The Cairo bulletin., 1905-10-27
THE MILLIONAIRE
AND THE LADY.

! TO, wan"
He ceased abruptly and stretched
back indolently.
Your millions place you above
want" said the lady.
But not above wanting. And read
some verse the other day on a scrap
Of paper don't know where 1t came
from or who wrote it--that got under
nv skin as nothing has ever done since
| was boy, a very young boy.
pigs and poetry" said the lady,
But the millionaire didn't hear her.
The car was chunking its way down
the hill into Main street.
Il want TO go back. he muttered.
Then he caught up the thread OF 1t
again;
Il want to go back to the sweet, mysterious
The crook in the creek bed nobody knew
but me,
Where the roots in the bark thrust out
strange knotty faces,
Soaring the squirrels who sGcie there tlln'
Idly
The lady groaned. The car norm
barked savagely at an impeding wagon
Il know" said the millionaire, but
that slip of verses, there were three OF
them, stripped on the casing or years
and made me just yearn for that old
country place and the opportunity 10
start again that a man never, never
gets
you surely are in love" muttered
the lady, nibbling candy, The mil
Iionaire was unmarried,
Il surely ought to be, ne said. smil-
lag Il found the verses printed on
slip torn from some newspaper. 1t was
doing duty as a bookmark. 1 was alone
In my room that night, and feeling
tired. There didn't seem anything else
worth getting in the world Aud when
read the second verse there didn't
seem anything that had ever been
worth the getting, either. 1t took me a
long way back Here il Is;
ITO the weu-rememberet pastures shaoi-
est corner
Where, under the trees, the Wild Terms
wave their laces,
Hearing the wh.pporwiIis voice in its
strange rich sadness;
/ want 10 go bach X the old beloved
places.
And did want to go back, too, BACK
from all this. And | remembered the
boy that | was. Poor little beggar.} My
father left my mother when was qclite
young. Cleared out with some actress
woman. We were dreadfully poor. And
ny mother had no wisdom-none. An
ungovernable temper / remember once
she whipped me numerically for some
quite tri1ing fault and then tied me to
a bedpost. In the afternoon, when she
released me, | walked down to the riv-
er that was near our house, determined
TO lump in and drown myself. My
heart was burning at all the injustice
Of the world. hated my mother. hated
our poverty, hated everything. sat
down on the grass by the cool water
and sobbed myself to sleep. AT night
The country policeman found me lying
there and dragged me along home by
t4.e hair Of my head. ! dug my teeth
into his hand when We got near the
house. Mother was standing there
holding an oil lamp above her head
and calling me. | can see her face
with the light shining ON it now. She
was very pretty woman, but foolish.
The policeman opened the bedroom
door and flung me in with a curse.
fell heavily on the old striped carpet
and In the morning the pattern OF II
was branded red across my forehead
felt very bitter and sorry for all poor
children; very sorry for myself THAI
was Sunday | went to school in the
afternoon and fought bully under the
pulpit steps. was driven from the
school in disgrace. / became a it'll,
lshmaelite. hated everybody.
made up my mind TO pay the worlc
back for every moment OF misery hac
suffered. And | think I've paid that
debt" he said grimly The lady dab
bled her eyes with her handkerchief.
1T was inch by inch" he went on
And whenever / met a rebuff, | JUS
kept saying wait till | get nay hooks
In, Just wait got them In at last
when | was a man-and forgot mercy
and pity. Forgot II all until read
that slip of verses. And now II Is too
late cant alter now I'm crystal
lied" He took a shabby piece 81
newspaper from his pocket and read II
beneath the bright light Of the acety
lene side lamp:
81 want to lie under the corn and hear 10
rustic.
Co-l and green. in a long. straight. sol
derry row
/ am tired OF white faced women ard mel
" Iron,
l want to go back where the countrl
grasses grow"
But can't 20 back now"
He twisted the paper into a spille
and lighted it with match II burne,
between his fingers to a black flicker
ing cinder.
81 have no memory of verse, AM
that's the last of my dream" he said
fiicking the white slip away. but I't
like to know who wrote H. II took NJ,
a long way back But il came too late
I am still an lshmaelite. an enemy o