THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 FREDERICK PALMER 
 

 " You ll win, Jim ! 
 
 
THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICK PALMER 
 
 Author of "The Vagabond," "The Ways of the 
 Service," " With Kuroki in Manchuria," etc. 
 
 Illustrated by 
 M. LEONE BRACKER 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 
 1914. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY 
 MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 Published, September, 1908 
 
 Second Printing, September, 1908 
 
 Third Printing, October, 1908 
 
 Fourth Printing, July, 1909 
 
 THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS 
 IIAHWAY, N. J. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. A ROOM IN POVERTY Row 1 
 
 II. ENTER THE HOME FOLK 16 
 
 III. EPAMINANIDAD AND BETTY 28 
 
 IV. A STRAIGHT-BACKED-CHAIR OCCASION ... 34 
 V. A BUSINESS CALL 41 
 
 VI. SPLINTERED LIGHTNING AND FIREFLIES ... 50 
 
 VII. KNOCKING MR. HOBBER DOWN 57 
 
 VIII. Two LITTLE PRAYERS 67 
 
 IX. THAT PLUS SIGN 73 
 
 X. WITH THE MIXED GANG 86 
 
 XL THE LABORER S HIRE 95 
 
 XII. "YaDiviL, YE!" 104 
 
 XIII. SOME VARYING VIEWS 124 
 
 XIV. FOR A CITY 131 
 
 XV. PLOWING, PLOWING, PLOWING .... 142 
 
 XVI. EXIT THE Two BRAIDS 159 
 
 XVII. A SCHOOLGIRL S LETTERS 168 
 
 XVIII. THE STRAIGHT LINE S WAY 176 
 
 XIX. THE OFFICE SEEKS THE MAN 192 
 
 XX. WHEN A TELEGRAM ARRIVED 201 
 
 XXL MADAME MOTHER DECIDES 209 
 
 XXII. COLONEL WALKER HARD PRESSED , , , ,227 
 
 iii 
 
iv CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XXIII. A BIG, SIMPLE MAN IN LOVE . . . .239 
 
 XXIV. DOUBLE PAY FOR ABC s 260 
 
 XXV. Miss DESTINY MARCHES 270 
 
 XXVI. His WELCOME TO BAR 281 
 
 XXVII. THE SECOND DISCIPLE 297 
 
 XXVIII. WANTED, A CHARMING LADY . . . .320 
 
 XXIX. THE THINKER AND THE TRADER . . . .327 
 
 XXX. ELLEN ARRIVES 338 
 
 XXXI. CLOTHING THE NAKED WITH ABC s . . 354 
 
 XXXII. Miss Two BRAIDS REDIVIVUS . . . .363 
 
 XXXIII. ELLEN WRITES TO THE PERSONALITY . . 370 
 
 XXXIV. WHY THE BISHOP WENT 380 
 
 XXXV. NEWS FROM TOLL 388 
 
 XXXVI. A RECKONING 399 
 
 XXXVII. THE PERSONALITY TAKES NOTICE . . .413 
 
 XXXVIII. THE FEVER DEVIL 431 
 
 XXXIX. BIG S CAREER AT A CRISIS 439 
 
 XL. WILLY AS A TRAVELER . . . . .447 
 
 XLI. THE FIGHT 459 
 
 XLII. WITHOUT KILLING 475 
 
 XLIII. HARVEST 488 
 
 XLIV. THE HOME LAND 496 
 
 XLV. BACK TO BOLTON . .... 504 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " YOU LL WIN, JIM ! " . . . . Frontispiece 
 
 "I WANT TO BORROW TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS 
 PROM YOU " 
 
 THE LIGHTS OF THE MACHINE PLASHED THROUGH THE 
 
 WINDOW PANE ...... 25Q 
 
 "I MUST," HE CRIED. "MY PLACE IS AT TOLL. I AM 
 
 RESPONSIBLE FOR TOLL " QQft 
 
TO THE READER 
 
 LET Miss Destiny carry the flag wherever she 
 will, or claim whatever manner of servants she 
 will, she may scarcely exceed the wonder of her 
 experiment with the abc s on the other side of the 
 Pacific. A new kind of gift was borne by one 
 people to another; a new thing was brought into 
 being in an old world. Already those who were in 
 the Islands at the outset of this enterprise see its 
 scenes, still fresh in mind, as a page of romantic 
 history that can never be repeated. 
 
 If anyone thinks that he can name the village 
 from which the Big Fellow of my novel came 
 and the city in which he began his career, 
 I shall only say that they are somewhere be 
 tween the Alleghenies and the Mississippi; and 
 if anyone thinks that he recognizes the original 
 of Bar, I shall only say that it is one of the 
 archipelago to the east of Borneo and the south of 
 China. 
 
 " Did such things as you describe really occur 
 out there? " demanded a reader of the manuscript. 
 
 I took this question to former Sergeant Smith, 
 of Company B, who, after he left the regulars, had 
 a broadening experience as an Inspector of Con 
 stabulary. 
 
 vii 
 
viii TO THE READER 
 
 In which island did they happen to you? " was 
 his answer. 
 
 " Surely there wasn t such a man as General 
 Prairie Fire? " the reader asked. 
 
 Army friends who were familiar only with the 
 brigade commanders under whom they served, are 
 sure that they identify him. 
 
 " Honest, now, which one of that lot did you 
 draw him from? Smith inquired. So it was with 
 Parkowitz, Cortina, and Don Francisco of Toll. 
 
 16 But the Big Fellow I do know who he is! " 
 persisted the reader. 
 
 Decidedly you do not, good sir. You are quite 
 astray if you associate this type, expressive of his 
 country s characteristics in a new field, with any 
 individual. It was out of the native mind that I 
 christened him. Small of stature themselves and 
 quickly impressed by externals, our brown cousins 
 saw in us a race of giants. Again I tried Smith. 
 
 " You ve rolled a number of Governors into 
 one," said he. 
 
 The men who did their work well in the Islands 
 were men well grounded in law and civil rights; 
 men of smiling, big, generous manner and an over 
 flowing stock of patience, who had the gift of win 
 ning the trust of a people grown suspicious 
 through generations of oppression. Many days 
 have I spent in their company. Often have I 
 talked with them of their careers at home that pre 
 pared them for careers abroad, where sometimes 
 they had to be serious in most humorous situa 
 tions. Out of my appreciation of the service they 
 
TO THE READER ix 
 
 have done has risen this token of affection and 
 esteem. 
 
 " And did those children actually come to school 
 naked? " concluded the reader. 
 
 i l You bet they did ! to use the good American 
 language of Smith. 
 
 :This brings us to the Charming Lady who 
 taught the abc s at Bowang. She supplies what 
 the publishers call the love theme, I believe. In 
 her case I am ticklishly near reproducing the 
 original, which makes me all the happier to hide 
 the identity of my island under the name of Bar. 
 For she was most embarrassed and so were all 
 present, except the pupils. 
 
 Finally, one who has a story to tell of home and 
 of Bar in those days need ask himself only if its 
 spirit and any lesson it offers are true. His char 
 acters must be born of the people he knew or they 
 are unreal, and yet they must avoid the detail of 
 any single living experience or he would be a 
 biographer. 
 
 FREDERICK PALMER. 
 
 NEW YORK, June 2, 1908. 
 
THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 BOOK I 
 I 
 
 A ROOM IN POVEETY BOW 
 
 "^C T"OU will know him at a glance and if you 
 jf gain any influence over him do try to per 
 suade him to stop it, or he will be a dis 
 grace to the family, Madame Mother had written 
 to one of the professors who had been his father s 
 classmate. 
 
 Through his seventeenth and eighteenth years, 
 in outward calm and inward shame, he went on 
 adding height. In his nineteenth year he did slow 
 down ; but such a prestige he had for growing that 
 no one dared say whether six feet two inches 
 marked a recess or a finality. When conviction 
 drove skepticism out of his own mind, he gave 
 what he called a Stop Party in his room in 
 Poverty Eow which his personality had made 
 cosmopolitan. A copy of that invitation 
 
 " Glory Be! 
 
 It Isn t to be a Habit! 
 
 Congratulations from Four to Six, 
 
 Tuesday Afternoon! " 
 
2 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 is a precious relic among the few men who have 
 family garrets in which to stow mementoes. At 
 the same time, he wrote the news to Madame 
 Mother and also to Ellen Moore as if a two-braid 
 girl would care! 
 
 By no choice of his own, James Harden was as 
 conspicuous on the first day he walked across the 
 campus as the one bearded freshman of thirty. 
 Something in his pervasive geniality made it 
 natural to call him the Big Fellow, which became 
 a name of destiny to follow him : as much a her 
 itage as Jim for James. The class made him presi 
 dent because, as Willy Sweetser said, it did not 
 look right to put such a commanding individual 
 anywhere except at the head of the procession. 
 But this was only an honor which he received 
 in laughing surprise while that Stop Party was 
 really the first memorable milestone in his life. 
 With graduation he was at his second. 
 
 The things that had made his room cheerful 
 were partly in his trunk and mostly out of it in 
 confusion on the floor. He paused over each article 
 as if holding it in his hand a while softened the 
 misery of putting it away. Everybody of 88 
 now to be scattered from the democracy of student 
 lives into the autocracy of the world had already 
 said good-by repeatedly to him ; but the ones whose 
 trunks were on the way to the station, or at least 
 strapped, and who had an idle hour before train 
 time, drifted toward the quarters of the poorer 
 students in Charlotte Square and up the worn 
 marble steps of the old red brick house, No. 22 
 
A ROOM IN POVERTY ROW 3 
 
 West, to the third story front. They wanted to 
 see how the Big Fellow got on with his packing. 
 
 " Slowly but thoroughly," he said, in answer 
 to every inquiry and always in laughing good 
 humor. " It hurts, doesn t it? " he added, paus 
 ing. " I feel every root coming out and they re 
 good-sized roots with me. 
 
 His big reading-chair, fit for a giant, the one 
 article of furniture which was his own, he had 
 crated to take home. Where his books had been 
 piled over the mantle and on a board laid across 
 the top of an ancient-of-days desk of the order 
 that belonged to the landlady s family when it was 
 in better circumstances the removal revealed the 
 fact that the wall paper had once been pink in 
 color and in design as French as the Empire piano 
 seat, its tapestry long since given way to horse 
 hair, on which he had been wont to sit rigidly at 
 his work. 
 
 " It s not soap and it s not catsup, I hasten to 
 say, he continued, with a nod toward two wooden 
 boxes which he had from the corner grocery. 
 " No. Far be it from me to put them under false 
 colors. Abraham Lincoln and his guild are in the 
 soap box and Blackstone and the others in the cat 
 sup box " the others being histories of law and 
 civilization. If you don t find it in Lincoln, who 
 always seems much handier and easier, you ll find 
 it in Blackstone. There s one thing both are silent 
 on, I ve found packing; while Kent s Com 
 mentaries are a little shy on how a young man is to 
 earn a living with no capital except a sheepskin." 
 
v. 
 
 
 
 4 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 He wiped a bead off his brow, took a paper 
 weight off a pile of photographs and clothes and 
 books that would not go into the boxes, and slipped 
 it into a boxing-glove. Then he wrapped a photo 
 graph .of Aunt Julia in an enormous sweater. 
 
 I ll get them in, all right/ he said. " Now 
 look at that! I ask if a man with an undershirt 
 of that size isn t entitled to some sympathy? 
 
 He held up a generous expanse of wool so that 
 all might see, and rolled it into a wad which, 
 piston-like, his muscular arm rammed between a 
 pair of shoes and " The Federalist " in one 
 volume. 
 
 " Big, what are you going to do this summer? " 
 asked one of the five or six men in the room, dis 
 tributed on the bed, the window sills, and the 
 boxes. 
 
 The Big Fellow dropped a pair of drawers and 
 turned about quickly. 
 
 " That reminds me that I ve been so concen 
 trated on my job of packing," he said, " I forgot 
 to tell you my good news. You know, I never 
 could have got through college if it hadn t been 
 for outside work. Well, this morning Colonel 
 Walker was asking me the same question you have 
 been asking, and I told him I was out to get a job 
 of any kind and pay my way to study law just as 
 I tell everybody never thinking of offering my 
 self to him; and Glory be! if he didn t say he d 
 give me something in some of his interests, and 
 I m going to the city to-morrow on my way home 
 to be assigned to some work or other by one of 
 
A ROOM IN POVERTY ROW 5 
 
 his managers. But he says I ll have to get law 
 out of my head. You can hire lawyers, he 
 said." 
 
 After everybody had congratulated him and 
 told him how lucky he was, Eamsdell asked from 
 the window sill, with a strange inflection: 
 
 " Did Ned speak for you? " 
 
 t No, not that I know of, Big answered. 
 
 Ned was the Colonel s son, also of 88, and the 
 champion college heavyweight. He was never 
 seen in Charlotte Square, No. 22 West, third 
 floor front. 
 
 " I don t know of anything better for a grad 
 to fall into than Colonel Walker s good favor," 
 Eamsdell added. 
 
 It gave me a new idea of him, considering that 
 my father once pretty near put him in jail. He 
 said: If you re made of the stuff the old block 
 was, I want you. 
 
 " You weren t meant for business." It was 
 Eamsdell again. 
 
 " I reckon, though, I d stick to business if I 
 had a chance. Money s a great thing when you 
 need it the way the Harden family does. Madame 
 Mother and Aunt Julia ought to have more com 
 forts. Two Braids must have an education, and 
 when a man gets a chance and it s his duty, he 
 ought " 
 
 A knock interrupted him. The Big Fellow sang 
 out to come in, in a voice loud enough to be heard 
 in the lower hall, a voice as thunderously out of 
 keeping in welcoming the little woman who opened 
 
6 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 the stained, varnish-cracked door as a whirlwind 
 sent for a leaf. 
 
 t Is there anything I can do to help you, Mister 
 Big Fellow? " Mrs. Billings, the landlady, asked. 
 
 She had not come for that purpose at all. It was 
 the excuse for the same errand that had brought 
 the others. She wanted to say another farewell 
 and hear the Big Fellow s laugh, but the sudden 
 sight of the dismantled room gave her a shiver. 
 With customary foresight she took her handker 
 chief out of her belt bag at once, to be prepared for 
 the worst. 
 
 I didn t know I d feel it so, she said. " It a 
 been four years, Mister Big Fellow I ve called 
 you that from the first day, haven t I! and I ll 
 miss you so ! How I did scold you for burning 
 so much oil when you first came, didn t I? And 
 how I was afraid you d shake the house down 
 when you went up and down nights ! 
 
 " Toothache, Big? " one of them asked. 
 
 The Big Fellow laughed. 
 
 " Toothache! " quoth Mrs. Billings, in high- 
 pitched sarcasm. " No. He s always doing it " 
 a habit which was new to them. " Not toothache! 
 Blackstone and Abraham, so far as I could ever 
 make out. And I ve got so used to your walk 
 on the stairs! " By this time Mrs. Billings 
 was incoherent and using her handkerchief 
 freely. " Oh, I know all their walks. Some 
 go falling down and some thumping on their 
 heels and some that come home late at 
 night, I m sorry to say, take two or three steps on 
 
A ROOM IN POVERTY ROW 7 
 
 one stair, kind of uncertain, as if they were afraid 
 it was sliding out from under, and then hang onto 
 the banisters, I guess. And you re the only one 
 I ever had that didn t take two steps at a 
 time. You don t run either up or down, Mister 
 Big Fellow. You just go plowing on, taking 
 every stair, and quick, too! I ll miss that regular 
 squeak and your Hello! for coffee, that s loud 
 as the chapel bell, and coming down yourself half 
 way to get it. You re so big and simple I m afraid 
 for you when you get out in the hard, cold world." 
 
 This was too much for even senior gravity. 
 Mrs. Billings thought that the series of mirthful 
 explosions were directed at her. She let her hand 
 kerchief fall and looked through her tears, hurt 
 and shamed to be caught in a lodger s room in 
 such an unbusinesslike, not to say unbecoming, 
 outburst. 
 
 "It s myself on whom these ruffians are venting 
 their buffoonery," said the Big Fellow, rising to 
 the occasion. " They see how good you are in 
 order to see so much good in another ruffian. I d 
 like to stay here as a student forever, were such 
 glorious folly in keeping with the temper of the 
 times, when every man ought to be at work. Bet 
 ter men will come to take my place. Whether they 
 fall downstairs or slide upstairs, they ll all love 
 you. Be joyful over the friends that will never 
 forget you. Here s to Mrs. Billings! Drive dull 
 sorrow away! Here we go round the mulberry 
 bush! " 
 
 She found her right hand in the Big Fellow s 
 
8 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 and her left hand in Kamsdell s, as they circled 
 the trunk, dodging between the boxes containing 
 Abraham and Blackstone, tripping on the Big Fel 
 low s nether garment, the little lady half laughing 
 and half crying, till her breathlessness brought 
 them to a standstill. 
 
 * i Mrs. Billings, I salute you. You are the queen 
 of hostesses." 
 
 The Big Fellow, with a deep bow, took her chin 
 in his hands and most deliberately planted a kiss 
 on her forehead. A blush crept up from the faded 
 old cheeks, suffusing the pathway of her tears. 
 
 11 For shame! " she cried; and in her hasty 
 withdrawal from an experience which would be 
 one of her most treasured memories as she listened 
 in her basement room for the different manner of 
 squeaks till every lodger was abed, she nearly ran 
 into Willy Sweetser entering Willy, with his sil 
 ver-headed cane and eyes popping with deviltry 
 and the inevitable cigarette between his fingers. 
 The Big Fellow called him " House Afire. " 
 
 Nobody knew just how he had ever secured his 
 diploma, unless by natural wit, inveterate curiosity, 
 and absorption. He had done no studying to any 
 one s knowledge, yet he was remarkably ready in 
 a certain characteristic way at recitations. In 
 making mischief he became a post-graduate in his 
 freshman year. It was always difficult for him 
 self, perhaps, as well as for others to tell whether 
 he was joking or not. 
 
 1 i Say, Big, Ned Walker never did seem to like 
 you," he remarked, with his eyes inverted as he 
 
A ROOM IN POVERTY ROW 9 
 
 put a match to a fresh cigarette. " What do you 
 
 think he said about you to-day? Why, he 
 
 And Willy, unable to resist the sensation, had told 
 that which he had not meant to tell. 
 
