The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1910-10-27
Was He a Coward?
Copyright. 1910. by Associated Literary Press

a hero or a coward. If hero, it is
| forgotten in a day; If coward, not
! for years, II ever.
| Mr. Parker hurried straight to the
hotel People who saw him in his
fight looked and wondered. Mrs. Par
ker had not come out The son burst
| into her room and flung himself down
and covered his face with his hands
and wept.
What is it?" she asked as she
stood beside him with her hand on his
head.
"a child fell off the wharf" he an
swered after time.
And you were there?"
II was the one to have leaped In
after him."
poor boy! We should not have
come to the water"
! With that she turned away and
commenced taking her garments down
off the hooks and folding and packing
| them.
} When the son could control his
voice he stepped to the telephone and
| asked for his bill and ordered car
| riage for the depot. Two hours later
mother and son were on their way
home. When they talked it was not
Of what had happened on the wharf.
Don't you see he couldn't have
done anything else?" queried Or. Har.
graves at lunch, when some one said
that 'the coward" had departed.
He passes out of our lives, of
| course"
And it so comes about. When the
doctor again visited the safe deposit
company he saw young Mr.. Parker,
but neither bowed. Some one else
waited on the patron. People who had
met the young man socially at the
doctors residence inquired about him
in careless way, and were as care
iessly answered. Now and then the
father wondered If the daughter had
been interested enough to care or be
disappointed, but he could not make
been referred to again after the first
| day.
A whole year passed Father and
daughter were again bound for the
same hotel, but this time they were
motoring part of the way, the car
being driven by chauffeur.
| In the middle of the afternoon, on
a broad highway, four foreigners who
had struck work in quarry not far
away and were ripe for mischief,
halted the auto to commit highway
robbery. The chauffeur was a pol
troon. He could have run them down.
but he halted the machine.
The doctor was not armed, but he
refused to leave the car, and struck
at the fellows who sought to pull the
daughter out. Such one-sided con-
flict could not last long, and must
terminate in victory for the attack
ers. They were pushing the advan
| tage of numbers when a second auto
rolled up quietly behind them and a
young man leaped out. Without any
weapons but his bare fists he sailed
into the four. They drew knives on
him, but he struck one after another
and fought fiercely and silently. The
battle ragged up and down the road for
five minutes, and then the used-up
men retreated to the woods.
The doctor and his daughter had
watched it without a word. They
knew the attacker, and they saw blood
on his face and hands as he waved to
them that the road was clear and
walked back to his own machine.
ut is Mr.. Parker!" whispered Miss
May.
Hanged if it isn't!" replied the
father.
"But folks said he was a coward"
"Um! was among those who said
| so. Guess we made a mistake some,
where" Il
II hope co!''
Eth? Ell? You hope what?"
The words were not repeated.
A week later. at the Harbor hotel,
the doctor called his daughter into
his room to say.
II wrote to friend of mine in the
city and asked him to- do me favor.
He had an interview with Mr.. Parker's
mother. Say, dear, while the public
has a notion that your father is
great doctor, / want to admit to you
that he is great fool"
| why, what is it?"
! '1 ought to have suspected some
thing Of the kind from the first. When
Mr. Parker was child of two his
nurse let him fall into the water. He
! had close call from drowning. II
gave him a dread and horror of the
water, and it will always be with him,
J He's no coward. He simply fears the
one thing. Plenty of cases like it.
I'm writing him very AFFECT letter
! this afternoon. Don't you want to in.
close something? If he'll be sensible
and forgive, I'll take him for son-in.
| law about year hence. Eth? Eth?
That makes you blush, doesn't it? /
believe you've been his champion right
! along!"