The Winslow mail., 1900-06-21
Observation-Disclosures
The Book That He Married
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
t FORTY. Prof. Blackburn was
BY Aaron Mason.

~
on the women of Shakespeare, yet ne
had never had love affair.
1t was not that he disliked women
but they did not interest him. After
Rosalind, they seemed too tame; after
Desdemona, too easily comprehended;
after Portia, utterly undesirable.
If he went out, it was to some meet
ing of a Shakespeare club, or to WOO
and win some first edition from a
grasPing bookseller
o II ], s'"s"'sis n =
kI0sPuR sss..~s..-
So eager was h in his conquests thu It
be found, at last, that his collection fell
but one volume short of completeness,
and that volume was the impossible
the first Shakespeare.
For that an edition Of ShakeSpeare's
plays had been published before any of
those yet extant seemed probable to
Prof. Blackburn; and his patient re-
searches of Elizabethan and Jacobite
records seemed to prove that he was
not mistaken.
''There had been," he reasoned, "a
collection of the plays printed, the
proofs of which had been corrected by
the dramatist himself. Then an order
had come from James court, and the
whole edition had been destroyed, with
the exception of the authors copy"
The professors colleagues pooh
poohed this theory. The more the pro-
fessor argued with them, the broader
their smiles became.
The skeptics were still unconvinced
when the professor took rooms for Il
month of the long vacation in the pref
ty village of Wroxham. He wished to
do some botanizing, and the valley near
the river was a fine natural laboratory
for him.
So engrossed was he in his work that
three weeks of his month were gone be-
fore he really knew the people in the
same house with him.
For the same reason he hardly no
ticed the little bookshelf in the darkest
corner of his sitting-room. On it were
a dozen or more volumes, family
Bible, "Pilgrim's Progress" the "Holy
War;" and Buffers Analogy
which led the professor to guess at the
character of the others.
In an idle moment one afternoon he
took down the Bishops treatise and
examined the title page. He was sur
prised to find it first edition. He
put the Bishop in his stall and took
down the next volume. 1t was an edi-
tion of Shakespeare's, plays. He had
only opened it when there was rap
on the door.
"Come in," he called with college
brusqueness; and the hostess and her
daughter stood before him.
"What can do for you, Mrs. Hall ?''
he asked.
The girl answered for her mother.
'We are going our rounds, sir, to visit
the poor. There are so many old peo-
pie in this parish, and the vicar can't
do much. We try to help him as we
can. and we thought you might like TO
contribute little to the fund-just a
little"
Would couple of sovereigns help
you?" asked the professor, boyishly.
20. thank you'll" said the girl, sur
prised at his generosity. To tell the
truth, the professors clothes were a
little seedy.
"Perhaps 1 might come with you and
see these happy poor?" he questioned,
for the first time in his life, perhaps.
paying woman compliment
They all started out across the mea-
dows toward the village. She was so
pretty, this farmers daughter, that
Prof. Blackburn found her almost in
teresting.
But as she prattled on childishly OF
her little cares and pleasures, of her
quaint superstitions, his mind began to
wander off to his work. A sentence
from her brought him back suddenly
"You must know, SIR" she was say
ing, "that my father is very proud OF
his blood. He is Hall of Stratford-
descendant of Shakespeare"
"Yes," put in her mother, "and the
two things in the world he sets most
store by are Elsie and that old book in
the parlor."
"A book of plays" added Elsie. s'that
belonged to Shakespeare himself. And
/ believe father would rather lose me
than that book"
"He viii lose you with it, my
child" replied the mother, .for he has
always said that it is to be yours on
your wedding day, just as it was
given to him by his father when we
were married. 1t has been handed
down in the family that way fol
ages"
81 don't want the old thing" said
the girl. ''It might bring me bad
luck. Don't you think it might be so
DR.. Blackburn
81 should like to examine the book
before l venture an opinion an
swered the professor, gravely. "If il
is what you say it would be queens
dowry.. But it is possible your father
has made mistake. Would you mind
my returning to see?"
"Now?. o. not at ALL" answered FL
sic. rather pettishly, ''if you prefer