 The Big Fellow laughed. It was a short, hearty, 
 infectious laugh, freely given from his deep lungs, 
 no different than they had heard a thousand times. 
 Eamsdell called it a " sawing wood " laugh. He 
 would give it in idle welcome and give it when he 
 was interrupted at any task, and then without a 
 word go on with his work. Now he dropped that 
 nether garment half folded on the trunk and inter 
 rogated Willy. 
 
 11 He said that, did he?" 
 
 It was a thing which went back to his father, a 
 thing, knowingly worded, which ate into Big like 
 acid. 
 
 " Yes," assented Willy, somewhat hesitantly. 
 The figure towering over him was Cyclopean and 
 ominous. Suddenly he was struck with the dis 
 concerting idea that it might be loaded with 
 dynamite. " But look here, Big, I shouldn t have 
 repeated that. Forget it!" Willy was worried. 
 It looked to him as if Big were getting mad and it 
 had never occurred to him before that this was 
 possible. 
 
 " Yes, but you did repeat it and you do not deny 
 that he said it. I ll stop packing and go to see 
 him." 
 
 The Big Fellow took his coat off the bedpost 
 where it was hanging and drew it on. 
 
 Willy was aghast between curiosity and nervous 
 
10 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 dread, for he was fonder of Big than of anyone 
 else at college and Big had often been his cham 
 pion when he was in trouble. 
 
 " You ll not have to go far! " said Kamsdell. 
 " Ned Walker s coming along the street now. 7 
 
 " I ll get back on the job all the sooner," was 
 the giant s smiling answer. 
 
 Without waiting for his hat he started for the 
 door. 
 
 " You aren t going to do anything serious, are 
 you, Big? " asked Eamsdell. 
 
 Big s retreating back along the hall indicated no 
 consciousness of having heard the question. 
 
 " Did you look at his eyes 1 " exclaimed Willy, 
 almost tragically. " They weren t laughing. 
 They glittered like a bayonet on a frosty 
 morning. 
 
 His eyes never do laugh only the rest of his 
 face and his lungs," Eamsdell told him. " You d 
 known that before if you were half as observing as 
 you are meddlesome. But I confess I never saw 
 them steely like that, myself. We d better go 
 along. 
 
 Squeak, squeak the old stairs groaned as the 
 Big Fellow descended, with steady, rapid stride. 
 Until he reached the door he was unconscious that 
 he was followed. When he looked around and 
 saw no less than seven retainers, he said : 
 
 " Make yourselves at home. I ll run out to see 
 Ned alone, if you please. I don t want to leave 
 the old Alma with any misunderstanding with 
 anybody of the class of 88." 
 
r A ROOM IN POVERTY ROW 11 
 
 " But look here, Big," groaned Willy, who felt 
 responsible, " you aren t going to " 
 
 "I m going out alone and I hope to make a 
 friend. 
 
 " Of course he s not going to " Eamsdell 
 
 drew Willy back into the doorway. For his part, 
 Eamsdell was quite reassured on this score. 
 " You know Big as well as I do. He s going to 
 clear up any differences in his, characteristic way. 
 A good thing, too, considering that he s to 
 work for Ned s father and he and Ned have never 
 hit it off together." 
 
 " Walker s pretty near as tall as Big," mused 
 Willy, as he watched the Big Fellow turn in the 
 direction from which Walker was coming not 
 twenty yards away. " I am all interest. You 
 can t tell what might happen! " 
 
 Willy, who had had the remark first-hand from 
 Ned, could not get away from a certain idea since 
 he had seen that look in the Big Fellow s eye. The 
 two men met just in front of the canna bed of No. 
 24, next door, which in flagging, grass plot, and its 
 old wr ought-iron fence was the same as No. 22, 
 except that Mrs. Billings favored geraniums, in 
 which she saw a distinction and a difference for 
 No. 22, never being able to understand how any 
 body could make a mistake between the two places, 
 particularly in summer time. 
 
 "Hello, Ned! " 
 
 " Howdy do, Harden." 
 
 " Ned, Willy Sweetser s been tale-bearing 
 again," the Big Fellow began, good-naturedly. 
 
12 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 * * He told me something that you said which made 
 me come right to you to see if we can straighten it 
 out ; and if you do feel that way, I would like to 
 know why " and he repeated Willy s report. 
 
 His Jove-like open manner and his seeming 
 confidence that a friendly talk would settle any 
 thing irritated Walker uncontrollably. Though 
 Ned s father was small, the son had inherited his 
 mother s physique. 
 
 " Yes, I did," he answered hotly, " and I say it 
 again, and so was your father before you." 
 
 Eamsdell and the others in the doorway saw the 
 Big Fellow s arm shoot out and Walker would 
 have gone to the ground if he had not caught hold 
 of the fence, on which he leaned for a dizzy in~ 
 terval. Big stepped back, abashed by his own act, 
 confused in everything except that he might have 
 to defend himself. 
 
 " Gee! Big looks like a Pillar of Hercules 
 and Ned s always in training! " gasped Willy 
 Sweetser. 
 
 " You said my father! " Big declared, taking a 
 deep breath. 
 
 " Yes. I ought not to have included him. I 
 retract that," Walker returned, as he recovered 
 himself and stood solidly on his feet again, ready 
 and defiant, yet not taking the aggressive. 
 
 The Big Fellow offered his hand. 
 
 " But I don t take back what I said about you, * 
 Walker added, as he refused it. 
 
 " I m sorry. Do you care to give me any 
 reason, Ned!" the Big Fellow asked, almost 
 
A ROOM IN POVERTY ROW 13 
 
 anxiously. " Leaving my father out makes it 
 different, anyway. Time will prove whether you 
 are right about me." 
 
 After a second s silence Walker said " No," 
 and passed on, resuming his walk. 
 
 " Good-afternoon, Ned! " the Big Fellow called 
 after him. 
 
 " Good-afternoon, Harden," Walker responded. 
 
 The waiting group on the steps was equally puz 
 zled by Walker s failure to strike back and by the 
 Big Fellow s seeming dejection as he returned. 
 He put one hand on Bamsdell s and the other on 
 Sweetser s shoulder appealingly. 
 
 " Trembling like a leaf ! " exclaimed Willy, who 
 had made a discovery. * Why Big has nerves ! 
 Willy, you see, was a natural publicist, who had to 
 tell anything he saw or heard. 
 
 I had to do it when he mentioned my father. I 
 was mad," said the Big Fellow; and this seemed 
 all he had to say, for, without another word, he 
 went past them and on up the stairs, the presence 
 of his friends seemingly forgotten. 
 
 Were they to follow him, as so many street boys 
 follow the winner of an alley fisticuffs? They 
 stood watching his ascent, and he settled their 
 doubts when he turned on the first landing and 
 asked if they weren t coming. 
 
 Willy Sweetser was for doing two steps at a 
 time. His curiosity was not half satisfied. The 
 others evidently thought it was time for de 
 parture, and Willy decided not to go alone. 
 
 " Big, your quarrel won t make any difference 
 
14 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 with the Colonel/ 7 Eamsdell called. " He never 
 lets sentiment interfere with business. If he 
 wants to take you on he ll take you." 
 
 " Oh, to the devil with that job ! " answered the 
 Big Fellow, and the second flight began groaning 
 under his weight. "I m going to stick to Abra 
 ham and Blackstone." 
 
 "He s so cut up," complained Willy, " that he 
 will not even say good-by" in which Willy was 
 mistaken; for after they were out in the street 
 they heard a window raised and then that well- 
 known, pleasant, even voice : 
 
 Good-by ! Good luck ! hallooed the Big Fel 
 low, with his head out of the lower sash frame. 
 " Have a good time in Europe, Eamsdell. Ee- 
 member we re all to write. Buck the line hard! 
 88 s going to be a power for good in the world ! 
 
 When he looked back into the room he was re 
 minded by the sight of the soap and catsup boxes 
 that rushing into a public street and knocking a 
 man down in a burst of temper, was not quite in 
 keeping with the books inside them or with the 
 character of a man whose ambition was to know 
 and interpret the law. 
 
 " Madame Mother, you are scolding me," he 
 said to one of the two portraits still resting on his 
 desk. They were to be the last things to go into a 
 safe place in the top tray. " I believe you are 
 pointing a finger, too, Miss Two Braids. But I 
 had to do it." 
 
 As he was not going to the city now, there was 
 ample time for packing before he took the morn- 
 
A ROOM IN POVERTY ROW 15 
 
 ing train. Sitting on the ancient piano stool 
 among the ruins of his old room, he went over 
 again the manuscript on the Colonial Admin 
 istration of the Romans which he was writ 
 ing for a prize for a law review. A little note to 
 Colonel Walker, thanking him and stating that he 
 had changed his mind, then a long letter to his 
 mother, telling about the disgraceful thing he had 
 to do it was easier to write this than to tell it 
 and a note about it to Miss Two Braids, who in 
 his own mind, at least, held him to a sort of ac 
 countability, then back to the essay ! 
 
 Well into the morning, with his back so stiff 
 that any part of it would have touched a vertical 
 line a pillar of healthy youth tracing a small, 
 copperplate hand that seemed a calculated insult 
 to the size of the fist that drove the pen, he burnt 
 Mrs. Billings s oil in a final spree before tackling 
 the world. 
 
II 
 
 ENTEK THE HOME FOLK 
 
 IN fact, the oil ran out and he had to stumble 
 over the soap and the catsup boxes to bed in 
 the darkness. When he awoke he thundered 
 for coffee, and recalling that he had not finished 
 certain corrections in his manuscript, became so 
 absorbed that he was unconscious of the need of 
 breakfast till Mrs. Billings stood at his elbow 
 with the tray. 
 
 " Oh! Just food as if food was of any im 
 portance, good lady, when a man is busy with a 
 magnum opus! " he told her, oracularly. " I had 
 a beautiful time last night. I rewrote two whole 
 pages twice and then cut them out altogether, and 
 you can t guess what an improvement this made. 
 But there s an end of it ! : 
 
 He slipped the manuscript into an addressed 
 envelope, which he sealed and laid on the top of 
 the desk beside the photograph of Miss Two 
 Braids, where he would be sure to see it when he 
 came to go. Then he moved the ink well to make 
 room for the tray. 
 
 " If it s magnum opus that makes you lose 
 sleep, I do hope you ll get better now it s off your 
 mind," Mrs. Billings affirmed, dryly. 
 
 16 
 
ENTER THE HOME FOLK 17 
 
 " Consider winning a prize of one hundred dol 
 lars in A.D. 1888 with an essay on Eoman Colonial 
 Administration by jumping the subject and show 
 ing how we should set about civilizing a new coun 
 try to-day! Consider what the poor Romans 
 have suffered from writers for two thousand 
 years! Incidentally, consider that I haven t won 
 that prize yet! " he continued, his mind still 
 dwelling on his masterpiece as he cut an egg in 
 two and proceeded to make two mouthfuls of it. 
 " If I do win it I ll give you five dollars toward 
 the oil," 
 
 " Nothing of the kind, you silly fellow! And 
 do you know what the hour is? " 
 
 " No. Wh-h-at! " came through a munch of 
 toast, in the surprise of his recollection that there 
 was such a thing as time. 
 
 " Eight, and you ordered the express at eight." 
 
 " Did I! " He took the rest of his coffee in a 
 draught and jumped up. " Did I? Then watch 
 me in action." 
 
 " Can I help! " she asked. 
 
 " No. You d interfere with the system. I ve 
 got it all organized organized like a Eoman col 
 ony. I know where everything is. Can t you see 
 I do? " 
 
 In what seemed to Mrs. Billings most foolish 
 and unwarranted exultation, he looked from her 
 to the heterogeneous things piled around the 
 trunk. 
 
 " No, I can t. And nobody but a man could! " 
 she snapped. 
 
18 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 1 In twenty minutes you will see this trunk go 
 ing downstairs and you ll wonder how I did it. 
 Between you and me, I shall, myself. 
 
 He took off his coat and sprang for the nether 
 garment that had remained untouched since last 
 evening. 
 
 " I shan t. I shall gasp and so will you when 
 you come to unpack the muss. There s a ring at 
 the bell now! " and she withdrew, her fears aug 
 mented as to his future in a matter-of-fact age. 
 
 That he did finish packing in twenty minutes no 
 one can deny, the protesting expressman being a 
 witness to the fact that when Somebody on Torts 
 will not be compressed to the size of a First 
 Eeader, or a tennis racket folded up like a fan, 
 even with their owner s whole weight on the trunk 
 lid, they and other things of unaccommodating 
 rigidity have to be left outside to be carried by 
 hand. 
 
 As he descended the stairs, his aspect was that 
 of a man who had gathered up all the articles he 
 could before his retreat from a burning building. 
 Between his two free fingers he carried the envelope 
 addressed to The International Law Review. The 
 tactical situation was such, as he explained to Mrs. 
 Billings, that he would have partly to dismantle 
 in order to lift up the mail box lid. 
 
 Mrs. Billings herself took charge of starting the 
 magnum opus on its journey. This done at the 
 first street corner, she asked him, cargo-bound as 
 he was, how he was ever going to buy his ticket 
 and check his trunk. 
 
ENTER THE HOME FOLK 19 
 
 66 Drop things and pick them up again, I guess," 
 was the only solution that occurred to him. 
 
 She suggested a better way. Bareheaded, she 
 walked beside the self-borne caravan to the sta 
 tion. There, without dropping anything but a soft 
 hat, he was able by throwing his shoulders apart 
 to make sufficient opening in the overlapping im 
 pedimenta hung from either arm, to enable the 
 fiduciary agent to fish the one ten-dollar bill to his 
 name out of his pocket. She stuffed back the 
 change and the token of brass just before the call 
 of "All aboard! " 
 
 Completely blocking the rear platform on which 
 he stood, with a choking in his throat, he watched 
 the little woman alternately wiping her eyes with 
 her handkerchief and waving it and he was 
 happy to have the last glimpse a wave. 
 
 " That s some capital to have Mrs. Billings s 
 love," he thought, gratefully. Once he had oc 
 cupied a seat, he was assured of having it to him 
 self. There was no room for anybody or anything 
 else. Over the shoulder of the man in front of 
 him he saw the morning paper for the first time, 
 and glaring at him were the headlines, Thrashed 
 Young Millionaire ! " with a full account any 
 details to make the story interesting having ac 
 crued with its travel from mouth to mouth to a 
 reporter s ear. " Young Harden s father, it will 
 be recalled, won State prominence by his prosecu 
 tion of Colonel Walker, some twenty years ago : 
 ran the explanation which gave the narrative 
 its sensational importance. 
 
20 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " I was mad. I couldn t help it." He knew 
 that under the same circumstances he would do 
 the same thing again. 
 
 For the rest of the journey his thoughts were 
 on the home folks and his future. By this time 
 Epaminanidad must have brought them the letters 
 with his version of the incident which he had 
 posted the night before. How would they receive 
 it? And what was he to do to earn the money to 
 finish his course in law? He could be most 
 definite, he found, in thinking of Abraham and 
 Blackstone, but on the problem of making a living 
 he was most indefinite. 
 
 The conductor s call of " Bolton! " brought 
 a struggle with a more immediate practical 
 problem when a raincoat had slipped to the floor 
 and with it a hairbrush out of a pocket solved, 
 however, thanks to the good offices of a fellow pas 
 senger, who tried to keep a straight face while he 
 acted as loader. 
 
 Bolton was a small town which had fallen into 
 decay without even the distinction of being a 
 county seat that saves the dignity of many de 
 cayed towns which see their industries drawn 
 away by railroad centers and farmers go by their 
 doors to a larger market. An island in the midst 
 of increasing population, it had lost population. 
 
 The Harden home was well out past the post- 
 office and the stores and the churches on the main 
 street, which was but a dusty road, whose turning 
 past the Episcopal church brought him in sight 
 of the old brick house in a two-acre lot, with many 
 
ENTER THE HOME FOLK 21 
 
 generous shade trees, most of them, except the 
 old elm which he delightedly saw showed never a 
 dead limb among its languid plumes planted by 
 his father. But something something which he 
 could not place had changed in the picture, 
 though Epaminanidad, a looked-for figure in the 
 foreground, was waiting at the gate, which he 
 opened to let the Big Fellow in. 
 
 " Hello, Pam! How re you doing? Shake 
 hands with you as soon as I have a hand to 
 spare! " 
 
 " Yissah, it s yoM " Epaminanidad screened 
 his eyes with his knuckly black hand. " Yo big 
 ness is fillin to de eyes, an yo voice is cheery." 
 
 * Now I know what it is ! the Big Fellow ex 
 claimed. " The lawn hasn t been clipped! Going 
 to make hay I Has Betty lockjaw? 
 
 Epaminanidad had told himself that this would 
 come the first shot out of the box, and here was 
 dire prophecy fulfilled. Sore hit, he dropped to 
 the rear without a word. 
 
 "What about Two Braids? I thought she 
 would meet me at the station, " the Big Fellow 
 asked, postponing the evil moment for Pam. 
 
 She had a better plan, of which the returning 
 alumnus was advised suddenly from ambush. A 
 ripe cherry flew past his eyes and then one struck 
 him fairly on the cheek, as he looked upward into 
 the cherry-tree shading the path to see Miss Ellen 
 Moore, in the mischief of twelve years, seated on 
 the limb, firing what seemed an unlimited store of 
 ammunition. 
 
22 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 1 I refuse to surrender or run ! he shouted. 
 
 Aching fingers let all his baggage fall in havoc 
 around him, except Somebody on Torts, which is 
 a thing to be treated with respect and which he 
 laid gently on the ground. 
 
 " Great lady, I m glad to see that you have not 
 done your hair high yet," he observed. " It will 
 be considered in your favor when I catch you. 
 I m coming up." 
 
 "Don t don t! You ll break all the limbs! 
 I ll come down, Jim! " she answered. 
 
 He held out his arms; she partly leaped and 
 partly fell into them, and before he put her down 
 he shook her in rollicking playfulness. 
 
 " And how s she been treating you, Pam? " he 
 asked. 
 
 Head askew, Pam was surveying the pile which 
 the Big Fellow had dropped. 
 
