The Little Brown Jug at Kildare

Atlanta. "I entered upon this life under false pretenses, thinking that money would make the game easy, but here I am, twenty-seven years old, stalled at th

t's the trouble with us. We never see the handwriting on the wall, or if we do, it's just a streak of hieroglyphics, and we don't know what it means until we read about it in the newspapers. But I thought you were satisfie

ut and laid his hand heavil

to set it right. What I want is something different, a real adventure-something with spice in it. I ha

and the open sea,"

! Sick to d

y hard to please. Why don't you turn

everything else first. It's always up there waiting-on ice, so to speak-but when

night. We were facing each other at a writing-table, and you looked up timidly from your letter and asked me whether there were two g's in aggravate, and I answered that it depended on the meaning-one g for a mild case, two for a severe one-and you laughed

ng me. You ought to give up your job and amuse me. You're the only chap I know who doesn't talk horse or automobile or yacht, or who doesn't want to spend whole evenings discussing ch

a mere lecturer on The Libeling of Sunken Ships in a law school, I'm the most obscure person in the world. And for another thing, we couldn't risk

Washington express, and a waitin

wait," said Ardmore, looking at his watch, "a

ed Griswold, taking out his ticket and moving toward the gat

Ardmore, coloring, "I'

with it!" comma

ped to let a south-bound train pass somewhere in North Carolina. The girl was on the south-bound sleeper, an

your shade, of course, like the well-bred man you are-" interrupted Gr

d at her and she looked at me

way of starting. Does

he last moment,

addest facts of American transportation. I need hardly remind you, Mr. A

ow, Professor, that

again. And now you are going to New Orleans to look for her. She will probably meet you at the station, with her bridesmaids and wedding cake all ready for you. And you think this will

ildings-the name of her car was the Alexandra. I asked our conductor where it was bound for, and he said it w

with a winking eye isn't to be overlooked in this vale of tears. What did this allevi

lack ribbon in a great bow. She rested her cheek on her hand-her elbow on the window-sill, you know-and she smiled a little

girl of the Alexandra. And then, to be brief, there is the wink of mischief, which is observed occasionally in persons of exceptional bringing up. There are moments in the lives of all of us when we lose our grip on conventions-on morality, even. The psychology of this matter

look at her," admitte

onventional world crumble beneath her as the train started. She could no more have resisted the temptation to wink than she could have refused a caramel or an invitation to appear as

ick glance passing between perfect strangers in crowded thoroughfares, and had fruitlessly speculated as to their proper course in the event the call seemed imperative. A glance of the eye is one thing, but it is quite another to address a stranger and offer eternal friendship. The two had agreed tha

his shortcoming. Griswold, on the other hand, had the Virginian's natural social instinct, but he suffered from a widel

d his countenance at all times, and emphasized the real distinction of his clean-cut features. His way of tilting back h

scussion to the pres

d he called him Professor, in a witherin

New Orleans or the u

't take this matter in the proper spirit.

he old heroic times. Nor can I conceal from you my consuming envy. If a girl should flatter me with a wink I should follow her thrice round the world. She should not elude me

he win

battl

, beating time with his stick

e allusion to the wink in immortal song. If my memory s

anwhile, conden

ose the wonder,

es the wink press so heavi

trouble. My sister sa

h sis

she's running me too hard on this marrying business. She's going to bring a bunch of

ld whi

ke notice of the frolicsome boarding-school girl who winks at the world. I believe I'd rathe

out while those people are there. Nellie likes you; she thinks you're terrib

rican leisure class. I'm always delighted to meet Mrs. Atchison, but I'm a person of occupations. I have a consultation in Richmond to

rsity! You've not only got to come, but you

upreme idleness, planned and proposed; but he himself had never been quite ready to mount horse or shake out sail, and what Griswold had said about indecision rankled in his heart. He was sorry now that he had told of this new enterprise to which he had pledged himself, but he grew lenient toward Griswold's lack of sympathy as he reflected that the quest of a winking girl was rather beneath the dig

he spent much time on his estate in the North Carolina hills, where he could ride all day on his own land, and where he read prodigiou

ralty cases of unusual importance. His lectures were constantly attended by students in other departments of the university for sheer pleasure in Griswold's racy and entertaining exposition of the laws touching the libeling of schooners and the recovery of jettisoned cargoes. Henry Maine Griswold was tall, slender and dark, and he hovered recklessly, as he might have put it, on the brink of thirty. He stroked his thin brown mustache habitually, as though to hide the smile that played about his humorous mouth-a smile that lay even more obs

be reckless. When you get through looking for the winking eye, come up to Charlottesvill

into the car smiling, for he called Ardmore his best friend, and he was amused by his last words, which were always Ardmore's last in their partings, and were followed usually by telegrams about the most preposterous things, or suggestions for romantic adventures, or so

d touching an incident that all most sincerely deplored. Indeed, no hint of it would ever have reached the public had it not been that both gentlemen hurriedly left the convention hall, refused to keep their appointments to speak at the banquet that followed the business meetings, and were reported to have taken the first trains for their respective capitals. It was whispered by a few persons that the Governor of South Carolina had taken a fling at the authenticity of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence; it was rumored in other quarters that the Governor of North Carolina was the aggressor, he having-it was said-declared that a people (meaning the freemen of the commonwealth of South Carolina) who were not intelligent enough to raise their own hay, and who, moreover, bought that article in Ohio, were not worth the ground necessary for their decent interment. It is not the purpose of this chronicle either to seek the truth of what pass

