The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-07-06

- 49, ~ <kk
him quiet n saw her from disgrace
made no difference. He was an op-
timist by nature. He believed in her
and dared to hope that through some
providential happening he would be
able to "cut OUT her numerous nils
liCnaire suitors. In his rare hours OF
leisure he had, ut the cost of much
labor and brain racking, written many
letters to her declaring his love, only
to tear them up in his fear of send
ing them. ~
The Shrimp happened upon him In
the stable one day while the Duke was
In the throes of one of these epistola-
tory efforts. The amorous stable boy
was seated on an upturned pail and
drafting his letter with the stump of a
pencil on a paper grocery bag some-
what crumpled and dirty from having
been thrown with other refuse On the
garbage heap. whence he had rescued
1t as affording a handy medium for re-
cording the phraseologic conceptions of
his brain as inspired by the promptit1gs
of his heart.
"Writin' poetry! Oh, mother!" snig-:
gered his tormentor. ,E
The Duke did not condescend to re-
spond.
Take my tip. Dock, an quit went
on the Shrimp. cts a sign you got
EN- bad when you gifts de pome
microbe under yer lid. Dere amt a
bundle in de woild as is worth dom de
Shakespeare act for"
Still the Duke vouchsafed no notice
of him.
"Youse thinks she's all to de jam pots.
don't yer? But take 1t from me, she
couldn't stand no acid test. She'd be
marked down to thirty cents at de bar
gain scrimmage." Is
T 90 wus you alludin'. Mister
MITCHELL" demanded the Duke
haughtily. seW
The way of putting the question stag
gered the Shrimp. He struck a pose
n bowed low.
ITO who was I alludin', Mr.. Perkins,
sir?" he mimicked. Who'd I be allud-
in to If not to yer fr'en' what jiggles
her crutch sticks an beetle crushers
at that dime museum in Moo York;"
The Duke remained silent, and the
Shrimp went away whistling.
Say, Dook." he said, ~retracing his
steps and stopping in front Of him,
"scuse me for bein' alive, but on de
level. is It true she's run on wild a ash
can white wing?"
you're booboo. amt yer? HI
dunno what you're talkin' abaout," re-
piled the Duke. whose heart sank with
in him at the thought that behind the
Shrimp's raillery there might be bad
news concerning Nora. i
mo, oil chap. I'm not dotty," con-
tinued the Shrimp. 81 keeps a half
Nelson an a double damon cinch on
me sense, SOS not to let it git away
from me. But I seen the old 'ooman
a-tearin' her hair just now an cryin'
like she'd been peelin' onions cause
de boss came back from de village
widout any mail. I know sometimes
wrong wild me baby she was holler-
in. They never write any more. I
amt had a letter from her an Patsy
for a week. an there was a owl hoot-
in on de roof last night, an I put me
stockin' on inside out dis mornin'.'
Fancy calling dat peep show stalfla
baby! She's a infant fermuminum-
l don think"
IAN d'you know what I think?"
commented the Duke. IT think you're
a low daown nut to talk like that of
any gal. specially such a nice, respects
able gal as Miss O'Brien." sssg
Jaw, g'wan," said the Shrimp, de-
lighted at having achieved his object
of taking a rise" out of the boy.
"Wha d'you know about her? Let's
nave a decko at yer pome."
He snatched the paper from the
Dukes hand and started away with it,
This was the last straw. The Duke
bounded up from the pail n dealt his
tormentor a blow on the jaw with such
force that 1t sent him to the ground.
Then, before the Shrimp had recovered
his senses sufficiently to realize just
what had happened, the Duke had Sc
cured the paper, thrust 1t in his pockt
and was standing over him, ~quivering
with rage and inviting him to get up
and be "spiff1icated." The Shrimp was
not slow to respond. He was on his
feet in a twinkling and rushing at his
adversary. The boys were fighting az
over the stable, and the Duke was
having the life pounded out of him
when Mallory, attracted by the noise
of the scuffie, appeared upon the
scene and took a hand. He kicked
the Duke through the stable door and
then kicked the Shrimp after him,
administering a sound cutting to each
as he did SO.
This ended the last due the boys
were ever engaged in, for the same
evening there came a telegram for the
It was from his mother in New
York and read:
Come here by first train. We leave
for London on Saturday"
An hour later the Duke, marveling
greatly, had hidden good-by to every
body, including the Shrimp, for he was
not a boy of grudges and was on his
way to the railroad station.
The Shrimp's account of Mrs.
O'Brien's outburst was a faithful mar
ration of what had occurred. Her
mothers heart, pining for Nora, had
led her to worry and into a frame or
mind in which it needed only such a
combination of dire omens as the boot
owl and tho stocking turned inside
to cause her to harbor forebodings
of a most alarming and depressing
character. Mayhap also that intuition,
which in some natures at times attains
the degree of psychological phenome-
especially in the case of a loved
one absent upon whom thought is con-
stantly concentrated, warned her tnat
of some kind menaced the girl
There was nothing in the letters from
New York calculated to occasion the
,,naaSinesg and the sisters