
a tremulous wave Of his blue gray hand.
"Yes. my dears, but one must not hus-
tie destiny. In her own time, my dears,
she will tap with her fingers at the door,
and the door will be opened and I shall 90
with her. One must be patient, my
dears." a
Hicks was persuaded of the perfectibility
Of the race. Come" he would say In his
breezy way, "to our Battersea settlement.
Help us to spread the light. Now l am q
man without half Of your ability. Do
content myself with earning a bare sub
sistence by some nameless drudgeryS No,
l do the work l And to my hand; I do 1t
with my might. lecture on the higher
CRITICISM to a class Of bus conductors. I
spread the light. Come and spread the
light"
Gentle thunder was understood to expos
tulato that it was not conscious Of any par
ticular light that it might spread unless
perhaps 1t were that one must not be- too
strenuous in forcing the hand Of destiny.
Hang destiny A man of your abil-
ity"-
The thunder opined that it did not run
much to ability.
"You are an ASST said Hicks In a friend
ly huff.
II have always feared it," replied the
little man meekly, while his candid eyes
peared pathetically at his monitor. "But
II II is only content to wait for destiny
and just to stand ready to open to her
when she knocks and to 20 with her the
way she points-well, +" he concluded weak
ly, there you are"
The years went by. Hicks was high in
the India office and, since be now rode al
ways In hansoms, left the bus conductors
to perfect themselves In the methods and
results Of the higher criticism. wilkins
was editing a London daily and stirring
up with his pungent quill a brave turmoil
In the far east. That was bis line. The
weird sisters had grown more scar.
Theoph still walked patiently the same
obscure path, but he walked more slowly.
He might be said to have walked heavily
II the adverb fitted with ones notion Of
seven stone five. His voice was giving
out, too, and his hands and the calves Of
his little legs trembled painfully while he
sang his solo. But his gray eyes still
watched the door. and bis ears listened
more a%nxiously, yet still with confidence,
for that tardy knock.
At last the day came when Theoph found
himself unable to rise and proceed to that
nameless toll Of his, and he lay In his
slender bed very still while the weird sis.
tiers watched him ~tearfully. Nerve after
nerve dropped out Of touch with the world
outside, and an inDffable rest was enwrap-
ping the nervous little body upon which
the last unction had spent it's grace. But
the patient eyes beneath the gathering film
still expected, and In Its pallor the face
looked more alert than usual, 30 that the
weird sisters US they watched 1t forgot to
grieve.
They were startled presently by a change.
The face grew fervid; the eyes, strained
toward the door, shone with an eagerness
Of attention; the head was almost lifted
from the pillow. They saw the lips move
and leaned down to catch the words. They
sounded like:
"Rat-tat .tat--door." The sisters under.