The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-24
Tpbwh Been Jolly and Apparently Couldn't
 oily From the Onnginl b.


 I Tapley, as in wandering fancy he played
 at skittles in the Dragon, made love 10
 Mrs Lupin, got his sea legs on the ves-
 sel, encouraged fellow passengers, walked singing on English roads and chopped
 down trees in Eden, all at once.
 But whenever Martin gave him medicine
 or drink or entered the room, Mark Tap ley, recovering his senses, though only for 1 a moment never failed to say: I'm jolly, | sir, jolly!" 1 Now when Martin Chuzzlewit began to
 think of this and to look at Mark as he
 lay there, never representing him by as
 much as an expression of regret that they | had come to this place, always striving
 to be cheerful, he began to learn some
 thing Eden was a hard school in which
 to learn a lesson, but the teachers in
 swamp thicket and pestilent air were l stern.
 I If anybody had told him at any time | before that he was selfish, that he was I indifferent to others, in short, that he | had all the Chuzzlewit virtues (whicn he | always had seen clearly, by the way, in all the other Chuzzlewits), he would have repelled the accusation indignantly. Now, sitting by Marks side--Mark, who. when too far gone to speak. had tried feebly to write jolly" on the slate--it came to him all at once that he had dragged this
 man hither through selhshness, that in every step of his life he had been led by self.
 1 So it came to pass that when Mark
 was able at last to sit up, he perceived | a surprising alteration in the head of the ] firm. It was so surprising that Marx in his customary self communion decided: T don't know what to make of him. He ain't what l supposed. He don't think
 of himself half so much. I'll try him" | .vxrtA xx-s4 aF<xtn to sunory persons of their acquaintance
 whom Mr. Chuzzlewit had been wont to
 desplse for their simplicity or stupidity l or other unworldly failings. MT. ChuZzie- wit spoke of them in new way. He went so far as to say of one man who was especially foolish about worldly | things, that perhaps he was more to be | liked for that than if he had been wiser. | With every word, every action there after, Martin Chuzzlewit exhibited so new a spirit to Mark that that defrauded man could no longer shut his eyes to | the fact that he had been cheated again. | Its a swindle" he thought to himself 1 that night. T never entered for this sort
 O service. Therell be no credit in being | jolly with himv'
 Ii is curious to know that although MT. Tapley thus realized that he was the victim of another betrayal on the part of Providence. he went to sleep with a
 very happy face
 ''The only hope we have left said
 Chuzzlewt, when Mark had recovered fully, "is to quit this settlement and get
 back to England. Any way! By any means!"
 That's all. sirn replied Mark with quizzical and significant stress on the
 words 'only that!" They had no cash. They had nothing
 to sell, but that as Mark Tapley said, I ,,l-e .s..
 even if they had been surrounded with portable possessions of the utmost value, there were no people who could buy them. There's nobody but corpses here to buy anything" said Mark. Them
 and pigs" After a little consideration
 he suggested that Chuzzlewit write to a
 gentleman whom he had met in New
 York and who had become his friend.
 "If you wouldn't mind--" began Tapley,
 shyly.
 .Mindl" exclaimed Martin ''Pm to
 blame for this, and I'll do anything. If
 had taken your opinion sooner, Mark,
 we never should have been here, I am certain.
 Mark Tapley was vastly surprised at
 this admission, but he recovered his presence of mind in time to protest that he had set his heart on coming to Eden from the first word he ever had heard of it.
 ChuZzleWlt promptly wrote a letter 10 the New York friend, setting out their
 case and begging for loan that would enable them to return to England. It
 was week before a steamer appeared: and after they had carried their letter aboard, they knew that they could not expect an answer before eight weeks or even two months-so utterly cut Of from civilization was the fiourlsh1ng settle ment of Eden.
 Every night now they spoke of home. familiar places, houses, roads and peo- pie whom they knew, sometimes in the lively hope of seeing them again, soon, and often. with sorrowful remem- brance as if these were things long past. They went to meet the chance steamers that shipped for wood, and asked anxiously for a letter, though they knew that 1t was weeks too soon.
 The season grew more and more sickly. Rain. heat, noxious vapors prevailed. The earth, the air and the vegetation seemed to teem with death. They fell, at ] last, into state that each tried to hide f,np, fbo ofhar. thol1Ph eu q could see n