 11 Well, she don call me factotum no mo . Mis 
 Julia made her stop. I kin stand any t ing but 
 dat, f r I ain no factotum any t ing but dat an 
 dem Greeks. An she ain filled mah shoes wif 
 shucks oftener n ushal. An I done got even wif 
 her by tyin her braids roun de po ch pos when 
 she s a-puckerin her fo haid ovah her books like 
 she got a whole houseful o trubbles in her brain." 
 
 i But I just kept on studying till it was untied, 
 she retorted. 
 
 " Allus de las word! " groaned Pam. " An 
 what I d like to know, Mistah Jim, is how yo evah 
 carried all dem t ings, bein yo ain quite so big s 
 an elephant er a camel." 
 
ENTER THE HOME FOLK 23 
 
 Pam picked up a portion of dem t ings and 
 followed the Big Fellow and Miss Two Braids up 
 the gravel walk to where two old ladies stood on 
 the steps, framed in the opening of the honey 
 suckle vines that overran the porch. 
 
 " Here he is ! " cried Miss Two Braids, running 
 ahead, and " Yeah he air! " said Pam from the 
 rear, as if the Big Fellow were shadowy and in 
 tangible, being visible to the naked eye only when 
 pointed out. 
 
 Was ever man so lucky as I in the matter of 
 a mother and an aunt? " he said, as he kissed 
 both old ladies. 
 
 Then he looked his fill of the loved faces, and 
 Madame Mother as he had named her and Aunt 
 Julia looked their fill of him. 
 
 " I don t believe he has not an inch! " ob 
 served Aunt Julia, judicially. 
 
 " I should hope not! " said Madame Mother. 
 " Not at twenty-two! " 
 
 Measure there and see ! There s the old mark 
 we made a year ago, Aunt Julia bade him ; and 
 he obediently put his back against one of the 
 porch pillars. 
 
 Epaminanidad squinted and raised himself on 
 tiptoe, while Miss Two Braids brought a chair and 
 then put Somebody on Torts which did have 
 practical uses, she found on the chair, and 
 mounting, was able to pull a lock of hair at the 
 same time that everybody laughed and decided 
 that he hadn t not a little finger s width. 
 
 " Oh, Madame Mother, you don t look over 
 
24 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 forty ; and yon, Aunt Julia why, your rosy cheeks 
 justify the record in the family Bible that you are 
 her younger sister. Why couldn t you come to 
 the graduation? You could have had my room 
 and Mrs. Billings would have put me on a cot in 
 the garret." 
 
 " We did intend coming," Madame Mother be 
 gan, " and and " 
 
 " Then Martha wasn t feeling well," from 
 Aunt Julia, helpfully. 
 
 Poor dissemblers, they, counting the railroad 
 fare to the college town and back an insuperable 
 barrier to a dearest wish ! 
 
 " I presume you d like to wash off the dust of 
 travel, suggested Aunt Julia, lest he should pur 
 sue this lead further. 
 
 Their welcome seemed more subdued than he 
 had expected; their usual brightness except 
 Miss Two Braids lacking. Had they read his 
 letter about his brawl in the street? And 
 the morning paper? Were they ashamed of 
 him? 
 
 Meanwhile, the sight of familiar home marks, 
 as he hung his hat on the old hall rack, drove all 
 other ideas away. A minute later, in his own 
 room, his head was dipped in cool spring water, 
 and afterward, out of graduate curiosity, as he 
 waited on Pam s second trip, he took down some 
 of his boyhood schoolbooks from the hanging 
 shelf at the head of the bed. 
 
 " I took your algebra and your first Latin les 
 sons and put back the Fifth Reader," chirped 
 
ENTER THE HOME FOLK 25 
 
 Miss Two Braids, looking in for a moment, as she 
 tied an apron. " Algebra is simply horrible. It 
 isn t practical, either. I ve burned my fingers 
 more times on the stove since I got out of simple 
 arithmetic! " 
 
 Then she flew downstairs to the kitchen, hav 
 ing uttered her defiance of liberal education to 
 one of its profound exponents. 
 
 Out of the pockets of the overcoat of that pro 
 found exponent Epaminanidad, on arriving, re 
 moved a penholder, two fire insurance blotters, a 
 piece of the original manuscript of the essay, a 
 baseball, two pairs of socks and a collar. In the 
 inside pocket were the photographs of Madame 
 Mother and Miss Two Braids, wrapped in hand 
 kerchiefs and pinned in carefully. The Big Fel 
 low put them on top of the bookshelf. 
 
 " Dat s all of yo traps," said Pam, " an I 
 reckon I d bettah go down an he p wif de supper. 
 I he ps roun de house all I kin since Betty 
 since " 
 
 " Since what! " asked the Big Fellow, who, 
 having found his hairbrush, was brushing his 
 hair. 
 
 " Since since I gan to he p bout de house. 
 I Ise got to dress an git ready," he mumbled, as 
 he beat a retreat, feeling himself most unmanly to 
 leave the narration of the truth to others when 
 he felt morally to blame for the catastrophe which 
 weighed on his mind. 
 
 Dressing for supper was scarcely an elaborate 
 function for Pam, but it could be made to serve as 
 
26 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 a flying excuse. Miss Two Braids said that he 
 was like the invariable character in books about 
 the South and admittedly little could happen in 
 that family without his playing a part. The story 
 of how he came to be in this Northern household 
 may be traced back to a crisis in the career of one 
 of Morgan s Raiders, who had to travel so fast 
 that his servant was left behind to drift about 
 until he attached himself to James Harden, Sr. 
 His true name, so it had been intimated to him 
 from youthful heights, when the Big Fellow first 
 explored Grecian history, must be Epaminondas 
 a heresy which Pam disposed of by the purest 
 logic, and ever afterward he was against the 
 Greeks on all occasions. 
 
 " Epaminanidad I heerd it fust, an Epami- 
 nanidad it is," he had said, " an I am askin 
 nuffin from de Greeks as to what it was my 
 mother call me not at my age I ain ! 
 
 He stood behind Madame Mother s chair at the 
 simple meal, set among as much of her wedding 
 silver and Aunt Julia s wedding silver and their 
 mother s and grandmother s wedding silver as 
 the table would hold, the rest being on the side 
 board. 
 
 " I see Mrs. Baxter washes as well as ever. 
 How is she? " the Big Fellow remarked, noting 
 the linen. 
 
 Mrs. Baxter had been their washerwoman for 
 years. As Miss Two Braids once said : * Every 
 thing about our house has been for years ; that is 
 why it is so nice." 
 
ENTER THE HOME FOLK 27 
 
 " Well as usual, I think/ said Aunt Julia, 
 boldly. 
 
 She was the better of the two sisters at evasion. 
 
 " An how s Betty? I nearly forgot her! " 
 
 Epaminanidad s courage came like an inspira 
 tion. 
 
 " It s me yo oughtah ask dat," he announced. 
 
in 
 
 EPAMINANIDAD 
 
 OF affairs of State we shall hear much 
 eventually; of matters most serious to 
 this family we shall hear presently; but 
 first, the whole truth about Betty from Epami- 
 nanidad, oblivious of the details of service, while 
 Madame Mother put the frizzled beef on the 
 plates which she passed herself and Aunt Julia 
 poured the tea. It is allowable, without detract 
 ing from Pam s courage, to entertain a polite sus 
 picion that the opportunity of telling the thing in 
 his own way at length was influential in inducing 
 that inspiration. 
 
 4 To sum it up right at de start, I reckon Betty 
 was gittin mighty ol , an she wouldn t a fell but 
 fo mah carefullessness an dem longated hoofs 
 o hers," he said. " Betty was eighteen cordin 
 to our count, an havin los her horns she had no 
 count o her own. Yo membahs how yo was 
 gwine on six when we got her, Mistah Jim? Why, 
 Betty was gittin sort o middle-aged fo yo was 
 big nuff to took notice, Miss Ellen. Yo mem 
 bahs, Miss Ellen, how she fetched yo a wop wif 
 her tail right cross de face in fly time which, I 
 mus say, is mos aggervatin ." 
 
 28 
 
EPAMINANIDAD AND BETTY 29 
 
 Aunt Julia spoke for Miss Two Braids, whose 
 upbringing was her particular province. 
 
 " Yes, and Ellen was fearfully angry about it," 
 she remarked. " She parroted something she d 
 heard you say, Martha. She said that if Betty 
 had done it intentionally she wanted her punished, 
 and if she hadn t her education ought to be taken 
 in hand. I suppose you take as many lumps as 
 usual, Jimmy boy ? 
 
 " Lumps and Jimmy boy! That does sound 
 like home! " exclaimed the Big Fellow. " And 
 home ought to be sweetening enough for me, little 
 aunt." 
 
 "I m giving you three. We used to say that 
 the only way was to pour the tea into the sugar 
 bowl and pass you that. And a little milk, I re 
 member. Now that we ve got used to the con 
 densed we like it quite well. 
 
 " An Betty was gittin powahful slow an it 
 did rain powahful hard," Pam proceeded. " All 
 dese yeahs I d been takin her out an tetherin 
 her ev y mornin an bringin her in at night, 
 an talkin to her ev y night when I milked 
 her. I nevah did heah of a cow that so liked 
 talkin . 
 
 11 An dem hoofs kep on growin an growin ! 
 Why, dey got longer n shovels an turned up like 
 a swell box cuttah. Peahs like if she couldn t 
 have any horns she s bound to make up on hoofs. 
 Dey got so bad she didn really walk; she 
 skated. An I don t ink I oughtah take all de 
 blame, kase dey nevah would let me use mah jedg- 
 
30 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 ment bout dem hoofs. Why, Mistah Jim, I could 
 ? a sawed .er chopped off six or eight inches thout 
 Betty missin her cud er knowin any mo bout it 
 n if de nex do neighbor was sawin a ham bone. 
 She d jes navigated bettah thout undahstandin 
 why. 
 
 " Well, on de seventeenth of April, I membah 
 de date " 
 
 " We didn t tell you, Jim, because we thought 
 it might interfere with your essay and your thesis 
 and all the other things, Miss Two Braids inter 
 jected. 
 
 " And we knew how fond you were of Betty," 
 Madame Mother added. 
 
 " I done went out fo Betty at milkin -time in de 
 rain, an she was dreffle stubbo n. I guess I jes 
 los mah tempah, kase it was a col rain. l Yo ve 
 got runnahs like a sled, yo ol fool, an I ll pull 
 yo in if yo won t lift yo legs! I says, mos 
 cruel. An stid o givin a shoulder when she 
 comes to de terrace an he pin her in any way, as 
 I ushally did yissah, I done let her slide, an she 
 done went down all of a heap an broke her legs 
 an her insides, too, I guess, fo she nevah got up. 
 An de ol lawn mowah jes all went to pieces nex 
 day, like trubbles nevah come singly ! 
 
 Whereon, Pam lapsed into a hysterical giggle. 
 
 " It s not a laughing matter," Aunt Julia 
 warned him; and it was not, for Betty or the 
 family. 
 
 " I wasn laffin ," said Pam, honestly. "It s 
 kase Ise so distressed in mah mind. Someway I 
 
EPAMINANIDAD AND BETTY 31 
 
 am been right since, nohow. I gets ev yt ing 
 wrong jes as easy, jes as easy as I used to get 
 em right. Ise pulled onions fo weeds, an Missus 
 won lemme tech de dishes no mo , kase I breaks 
 em. But I kin wash de closes ! triumphantly 
 " yis, I kin! " thus explaining family igno 
 rance of the state of Mrs. Baxter s health. 
 
 Madame Mother and Aunt Julia gave him a 
 glance which taxed his wits for a way of escape. 
 
 M-m-muh mah own clothes ! Pam corrected 
 himself, rather tardily. 
 
 The two old ladies knew that the truth must 
 come, but in an orderly family it ought to come 
 in order. Big s home-coming and his supper must 
 be as they were in the old days. He divined that 
 they were holding back some secret, and he be 
 came himself a silent partner in a plan of which 
 Miss Two Braids was the quickest partisan. She 
 made a diversion by going for the peaches, grown 
 on their own tree and put up pound for pound to 
 please his taste. 
 
 It was she, too, who cleared away the dishes 
 swiftly, meanwhile asking the Big Fellow count 
 less questions. Was geometry harder than alge 
 bra? Had he really passed ninety in calculus? 
 Were diplomas really made of sheepskin? Would 
 he frame his or put it in the old iron safe in 
 Madame Mother s room? Did it make you feel a 
 lot prouder and older when you got it? 
 
 " What can we do? She takes the work out of 
 our hands! " exclaimed Madame Mother. 
 
 Poor Epaminanidad, as busy as a French clown 
 
32 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 between trying to get out of her way and to help, 
 was triumphantly successful in carrying out a 
 platter and in putting one of the napkins on the 
 sideboard. 
 
 " I ll wash the dishes! I choose that! " volun 
 teered the alumnus. 
 
 " Oh, no no! " Madame Mother was shocked 
 at the idea. 
 
 " Please let him! Please let Mister Ninety in 
 Calculus! " pleaded Miss Two Braids. " I want 
 to see him! " 
 
 " Please ! " pleaded the Big Fellow himself. 
 
 " You can have my apron," said Miss Two 
 Braids. " My! and it s button strings! What 
 fun! " 
 
 When, in the midst of racing remarks about the 
 breadth of back that had to be spanned, with a 
 piece of cord she had supplied the difference in 
 the size of waists, Mister Ninety in Calculus 
 looked as practical as simple arithmetic, she said. 
 For fear that Pam would go into convulsions, he 
 was sent to see that all the chickens were safe for 
 the night. 
 
 " I can wash faster than you can wipe," as 
 serted the Big Fellow. 
 
 " No, you can t not properly! 
 
 "But I am! " 
 
 " It s the calculus! I believe it helps as much 
 as algebra hurts." 
 
 The old ladies watched from the doorway. 
 After the task was finished, and after Pam had 
 gone to bed, Aunt Julia looked at Madame Mother 
 
EPAMINANIDAD AND BETTY 33 
 
 significantly. It was prearranged for Madame 
 Mother to do the talking, for she was the senior. 
 
 Jimmy, there is a lot I have to tell you, she 
 said. " I have kept it back until now because I 
 wanted to see you have your diploma first. 
 
 Miss Two Braids, in the silence that followed, 
 picked up her book and pencil, understanding that 
 she was on the wrong side of the gulf of the teens 
 between twelve and the grown-ups to be in a 
 family conclave. 
 
 " No, Ellen. You are to come, also. You are 
 old enough and it is right you should know, as 
 Julia and I have concluded." 
 
 With this, Madame Mother erectly led the way 
 into the parlor, where she had already lighted the 
 lamp with the glass standard. 
 
IV 
 
 A STRAIGHT-BACKED-CHAIK OCCASION 
 
 HOW Miss Two Braids came to this family 
 is as simple as tlie life of the family itself. 
 Her parents had been killed in a railroad 
 accident when she was a baby. This penniless, 
 fledgling grandniece of Aunt Julia, who was 
 childless and a widow, by losing one mother had 
 won two, with Aunt Julia having precedence in 
 authority. 
 
 " Girls are easy," Madame Mother observed, 
 when the sleeping bundle in a woollen blanket 
 arrived. 
 
 " Right environment will make it easy," Aunt 
 Julia decided, immediately feeling her re 
 sponsibility as guardian. 
 
 " Especially with such blood as hers," Madame 
 Mother asserted. 
 
 But, of course, you know there is some French 
 and some Irish." 
 
 " Which ought to make her all the more 
 charming! " 
 
 " It s rather skittish, though, the French and 
 Irish part, and does need care, which Aunt Julia 
 determined should not be lacking. " I m glad I 
 have a little money out at interest, Martha," she 
 added, " so I feel quite free to take her." 
 
 34 
 
: A STRAIGHT-BACKED-CHAIR OCCASION 35 
 
 " Nonsense! " said Madame Mother, as if ask 
 ing what had money to do with adopting a baby 
 girl who had such wonderful dark eyes. Her own 
 were grey, and she had never liked them. 
 
 Miss Two Braids 7 cheerfulness, a thing con 
 stant even in mischief, seemed to be a normal ex 
 pression of delight and gratitude over the miracle 
 of a trembling bird falling into a downy, strange 
 nest which was practically her own, for she re 
 membered no other. 
 
 When the Big Fellow seated himself in a 
 straight-backed chair, after the formal occupation 
 of the parlor, she took the one beside it, the soles 
 of her shoes barely touching the floor. It gave 
 her a sense of security to be near him. When he 
 interlocked his fingers she interlocked hers, quite 
 conscious that she must be doing the proper thing. 
 On the other side of the lamp, its glass standard 
 sunk in a wool mat with red ribbon insertion, were 
 Madame Mother and Aunt Julia, also in straight- 
 backed chairs. 
 
 Unexpected thoughts are always flashing into 
 mind when least wanted, and Miss Two Braids 
 caught herself just in time not to say aloud that 
 this seemed to be a straight-backed-chair occasion. 
 She lifted her soles off the floor and determined 
 to keep them off as a reminder of her definite con 
 viction, drawn from experience, that it was not 
 becoming of the youngest member of the council 
 when on trial to say a single word unless she was 
 asked a question. 
 
 " You got my letter about about how I 
 
36 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 tried to clear up a misunderstanding with Ned 
 Walker? " the Big Fellow asked. Their silence 
 on this subject had been the worst kind of punish 
 ment for him. 
 
 " Yes," exclaimed Madame Mother, with a start. 
 It was not at all the thing which the two old ladies 
 had in mind. What might have been in ordinary 
 times an overwhelming affair to the little house 
 hold, when precipitated into the midst of the re 
 hearsal of how they were to make their revelation 
 to him, had been completely eclipsed. 1 1 You could 
 not have done otherwise under the provocation 
 you had, Jimmy," she announced. " You did 
 what your father would have done." 
 
 So he had not played the bully. It was a relief 
 to him to be acquitted by the gentlest of author 
 ities; and by Aunt Julia, who signalled him a 
 smile : 
 
 " You acted as a man ought to act! " she said, 
 snappily. " Never mind if you didn t stop grow 
 ing till you were nineteen." 
 
 " Oh, I was glad glad!" added Miss Two 
 Braids, her disregarded soles touching the floor 
 in her excitement. 
 
