The Boss of Little Arcady

ave surcease, while it may be mine, from the immediately troubling waters of Potts. Let me turn more

that flattens away from it on every side,-north to the big woods, south to the swamp counties, and east and west, one might almost say, a thousa

with bay windows, ornamental cupolas, and porches raving woodenly in that frettish fever which the infamous scroll-saw put upon fifty years of our land's domestic architecture. And these houses are furnished with splendid modern furniture, even with black walnut, gold touched and upholstered in blue plush and maroon, fresh from the best factorie

little valleys lined with little quick rivers. These beauties, indeed, have not gone

wer, banked by noble bluffs three hundred feet high, their sharp ridges as exquisitely definite as the edge of a shell; their summits adorned with those same be

usual ragged-edged village between them and the river, peopled by human beings entirely usual both in their ou

he only life it once appeared that I should live. I quote again from our visiting poet: "The aspect of this country was to me enchanting beyond any I have ever seen, from its fulness of expression, its bold and impassioned sweetness. Here the flood has passed over and marked everywhere its cou

d-and wondrously filled yet again, for which l

went to this on days when I was downhearted. Your boy of fifteen, I think, is the only per

opened the schoolroom door upon Lucy Tait, are as poignant, as sweetly terrible, n

ing. As a matter of truth I did not expect to learn anything more. I thought I must suddenly have learned all there is to know. The page of the ancient reader over which I then mumbled is now before me. "A Good Investment" was the title of the day's lesson, and I had been called upon to render the first paragraph. With lightnes

fatefully back, our heads were raised,

l chaos, and for aeons of centuries I dizzie

if you ever expect

tammered at the thing, feeling my cheeks blaze, but no two words would stay still long enough to be related. I glanced a piteous app

n. Sit down! Solon D

disgraced, cowering in my seat, heard words that burned little inconsequential brands forever into my memory. Well do I recall that the middle-aged gent

low par in the market,' re

hat the boy is not the man; the time may come when Hiram Stross

you know business men seldom lend money without adequate

iffe, you

s sweetly bent with an air of studious absorption-a head with two

nequal to this fancy. I saw, too, the tiny chain that clasped her fair throat, her dress of pale blue, and, most wonderful of all, two

ledge that Mr. Barton graciously accommodated Hiram Strosser, after vainly seeking

fter page of his ponderous ledger." At last he exclaims, "I am ruined, utterly ruined!" "How so?" inquires Hiram Strosser, who enters the room jus

u over this crisis?' asks H

ive thousan

lied Hiram, and stepping to the desk

end in funds, was thrown into bankruptcy. Mr. Barton had the chastened pleasure of telling Mr. Hawley about Hiram's loan, and of reminding him that he had neglected a fair opportunity to become a co-benefa

young mind poisoned. During the latter part of the lesson, between looks stolen fearfully at her profile, I was mentally engaged in borrowing two thousand dollars from a convenient Mr. Barton with which to establish myself in a small retail business-preferably a candy store with an ice-cream parlor in the rear. Then I to

thin a straggling circumference of young males, who dissembled

nd with the courage gained of this solitude, I saw myself approach her there at the corner of the old brick schoolhouse, greeting her with assurances that everything was all right,-and then, after she understood what I had done, and how fine it was, we came into our own. Alas, how bitter the crude truth! Instead of this, those wondrou

with a comic dismay, while her despoiler laughed coarsely from a distance and pinned the trophy to his coat lapel. I no

had come. A still more bitter experience awaited me when we were again in the schoolroom. Miss Berham, fastening a s

y return that ribbon

eat that enshrined my idol, and flung down the scarlet treasure before her. She merely pushed the thing away, bending her head lower above her b

hour after school. The A-c

e look my queen lavished upon Solon when she heard his sentence; a look of blushin

me do a thing like that, tossing me fairly to the pinnacle of a public association with her! But I, instead, moped alone, knowing well that t

re, Vermont, and other ordinary states? Its color was rightly golden; had it not produced her? But other products,-iron, coal, wheat,-these were stuffs too base to fellow in the same mind with her. Had it principal industries, like any red, or green, or blue state on that pedantic map? I could no longer recall them. Formally confronted with this problem, I muttered shamefull

I had never less liked the way she said this, as if it were

the state would immediately abandon its industries now that she had come away from it. I beheld its considerable area desolated, the forges cold, the hammers stilled, the fields overgrown, the ships rotting

ng, negligent of tasks, in the shade of cocoanut palms. Here, on the outer reef, I wrecked an excellent steamship. Over the rail sprang a stalwart lad, not out of his teens, with a lovely golden-haired girl in his arms. With strong, swift strokes, he struck out for the beach, notwithstanding his burden. The other p

n to the dry sands and revived her with cocoanut milk and breadfruit, while the natives crowded respectfully about and m

day, a Friday, when we spoke pieces, I feared that Solon had found me out. He was a fiery orator, and I felt on this occasion that he delivered himself straight at me, with a very poorly veiled malignance. Surely, it mus

udden-silent; you were silent for seven years; you were sile

Harcourt's scandalous ministry; I who had manufactured stage thunder against Mr. Eden for his anti-American principles-"You, sir, whom it pleases to chant a hymn to

iny, was it remarkable that I faltered

s crested head, and t

King to free his lo

the ballad that recounts his fate. And she, who had hung breathless on Solon's denunciatio

r smiles. His own triumph was too easy, too widely heralded. In the second week of her

post and th

ney and L

by one more subtle, mo

mad and

what will

wine to ma

Tait to t

the rhymes. The mighty mechanism of English verse had

ne wondrous evening before hope died utterly I surv

golden braids and the pink roses on her leghorn hat. And when they sang, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow!" my voice soared fervently in the words, for I had satisfied myself by much cr

se of a double worship, said good night

pleasure of se

luttered within my arm, and my heart bounde

t should be stored safely away. This talk had been the coinage of my leisure. As we walked I would say, lightly,-"Do you like it here as well as you did back East?"-or, still better, as sounding

that when we passed Uncle Jerry Honeycutt, I confided to her that he sent to Chicago for his ear-trumpet and th

hat golden star dust rained upon us from an applauding

ing her gate. I, afterward, decided that surely at this moment, with the gate between us, I would

s passed us, and one

head Blake-hel

d Horsehead,"

in't that yo

I answered loftily, and

you Horsehea

. "It's a funny name, isn't i

t's ver

e to be going n

d ni

whole big world and its starry heavens