entleman from Mississippi, presently produced a flask, which he offered to the others, remarking, "As the Governor of North Carolina said

sk, "and they would have been traveling together on this train if t

own humor, and slapped his knee and laughed

ne the upper to make it perfect," observed an

ial traveler from Cincinnati, who had just come from New Orleans. "Their friends are doing

y'll both go home and attend to their business, and that will be the last of it. The people of North Carolina ought to be proud of

big black hat more firmly on his head. "Dangerfield spoke in our town at

ifts, on the strength of an address lately delivered by Governor Osborne in a lecture course at Cincinnati. Being pressed by the

n of the possibility of personal violence between

anta this morning, Dangerfield had drawed his gun. Do you suppose, gentlemen, that if North Carolina had drawed South Carolina wouldn't have followe

the man who woke up Charlie Osborne. Charlie-I mean the governor, you understand-is one of these fellows who never says much, but when you get him going he's

lady's servant. Griswold was aware that this dusky duenna bristled and frowned and pursed her lips in the way of her picturesque kind as he glanced at her, as though his presence were an intrusion upon her mistress, who sat withdrawn to the extreme corner of her section, seeking its fullest seclusion, with her head against a pillow, and the tips of her suède shoes showing under her gray traveling skirt on the further half of the section. She twirled idly in her fingers a half-opened white rosebud-a fact unimportant in itself, but destined to linger long in Griswold's memory. The

ney" occasionally reached Griswold's ears. The old mammy produced from a bag several toilet bottles, a fresh handkerchief, a h

m feeling much better. Jus

rom her forehead with half a dozen light strokes. She touched her handkerchief to the cologne flask, passed it across her eyes, and then took up the rose again and settled back with a little sigh of relief. In her new

ERNORS

overnor of Nor

rnor of Sou

then she called the colored woman and a brief colloquy followed between them. In a mo

d yo' all 'low my mistus

y. Take t

ss into the hands of his fellow-passenger. He had read the newspapers pretty thoroughly, and knew the distribution of their contents, so that

p of her hands. The tidings from New Orleans had undoubtedly aroused her indignation, which expressed itself further in the rigid lines of her figure as she read, and in the gradual lifting of

e black woman, and returned them to Griswold, the dusky agent expressing the elaborate thanks of her race for his courtesy. The

dmore were at hand, for his friend would find here a case that promised much better than the pursuit to which he had addressed himself. The girl in this instance was at least a self-respecting lady, not given to flirtations with chance travelers, an

en Ph?be had brought it forth the initials "B. O." in small black letters suggested Baltimore and Ohio to Griswold's lazy speculations, whereupon he reflected that while Baltimore was plausible, the black servant eliminated Ohio; and as every Virginian knows every other Virginian, he tried to

were but two vacant places in the car, one facing Griswold, the other across the aisle at a larger table where three men were engaged in animated discussion. The girl viewed the prospect with evident disappointment as the waiter drew out the vacant chair

e discussion of the New Orleans incident. He was in excellent humor, an

Carolina said to the Gov

d's eyes fell upon the girl, and he saw

at whisky. It's all right,"

that; but some oth

ce rivalry between them. Both of 'em, for example, might have the senatorial bee in their bonnets; but either one of 'em could make the senate any time he pleased. I guess they're the two biggest men in the South right now. They're too big to be

he salt," inte

there was, he felt, a look of appeal in them. The discussion distressed her, just as the telegrams from New Orleans in the afternoon papers had distressed her, and Griswold began at once to entertain his table companions with his views on a

The others lingered until his coffee was brought. He was so absorbed that he failed to see the smile that occasionally passed over the girl's face as some fragment of one of his stories found its way to her. He had undertaken to deflect the talk from a channel which had, it seemed, some p

ere the trainmen labored with the sick wheel. The porter vanished, leaving Griswold alone. The train had stopped at the edge of a small town, whose scattered houses lay darkly against the hills beyond. The platform lamps of a station shone a quarter of a mile ahead. The feverish steel yielded reluctantly to treatment, and Griswold went forward and watched the men at work for a few minutes, then returned to the end of the train. He swung himself into the vestibule and leaned upon the guard rail, gazing down the track toward the brakem

're the gov'n

What can I do for you?" r

or, that if y'u have Bill Appleweight arrested in South Car'lina, y'u'll get something one of t

!" stammere

arkness. The shadows swallowed him up; the frogs in the ditch beside the track chanted dolorously;

rs turned away hurriedly and walked swiftly before him to her section. The porter,

. We're gwine intu Columbia thirty m

e of Governor Osborne. In a few minutes she would leave the train at Columbia, where the governor lived, and, being a gentleman, he would continue on his way to Richmond, and thence to the university, and the incident would be closed. But Griswold was a lawyer, and he had an old-fashioned Southern lawyer's respect for the majesty of law. On the spur of curiosity or impulse he had received a threatening message intended for the governor of South Carolina, who, from the manner of the delivery of the message, had been expected on thi

er or telegram, when the rattle of the train over the switch fr

t his head into

's all ready, sah. Yo' gw

. The lettering on the suit-case seemed, in a way,

off. I'll wait here f