 " Ellen! " from Aunt Julia. 
 
 Miss Two Braids had resort to severer meas 
 ures. She crossed her legs and drove the calf so 
 hard against the chair seat that it hurt. If she 
 kept up the torture, she reasoned, she was bound 
 not to think of other things which she ought not 
 to think of and always did. 
 
 " Though it s not an affair to glory in, but one 
 
A STRAIGHT-BACKED-CHAIR OCCASION 37 
 
 to be regretted; and I was happy that you saw it 
 that way/ Madame Mother continued. " I was 
 not so proud of it as I was that you refused to 
 work for Colonel Walker. He would not have 
 wanted that, either. " 
 
 She looked up at the oil portrait at the end of 
 the room. In the dimness of the shaded light the 
 forensic mouth and fighting eyes of a man of vigor 
 and middle age stood forth in intellectual aggres 
 siveness from a gilt frame. His high, broad fore 
 head the son had, and in addition the grey 
 eyes and the finely chiseled aquiline nose and 
 the firm chin of his mother. The father s prosecu 
 tion of Colonel Walker had failed ; his investments 
 in small competing companies had been swept 
 away by the Colonel s amalgamations after the 
 acquittal ; and his death, Madame Mother thought, 
 was due to persecution, following him to the grave, 
 by this man who had kept himself out of jail and 
 saved himself from the wrath of public opinion by 
 the corrupt use of money. 
 
 " No, Jimmy, he would not have wanted that, 
 even if he knew our position." Our position! 
 That gave her the key. She forgot all the words 
 she had rehearsed on sleepless nights. " And our 
 position is pretty bad. I don t well see how it 
 could be worse, except through death or sickness. 
 We have been selfish enough to keep it from you, 
 as I said, till you were graduated. 
 
 " No. I am the selfish one. A fool full of 
 books! " he said, the truth dawning on him. 
 " I ve been taking money you needed. You have 
 
38 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 been going without everything for me! Now I 
 see. I I " 
 
 " How can you say that when we haven t sent 
 you a penny in six months ? 
 
 "I m mostly to blame, myself," began Aunt 
 Julia, precisely. " I speculated yes, I I did 
 with the little money I had. Mr. Jones, of our 
 church, had a great chance in a mine out West. 
 He put in some of his money. I believe Mr. Hob- 
 ber did, too, though of course we ve never known 
 him very well. I thought if I could only multiply 
 it ten times and it looked as if I could how you 
 could have a law course and Ellen could have the 
 schooling she ought to have. But I lost it all 
 yes, all! " Aunt Julia concluded, blankly. " I 
 I know I m an awful old fool, Jimmy." 
 
 " No! You are the dearest aunt in the 
 world! " said the Big Fellow, seeing the lamp 
 light through a mist. 
 
 " Yes! She is! " cried Miss Two Braids, who 
 got no warning for that. 
 
 " No, Julia. I would have done the same," 
 Madame Mother inserted. 
 
 " But I am an old fool. I ll not be disputed! " 
 Aunt Julia repeated. 
 
 " Since Julia was cheated so we have had no 
 income at all, though I know that you thought we 
 had," Madame Mother hurried on. "I hate to 
 confess it but I must tell everything I ve even 
 borrowed money on the silver and furniture ! We 
 haven t paid the interest on the mortgage for 
 years. I m afraid we deceived you a little when 
 
A STRAIGHT-BACKED-CHAIR OCCASION 39 
 
 we kept you in the idea that we let the mortgage 
 run because the interest was less than what Julia 
 was getting. And property values have been go 
 ing down. Why, the old place is not worth more 
 than half what it was when your father died. I 
 can t deny that Mr. Hobber is right. It won t sell 
 for two-thirds of what we owe on it. It s the 
 twentieth of June now, and we must give up the 
 house on July first." 
 
 " Oh ! " A smothered sob came from Miss Two 
 Braids. 
 
 The dread announcement left Madame Mother 
 breathless, white and still. There was unbroken 
 silence until the Big Fellow rose and, crossing 
 the room, kissed her on the forehead. Then he 
 began pacing up and down in leonine restlessness. 
 
 " A fool full of books! " he kept repeating. A 
 fool full of books, who had let two old ladies go in 
 threadbare frocks for him ! 
 
 u Now I understand all you ve done for me 
 all! " he said, slowly. 
 
 " The law! You must go on with that!" 
 his mother told him, solemnly. " Your father 
 wished it." 
 
 " We are quite reconciled to going, now, we ve 
 thought of it so much," concluded Aunt Julia. 
 " In the city we can all find something to do or 
 whatever we conclude is best, Jimmy." 
 
 " You re not going! " declared the Big Fellow, 
 with a toss of his head that seemed to dispose of 
 the whole matter. " What do you think I am, 
 good mother and good aunt 1 Two hundred pounds 
 
40 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 of idleness and worthless classical education? 
 Don t you think I m equal to a little go at the 
 world? Do I look like a dyspeptic or consump 
 tive? I ll see Mr. Hobber about the interest first 
 and then to pay him. 
 
 " But Mr. Hobber s mind is made up." Madame 
 Mother smiled a little wanly. He was still a boy 
 to her mind and quite unused to interest payments 
 and practical affairs. 
 
 In the interval in which it seemed as if they had 
 nothing more to say, and he was thinking how he 
 would reconcile them to his giving up the law 
 and asking that Colonel Walker would let him 
 reconsider, they heard the crunch of wheels on the 
 drive. The unusual sound startled them and they 
 waited expectantly for the sound of the bell, which 
 it was the accepted duty of Miss Two Braids to 
 answer. She wiped her eyes and tried to keep 
 her trembling lip firm as she left the room. 
 
V 
 
 A BUSINESS CALL 
 
 f^\ OOD-EVENING, Miss. Is Mr. Harden at 
 
 fjr home? " 
 
 A cheerful voice was this, accompanying 
 a fine-wrinkled face, with bright little eyes, grey 
 moustache, and grey hair clustering about the ears. 
 As if he took an affirmative answer for granted, 
 the visitor entered before Miss Two Braids minded 
 her manners enough to say, " Please come in." 
 Callers were so unusual that she was excusable. 
 
 " You re his little sister, I take it. No? 
 At any rate, I m glad to know you." 
 
 Miss Two Braids found that she was being 
 treated to the honor of shaking his hand, which 
 was soft and warm and not as lean as its slight 
 owner would lead one to presuppose. He dropped 
 his hat on the rack quite as if he were at home. 
 
 66 Now, won t you ask Mr. Harden if he will see 
 Colonel Walker a minute about a little matter of 
 business! You better look to Peg s right hind 
 foot, he called from the door in a kind of whinny 
 to the coachman. Seemed to me as if she had a 
 stone in it." 
 
 The Colonel, whose military title was a peace 
 ful relic of National Guard days which had fol- 
 
 41 
 
42 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 lowed him through life, rarely came to Bolton. 
 Stottstown, whose prosperity had been Bolton s 
 ruin, was on his own railroad line and nearer his 
 new country place, which included his birthplace in 
 its broad acreage; and from here, a distance of 
 some ten miles, he had driven over that evening 
 on an errand which those who knew him would 
 have found characteristic, if puzzling. But, then, 
 he was a puzzling character. 
 
 " Well, well! They don t make em much big 
 ger n you are ! " he said admiringly to the Big Fel 
 low, who came out of the other room, as he ex 
 tended that soft, warm hand which he allowed to 
 remain in Big s generous palm for a second. 
 " Wasn t expecting me, were you, Jim? " Calling 
 a man by his first name was one of the Colonel s 
 ways of ingratiating himself on short acquaint 
 ance. 
 
 " No, I can t say I was," Big returned, pleas 
 antly. 
 
 Well, I ran over to have a talk with you. As 
 it s to be quite a long talk, I hung my hat up on the 
 rack without saying by your leave to this little 
 lady." 
 
 " The lamp is in the parlor, Colonel. Come in 
 there." 
 
 Madame Mother and Aunt Julia stood on either 
 side of the table and received the visitor with 
 simple, unaffected politeness, as it was fitting that 
 a guest in their own house should be received. 
 
 * Good many years since we met, Mrs. Harden, 
 the Colonel said, graciously. " Mine s a busy life 
 
A BUSINESS CALL 43 
 
 and it s not all as pleasant as some people 
 think." 
 
 " Won t you sit down? " asked Madame Mother. 
 
 As he turned to an easy-chair he was face to 
 face with the portrait of James Harden, Sr. The 
 Colonel blinked and stood still. He recalled that 
 the last time he was in that room he faced the 
 over-confident, living protagonist. All his affairs 
 were at a crisis then. By the ledger he was bank 
 rupt; he was guilty of bribery, he knew; and he 
 had come to plead for grace which was denied. 
 Yet he had won judge and jury in the end and he 
 had won because business was business. For a 
 time he had been vindictive against Harden, a 
 waste of energy unusual with him. While the 
 rapid growth of his affairs and his success 
 drowned the memory of the old fight, it had been a 
 source of moldering bitterness in this household 
 for nearly twenty years. 
 
 Strong man ! Strong man, Harden was ! he 
 remarked aloud, with significant and friendly 
 emphasis; but he was thinking: " The boy s got 
 more chin than his dad. 
 
 " A good one! " Madame Mother observed, 
 icily. 
 
 " None better none ! He stood for principle," 
 the Colonel agreed, most affably, as he seated 
 himself. He always agreed, not from calculation 
 but from instinct, on all extraneous matters when 
 he had an object in view. " Well, little lady, 
 won t you sit on an arm of the chair? " he asked, 
 holding out a hand to Miss Two Braids, who stood 
 
44 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 in the doorway and suddenly reminded herself 
 that it was bad manners to stare. 
 
 " The glue s weak in most all our chairs it s 
 not wise," she demurred, returning to her place 
 beside the Big Fellow. 
 
 She hoped that she had been polite, but she did 
 not like being called " little lady " by a stranger 
 in such a patronizing manner. The Colonel re 
 minded her of a squirrel asking for nuts, and the 
 idea so pleased her that she would like to have 
 whispered it to Big. 
 
 " I see you ve been properly brought up. Wis 
 dom s the greatest thing in the world " one of 
 the Colonel s favorite platitudes. He thought it 
 was original. " Well, I guess you know what 
 brought me here. Ned told me how you hit him 
 his jaw s a little sore, too. You did right, abso 
 lutely. I ve been talking it over with him and he s 
 ashamed of what he said, and he ought to be. Yon 
 jumped him about it ; he was mad and stood by his 
 guns; but he knew he was wrong or he d have hit 
 you back, for Ned s no coward. When I got your 
 letter I said, that s more of your manliness, and as 
 I ve some idle time on my hands I ll run down 
 and see you." 
 
 Looked at in one light, it was farcical for the 
 richest man in the State, who controlled its 
 politics and resources largely, to come in person 
 to seek the services of one of thousands of 
 graduates turned out of the colleges that year. 
 Either Colonel Walker was eccentric or the world 
 was, as you please. He had been more successful 
 
A BUSINESS CALL 45 
 
 than all save one or two out of every million of 
 the world s inhabitants, and the secret of his suc 
 cess was in his choice of the men who worked for 
 him. He never looked a man over without think 
 ing how can I use him to make a dollar for me 
 every time he makes one for himself. 
 
 " Well, when I pinned Ned right down to it," 
 continued the Colonel, " the worst he could say 
 about you was that he thought you played to the 
 crowd and was something of a bluff; and I said, 
 well, if he is, he is good at it, and I don t know 
 but a successful bluff is better than a full house 
 that loses. Bluff, eh? I put it right up to Ned. 
 Look at the hold he has on the college men! " 
 now speaking directly to Madame Mother. 
 Ne-eh ! the Colonel whinnied. Mix all those 
 students up in a crowd and suppose that they were 
 strangers to one another, and if the Big Fellow 
 said, Come this way, they d come, and if he 
 said, * Go that way, they d go." 
 
 The Colonel was friendly; his whinnying voice 
 had a certain magnetic charm. You might have 
 thought him one of the family. His personality 
 seemed to dominate all the room except a little 
 area around the Big Fellow, who said : 
 
 11 I guess I m so tall I d be the only one they d 
 see above the heads of the rest." 
 
 " Yes, that s part of it. Ne-eh! What matters 
 it why they follow you, if they only follow 1 This 
 was an unconscious revelation of the Colonel s 
 self. " Now, the other day I said I didn t want 
 you for the law. I ll put it another way. I ll give 
 
46 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 you a chance to study law. I wouldn t mind hav 
 ing one lawyer that people liked. Most of mine 
 have been pretty unpopular. " 
 
 If I were going with you I d rather drop law 
 and go in for business, " answered Big, promptly. 
 " Yes, much rather. Then I would know where 
 I stood. 7 
 
 The Colonel did not try to conceal his delight. 
 
 " Now you re talking! I ll give you a hundred 
 dollars a month for the first six months ; two hun 
 dred the next, and twice that every year for the 
 next three years on a four-year contract. You ll 
 be in the great game, young man, developing the 
 resources of this country after wisdom the 
 Colonel s favorite hobby, only he wanted to 
 have personal charge of all the development 
 work. 
 
 All obligations requited ! Comfort for Madame 
 Mother and Aunt Julia ! Education for Miss Two 
 Braids! In that way the Big Fellow, taking his 
 time to answer, summed it up on one side. On the 
 other, what! Ned had not come in person to see 
 him and Ned s remark had bitten deep. In it was 
 a defiance to Big to prove himself. And was he to 
 give up his Blackstone! The career he loved! 
 Why not! "Was it not only a college ideal! Had 
 he any right to consider it for a moment! Then 
 his eye caught Madame Mother s. She would not 
 speak a word aloud. He was twenty-two, she was 
 thinking ; he must decide for himself. But he was 
 on trial before her and her memory of her hus 
 band. Her glance plainly told him: " If you 
 
A BUSINESS CALL 47 
 
 accept anything or have anything to do with this 
 man, you will break my heart. 
 
 The Big Fellow rose, smiling, not as if bidding 
 the guest to go, but as if he saw that it was in the 
 guest s mind to go, and, perforce, Colonel Walker 
 rose, too. 
 
 " I thank you, Colonel. You have done me a 
 great honor, and with no prejudice and probably 
 for no reasonable cause I am going to refuse/ 7 
 
 " Well well, have your own way. I shan t 
 make the offer again. " He had been perfectly 
 sure of winning. 
 
 " If I wanted to reconsider now I wouldn t be 
 worthy of it, was the reply. 
 
 " You ll regret it. You re making a mistake." 
 
 The Big Fellow seemed to be dominating all 
 the atmosphere of the room. 
 
 1 i I m only twenty- two twenty years from now 
 we can tell better." 
 
 And the world would know then, too, whether 
 or not Colonel Walker was wasting time to try to 
 bring this human force in its plastic age into the 
 service of his properties. 
 
 " Well, I ll be dammed! " the Colonel blurted 
 at the door. " Gad! You re an immense fellow, 
 no doubt. I m not up to your shoulder. Ne-eh! 
 Do you expect to settle in this State? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " NotinBolton? " 
 
 " Oh, no. Farther afield. Plans not entirely 
 made yet. Will start day after to-morrow, how 
 ever, answered the Big Fellow, good-humoredly. 
 
48 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 "Ne-eh! We ll meet again, Mr. Giant. Good 
 night! " 
 
 " Good-night! " 
 
 When they heard the carriage wheels and thus 
 were certain that the visitor had gone, the two old 
 ladies came to the Big Fellow holding out their 
 hands, their pale, tranquil faces suffused with 
 pride and delight. He put his arms around them. 
 
 " But there s no place for you. I haven t a 
 third arm! " he said to Miss Two Braids. " Oh, 
 I have it! The best of all !" 
 
 " Oh, you can t! I m too big, now. I weigh 
 sixty-eight pounds! " she cried. 
 
 1 * I certainly can. You folks at home must think 
 I m an invalid." 
 
 It was a triumphant journey for Ellen to be 
 borne aloft so steadily and powerfully to a place 
 on his shoulder. 
 
 " Here we are, the whole family united Spar 
 tan mother, Spartan aunt, prodigal, and the joy 
 of the house ! " he said, with a great shout. " For 
 the prodigal it s a time for action. To-morrow I 
 convince Mr. Hobber that he must let us stay and 
 wait for the interest." 
 
 " I know how you re going to convince Mr. 
 Hobber," said Miss Two Braids. " You re going 
 to knock him down." She thought that the Big 
 Fellow s size was a sovereign arbiter for differ 
 ences with anybody. 
 
 " Ellen ! " from Aunt Julia. 
 
 " Let him fall on something soft," she per 
 sisted, in a whisper, as she twisted a lock of hair 
 
A BUSINESS CALL 49 
 
 around her finger. " Maybe you ll only have to 
 threaten. Twouldn t do to have Mr. Hobber miss 
 passing the box in church. He s passed it ever 
 since the world began her world, at any rate. 
 
 Leaning on his strength and listening to his 
 assurances that " It will be all right! Let every 
 body sleep like a top ! it seemed as if he might 
 summon money out of the skies. As Aunt Julia 
 sat on the edge of Madame Mother s bed before 
 retiring, the two enjoyed the victory for principle, 
 as they called it. Their patient training had 
 borne fruit; their love was rewarded. Yes, these 
 two old ladies had lived to see Colonel "Walker 
 beaten ; and this was their grateful thought, mind 
 less of all else, as they said their evening prayers 
 together. 
 
VI 
 
 SPLINTEKED LIGHTNING AND FIREFLIES 
 
 A TEE the Big Fellow had gone to his room 
 came footsteps along the hall sh-h, soft 
 and slow and stealthy; and after the last 
 one just outside the door sh-h, three gentle taps. 
 
 " Hello! " he called, and sh-h, the door was 
 cautiously opened wide enough for Miss Two 
 Braids head, without the braids, to appear and to 
 express her state of mind in a stage whisper. 
 
 " Oh, I know I can t sleep! The moonlight 
 would pry my eyes open if I tried. I m wide 
 awake as the stars! " 
 
 Ellen ! " he warned her, with his finger to his 
 lips in Aunt Julia s best manner. 
 
 " Yes m, sir! But I want to talk to someone 
 and be talked to, just for talking s sake, and and 
 about nothing in particular." 
 
