Evening star., 1935-04-11
CHAPTER XI.

Lr'M GLAD you've come to your
- senses" the Judge growled.
I'm glad, too James
grinned engagingly. He knew
very well that he was the ap-
ple of the old mans eye.
"Of course, 1 can't afford to go to
law school," he went on, but l
thought perhaps you'd allow me to
study here with you. I'd like 1t better
than anything"
The Judge grinned back at James
delightedly. "I'll think about it, he
doomed. IF Nappy's willing
shouldn't be surprised if We could
manage it, (Nappy was the colored
Office boy)
It was the happiest day in the old
Judges life when James came into
the Office which had been his grand
fathers. and begin his study OF law.
For 40 years black letters on the
frosted glass of the front door and
gold letters on the windows had pro-
claimed to a small but interested
world that the firm of Stimson &
Holcomb, attorneys at law, practiced
their profession therein.
Perhaps some of DR.. Jim'S old ad-
mirers, the women, were disappointed
that his son failed to follow in his
medical footsteps, but to the rest OF
New Concord it seemed eminently
fitting that the third James should
be sitting at the first James desk
in the first James creaking swivel
chair and studying from the self
same calf bound volumes.
To the Judge it was not alone fit
ting: it was rapturously satisfying.
We'll, Miss Julia, you see that
Providence is still on the lob, look
ing after my boy" he said day or
two later as he paused before Miss
Pratt's front porch.
Il hadn't noticed that Providence
was unduly exerting itself" retorted
Miss Julia good-naturedly, but had
seen that James special jinx had
seen to it that he was reduced from
affluence to poverty just when he
needed his money most. What Sarah
Stin1son was thinking of invest
ing -"
Bah! What's a little money? Los
ing his money will be the making of
the boy. Miss Sarah's coddled him
like pet tabby cat. It's time James
cut loose from her apron strings and
learned that chicken livers and cream
don't grow on saucers. High time"
You may be right Miss Julia con-
ceded generously. And if James is
the born orator you say he is it's
barely possible that in the long run
it will be better for him to have to
give up medicine and let YOU teach
him law. I must say that Providence
couldn't have provided a better
teacher"
That night the judge admitted to
Caesar, his hound dog, that he did
believe that in Miss Julia the Lord
Almighty for once had made a wom-
an with faint glimmerings of COM
mon sense.
James took to the law as some peo-
pie do to whisky, due partly no
doubt to the skillful coaching of the
judge but more to the aid and en-
couragement furnished by the Judges
super efficient assistant, Mr.. Napoleon
Hanley, commonly known as Nappy.
Nappy was young man of color
of about the same age as James who,
like so many eminent Americans, had
started his business career at the
very bottom rung of the ladder as a
mere Office boy and runner C errands.
But Nappy had not stayed long at
the bottom. In the course of some
half a dozen years he had risen, fairly
by leaps and bounds. to position of
such Importance with the firm of
Stimson & Holcomb that it stopped
just short of partnership.
1t was Nappy who received callers
in the outer Office and took in their
names with dignity and air of Sc
crecy that would have made an OBJ
serving papal secretary want to shoot
himself with envy. 1t was Nappy
who delivered the bills and sometimes
collected the most uncollectable.
1t was he who sorted the Judges
mail and read it whenever it looked
interesting; and none other deter
mined which of the firms callers
should be offered the scent cigars
and which the 10-centers-a delicate
matter in which the Judge nine times
out of ten was certain to go astray
So keen student of human nature
a stranger had got both feet over the
sill of the outer Office door whether
or not he was a person of Importance
to be greeted accordingly or tactfully
steered toward the street. Nappy,
moreover, seemed to know by sheer
instinct just when to admit that the
Judge was in and when to say that
he was out
1t was Nappy again who soothed
the ruff1ed feelings of his firms fair
clients and who escorted them to the
hall or into their carriages after the
Judge had banged the door behind
them. And after that new and in
triguing instrument, the telephone,
was installed it was Nappy as mat
ter, of course, who answered it and
decided whether or not the Judge
should be called or only given a mes
sage.
The telephone was Nappy's par
ticular pet and pride and not for any,
thing that he could think of would
he have surrendered the precious
privilege of answering it first. Mr.
Hanley was a musician born and
played the trombone by ear in New
ConcordS Fishers OF Galilee Colored
Benefit Society Band, but the most
magnetic tune on earth was but as
sounding brass to his ears compared
to the alluring tinkle of the telephone
bell.
Nappy of course, had known James
for years and admired and looked up
to him from the first. James had
been installed in the office scarcely a
day when Nappy surrendered body
and soul to his charms. There is no
denying that MIR. Stimson, even
though he failed, to make much i'm
preston upon his classmates in the
effete East had a way all his own
with his colored brethren.
A CLEAR COMPLEXION