The Republican., 1899-04-20
THE CAPTAINS LAST
LOVE AFFAIR
6y Michael corday
| II NINE o'clock sbarn Cant cbe

to bed Twenty years of bachelor life
had made him the slave of a number of
typical habits which kept him in fet-
ters as strong as iron, and would not
permit him to follow the slightest in
dependent impulse.
Every night, after undressing meth
odically, he would hang his dolman
over the back of chair, lay his trou-
sers lengthwise on the sofa, folding
them carefully in the creases, and wind
his watch and drink glass of water.
Then one good blow of the fst-just
one-upon the feather pillow, and he
would crawl into bed and extinguish the
candle flame between thumb and fore
finger, after having moisteped them
Tor their p ,ection. This was his in
variable method of procedure, per
formed almost mechanically for 20
years pasti
The captain closed his eyes and
thought about the events of the day.
He had lost at dominoes and had to
pay for the coffee for two, and that had
angered him just a little. Then he
sighed, turned over, and fell quickly
asleep. Just how long he had been
sleeping he could not tell, but for some
reason he awoke. He lay still for a
moment trying to find reason for the
unusual occurrence.
Everything was as he had left it
when he retired. 1t was not raining
outside, so he determined that it was
mere restlessness, and soon fell into a
doze.
Suddenly there was a queer noise
in the next room-a baby was crying.
As if bothered by an oppressive dream,
the sleeping captain tossed about rest
iessly, muttering under his breath some
thing that sounded like: "Horrid little
imp!"
But the screaming of the child be-
came worse and more penetrating as
the time wore on, until the room
seemed fairly filled with it. Then the
captain found himself wide-awake, and
he gave vent to his feelings in a single
strong word. For year he had not
had a whole nights rest!
His neighbors were a young couple,
a simple lieutenant and his wife. Since
the time of the arrival of baby next
door the Grabbed old bachelor had had
to suffer its moaning, then its crying,
and now it was old enough to shrek
Justify.
Instead of mending, matters had, in
deed, become still worse since the ba-
by's father, this 'simple lieutenant" +"
with his sharp voice and his stupid
baby-talk, had tried to take hand in
the quieting of the child. dis "Where
is baby's hair?" and Does baby love
papa?" which he would repeat ten or
twenty times, until the little tot would
point to it's head or stroke its papa's
cheeks-oh, how trying it was!
But never before had the crying of
the child been so piercing as it was
this night. 1t was a succession of
screams of fright; the shrieks of a
child left alone at night, crying until
the little throat was raw, until it
lacked breath to utter another sound.
Alarmed and angry at the same time,
the captain jumped out of bed, ex-
claiming: ''Well, well, what's the mat
ter now?"
Ordinarily, the sharp voice of the
lieutenant or a lullaby from the mother
quickly soothed the troubles of the
little tot. This time, however, the
tears remained undried. The old bach
elor quickly put on his uniform and
went into the hall.
The door of the adjoining apartment
had by some accident been left ajar;
a lamp was burning brightly on the
table in the anteroom. He took it and
entered the sleepingroom. Next to
the large bed stood a cradle, the cur
tains of which the captain threw back.
There lay the little tot in a jumbie of
cushions, beating the air with her little
hands and feet. Her face had become
dark red from the exertion of yelling
and kicking.
What? The baby all alone? Quick
1y the captain looked through the
apartment, stepping into the dining
room, the elegantly furnished parlor,
the girls room, the kitchen. Not a soul
was there! Even the nurse-girl, that
useless piece of household furniture,
was nowhere about.
Hang it," he exclaimed. $50, while
the lieutenant and his wife spend the
evening at an entertainment, the nurse
girl runs out to firt with her beau!
Humph!"
Quickly he returned to the cradle,
put away the lamp, and lifted up the
little baby, a tiny girl. But she strug-
gled so hard with her legs, and made
such violent movements with her little
body, that the captain was afraid he
might drop her. Quickly he sat on a
chair and placed her upon his knees.
But she still kept on crying To quie;
her down, the captain got up, held her
before him with outstretched arms, and
began to dance some step which he
invented on the spur of the moment.
1t resembled the trot of a horse more
than any known dance.
To complete the effect he sang, keep
ing time with his fancy step: "Houpla
houpla tolderolloll!" over and over
again.
His efforts to quiet the baby were
almost crowned with success; she
sobbed a little less, the tears became