 4 * So do I," in a stage whisper, to harmonize 
 himself with her mysteriousness ; " and in that 
 case only two people are necessary to make up a 
 game. Come on ! Sh-h ! 
 
 He unlocked the casement which opened onto 
 the roof of the porch, where the moonlight made 
 the dew on the floor crystalline bluish bright and 
 set deep shadows under the railings and eaves. 
 
 " Do you think it will? " he asked in mock 
 
 50 
 
SPLINTERED LIGHTNING 51 
 
 seriousness, as he put his hands on the arms of a 
 weather-beaten rustic chair. 
 
 " Better go careful. Think what a squash it 
 would make if it did break, you re so big ! 
 
 The chair stood the test. She dropped on a lit 
 tle stool at his side and laid her head against his 
 knee. Without waiting for a toss-up for sides she 
 chose the " ins " and began talking at once. 
 
 " My! Hasn t it been a full evening! " she 
 sighed. " It was like tearing cloth at supper 
 rip-rip, so slow and knowing you hadn t come to 
 the seams, and and were you ever going to? 
 After we went into the sitting-room it was like 
 lightning when it splinters." 
 
 " When does lightning splinter? " he asked. 
 
 61 Oh, after dreadfully hot weather. You don t 
 see it. You feel it. The splinters come when it 
 seems to break off in the sky. They go knitting 
 all through you and you tingle and wait for the 
 thunder crack. It s awful suspense. In the sit 
 ting-room it was worse. It was like lightning 
 splintering in the moonlight and no thunder 
 cracks." She paused. " M-m-m! Can you guess 
 what else I was thinking at least, some of the 
 time? " 
 
 He gave up that riddle without a try. 
 
 " I was wondering if we would have a grand 
 firefly party some day to pay for the lightning. 
 After the storm, in the evening, the fireflies play 
 around the foot f the oak. All the tingles are 
 gone and, just happy, I put up my shade 
 watch them till I fall asleep." 
 
52 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Two Braids, I think you have too much 
 imagination for algebra. " 
 
 " It s not imagination. It s just the way I 
 see it." 
 
 She had a practical vein, as well. 
 
 " I really don t think it s best to knock Mr. 
 Hobber down, though it would be just as easy for 
 you to knock down sixteen Mr. Hobbers in a row. 
 You just hold him against the wall, quiet and kind 
 like, till he gives up." 
 
 He patted her cheek affectionately. Any kind 
 of foolishness from her was pleasant. 
 
 " All right. If one way won t do I ll try 
 another." 
 
 " Only, if you have to knock him down to 
 win, don t hesitate, for Aunt Julia s and Aunt 
 Martha s sake. They ve been so good to me and 
 I love them so ! Think f when they were so poor 
 never telling me of it and forgiving me for being 
 mischievous, when I can t keep from it. Probably 
 they know I can t and that s why they forgive 
 me; and that makes them all the kinder, doesn t it? 
 And, oh! " she sobbed, " I can t do anything to 
 help except love everybody and not cry. There ! 
 I m not crying, am I? " 
 
 " Not a tear! " 
 
 " And when Mr. Hobber says, Please let me 
 go, I ll be good, then what are you going to do, 
 Mr. Ninety in Calculus? " 
 
 She pinched his chin and looked up, smiling, 
 just to prove that she had not been crying. 
 
 " I m going to make money, first." 
 
SPLINTERED LIGHTNING 53 
 
 My yes ! It s so easy for Colonel Walker to 
 make money. You can see that just as plain. But 
 I m dreadfully afraid it s not for you. Seems to 
 me, Jim, just as if you know so much of everything 
 else that there isn t any room for that. Oh, I wish 
 I could help ! I I wonder what I could do. Yes, 
 I could be a cash girl. I saw them in the store 
 once when I was in Stottstown. All they have to 
 do is to run back and forth, and I m a good 
 runner. Will you ask Aunt Julia to let me try! " 
 
 " I think we ll dismiss that idea," he said. 
 " You keep on loving everybody and going to 
 school. 
 
 " But hoiv are you to make money? I I think 
 that is a very important question, she pursued. 
 
 " I know, but I haven t told anybody yet. I m 
 going to the city to take the first work I can get 
 at anything." 
 
 11 Now we re getting splintery," she said, with a 
 frown. " I won t ask any more questions cept 
 one. I ve been thinking of that the whole evening. 
 If if you didn t have to get money for us at home, 
 what would you like to do when you are a man I 
 mean, when you are a real world s man, by the 
 time I m grown up 3 ? 
 
 " Well, if I tell you, you won t tell? " 
 
 " No. Cross my heart, hope to " 
 
 " Because if you do tell, sometimes I think it 
 will never happen. You see, if I went with 
 Colonel Walker and became his lawyer I d always 
 have to plead his cases, whether right or wrong, 
 being in his pay. I could not plead them very 
 
54, THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 well sometimes. I would have to be untrue to 
 what he hired me for, or untrue to myself. Not 
 that Colonel Walker ought not to have his side 
 stated ; but other men could do that better. 
 
 " But he ought not! He s an old spider and 
 such a smart spider ! Miss Two Braids was not 
 of the judicial temperament herself. 
 
 " I d never make a good trial lawyer, because 
 I m no orator. Perhaps I might knock the jury 
 down, but that s not the custom. I couldn t make 
 a partisan lawyer, because I don t know how. 
 What I would like to do, young lady, is to study 
 the law, all the law, and be human." 
 
 " Well, aren t you human now! " she asked. 
 " Seems to me you are, very." 
 
 1 Yes, but much study of the law destroys that 
 quality, they say, instead of developing it as it 
 should. You see, I d like to hear all sides. I d 
 like to have all the books and the human experi 
 ence to show the way, and then go straight 
 ahead." 
 
 " Oh, you ll go straight ahead. You can de 
 pend on that, Jim," she said, encouragingly. 
 
 l It seems to me our greatest danger is in mak 
 ing the law fit the needs of someone who has in 
 fluence, he went on, as if he were thinking aloud. 
 11 Anyone who interprets it, without regard 
 except for the law itself and its spirit, in a big 
 thing or a little one, is doing a great service, and I 
 would enjoy that. The best thing in the world is 
 to get the good out of men for good ends." 
 
 " And Aunt Martha would stand just as good a 
 
SPLINTERED LIGHTNING 55 
 
 chance as Colonel Walker in your court?" she 
 asked, in an effort after simple essentials. 
 
 " Yes, precisely, and then both would have re 
 spect for the law and they would know it was a 
 thing impartial and impersonal. But here I am 
 talking at great length. And the secret is, Two 
 Braids, that I would like to be a judge some day. 
 Do you think I d look odd as a judge? " 
 
 " No. You d be big and smiling and they d all 
 listen my, yes ! 
 
 " And," he declared, absently, with sudden 
 vigor, " I am going to know the law, even if I m 
 poor all my life ! 
 
 " Of course you will. You ll win, Jim! You 
 will be justice tempered with mercy that s from 
 Shakespeare, isn t it? " she exclaimed. " And 
 there s something about strained in it oh, now I 
 am all mixed up ! " 
 
 " The quality of mercy is not strained. It 
 droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon 
 the place beneath. It is twice blessed : It blesseth 
 him that gives and him that takes, " he quoted, 
 softly. 
 
 " Yes, that s the one. Then, when you re a 
 judge we 11 have to say, Good-morning, Judge ! 
 and * Did you sleep well, Judge? and Will you 
 have another piece of pie, Judge? Wouldn t that 
 sound funny ! And judges could not wash dishes 
 and they could not climb cherry-trees. Oh, now 
 I know! Portia said that poetry. If I m Portia, 
 will you decide in my favor? " she asked. 
 
 " Yes. I ll put you beside me on the bench. 
 
56 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 You d be the one person who would have a pull 
 with the court. Now, what I have told you is a col 
 lege man s vagaries. Many seniors want to re 
 form the world at twenty-two and are working 
 hard in an unreformed world at thirty-two to pay 
 their bills." 
 
 " But you will be a judge you must and I ll 
 be Portia unless Portia has to know too much 
 algebra." 
 
 That s a bargain, or part of what we will call 
 our bargain, just between you and me. We are 
 always to be comrades and share each other s 
 secrets." 
 
 " Always ! Cross my heart, hope to " 
 
 * < Portia did not have a ruff, but Elizabeth did, 
 he said, playfully wrapping her long braids 
 around her neck; " but Elizabeth s was false and 
 yours is real." 
 
 " I promise! " she repeated, drowsily. " And 
 I hope there won t be any more splintered light 
 ning soon, and I I love you very much." 
 
 " Firefly time, I think," he said, and carried 
 her to her room door. " It s a bargain and we ll 
 share our secrets forever." 
 
 " Sh-h! Forever! " she answered. " Sh-h! " 
 She was awake enough to recall that this was a 
 mysterious, stealthy occasion. 
 
vn 
 
 KNOCKING ME. HOBBER DOWN 
 
 SINCE the distressing news from the West, 
 Hiram Hobber never could sleep a wink 
 after cockcrow. He always awoke with a 
 choking sensation and a desire to choke Mr. Jones. 
 The longer he lay in bed the greater the desire, 
 which was without moral cause, as he knew. Mr. 
 Jones had not asked him to " come in. 7 In fact, 
 at one time Mr. Hobber had been worried lest 
 there would not be room for him in the mining 
 deal. Thanks to this new habit of early rising he 
 was up when the Big Fellow called. 
 
 He had almost as varied interests as Colonel 
 Walker, whom he circumspectly admired: a flour 
 and feed business with an average of three cus 
 tomers a week, a fire insurance agency, and he 
 loaned a little money on his own account and more 
 on that of others. Being Justice of the Peace, 
 unlike Colonel Walker he did not have to corrupt 
 the judiciary. 
 
 The Justice rather liked working in the garden, 
 but he hated to split wood. A big pile in the yard 
 had been on his conscience for a week, Mrs. Hob 
 ber s nagging having kept the conscience sad com- 
 
 57 
 
58 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 pany. This -morning he had escaped on the plea 
 that he must post up his books, in which he was 
 occupied as early as seven A.M., with his ledger on 
 his lap and his feet on the desk, while he looked 
 out of the window. 
 
 " It s that Harden boy! " he exclaimed, as he 
 saw the supplicant approach, and his succeeding 
 thoughts may as well be put in quotations : i Big 
 lummox ! Away to college while his folks are liv 
 ing on crumbs don t know what the world s com 
 ing to! Hope he ll see the gate. Looks as if 
 twould be all the same to him, the way he swings 
 long, if he walked right through the fence. 
 Comin to see bout that ewtrest! Well, I guess 
 if his old mother can t persuade me, he can t. Not 
 a minute over the thirtieth not a minute. I m a 
 good business man, but I ain t stubborn enough 
 when stubbornness was his main characteristic. 
 * t Laughing, cheerful-looking, like he always was, 
 Mr. Hobber could not fail to observe, as the Big 
 Fellow entered. 
 
 " Mornin , young man, mornin ! How s your 
 mother and your aunt? Well, eh? Glad to hear 
 it. And how s little Ellen! " 
 
 Mr. Hobber had often observed that before 
 Colonel Walker refused a man anything he told an 
 affable story. He had heard several such on oc 
 casions, and always went away feeling pleased 
 and honored. i As Colonel Walker was saying to 
 me " was something in stock for conversation. 
 
 " She s smart as a weasel, is little Ellen. I 
 member when she had her first penny to put in 
 
KNOCKING MR. HOBBER DOWN 59 
 
 the box. She held it up high so all could see, in 
 stead of hiding it. One for me, and one for 
 Epaminanidad, who couldn t come, she said so 
 loud you could hear it all over church. I snickered 
 right out couldn t help it. I wanted him to see 
 it wasn t a button, she told her Aunt Julia." 
 
 Mr. Hobber snickered again, presumably at; 
 his way of telling the yarn, and the Big Fellow 
 laughed generously, which made Mr. Hobber re 
 solve that no one was going to come it over him 
 by being good-natured. 
 
 " Now that I am back from school," the Big 
 Fellow explained, " I m going to look after my 
 mother s affairs. How much do we owe 
 you? " 
 
 Mr. Hobber had it on the tip of his tongue, but 
 he took time to open the old safe and take out the 
 books in order to appear businesslike. 
 
 " Six thousand, five hundred on the mortgage, 
 an entrest, an accrued ewtrest on ewtrest, total 
 of twelve hundred an eighty dollars an thirty- 
 five cents up to June first, an the place wuth 
 about four thousand." 
 
 " If I paid you two hundred and fifty dollars on 
 October first and kept up the interest, would you 
 renew! " 
 
 " No, sir! My mind s made up. I ve been fair 
 as I could to a fellow church member, but business 
 is business." 
 
 " You have. You have shown great generosity. 
 I thank you for it at my first opportunity. I only 
 learned the true state of affairs last night. 
 
60 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " You did, eh? This was big news and news 
 was scarce in Bolton. " Well, by Jing, ain t that 
 like Mrs. Harden! " Mr. Hobber ejaculated 
 slowly. 
 
 " Looking at it in a business way, if you get the 
 two hundred and fifty on October first, and 
 eventually all the money, won t that be better than 
 selling the place for four thousand! Let s see, 
 that s a gain of three thousand seven hundred and 
 eighty dollars." 
 
 " You got that two hundred and fifty in 
 sight? " 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " How you going to get it? " 
 
 " Earn it." 
 
 " Got a job in sight?" 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " School-teachin don t pay. Plenty of em 
 for thirty a month ; three months, ninety dollars 
 and this is vacation time. What you think you 
 can do? " 
 
 i Anything my brain or hand is capable of. 
 
 " I thought so! I thought so! " Then Mr. 
 Hobber snickered as if he had found something 
 too good to keep. " Anything brain or hand, eh? 
 Do you see that wood pile out there? " 
 
 Indeed, Mr. Hobber was about to call a bluff. 
 
 " Yes. Do you want it split? What will you 
 give me? " was the quick response. 
 
 " Dollar and a half. It s wuth it to see a col 
 lege man split wood ! By Jing, it is ! 
 
 " Dinner included? " 
 
KNOCKING MR. HOBBER DOWN 61 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 The Big Fellow removed his coat and collar 
 and tackled the job with a genuineness of en 
 thusiasm and a precision of execution that 
 promised to make the game worth the price of 
 admission. 
 
 " Tain t a sledge hammer you ve got! You re 
 cuttin right through the knots! " called Mr. Hob- 
 ber out of the window. " If you spile that axe I ll 
 dock you half a dollar. 
 
 11 Tools furnished! " was the answer between 
 the vigorous blows which Mrs. Hobber had heard. 
 She came out on the back steps, hands upraised 
 in disgust. 
 
 " Hiram! " she called. " Air you hirin wood 
 split when business is so dull? 
 
 But not a word from Hiram. She ran along the 
 board walk to the office. 
 
 " Hiram, air you! 
 
 " Yes, Mary, I am. I just made up my mind 
 that what with the crick in my back a-hurtin me 
 the way it does, an loss of sleep, it was cheaper n 
 doctors bills." 
 
 The " crick in my back " excuse was reserved 
 for crises. If overdone it might lose value. Her 
 only protest was to slam the door as she returned 
 to the kitchen. The Big Fellow dropped his axe 
 and followed her. When she reappeared his eye 
 met hers with roguish and pleasant inquiry. 
 
 " I expect it s you I ought to ask. Do I get my 
 dinner, Mrs. Hobber f " 
 
 She had to laugh, though she did not feel a bit 
 
62 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 like it, simply " cause his laugh was certainly 
 catchin ," as she said afterward. 
 
 " Yes, if Hiram told you so, you big " she 
 
 assented, without finishing the sentence. 
 
 He hoped she did not have " big bluff " in 
 mind. That seemed hardly fair to a man splitting 
 wood on a hot June day. 
 
 Mrs. Hobber was nearsighted and the connec 
 tion of young Harden with a day s odd job was a 
 wide one for her imagination. When she found 
 who he was and it was on account of not having 
 her glasses, as she explained, that she had not 
 recognized him she had him in to dinner at the 
 first table like real company. 
 
 " We hope you don t contemplate movin away 
 from Boltonf " she suggested, unable to avoid 
 this coming sensation of the town not yet cir 
 culated. 
 
 " Oh, no! " said the Big Fellow. " We re go 
 ing to stay in the old place. I m going to arrange 
 that with Mr. Hobber." 
 
 Mrs. Hobber, aghast, caught Mr. Hobber s eye. 
 
 1 i No, he ain t ! Mr. Hobber declared, definitely. 
 
 The Big Fellow smiled at Mr. Hobber in sur 
 prise and continued to be amiable through the 
 meal. By four o clock, his hands blistered and 
 the back of his neck sunburned, but little fatigued, 
 his task was finished. Mr. Hobber had the dollar 
 and a half in fifty-cent pieces ready. 
 
 " Keep it on account," said the creditor. 
 l That leaves two hundred and forty-eight dollars 
 and fifty cents to be paid by October first." 
 
KNOCKING MR. HOBBER DOWN 63 
 
 " There ain t any sech agreement! " snapped 
 Mr. Hobber. 
 
 The Big Fellow seemed to think that this was 
 not a matter to argue at present, for he sat down 
 at Mr. Hobber s desk and asked for a couple of 
 sheets of paper, and the Justice of the Peace in 
 dicated a pigeonhole where he kept his foolscap. 
 
 1 i W-what are you going to do 1 he asked. 
 
 " It will take only a few minutes, " the Big 
 Fellow rejoined, reassuringly. 
 
 Mr. Hobber was dumbstruck and curious. He 
 had nothing to do but submit. Using the wooden 
 rule the Big Fellow tore off a strip the breadth of 
 a check and in one corner Mr. Hobber saw him 
 write $248.50 and in the other the date. Then Mr. 
 Hobber told himself that his mind was made up. 
 Nothing could shake it and he ought not to be 
 spying on a neighbor who had borrowed his desk 
 for a minute. So he looked out of the window at 
 the pile of split wood and began talking un 
 consciously. 
 
 " Three cords in seven hours! That s perty 
 fast, Mr. Harden, perty fast! Took some ath 
 letics at college, I guess. Did you wear one 
 of them sweaters with a letter on it? " which 
 he imagined was in the Colonel s best style of 
 affability. 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Hobber," and a laugh was the only 
 response from the Big Fellow, who had scarcely 
 heard him. 
 
