The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-07-13
THE GILDED ROLL

! mouth" as he called it, upside down.
laughing always-at everything, at big
rallies, and Something's and conven-
TONS county fairs, and floral halls,
tents, the swing Daguerrean car, the
lung barometer" and the air-gun man.
OH what a gifted good-for-nothing boy
Bob was In those old daysl And here $
picture of girlish face-a very faded
photograph-even fresh from 1.-The gall
lery," five and twenty years ago it was a
faded thing. But the living face-how
bright and clear that was!-for doc. "
Bob's awful name for her, was a pretty
girl, and brilliant clever, lovable every
way. No wonder Bob fancied herl And
you could see some hint of her jaunty
lovliness in every fairy face he drew,
and you could find her happy ways and
dainty tastes ANONYMOUSLY assumed in
all he did-the books he read-the poems
he admired, and those he wrote; and,
ringing clear and pure and jubilant, the
vibrant beauty of her voice could clearly
be defined and traced through all his
music. Now, there's the happy pair of
them-Bob and Doc. Make of them just
whatever your good fancy may dictate,
but keep in mind the stern, relentless
ways of destiny.
You are not at the beginning of a novel,
only at the threshold of one of a hundred
experiences that lie buried in the past,
anu lilS one most DdDDllY re-
surrected by these odds and ends found
in the gilded roll.
You see, dating away back, the con-
tents of this package. mainly, were hast
lily gathered together after a weeks visit
out at the old Mills farm; the gilt paper
and the whistle, and the pictures, they
were Billys; the music pages, Bob's, or
Docs; the letters and some other manu-
scripts were mine
The Mills girls were great friends of
Docs, and often came to visit her in
town; and so Doc often visited the
Mills's. This is the way that Bob first
got out there, and won them all, and
shaped the thing for me as he would
put 1t; and lastly, we mad lugged In Billy
such handy boy, you know, to hold
the horses on picnic excursions, and to
watch the carriage and the luncheon, and
all that.-"Yes, and Bob would saw
such a serviceable boy in getting all the
fishing tackle in proper order and dig
ging bait and promenading in our wake
up and down the creek all day, with the
minnow-bucket hanging on his arm,
don't you know"
But jolly as the days were, I think jol-
lier We're the long evenings at the farm
After the supper in the grove, where
when the weather permitted, always
stood the table ankle-deep in the cool
green plush of the sward; and after the
lounge upon the grass, and the cigars,
and the new fish stories, and the general
invoice of the old ones, it was delecta-
BILE to get back to the girls again, and
In the old best room hear once more
the Tilt of the old songs and the stacat-
toed laughter of the plano mingling with
the alto and falsetto voices of the Mills
girls, and the gallant soprano of the dear
girl Doc.
This is the scene l want you TO look
in up. as. in fancy, l do now-and here
are the materials for it ALL husked from
the gided roll:
Bob. the master, leans at the piano
now, and Dec Is at the keys, her glad face
often thrown up sidewise toward his
own. His face is boyish-for there is
yet but the ghost of a mustache upon his
lip. His eyes are dark and clear, of over
size when looking at you, but now their
lids are dropped above his VIOLIN whose
melody has, for the time, almost smooth
ed away the upward kinkings of the
corners of his mouth. And wonderfully
quiet now is every one. and the chords
of the plano, too. are low and faltering;
and so, at last. the tune itself swoons in
to the universal hush, and-Bob is rasp-
ing, in its stead. the ridiculous, but mar
velously perfect imitation of the "prim-
ing of a pump. while Billys hands for
get the "chiggers' on the bare backs of
his feet, as, with clapping palms, he
dances arounS The room IN npgoyernable