Toward noon he dropped in at the judge’s and
talked with Mrs. Pratt about the great event of the
day, the levee of the distinguished foreigners at
Aunt Patsy Cooper’s. He asked after her
nephew Tom, and she said he was on his way home and
that she was expecting him to arrive a little before
night, and added that she and the judge were gratified
to gather from his letters that he was conducting
himself very nicely and creditably—at which
Wilson winked to himself privately. Wilson did
not ask if there was a newcomer in the house, but
he asked questions that would have brought light-throwing
answers as to that matter if Mrs. Pratt had had any
light to throw; so he went away satisfied that he
knew of things that were going on in her house of
which she herself was not aware.
He was now awaiting for the twins, and still puzzling
over the problem of who that girl might be, and how
she happened to be in that young fellow’s room
at daybreak in the morning.
The holy passion of Friendship is
of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring
a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime,
if not asked to lend money. —Pudd’nhead
Wilson’s Calendar
Consider well the
proportions of things. It is better to be
a young June bug than
an old bird of paradise. —Pudd’nhead
Wilson’s Calendar
It is necessary now to hunt up Roxy.
At the time she was set free and went away chambermaiding,
she was thirty-five. She got a berth as second
chambermaid on a Cincinnati boat in the New Orleans
trade, the Grand Mogul. A couple of trips
made her wonted and easygoing at the work, and infatuated
her with the stir and adventure and independence of
steamboat life. Then she was promoted and become
head chambermaid. She was a favorite with the
officers, and exceedingly proud of their joking and
friendly way with her.
During eight years she served three parts of the year
on that boat, and the winters on a Vicksburg packet.
But now for two months, she had had rheumatism in
her arms, and was obliged to let the washtub alone.
So she resigned. But she was well fixed—rich,
as she would have described it; for she had lived
a steady life, and had banked four dollars every month
in New Orleans as a provision for her old age.
She said in the start that she had “put shoes
on one bar’footed nigger to tromple on her with,”
and that one mistake like that was enough; she would
be independent of the human race thenceforth forevermore
if hard work and economy could accomplish it.
When the boat touched the levee at New Orleans she
bade good-by to her comrades on the Grand Mogul
and moved her kit ashore.
But she was back in a hour. The bank had gone
to smash and carried her four hundred dollars with
it. She was a pauper and homeless. Also
disabled bodily, at least for the present. The
officers were full of sympathy for her in her trouble,
and made up a little purse for her. She resolved
to go to her birthplace; she had friends there among
the Negros, and the unfortunate always help the unfortunate,
she was well aware of that; those lowly comrades of
her youth would not let her starve.