 Mr. Hobber looked the figure up and down, from 
 the broad forehead to the chair bottom where the 
 
64 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 pillar was solidly based. Scratch, scratch, the 
 fingers, almost imperceptibly moving, drove the 
 pen. If the Big Fellow had leaned over the blotter 
 and written excitedly he would not have been 
 so peculiarly disconcerting to Mr. Hobber. It, 
 looked as if he were capable either of writing or 
 splitting wood right through eternity. The nar 
 row sheet was signed and finished and laid to one 
 side. Mr. Hobber saw that the other began with 
 This agreement. Half-way down the page the 
 Big Fellow broke the last of solid ranks of lines 
 and below it, without a flourish but in the same 
 small, copperplate hand, wrote " James Harden," 
 blotting the whole with a deliberation that height 
 ened the spectator s nervousness. Then that 
 human pillar rose and concentrated its attention* 
 on Mr. Hobber. 
 
 " Now, sir," the Big Fellow informed him, 
 " youth and determination represent capital and 
 an investment worth the staking of three months 
 interest for a gain of over three thousand dollars. 
 You have my note of hand to pay you two hundred 
 and forty-eight dollars and fifty cents, due on 
 October first, which you can always hold against 
 me. This agreement covers the arrangement for 
 renewal of the mortgage if the money is paid. 
 
 There was a finality in the Big Fellow s man 
 ner. It seemed useless to argue with him. 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Hobber, " well let me see 
 the agreement." He was curious. 
 
 " Yes, certainly, you sign right there." Big 
 pointed to the place encouragingly. 
 
KNOCKING MR. HOBBER DOWN 65 
 
 " Why don t you try bein a book agent? " Mr. 
 Hobber grumbled, as he read the correct and clear 
 phrasing. 
 
 " I shan t forget your liberality in this," the 
 Big Fellow proceeded. " I thank you for my 
 mother and myself." 
 
 Then Mr. Hobber did realize that the Big Fel 
 low had won. 
 
 " Well, I hope I ve got a heart, young man, I 
 hope I have," Mr. Hobber congratulated himself. 
 61 Now you ll have to make another copy of this. 
 You ll want one yourself." 
 
 " No, Mr. Hobber. When you ve waited for us 
 all these years your word is enough. 
 
 < < Well I " Mr. Hobber was a < black and 
 
 white " man. He wanted everything " down in 
 writin so there d be no gettin round it." This 
 confidence in him inspired confidence. His blood 
 flowed faster. And what was it that the Big Fel 
 low had told Miss Two Braids about getting the 
 good out of men for good ends! Mr. Hobber 
 tore up the note and the agreement. 
 
 " An your word is good enough for me," he 
 said. " But, young man, if it ain t paid on the 
 thirtieth it s the hammer. I m older n you are, 
 an let me tell you if it ain t paid you re a worse 
 loser than I am. Your character will be a 
 durn poor investment thereafter. Good luck to 
 ye!" 
 
 " Oh, yes, you keep the dollar and a half! " the 
 wood chopper protested merrily, when it was 
 offered again. 
 
66 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Whatever you do don t ever speculate in 
 mines," Mr. Hobber called to him from the door 
 way. " Magnetism, I guess," was his final ex 
 planation of the day s phenomenon. " That boy 
 ought to go into politics,," 
 
VIII 
 
 TWO LITTLE PRAYERS 
 
 " TT S ours! We stay! " he shouted from the 
 gate on his return from Mr. Hobber s. 
 
 " Ours! We stay! " Miss Two Braids 
 cried, running to meet him. " Oh, I knew you d 
 do it, Jim! " 
 
 The two old ladies, from the reaction of that 
 brave effort they had made to be philosophical 
 over the loss of the old place, broke into tears 
 which, when they stopped flowing, made their 
 eyes the brighter with happiness. 
 
 66 We ll have two kinds of preserves for sup 
 per," declared Miss Two Braids, " and let you fill 
 the sugar bowl with tea, and you can wear my 
 long-stringed apron, Mister Ninety in Calculus." 
 
 According to Big s own easy story of the affair, 
 Hiram was the most reasonable of men, who had 
 made the concession entirely on Madame Mother s 
 account as soon as he knew that the bookish son 
 was willing to work. 
 
 i i You squeezed him against the wall, and when 
 he said he would be good you let him go, I know," 
 said Miss Two Braids, who held a different 
 view. 
 
 67 
 
68 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Madame Mother thought that her hero, after 
 his triumph, would remain a few days at home. 
 It never occurred to her that he would depart 
 immediately, as he must, he knew, if he were to 
 earn the two hundred and forty-eight dollars and 
 fifty cents by October first. 
 
 Was it a sense of incapability of explaining his 
 impatience? Was it a scarcely defined wish to 
 avoid the emotion of a long-drawn farewell that 
 made him keep his plan to start for the city at 
 once from both mother and aunt ? Or, more likely, 
 was it the sentimental wish that his good-by 
 glimpse of them should be as they ascended the 
 stairs, candles in hand, that evening! Yet he did 
 tell his new partner in all secrets that he was off 
 at four the next morning. 
 
 " I feel as I did before a football game began, " 
 he explained. " I want to be at it and I ve no 
 time to lose. I ll get a cup of coffee at Stottstown 
 while the train waits. No one need get up." 
 
 But she was standing at the stairs head with 
 a shawl thrown over her shoulders when he came 
 out of his room. In the break of dawn he saw her 
 eyes glistening. He felt her hand, warm and soft, 
 in his. 
 
 " Portia believes in you," she said. " You ll 
 win." 
 
 " That s half," he answered. 
 
 " And, Jim, I want to speak to you about the 
 prayers. We always mention you regularly in 
 family prayers, of course. But family prayers 
 seem so professional." 
 
TWO LITTLE PRAYERS 69 
 
 " Ellen! " he whispered, in Aunt Julia s best 
 manner. 
 
 " And, Jim, I just want to tell you I m going 
 to say two little prayers all by myself every night 
 little prayers without the usual what you call 
 formalities, little prayers that mean all my heart. 
 First, it ll be just for you, and next that the love 
 of the law will never make you forget love of your 
 Two Braids." 
 
 He was always to remember that speech. It 
 had a potent influence in his life, like Mr. Hob- 
 ber s remark about proving his character by pay 
 ing that two hundred and forty-eight dollars and 
 fifty cents on time. She was always to remember 
 it, too, but through what varying emotions! 
 
 " And you ll never forget to love me, Two 
 Braids? " which she was to remember, also. 
 " And I have a plan. You must always go for 
 the mail; or, if you can t, strike a bargain 
 with Pam when he goes. This is to be a real 
 conspiracy. 
 
 " Sh-h! " said Miss Two Braids, all interest, 
 but aware that conspiracies ought to be whis 
 pered. 
 
 " I ll write you the real truth always in let 
 ters especially addressed to you, because you will 
 believe that everything is coming out all right. 
 The real truth will be funny sometimes, too, I 
 expect. But I m going to write Madame Mother 
 cheerful letters." 
 
 " M-m-m! Professionally cheerful letters, like 
 the family prayers are professionally solemn." 
 
70 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " You re to help by keeping her in good spirits. 
 Is that agreed? " 
 
 "M-m-m! I ll write often. Good-by, Jim 
 and, Jim, remember when the lightning splinters 
 it doesn t strike. It only makes you tingle. And 
 remember I m a little girl full of tingles in this 
 old house all alone with two old ladies, and 
 sometimes I but you ll win you ll win! " 
 were her last words following him down the 
 stairs. 
 
 Whose was this figure that the Big Fellow saw 
 from the porch, waiting with one black hand on 
 the dew-sprinkled white gate! There was no mis 
 taking Epaminanidad s identity. 
 
 " Lemme carry yo bag, Mistah Jim. Yissah, 
 don yo worry. Yo won miss yo train. I kin 
 keep up. Thought yo d get away thout Pam 
 knowin it, didn you ? Couldn fool me! I had 
 spishuns, an spishuns allus keep me wake. I 
 seen yo candlelight an I jes stockin -footed it 
 downstairs an there I waited." 
 
 Big was immeasurably pleased to know that 
 one who did not fear to despise the Greeks should 
 remember him in this way. A robin ran along 
 beside them and they saw him get the early worm, 
 which augured well for a giant who had risen 
 early to make a start in the world. Youth and 
 enterprise and hope were in the fresh morning 
 air. 
 
 " Pam, I ve got an engagement with the city," 
 said Youth. " The city doesn t know it yet, but 
 
TWO LITTLE PRAYERS 71 
 
 somebody in the city will about four this after 
 noon. I ll not be disappointed if the Mayor and 
 a band are not at the station. And, Pam, you re 
 to help the folks at home all you can." 
 
 i i Yissah. I spect to get mah mind a-tuned up all 
 c rect an regain confidence again so dey ll lemme 
 wash de dishes. An , Mistah Jim, I t ink soon s 
 yo has a few dollahs to spare as how it s bet- 
 tah to buy a cow fust an let de lawn mo wall 
 wait. 
 
 " Ise been t inkin bout dat an I ll splain. 
 A lawn mowah on y eats grass an don give no 
 milk, an while a lawn mowah s mo stylish n a 
 cow it ain t so reas nable nor so practicable not 
 fo us. An I don b lieve yo know it, but Ise got 
 quite a business haid, I has. I reckon I kin sell 
 milk miff to pay fo dat cow, yissah, I kin, jes 
 as easy, jes as easy. Ise gwine to call her El- 
 liz-a-buth, jes like de odder, on y stid o Betty Ise 
 gwine to call her Liz fo short, out o spect to 
 Betty an fo diffrunce s sake." 
 
 In less than three days after Willy Sweet- 
 ser had interrupted him at packing, the Big Fel 
 low had been home and departed. This time he 
 was no self-borne caravan, but light artillery, 
 with one small valise, equipped for the charge. 
 
 Many journeys he was to make : To Washington, 
 with Willy Sweetser s passionate telegrams fol 
 lowing; to the old front porch in Bolton, to be 
 told where the path of duty lay; across distant 
 seas at the call of Miss Destiny; through the 
 
72 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 jungle in the night in the name of a friend and a 
 policy; and home again, when he was to know that 
 honors of state are empty until a great thing 
 comes true to a man whose hair is turning gray. 
 But first to the first journey. 
 
IX 
 
 THAT PLUS SIG1* 
 
 HAVE you ever asked yourself how you 
 would earn a living if you should alight 
 at the Union Station of a large city with 
 out friends or money or trade or profession? 
 Try the experience some time! For bad cases 
 of self-esteem it has remarkable curative prop 
 erties. But first be sure that your soles are thick. 
 
 An A.B. from a university may prove to be of 
 less practical value, as well it ought in many in 
 stances, than a membership card of good standing 
 in the Lathers Union. You will find how help 
 less most of us are when we think we are quite 
 independent; how, in our most extravagant mo 
 ments of fancied courage and self-sufficiency, we 
 still cling to a connection with a bank account or 
 with somebody who has one. 
 
 To return to first principles, what is a living? 
 The thing that makes physical existence possible, 
 you may say. An easy definition, susceptible of 
 any interpretation, is that it is something rela 
 tive which you must have in order to exist ac 
 cording to your personal idea of existence. To 
 Homer it was a blanket, a handful of olives, a 
 crust, and a place by the wayside. To a million- 
 
 73 
 
74 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 aire it is a private car, servants, and worries. In 
 our northern climate Homer would either have 
 had to live at a Mills Hotel or tramp to California 
 before he could gain the capital which would 
 enable him to burst into song. 
 
 In the same way, before he could be either as 
 good or as wise as the books he had been study 
 ing, the Big Fellow must have food and shelter. 
 So he left the books at home in the unopened soap 
 and catsup boxes. How much easier it would have 
 been for him if he had begun life as an office boy 
 at ten ! Then failure to get a job promptly when 
 suddenly cast on his own resources at twenty-two 
 would have interested no one; for if anybody 
 ought to know how to get a job, society would say, 
 it should be a former office boy with twelve years 
 knowledge of the game to his credit. 
 
 At alumni, banquets speakers are ever declaring 
 that in the course of a decade or so the graduate 
 overtakes and passes in the race for success the 
 man who never went to college. A decade was not 
 in the vocabulary of Jim Harden, of 88, who had 
 to earn two hundred and forty-eight dollars and 
 fifty cents, plus his bed and board, in three 
 months. One plus sign can make one month a 
 thousand and all alumni orations ridiculous. 
 
 This amount he might have borrowed from col 
 lege friends in small sums, with an increase of 
 bookkeeping and temporary peace of mind. But 
 that did not occur to him. He had set himself 
 a " stent," as Hiram Hobber would have it; and 
 he was a big, stubborn, good-natured, absent* 
 
THAT PLUS SIGN 75 
 
 minded, bookish kind of a man, as Mrs. Billings 
 could have told you, who had less than five dollars 
 in his pocket when he passed out of the station 
 into a city where he literally had no friend, unless 
 Colonel Walker counted as one. 
 
 He lacked any definite idea as to what he was 
 going to do except to find work, which, to return 
 to Mrs. Billings, only went to prove what an 
 impractical fool of an oil-burner he was, who 
 ought never to have been allowed out of her sight ; 
 and this being true, why, it only makes that plus 
 sign as big as the hands of a cathedral clock, not 
 to say that it justified Mrs. Hobber in calling 
 Hiram an " old softy." 
 
 But there is an occupation without caste, its 
 tenets dictated by no professional school or trade- 
 union stamp, which draws penniless graduates 
 into its ruck of day-by-day battle for quick re 
 wards in the headlines of to-morrow. The Big 
 Fellow had heard that editors would give a man 
 a trial with a prospector s hope of discovering 
 someone with the trick of style or of playing up 
 an event that would make the public read. 
 
 Leaving his valise in a twenty-five-cent room, 
 he started in to make the round of the news 
 papers. It was a study in office boys who came 
 out to say that the city editor was busy sallow 
 office boys, chubby office boys, simply saucy office 
 boys. On each occasion he went past the plate- 
 glass window of the mighty cashier s stall, the 
 " Want " and " Information " desks of the busi 
 ness office, up a flight of rickety stairs out of that 
 
76 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 atmosphere of thrift into a dingy anteroom, and 
 here, through the inner door when it was opened, 
 he saw, in the haze of tobacco smoke, cartoons and 
 colored prints and photographs pasted on the 
 walls and men in shirt-sleeves at desks. 
 
 Had he been worldly wise he would have asked 
 the city editor s name of " Information." Then 
 he would have entered the editorial rooms as if 
 he belonged there and asked the first reporter, 
 " Which is Mr. So-and-So! " and the reporter 
 would have nodded toward one of the cluster of 
 desks. 
 
 He had tried five of the six papers in the town. 
 The sixth was The Beacon. Here an unusual type 
 of office boy appeared. He was not chewing gum. 
 He was unusual, too, in that he looked the Big 
 Fellow directly in the eye and said: " Yes, sir. 
 What is it ? " His spectacles and his bulging fore 
 head made him seem elfish and old-mannish, and 
 his legs inside the carefully patched stockings 
 were distressingly thin. 
 
 I am looking for work, said the Big Fellow. 
 He always began that way. It exactly expressed 
 his desire. But it was a bad way, though he spoke 
 as if the request were too reasonable to be denied. 
 "I d like to see the city editor," he added. 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 The spectacled boy disappeared with his name, 
 which might as well have been John Jones, and 
 the Big Fellow sat down on a green-painted deal 
 bench and wondered why this anteroom enjoyed 
 the luxury of a relic still recognizable as a chair, 
 
THAT PLUS SIGN 77 
 
 whose broken seat of cane had been re-enforced 
 by piling in many Sunday editions. His musing 
 hypothesis was that it was a derelict drifted out 
 of the editorial rooms to this beach before break 
 ing up, which is right as far as anybody knows. 
 The spectacled boy was back quicker than the 
 other boys. He had not stopped on the way to 
 make a paper wad or give a wire file a whirl on 
 its standard. 
 
 " Mr. Booth is very sorry, sir, but he can t 
 take anybody on just at present, " was the respect 
 ful and considerate report. 
 
 " Did he really say he was very sorry! " asked 
 the Big Fellow, in human curiosity. The answer 
 he had anticipated. There was no disappoint 
 ment in that. 
 
 " No, sir, he didn t. I guess he is, though, 
 when he isn t too busy. Anyway, I always say 
 it that way, cause cause I kind of like to make 
 it easier, there s so many comes in." 
 
 The Big Fellow broke into a laugh, partly over 
 this old, young, sage boy and partly over his own 
 ridiculous position. A laugh always helped him 
 when he was blue. Kiddy Witherbee dropped 
 back a step, as startled as if a peaceable mountain 
 in a serene landscape had suddenly burst forth 
 in fireworks. 
 
 " My! You are big phew! " gasped Kiddy. 
 " I wonder if I ll ever be half so big. Mother 
 says it s because I work nights, but you have to 
 work somewhere when times are hard, don t you! 
 Say, I m going in and speak to Mr. Booth again. 
 
78 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 I didn t tell him how big you was." At the door, 
 squinting through his glasses with a wise shake 
 of his head, he added : l Say, if you would laugh 
 that way to Mr. Booth you d attract attention and 
 he might take you on. I d like to see a man who 
 can laugh like you can in this office. It s not the 
 size of the laugh so much as the happy ring in 
 it that I think is just great. Come on in! I ll 
 stand for that, myself. 
 
 " I can t promise about the laugh. That comes 
 only with inspiration, my boy, said the Big Fel 
 low. " I can t do it to order, you see, like an 
 actor." 
 
 Kiddy Witherbee led the way into the room 
 where some of the reporters were waiting on their 
 " first stories " of the day and others were idling. 
 They looked at the Big Fellow and guessed " col 
 lege with their quick intuition, and one, a college 
 man, said, in that day of heavy center rushes: 
 i i What a center rush ! 
 
 " I think he is a good one, Mr. Booth. Look 
 how big he is, and my! but his laugh makes you 
 feel rested! " Kiddy whispered in the city edi 
 tor s ear. 
 
