Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1917-03-05
establishments or Frencau. yielded as
~ to the alIurcments OF unselfish

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labor.
The plans for the Polish fete were
changed again and again. h hoy
Sta was SO much I'm the way that
Gloria set him n task 4" keep him out
from under her feet. lie brought in
the children Of the vicinnge. AMI cstab-
Iished himself rs their leader.
Some of the rich tots. like their
parents. were good fellows: Il few Of
them woeful snohs. These latter twit-
led Sias with his origin. whereupon
he had resort To the wild arbitramcnt
of battle. and two or three small
bloody noses ruined two or three hand
nme suits Of clothes. After that Stas
was the accepted leader.
Ia his researches among the picture
hooks he found a pied Piper of Ham
lin and made his Aunt Gloria tell
him all about IL. He decided that she
should be- the pied piper and he would
organize m army Of children for her
"a pipe away. She kissed him for the
inspiration and that event vas u OF
the successes OF the afternoon. Mnh>
of people thronged the Stafford estate
on the afternoon Of the festival and
The roads outside were quadruply lined
with automobiles.
There was no hesitation about en-
ploying piratical methods Of extorting
from the rich as much money IA they
had been reckless enough 10 bring with
them. The hollow eyes of the ragged
staryelings Of Poland would have filled
with wonder II they could have seen
In far-on America the weil-fed. silk
clad aristocrats reveling In their be-
half. Ii was n strange way Of getting
food for the hungry. but IL WAS the
fashion of the day, and most important
of all. IL accomplished its purpose.
The world was 80 packed with
tragedy and sd bounded with cries for
pity that il took something more than
sorrow To whcedle funds from the
weary public. Ii took beauty and en-
tertainment. Gloria furnished these In
full neasure at her festival In her
ragged doublet and hose. with her
feathered cap atilt. she danced aud
pipcd. and the children followed about
the lawn with Il moving audience ill
she led her little army into the great
cave that Pierpont had ordered con
slructed In one Of his hills.
The mothers left behind pretended
10 weep for their lost ones. and they
begged the pied piper 10 return. So
Gloria. contrary 10 tradition, came
bach from the cave, and, surrounded
by her kidnapped troop. bowed and
bowed.
Gloria was good and tired when the.
last of the spectators had gone home
Impoverished. She stretched herself
out on the dlvan in the living room and
felt her old loneliness come back upon
her. Her task was done and She was of
no more use To the world, for. of
course. her father had pointed out 10
her tia her project 10 take the funds
to Poland In person was a beautiful
impo>sibiliiy. There were several mil
lion soldiers between her and Poland,
and the price OF the voyage. even II
she could make 1t. would buy several
thousands Of loaves Of bread.
She Was in =, forlorn a humor that
when Doctor Royce took Il chair close
a. her and poured forth his praises
she accepted them hungrily. lie was
encouraged 10 the Widest hopes hy her
response ami he kept launching his
chair closer and closer.
Ills head was almost touching hers
when her father had come into the
-uom with the proceeds of the festival
There were baskets of bills aud boxes
,f coin and the total was thousands Of
dollars.
Royce fell back iisheartened III
and forgotten now rich Gloria was. and
low poor In comparison vas even his
success. lie had been an the point 81
telling her how long and how deeply he
had loved her. but he felt that such
a declaration would only be a pre-
sumptuous folly.
Gloria could not read his thoughts.
hut she knew thar he had suddenly
chilled aud shortly after he was gone.
And ihen She knew how much she
missed him. She was tempted To fall
III again so that she might summon
him to walt upon her once more. But
her health, which had broken down
when she was In the first flush of her
affair with Freneau (for "%affair" was
what She called IL now. held up SPLEEN
didly when She felt sick at heart aud
weary Of life.
For some reason which he did not
make plain-largely because his excuse
was artificial-Doctor Royce happened
TO drop In at the country place a few
days later. The fact was thai he could
neither cndure the lack Of Gloria nor
ind n plausible reason for calling. So
he called and mumbled his reason in
articulately.
He talked very earnestly about moth
ing at all and kept saying that he must
20. but did not 20. At length he really
started. and Gloria felt that she was
being marooned once more on the dull
waste of life. SO she pretended 10
swoon. He heard her little gasp and
SAW her topping over on "a carefully
selected soft spot. He ran Ia her III
great alarm. tried her pulse and found
il normal. chafed her hand and found