The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-08-19

After time Abner made tbe ooo,o,~
lance of other noted travellers - 80,
In turn conducted Abner to tbst otiu eacn
the world he knew the best and Io,,a 80 az ~
most.
When Abner's years had run 10 full,
threescore' and pretend" trips became
too exhausting, he turned instinc+i,-aIS
to the great friend of all ages No 800, "a
and began to humbug at home ava ,.-itb
pretend" flowers. r. The change cana
about in this way. One evenjne, IN No
Abner worked later than usual About
9 o'clock he entered the, private once Of
his master, Mr.. Baxter, to place q boIeroa
sheet on his desk. NOW on Mr. Raxter,s
desk lay open a copy of sBateman's Cen
fury OF Orchids Abner was old: he
was very tired; moreover, his eyes ached
from many hours lofi monotonous work
with mere black on white. The colored
plates in the book fell like fire on his
odd old brain. And for hours he sat turn
ing over the leaves of this treasure VOL
ume.
When Abner came out of blossom-Iand
1T was 2 o'clock In the morning, and he
was forced to tramp home through de-
serted streets. But the homeward walk
proved neither long nor lonely. He saw
orchid faces everywhere; seemed to hear
such sweet whisperings of far-off lands
as had never fallen on his ears before.
From that night forward the orchid fever
ran riot in the blood of Abner Jones' he
hunted the secondhand bookstalls until
lie found a copy Of Century Of Orchids
sufficiently damaged to come within his
limited means, and bought 1t. And when
he got the book home, an! what a legion
of happy hours did Abner pore over it's
enchanting pages! And now Abner began
TO watch the newspapers for paragraphs
about orchids, noted the orchid auction
sales kept a record of the price which
each noted orchid brought. Later, when
the craze grew stronger, he became
pretend" orchid collector himself. He
bought box of water-eolor paints. and
each night would work at making rough
copies of the plates in his book. He Sc
cured a catalogue of every orchid auction,
and the day after that auction took place
he would copy, out of the Century OF
Orchids" the most expensive one sold
there, write under his rough picture the
price established at the auction, and then
say to himself:
such ridiculous price for this orchid.
But then I want my collection to be the
most complete in England"
After thus easing his conscience by
little humbugging f-condemnation. the
old man would carefully deposit his val
liable new pretend" orchid In his new
pretend "orchid house'-a paper book.
on the first page of which was written.
please keep the door closed-tempera-
ture. 65 degrees Faihr."
Every Sunday evening at this period Of
his life. Abner would exhibit his rapidly
growing collections of orchids to Emily
and the children; and Emily and the chill
dren seemed, so Abner thought, as crazy
on the subject of orchids as he was him
81 ID,,A Tn, GoI
never been so contented and happy be-
fore.
One morning, about a week after Abb
ner had passed his sIXty-eighth birthday,
he was summoned to the masters private
office When he had entered and closed
the door behind him, that master, Mr..
Baxter, said:
"Abner, I'm I'll, not fit to be out of
bed. But I wanted to attend an auction
sale Of orchids ats- Prothero & Morris,
Cheapside; I've got here, 1t Is true, but
this is as far as L can get. You will
have to go to the auction in my place,
Abner.'
Certainly, sir" Abner was all on fire.
"Of course you don't know anything
about orchids. But I've marked with red
ink on the catalogue the lot want to
buy. You can bid as high as s15O for
that Cypripedium fadrieanum"
But, sir
but, but-don't you understand?"
Eyes, I understand. but'-Abner hest
tated his face went crimson with embar-
rassment; but regaining self-control he
ran on :"Oh, sir. have you forgotten that
a Cypripedlum Stonei platytaenium is to
be sold today by Prothero & Morris, the
first offered in two years?s Oh, sir, don't
let this chance escape you. don't IT,
well. I'll be damfedi What ON earth