The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1903-03-25

When Graeme met me in the city at
the end of the summer, he brought me
her love and hen burst forth:
"Connor, do you know, ] have Just
discovered my mother. 1 have never
known her till this summer"
more fool you," 1 answered, for Of
ten had 1, who had never known a
mother, enyied him his.
Eyes; that Is true" he answered
shortly, but you cannot see until you
have eyes"
Before he set out again for the west
L gave him a supper, asking the men
who had been with us in the old var
sity days. 1 was doubtful as to tho
wisdom Of this and was persuaded
only by Graeme's eager assent to my
proposal.
Certainly; let's have them," he said.
III shall be awfully glad to see them.
Great stuff they We're"
"But L don't know, Graeme. You see
well, hang it-you ~know-you're diff
ferent, you know"
He looked ut me curiously.
II hope 1 can still stand a good sup
per, II If the boys can't stand me,
why, 1 can't help it. I'll do anything
but roar, and don't you begin to work
off your menagerie act. Now, you hear
me,'
well, 1t Is rather hard lines that
when l have been talking up my lion
for n year and then finally secure him
he will not roar"
"Scrves you right" he replied quite
heartlessly. "But I'll tell you what
I'll do-Ill feed! Don't you worry"
he added soothingly. 1.-THE supper will
CO."
M go 1t did. The supper was OF the
best, the wines first class. 1 had asked
Graeme about the wines.
ID as you like, old man." was his
answer. cts your supper. But" he
added, "are the men all s%traight?"
ran them over in my mind.
eyes, 1 think So"
"If not, don't you help them down,
and anyway you can't be too careful.
But don't mind me. 1 am quit OF the
whole business from this out"
So 1 ventured wines, for the last
tipe, as it happened.
We were q quaint combination-old
Beetles" whose nickname was pro-
phetic of his future fame as a bugman,
rs the fellows irreverently said; "Stum-
Ply" Smith, a demon bowler; polly
Lindsay, slow as ever and as sure as
when he held the halfback line with
Graeme and used to make my heart
stand still Mt his cool elaboration. But
he was never known to tumble or funk,
and somehow he always got us out safe
enough. Then there were Rattray-
"Rat' for short-who, from q swell,
| h15 l.@1l lA~ -
sneer, awfully clever and a good
enough fellow at heart; little "Wig"
Martin, the sharpest quarter ever seen,
and Barney Lundy, center scrimmage,
whose terrific oar and rush had often
struck terror to the cnemy's heart and
who was Graeme's slave. Such was
the party.
As the supper went on my fears be-
gal to vanish, for If Graeme did not
roar he did the next best thing-ate and
talked quite up to his old form. Now
we played our matches over again, bit
terly lamenting the offs" that had lost
us tho championships and wildly ap-
proving the tackles that had saved and
the runs that had made the varsity
crowd go mad with delight and had
won for u.s., and as their names came
up in talk we learned how life had
gone with those who had been our
comrades of ten years Ago.. Some sue
cess had lifted to high places. some
failure had left upon the rocks, and q
few lay in their graves.
But as the evening wore on I began
to wish thai I had left out the wines,
for the men began to drop an OCCASION
al oath, though I had let them know
during the summer that Graeme was
not the man he had been. But Graeme
smoked and talked and needed not till
Rattray swore by that name most Va
cred Of all ever borne by man. Then
Graeme opened upon him in a cool,
slow way:
"What an awful fool a man is to
damn things as you do, Rat! Things
are not damned. 1t is men who are,
and that Is too bad to be talked much
about. But when n man filings out Of
his foul mouth the name Of Jesus
Christ"-here he lowered his voice
otis a shame; it's more-it's u crime"
There was dead silence. Then Rat
tray replied:
II suppose you're right enough. 1t is
lad form. But crime is rather strong,
I think"
"Not IL you consider who 1t is," said
Graeme, with emphasis.
"Oh, come noww broke In Beetles.
religion is all right. 1t is a good
thing and, I believe, a necessary thing
for the race. But no one takes serious
1y any longer the Christ myth"
What about your mother, BeetlesY'
put in Wig Martin.
Beetles consigned him to the pit and
was silent, for his father was an Epis-
copal clergyman and his mother a
sanity IN
II fooled with that for some time,
Beetles, but 1t won't do. You can't
build n religion that will take the dev-
ii out Of a man on a myth. That won't
do the trick. / don't want to argue
about 1t, but I am quite convinced tho
myth theory Is not reasonable, and, be-
sides, 1t won't work"
"Wil the other workf' asked Rat
tray, with a sneer.
"Surc," said Graeme. give seen It,"
"Where2" challenged Rattray. ~
haven't seen much of it,"
Eyes, You have, Rattray; you know
you have" said Wig again.
but Rattray ignored him.
I'll tell you, boys" said Graeme.
Il NI xyn -. o