 As he bent over a piece of flimsy, the only visi 
 ble portions of Mr. Booth s personality were a 
 blue-striped shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a 
 corncob pipe, a piece of unshaven chin, a green 
 eye-shade under a touseled thatch of hair in close 
 proximity to an electric-light bulb, while his 
 fingers drove a blue pencil in a race against time 
 with swift left-to-right slides through the lines 
 
THAT PLUS SIGN 79 
 
 of lean, telegraphese chirography. For a second 
 the pencil would pause in consideration. Then 
 it would write a few words making a connection 
 in sense across a chasm between two sentences 
 whose life he had spared, or it would eliminate a 
 prolix relative clause with as little mercy as King 
 Kichard III. disposed of his princely relatives in 
 the play. 
 
 " Here, Jersey, I guess that s good for half a 
 head," he said, with a final flourish, as he passed 
 it to a man at a neighboring desk. * What papers 
 have you been on? " he asked the Big Fellow, as 
 he seized another piece of copy. 
 
 This was the point for the Big Fellow to make 
 his play; it was exactly the place where Kiddy 
 wanted the laugh. He did not dare speak his 
 wish, but he did nudge his candidate in the leg, 
 which seemed such an enormous, hard leg to him, 
 and further excited his admiration. If the Big 
 Fellow understood, he failed to act on the hint. 
 
 " I m just out of college two days ago. I wrote 
 college affairs for the New York Record and the 
 Boston Onlooker," he answered, simply. 
 
 " Those obits! " mused the city editor. 
 
 "I beg pardon! Those what! " asked the 
 Big Fellow. He was interested. Without being 
 asked he seated himself on a vacant chair beside 
 Mr. Booth. 
 
 11 Oh, I called them obits because they never 
 print any news. I m sorry, but we re not taking 
 on any more men now and he returned to the 
 charge with the blue pencil. 
 
80 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 When he had finished with that particular piece 
 of flimsy, an island of four lines in the center of 
 a gridiron field remained. Rereading them, he 
 seemed to be struck with wonder at how they 
 had escaped. He crumpled the " story" in a 
 wad and threw it into the general waste basket, 
 which was the floor. 
 
 " I object to petrified misinformation from the 
 dark ages of last Monday! " he muttered. Then 
 he glanced up. 
 
 The Big Fellow was still seated, calm as Bud 
 dha. He looked as if he were going to stay 
 forever. 
 
 " You surprise me! " he remarked. " I didn t 
 know before that the Record never printed any 
 news. They wrote me in their instructions that 
 that was what they wanted me to look after." 
 
 For the first time Mr. Booth scrutinized the Big 
 Fellow up and down. He grinned and put out 
 his hand for a typewritten slip, which he ran 
 through as he whirled around in his chair. 
 
 " Now, if you would give me a trial," sug 
 gested the Big Fellow, amiably; and, though he 
 did not say so, he appeared to be thinking : * Why, 
 I ll not sit here the whole evening unoccupied 
 when you re too busy to talk to me." 
 
 The city editor made no answer, unless he con 
 sidered talking about another incident to be in 
 the nature of one. 
 
 " Here s a tip with about one chance in a thou 
 sand of not being a fake. According to this, some 
 of the water rats down on the river front have 
 
THAT PLUS SIGN 81 
 
 organized a Black Hand gang and they re serv 
 ing notice on the unpopular boys. They pushed 
 little Eddy Smith off a pier last night and 
 drowned him. Spader! " 
 
 " Spader s at the City Hall, sir," said Kiddy 
 Witherbee, keeper of the roll. 
 
 There was the Big Fellow, though he had been 
 told that no new men were wanted, still seated 
 and smiling. It looked as if the only way to get 
 him started was to send for the safe-moving 
 gang. 
 
 " Everybody that s any good on that kind of a 
 story s out," Booth remarked. " You might try 
 this, if you like, Mr. Harden. It will show what 
 you can do, and then, if there is an opening 
 
 " I ll do my best! " was the grateful answer. 
 
 " Have him pushed if you can. It s more in 
 teresting than if he fell, Kiddy whispered, as the 
 Big Fellow went out. 
 
 But Eddy Smith had not been pushed. He had 
 fallen. It happened that some of his playmates 
 had been overheard saying that he was " N.G." 
 and ought to be ducked. If this part had been 
 " played up," results for the Big Fellow might 
 have been different. 
 
 It was after eight when he returned. Industri 
 ously he wrote for an hour, while Kiddy Wither 
 bee, a self-appointed, elfish satellite of bigness, 
 sat on the edge of the desk between errands. All 
 the facts were fully and faithfully set down. 
 Hopefully, the neophyte laid the finished copy on 
 the city editor s desk and looked in vain for any 
 
82 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 sign in the touseled hair and green eye-shade 
 while the mighty man read it through. 
 
 " Mr. Harden," was the verdict, in a kindlier 
 tone than Booth had used before, " looking at it 
 from the newspaper viewpoint, a great many little 
 boys are drowned every year. The first one in 
 May may be worth a head, but by the last week 
 in June it s an old story. There wasn t any 
 thing particularly striking about the way Eddy 
 went. What you have written is a beautiful piece 
 of evidence. It covers the whole case. It reads 
 like the Supreme Court. Here, Thompson, make 
 two sticks of this. Begin with i He ought to be 
 drowned. " 
 
 " Ducked! " put in the Big Fellow, honestly. 
 
 i l Drowned is more interesting, but, as you say, 
 ducked is right, Mr. Harden. Begin it, Thomp 
 son, " He ought to be ducked," said the gang 
 of boys with whom Eddy Smith played, and that 
 night little Eddy Smith was dead. Hang the 
 whole story on that idea, Thompson and I m 
 afraid, Mr. Harden, to be honest with you, that 
 you ll have to learn a good deal before you ll 
 make a newspaper man." 
 
 " Yes," the Big Fellow assented, " I guess I m 
 more in the draught-horse line;" and there he 
 had seated himself again as if he proposed to 
 begin the subject afresh. " Now, don t you need 
 a man that can get facts and write them out in 
 full? " 
 
 " Oh, yes. Unfortunately, just now, as I said, 
 we re full up. If you d like to drop in evenings 
 
THAT PLUS SIGN 83 
 
 and ask I might give you something in in your 
 line. But don t base any hopes on that. Get an 
 other berth if you can. This would be only an 
 occasional dollar assignment." 
 
 Booth, who had never experienced such a 
 feeling before, felt a little ashamed to men 
 tion so small a sum as one dollar to such a big 
 man. 
 
 " Anyway, it s one hundred cents " (which 
 sounded larger). " Glad to have met you, Mr. 
 Harden." 
 
 " You come and keep coming," whispered 
 Kiddy Witherbee, at the door. " I ll keep an eye 
 out for you. I ll be what they call a friend at 
 court." 
 
 An occasional dollar would never do. The Big 
 Fellow faced the truth unflinchingly at once. 
 There was some kind of pony-trick business in 
 newspaper work for which a draught horse was 
 too stupid. As he went down the stairs to the 
 business office he thought of the " Help Wanted " 
 advertisements. Why not try them! he asked 
 himself, and then he noted some other members 
 of the army of unemployed painfully looking over 
 the files. They were bloodless men in frayed 
 coats and soiled white collars, bearing the scars 
 which the battle of life leaves in every line of 
 the face. He turned away from them, not in re 
 pugnance, but with the grateful thought that he 
 possessed something that they lacked. He had 
 physical strength. That he could capitalize, if 
 not knowledge of the Eoman law. His duty was 
 
84 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 not to wait for work, but to get work promptly 
 at anything. 
 
 From the door of The Beacon office he saw 
 down the street, under the flare of gas torches, a 
 score or more of laborers tearing up the pave 
 ment for a new trolley line. He felt of his biceps 
 as he walked toward them. All his confidence re 
 turned. An unshaven man standing on a pile of 
 earth, his hands in his pockets, watching the gang, 
 was evidently the city editor of this establishment. 
 
 "I m looking for work," the Big Fellow said. 
 " Is there any chance for me to get a job? 
 
 The section boss scowled at first. Usually men 
 in white collars did not have the requisite stam 
 ina. When his sharp eye saw the form that went 
 with this white collar he ejaculated: 
 
 " God, yes! " 
 
 " Do I apply to you? " 
 
 " No. Apply at Number 223 East First Street 
 for the day gang. Dollar and a half a day and 
 you can start in the morning, if you want to." 
 
 Evidently the public paid the muscles that built 
 a trolley line as liberally as it paid the brains 
 that amused it on the way home. 
 
 " Two Braids will see the sport of this," he 
 said. 
 
 In good humor with himself, he smiled appreci 
 atively over the horror of Madame Mother and 
 Aunt Julia if they should hear what he was going 
 to do. He had no thought of writing to them 
 about it, you may be sure. Had he not already 
 formed a connection with a newspaper the first 
 
THAT PLUS SIGN 85 
 
 day of his arrival! And wasn t the way already 
 clearing itself for him to begin the law when the 
 summer was over? For, of course, he would not 
 begin until autumn, and meanwhile he was going 
 to take plenty of exercise to keep in good physi 
 cal trim. So, at least, fye wished two old ladies 
 to see his situation, in his first " professionally 
 cheerful " letter home. 
 
X 
 
 WITH THE MIXED GANG 
 
 WHILE story-tellers write of the romance 
 of the Foreign Legion, in which spend 
 thrift and spend-rift of many tongues 
 serve France in the safely incognito land of the 
 Moroccan frontier, we should not overlook the 
 foreign legions of our own country, known under 
 a different and less military name, which uphold 
 the dignity of labor through no choice of their 
 own. Farther down the street was a pure legion, 
 all Italians. Theirs was too modern a phase of 
 Roman colonization to concern The International 
 Law Review when it chose a subject for a prize 
 essay. 
 
 It was the " mixed gang," under Terence Mc- 
 Phane as foreman, to which Mr. Ninety in Calcu 
 lus, having to supply his own pick and shovel, 
 was assigned. A few of his co-laborers were 
 American born, sinewy and taciturn except for an 
 occasional cynicism over their lot, and more were 
 Huns. Three were negroes and the small, middle- 
 aged man next to him was Irish, and by name 
 Pete Maloney. 
 
 " Shure, I ve seen dudes afore," said Pete, 
 " an I ve no prejudices agin any man that s 
 
WITH THE MIXED GANG 87 
 
 afther an honest day s wur-rk. It s me that s 
 tellin ye if ye 11 pick the blisthers under the edge 
 it s thrue they ll smart some, but it s betther 
 than losin all the skin." 
 
 " The skin s gone already," affirmed the Big 
 Fellow, and grabbed his shovel again. He had 
 dropped it mechanically to have a look at those 
 red, bleeding palms and at his broken nails. 
 
 " Better cut the nails clean," suggested Fore 
 man Terence. " Got a knife? No? Here s 
 one! " 
 
 The Big Fellow had a rest while he pared off 
 the splinters to the quick. 
 
 " What brought ye here, me b y? " asked Pete, 
 looking up through his grizzly eyebrows. 
 
 " I needed money," answered the Big Fellow, 
 slyly. " What brought you! " 
 
 " Immigrashun an me natchral charakter, me 
 havin the sand but not the girth fer the foorce. 
 That s all. It s as much as ye give. An if ye re 
 thinkin I m goin to make all the conversation 
 it s yersilf that s mistaken." 
 
 In a few sentences Pete had made himself ad 
 mirable and likable, and the Big Fellow now 
 laughed out of the delight of camaraderie. 
 
 " Laugh that way as often as ye like. Ye re 
 all right," said Pete. "I ll put ye onto all the 
 fine p ints of the thrade, n I might remind 
 ye to stahrt with that ye re doin two min s 
 wur-rk. 
 
 The Big Fellow was quite unconscious of this. 
 He tossed paving-stones out to one side when 
 
88 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 that was the thing and dug or shoveled when that 
 was, with the energy of one after a record. 
 
 " Ye re all right, but ye want to git a pair of 
 overalls an come in yer undershir-rt t -morrer. 
 Ye re as conspicuous as the giniral 1 adin the 
 p rade." 
 
 Before the day was over he had an illustration 
 of the misfortune of a white shirt, tan shoes, and 
 gray trousers for his present occupation. They 
 singled him out to an elderly, slight, sharp-faced 
 man driving in a buggy with a young man at his 
 side. The foreman had responded at the first 
 sight of this gentleman and was standing with 
 one hand on the tire of the wheel, speaking to the 
 president of the company, when the recruit hap 
 pened to look up and straight into Colonel Walk 
 er s bright eye. 
 
 66 Morning! " said the Colonel, grinning. 
 
 " Good-morning to you, Colonel Walker," he 
 answered. " A little muggy, but fine growing 
 weather. Good-morning, Ned! " 
 
 " Changed your mind, did you? " whinnied the 
 Colonel. " Working for me after all, eh? This 
 is my trolley line." 
 
 Not in a private capacity, answered the Big 
 Fellow, laughing. " It s a public utility and I 
 have no contract for a term of years." 
 
 " Utility, eh! I expect it to be pretty useful 
 to me. How is he doing? " (This to Terence.) 
 
 " First-rate man, sir," said Terence. 
 
 " Hands pretty sore, Mr. Harden? " pursued 
 the Colonel. 
 
WITH THE MIXED GANG 89 
 
 1 Pretty, yes. Raw and hammy. But that will 
 mend and it s a good work, isn t it, Colonel, im 
 proving our transit facilities? " 
 
 This shot the Colonel, with his keen sense of 
 humor, must have appreciated. If he had any 
 thing to say in response, however, he was not 
 given an opportunity. Dropping his shovel with 
 a ring as the handle struck a paving-block, Pete 
 Maloney broke into a harangue: 
 
 " It s you that s Colonel Walker, is it! It s 
 long I ve been wantin to look at ye, ye ol rap 
 scallion! I ve niver bowed the knee to a land 
 lord in Ireland an it s not me that s goin to 
 bow it now fer tin damned jobs at a dollar an a 
 half a day. An it s me that s tellin ye fer yer 
 own good that if ye don t make transfers wid the 
 Eighth Sthreet line to Shantytown on the East 
 Side, the place yer bound to go to, as I see be the 
 look o yer face, ain t half hot enough fer ye! " 
 
 " Send that man away! " Ned Walker said, 
 hotly. 
 
 But his father put his hand on the son s arm 
 with a i Tut ! and his whinnying laugh. 
 
 11 You ve a lot to learn, Ned," he told his son. 
 
 11 An shure I said it an shure I sthand by it ! " 
 repeated Pete. 
 
 " What kind of a man is he! " asked the 
 Colonel of the foreman. 
 
 " First-rate worker." 
 
 " And what s his name? " 
 
 The Colonel never allowed sentiment to inter 
 fere with business. This was not a matter of cal- 
 
90 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 dilation with him. It was habit. Only a man of 
 equal strength ever made him really lose his 
 temper. 
 
 " Those are your political opinions, Mr. Ma- 
 loney, I see," said the Colonel. " I m trying to 
 develop this city and I must finish this trolley line 
 by October first. My heart is with the poor people 
 of the East Side. I ll give transfers if it won t 
 bankrupt the Consolidated. I like a candid man, 
 Mr. Maloney;" the Colonel smiled over his joke. 
 
 " Shure all that slathering 11 not get a sip o 
 wather fer ye down below! " retorted Pete. 
 
 Meanwhile, of all the gang only the Big Fellow 
 was at work. The rest were spell-bound specta 
 tors. Critically the Colonel scrutinized him as he 
 plied his pick with powerful swings. 
 
 " Come, look here, Harden! " said Ned. " It s 
 not right to see you doing this. Let us give you 
 something else. There ll be no obligations." 
 
 Caste was strong in Ned Walker and manifest 
 in the finely chiseled lines of a handsome face 
 that at times seemed a little supercilious and 
 at times pleasing and fickle. Socially it was re 
 pugnant to him to see a classmate in the ranks of 
 day laborers, beside negroes. 
 
 " Thanks, Ned," the Big Fellow returned. " I 
 came to town without any money and concluded to 
 make my own way. It s just as good exercise as 
 football. You aren t in any fear of being jumped 
 on if you break training and it won t make my 
 shoulders slope any worse." 
 
 " Oh, very well," Ned answered, gingerly. 
 
WITH THE MIXED GANG 91 
 
 Who else but Harden would think of such a 
 thing! 
 
 " It isn t too late. I ll make you that offer 
 for the last time," the Colonel said, as he lifted 
 his reins. 
 
 " No. I ll stick to this. It s a good post-grad 
 uate course in the humanities for a man who has 
 been living among books and in the clouds." 
 
 " Ne-eh! " the Colonel whinnied. " Giddap! " 
 
 " Good-morning, Ned! " the Big Fellow called. 
 
 " Good-morning, Harden! " Ned answered. 
 
 The foreman followed the buggy to know if 
 there were any special directions about Harden, 
 and the Colonel said, " None." 
 
 " It s caddish, nothing less. He s turning So 
 cialist or something, "Ned remarked to his father, 
 as they turned into a cross-street to escape the 
 broken paving. 
 
 " No! No Socialist that s a college graduate 
 takes hold as a day laborer. No! Damn him 
 no, I say, Ned " and the old financier was silent 
 for a space. " Ned, in a week the foreman and 
 all the dagos and the coons will be thinking what 
 a fine fellow he is. He s a natural politician." 
 
 This was a mistake. In a week they were try 
 ing to break the head of the new recruit. 
 
 " Ye re Irish ye re that contrairy, an God bliss 
 ye! " said Pete. " Ye only come to the city yis- 
 tiddy? An where did ye sthop? At one o thim 
 lodgin -houses, ye say, where ye lape through 
 
92 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 the dure onto the bid an give up yer quart 
 o blood overnight? Shure, it s the likes of yer 
 sunny silf the Missus an me have been lookin 
 f er fer a boarder. Ye ll like the childher. They re 
 Irish. Ye can t help it. It s a fine counthry es 
 tate we have." 
 
 Far out on the hills on the edge of the city 
 an old mansion had been partly torn down 
 when a certain real estate and building deal fell 
 through. The Maloneys moved into the other 
 half and hung out their washing from ropes at 
 tached to the framework which lay bare among 
 the plastering. When the owner came, said Pete : 
 
 " Shure, ye 11 be aisy with us that s guardin 
 yer property an kapin yer inimies from dumpin 
 ashes an garbage." 
 
 " How much a month ought I to charge you! 
 
