Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-03-15

hour of putting out the light could no
longer be delayed, he said good night
to Oskar, who bowed. There was a
great deal of bowling In Otto's world.
Then, whisk 1t was dark, with only
the moon face of the cathedral clock
for company. And as it was now
twenty minutes past seven, the two
hands dropped until it looked like a
face with a cruel mouth, and was
really very poor company.
Oskar, having bowed himself into
the corridor and past the two sentries,
reported to a very great dignitary
across the hall that his royal highness
the Crown Prince Ferdinand William
Otto was in bed. And the dignitary
had a chance to go away and get his
dinner.
But alone in his great bed, the
crown prince was shedding q few
shamefaced tears. He was extremely
ashamed of them. He felt that under
no circumstances would his soldier
father have behaved so. He reached
out and secured one of the two clean
folded handkerchiefs that were always
placed on the bedside stand at night,
and blew his nose very loudly. But
he could not sleep.
He gave Miss Braithwaite time to go
to her sitting room, and for eight
o'clock to pass, because once every
hour, all night, a young gentleman of
the court, appointed for this purpose
and dubbed a wet nurse by jealous
comrades, cautiously opened his door
and made a stealthy circuit of the
room, to see that all was well.
The crown prince got up. He neg
lected to put on his bedroom slippers,
of course, and In his bare feet he
padded across the room to the study
door. 1t was not entirely dark. K
night light burned there. 1t stood ON
a table directly under the two crossed
swords. Beneath the swords, In a
burnt wood frame, were the pictures
of his father and mother. Hedwig had
given him a woodworking outfit at
Christmas, and he had done the work
himself. 1t consisted of the royal
arms, somewhat out Of drawing and
not exactly In the center of the frame,
and a floral border Of daisies, ex-
tremely geometrieal, because he had
drawn them in first with a compass.
The boy, however, gave the pictures
only a hasty glance and proceeded, in
d b~usinesslike manner, to carry q
straight chair to the cabinet. On the
top shelf sat the old cloth dog. It's
shoe-button eyes looked glazed with
sleep, but it's ears were quite alert.
Very cautiously the crown prince un-
locked the door, stepped precariously
to the lower shelf of the cabinet,
hung there by one royal hand, and
lifted the dog down.
At nine O'Clock the wet nurse took
off his sword in another room and
leaned 1t against a chair. Then he
examined his revolver, Ia accordance
with a formula prescribed by the old
king. Then he wen in and examined
the room with a fiashlight, and lis
tened to the crown princes breathing.
He had been a eroupy baby. And, at
last, he turned the fashlight on to the
bed. A pair of shoe-button eyes
stared at him from the pillow.
SWELL, I'm -" said the wet nurse.
And went out, looking thoughtful.
y i = +
In a shop where, that afternoon, the
countess had purchased some Lyons
silks, one of the clerks, Peter Niburg,
was free at last. At seven o'clock,
having put away the last rolls of silk
on the shelves behind him, and covered
them with calico to keep off the dust;
having given a final glance of disdain
at the clerk in the linens, across;
having reached under the counter for
his stiff black hat of good quality and
his silver-topped cane; having donned
the hat and hung the stick to his arm
with two staggering gestures; having
prepared his offensive, so to speak, he
advanced.
Between Peter Niburg and Herman
Spier of the linens, was c feud. It's
source, in the person of a pretty
cashier, bad gone, but the feud re-
NAMED. 1t was OF the sort that smiles
with the lips and scowls with the eyes,
that speaks pleasantly quite awful
things, although it was Peter Niburg
who did most of the talking.
And Herman hated Peter. The cash.
Ter was gone, had married a restaurant
keeper, and already she waxed fat.
But Herman's hatred grew with the
days. And business being bad, much
of the time he stood behind his linens
and thought about a certain matter.
which was this:
How did Peter Niburg do It?
They were paid the same scanr
wage. Each Monday they stood to-
gether, Peter smiling and he frowning,
and received into open palms exactly
enough to live on, without extras. And
each Monday Peter pocketed his cheer
fully. and went back to his post, twirl-