 " If I had to pay rint how d I ever support the 
 childher? Look at em! Ain t they the bright 
 ones? Tim s goin to be a praste an me on a 
 dollar an a half a day! " 
 
 So the owner patted Tim on the head and for 
 got to send in a bill. 
 
 Mrs. Maloney hung the old porch with curtains, 
 and in this the Big Fellow camped in the warm 
 months. Around a high city hydrant for the 
 street sprinklers the boys of the neighborhood had 
 built an enclosure and, the alderman from Shanty- 
 town being of the majority, they had a shower, 
 under which every night, when he came home 
 sweaty and sticky with the dirt in which he had 
 been delving, the Big Fellow stood for a minute 
 
WITH THE MIXED GANG 93 
 
 before he sat down to the evening meal with Pete 
 and the Missus and the children. 
 
 " Shure, an we re the rale aristocracy, we 
 are," in the words of the host, " an haven t we 
 the stahr boarder? 
 
 Later in the evening Big would usually go to 
 the office of The Beacon, where he would wait 
 hopefully " like an elephant for a peanut," said 
 one of the reporters for a dollar assignment, 
 and if it was not forthcoming he would write a 
 letter on The Beacon s letterhead to Madame 
 Mother, but to Miss Two Braids on the regular 
 copy paper. 
 
 " Oh, I cried for shame," Miss Two Braids 
 wrote, " when I read what you were doing. I 
 was so angry I beat the pillow. It s not right, 
 I said, and I wish you had just taken Colonel 
 Walker s offer. Our family s too stubborn. But 
 the next morning I thought of Pete Maloney and 
 fancied I could see him and his little pipe and 
 twinkling eye, and I laughed because I knew you 
 would want me to laugh over it, and because I 
 knew you were happy and free or you would not 
 write of everything in such a happy way, and be 
 cause I know you ll win and study the law just 
 the way you want to. 
 
 " If I only could look in and see you and the 
 Missus and the children! Why is it so easy for 
 the Irish to talk, Jim? Why is it you can t help 
 liking them! . . . 
 
 " We let Pam wash the dishes now. He holds a 
 
94 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 plate like it was an eggshell and he is so slow. 
 He says he is sponsible and nothing is going 
 to hurry him till he has won back his good name. 
 Mr. Hobber wanted to buy our grass for hay. 
 Pam wouldn t sell. He says he wants the hay 
 for the new cow you are going to buy him next 
 winter. We had to let him have his way; he is 
 so contrary, and he can be contrary in such an 
 amusing way. . . . 
 
 " If you could have seen Aunt Martha when 
 that five dollars you sent came! She cried over 
 it. < Julia, she said, he didn t have to take it 
 from Colonel Walker. He earned it with his own 
 brain in the city where he went without a 
 friend (that brain was calloused beyond all 
 danger of blisters by this time) " and I m going 
 to send it right back. 
 
 " But then a bill for groceries came and she 
 just couldn t. Big brother, if you send money 
 home how are you ever going to pay Mr. Hobber ! 
 There, that is practical! " (So Jim thought. He 
 had calculated to a nicety the family s minimum 
 needs, which he must assist, and that five dollars 
 was a guarantee of his success to reassure their 
 fears.) " But you will do it, Jim. 
 
 " Lovingly, 
 
 " PORTIA. 
 
 " P. S. Confidential : I am always going to sign 
 myself Portia. Maybe it will make you a judge 
 sooner. Our secret. Confidential each " con 
 fidential " having four underscores. 
 
XI 
 
 THE LABORER S HIRE 
 
 wur - rkin to har-rd!" said Pete 
 Maloney. 
 
 " I can t help it," said the " stahr 
 boarder." 
 
 " An why can t ye? " 
 
 " I don t know. Original sin, maybe, Pete." 
 
 Others did know. It was a characteristic. He 
 put his energy into swinging the pick as prodi 
 gally as into his essay in the small hours of the 
 morning. 
 
 " It ain t in rayson t do three dollars wur-rk 
 fer that ol rapscallion whin ye git only a dollar 
 an a half," Pete resumed. " Now, ye absint- 
 moinded divil, whin ye see a dhrop of sweat spat 
 ter off the ind of yer nose on a pavin -sthone, jist 
 take it fer a warnin of a curve an crossin ahead 
 an shlow down." 
 
 If he did three dollars worth of work, ought he 
 not to have three dollars pay! That idea once 
 germinated is likely to grow on anyone who is 
 toiling with a July sun on the back of his head as 
 he bends over the cobbles, with the rank- smelling 
 dust of city pavements hot in his nostrils. 
 
 95 
 
96 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " And why shouldn t I get three, then? " he 
 asked Pete. 
 
 " Say, if ye did ye d have the whole gang on 
 yer back like a lot o wildcats ! 
 
 li I don t see any reason for that," the Big 
 Fellow pursued. 
 
 " Thry an ye will. Rayson, me b y, ain t bor-rn 
 in the gang. They wur-rk with their hands, not 
 their heads. If they had the heads they wouldn t 
 be wur-rkin with their hands." 
 
 " I ll think that over to-night," Big concluded. 
 
 " An what come out o yer thinkin ? " Pete 
 asked the next morning. 
 
 " Two fifty a day. I ll speak to McPhane," 
 was the answer. 
 
 " It s mesilf that will not miss that conversa 
 tion," said Pete, who was at the " stahr board 
 er s " elbow when they arrived for their work, 
 and Big went at once to the foreman with his can 
 did question : 
 
 " Do I do more work than the other men? 
 
 " Gwan! " said McPhane. " It s a hot day." 
 
 " Well, do I do two fifty s worth compared to 
 one fifty for the others? That s a fair question." 
 
 The grey eye that never laughed bored into 
 Terence s soft blue one for the truth; and an 
 honest answer being directly demanded, Terence 
 gave it. 
 
 " Sure you do." 
 
 " Without trying to collect any back pay, I d 
 like two fifty in the future," the Big Fellow re 
 turned, easily. 
 
THE LABORER S HIRE 97 
 
 " Oh, ye wouldn t collect any back pay, ye 
 Terence began. It seemed to him that the Big 
 Fellow, who had not moved an inch, was standing 
 about a foot nearer. 
 
 " This is a matter of simple principle, Mr. 
 McPhane, simple honesty." 
 
 " I ll think it over," said Terence. " Take yer 
 pick and get busy." 
 
 Many kinds had been on the mixed gang in 
 Terence s time, and the Big Fellow belonged to 
 none of them, the shrewd foreman knew. Ordi 
 narily, this problem could have been settled by 
 telling the applicant to quit if he were not satis 
 fied. The best way now was to shift respon 
 sibility and keep your own skirts clear. When 
 the matter was taken to the superintendent 
 he carried it higher up, and finally Colonel 
 Walker himself was talking over the telephone 
 from the Union Club to Terence, who was in Gus 
 Berkhoover s saloon. 
 
 " Wants two fifty a day, does he? Is he earn 
 ing it? " the Colonel asked. 
 
 " Yes, sir. He does twice as much as most 
 of the men and three times as much as some of the 
 bums." 
 
 "Ne-eh! Well, why does he want it? " 
 
 For the Colonel was interested. Anything 
 about the Big Fellow seemed to have a hold 
 on his imagination. The wonder of a young 
 man who refused an offer from him was a 
 solecism in his experience that he could not 
 forget. 
 
98 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 11 Why does anybody want more pay! " Ter 
 ence asked, laughing. 
 
 "Ho-ho! and Ned called him a Socialist," 
 thought the Colonel. " Well, what if we should 
 give it to him? 
 
 " Why, it will be all right if we keep quiet. If 
 the others find out, there ll be hell to pay. They d 
 strike or make him give it up." 
 
 " Well, you pay it to him and let the other 
 fellows know; d ye get that? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 Terence thought he heard a throaty ejaculation 
 like a neighing giggle as the Colonel hung up the 
 receiver. It was not for him to question orders 
 from the throne. He told the Big Fellow he was 
 to get the two fifty. 
 
 " An kape it quiet, Terence, or there ll be a 
 Donnybrook Fair," said Pete Maloney, promptly. 
 
 " If oratory would move dirt you d tunnel 
 mountains," Terence answered. 
 
 " Shure, but ye d plug up the hole with yer 
 assurance, ye loafer! " 
 
 Terence grinned, for they were both Irish. At 
 noontime, in duty bound, Terence passed the 
 word. It traveled fast among the tired men lying 
 on the walks in the shade of the buildings on that 
 nerve-exciting, blistering day. In the business 
 heart of the city, which was set in a basin among 
 the hills, no breeze from the river penetrated more 
 than the distance of a block. 
 
 All the thinking power that those weary men 
 had left was their tempers. An unspoken rule 
 
THE LABORER S HIRE 99 
 
 which bound them into solidarity had been broken. 
 They wanted only a leader. An Italian for his 
 people and one of the negroes for the mixed gang 
 arose at a moment when Terence had stepped 
 in to have a beer with his friend Gus, Pete Ma- 
 loney had gone into the next street to buy some 
 thing the Missus had asked him to get, and the 
 Big Fellow was sitting on the steps of a disused 
 building, eating the dinner the Missus had put 
 up for him. A start of surprise at their ugly 
 looks brought him to his feet, as the twenty or 
 thirty swarthy men came toward him. Three 
 or four spoke at once, serving notice that no man 
 on that job was going to get more than a dollar 
 and a half a day. 
 
 " Not if he earns it? " said the Big Fellow, who 
 was standing on the second step. 
 
 They answered " No! " passionately, in many 
 tongues. 
 
 " You speak English," the Big Fellow said to 
 one of the Italians. " Will you interpret for 
 me? Now, if I do enough more work for another 
 dollar, isn t that mine? I need the money. If 
 I have the strength to earn it, isn t it mine! When 
 they pay me two fifty a day and I do more work 
 than any of you, then that means you will not be 
 asked to do as much as I for what I get. If you 
 will do as much as I, then it means two fifty a day 
 for you. Isn t that just? Isn t that fair? If I 
 were weak and could earn only a dollar, would 
 you take that dollar away from me because I 
 could not earn two? " 
 
100 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 A few fell back, thinking of what he said. But 
 the leaders pressed closely. 
 
 " Now I m not going to let you come up on 
 this step," the Big Fellow warned them. " This 
 is my restaurant, you see, and you ll step on 
 my coffee can." That brought a smile from two 
 of the negroes and from the members of the 
 mixed gang and the Italians that understood 
 English. " The laborer is worthy of his hire. 
 I propose to have my two fifty a day." 
 
 " No, you don t! " 
 
 The leaders saw their cause wavering. They 
 sprang toward him threateningly. What hap 
 pened then happened quickly. One arm, with 
 steel grey eyes the eyes that never laughed 
 behind it stretched three men at the foot of the 
 steps, and then the steel grey eyes, calm and 
 ready, looked at the others. 
 
 " Do you think they are right? " he asked 
 them. " If I can earn two fifty a day or any of 
 you can, don t you think you ought to have it? 
 
 The majority seemed to think so, for they drew 
 away. 
 
 " Boss, you two-fifta-a-day man, all righta," 
 said one of the Italians. 
 
 " An yo ain no Jim Jackson, is yo ? " said 
 one of the negroes to the fallen negro. 
 
 Pete Maloney was turning a corner just as the 
 incident occurred. And he out of it ! How could 
 he ever justify himself to the Missus for missing 
 a fight where the " stahr boarder " was con 
 cerned? He came on a run in the hope that the 
 
THE LABORER S HIRE 101 
 
 fracas might last long enough for him to get in 
 a blow or two. Anyway, he could argue with the 
 police. 
 
 " Ye divil, ye! Shure, sometimes I fought ye 
 was a goody-goody, " he said, in rapture, to the 
 Big Fellow. * i Me faith in ye is complate. I seen 
 ye. God bliss ye ! Ye was a lion. Ye Ve got Irish 
 blood ye needn t tell me! " 
 
 When the police came there was nothing for 
 them to do. A swelling eye or sore jaw requires 
 no ambulance. 
 
 " Shure, we ve been upholdin the dignity of 
 labor-r," as Pete explained. By night he had 
 convinced himself that he was in the fight. 
 
 After Terence saw what had happened he re 
 turned to Berkhoover s, and, with a lively con 
 sciousness that he had obeyed orders exactly and 
 without waiting on the superintendent, he tele 
 phoned direct to the Colonel, who had just fin 
 ished luncheon at the club. An occasional neigh 
 came whinnying back over the wire as he listened 
 to the narrative. 
 
 " A number of men have already asked for a 
 raise on the plea that they deserve it," Terence 
 stated, finally. 
 
 " They have, eh! Well, tell that young Harden 
 I want to talk to him right away." 
 
 " Yes, sir;" and he went for the Big Fellow, 
 who, when he came to the phone, called cheerily : 
 
 " Good-day, Colonel Walker! " 
 
 " Good-day to you! " snapped the Colonel. 
 " Nice mess you ve made! " 
 
102 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Yes, I expect I lost my temper." 
 
 Big was really crestfallen and distressed, even 
 if his voice were so pleasant. Presuming on his 
 size, had he not been playing the bully against 
 twenty men ? 
 
 " Couldn t keep out of politics, could you? Had 
 to be stirring up trouble! " the Colonel pursued. 
 " Now, I ve got to raise everybody s wages. 
 What office you running for? " 
 
 " None! " came the answer, sharp and earnest, 
 " As for the men, I don t think they all expect 
 two fifty. Some two twenty-five, some two, and 
 some one seventy-five. It depends on having a 
 just foreman and a scale. 
 
 " Smooth talker, you are! " the Colonel 
 growled. 
 
 " Oh, no. A hard worker who wants what he 
 earns. And that very principle, the right 
 of a man to what he earns, you have often 
 defended in your speeches. It seems to me it is 
 the way you should justify the possession of 
 your fortune. Here your favorite principle is 
 established." 
 
 " Ne-eh! " was the only answer. 
 
 " Now, if you make as high a wage as two fifty 
 a day for picked men, you will have a wider 
 choice and greater efficiency, I believe. Isn t 
 it better to pay two fifty for three dollars worth 
 of work than one fifty for a dollar s? " 
 
 After a silence the Colonel said : 
 
 " Well, it goes! It ll make em hustle and I m 
 in a hurry to get this line down. It goes on this 
 
THE LABORER S HIRE 103 
 
 job. Say, you don t want to reconsider coming 
 
 with me? " 
 
 " Not when IVe just got a raise, thank you." 
 " Well, don t go about knocking too many folks 
 
 down ! The Colonel hung up the receiver. Then 
 
 he said to himself: " Damn politician! If he 
 
 didn t have the corn on me ! " 
 
XII 
 
 " YE DIVIL, YE! " 
 
 " A PRETTY kind of judge I should make ! In 
 
 /\ two street brawls in a month! " was the 
 
 way in which the Big Fellow, in his shame, 
 
 took counsel with himself, as he and Pete walked 
 
 home. At this rate, his ambition for the bench 
 
 would end in the prisoners box. 
 
 " It s a bad thing to lose your temper/ he re 
 marked aloud. 
 
 i It s a worse un to lose a fight," said Pete. 
 " But twasn t a fight. Ye were on y givin em 
 a lisson." 
 
 After supper Big hurried to The Beacon office 
 and asked Booth if news of a row among the la 
 borers on the new trolley line came in please to 
 keep him out of it. Alarmed lest Madame Mother 
 should hear of the affair, which meant that his 
 occupation would be revealed to her, the next 
 morning he scanned all the other papers closely. 
 
 According to The Times, which was Colonel 
 Walker s organ, the raise in wages was due to 
 the public spirit of a great financier, who hoped 
 to hasten the completion of the new line for the 
 use of the people. The Record, which was anti- 
 Walker, had a yarn about the fight by which the 
 
 104 
 
"YE DIVIL, YE! " 105 
 
 victory was won. It gave Harden s name barely, 
 but did not associate him with his father. When 
 the Big Fellow saw this he lived in fear for two 
 or three days, which would have been unnecessary 
 had he known that Hiram Hobber, returning from 
 Stottstown on the same train as the dailies from 
 the city, read the yarn and immediately bought 
 up all the edition for Bolton on purely domestic 
 grounds. He did not want Mrs. Hobber to have 
 any more weapons in her armory than those which 
 she already kept bright and busy. 
 
 From Miss Two Braids, to whom Big had writ 
 ten the whole story, he soon had the assurance he 
 wanted. She was of a militant disposition wher 
 ever he was concerned and she quite approved of 
 his knocking down anybody who needed it on all 
 occasions. 
 
 Without any effort on his part, he found him 
 self a leader of the men who had risen in dignity 
 and industry. 
 
 " You all righta. I getta the two dolla," said 
 the Italian who had taken his part. 
 
 When Colonel Walker, who seemed to find pecu 
 liar pleasure in frequent inspection, was riding 
 by the mixed gang, he called : 
 
 " Mr. Politician, how s politics? " 
 
 " Pretty busy to keep you in town, Colonel," 
 was the answer. 
 
 " Nice mess youVe made. Everybody getting 
 two fifty a day." 
 
 " Not everybody, Colonel. Only those who 
 earn it, Pete here gets only two. But I under- 
 
106 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 stand that we re doing about sixty per cent, more 
 work a man. So you are a gainer." 
 
 " Ne-eh! I won t argue with a lawyer. 
 Giddap!" 
 
 In August the Colonel sought refuge in the 
 country, which called everybody out of the swel 
 ter who could go. The atmosphere of the streets 
 was hazy with heat waves ; a merciless sun ceased 
 from burning only during brief showers. Some 
 times Big would see red spots dancing round a 
 paving-stone as he set it in place or took it out. 
 Then he would wipe his brow and crack a joke 
 at Pete ; but he revived after that dousing under 
 the hydrant in the evening, and after chatting 
 with the Maloneys, large and small, he would 
 begin his second day s work in the twenty- four 
 hours. 
 
 61 Ye re killin yersilf, that s what ye are," said 
 the good Missus. " If it wan t that ye re so sinsi- 
 ble, I d say ye were actin that crazy I d sind for 
 a doctor." 
 
 i I rest my head by day and my body by night. 
 It s only one session for either part of me," he 
 would answer. 
 
 " It s the way ye have of turnin chalk into 
 cheese with yer blarney," she would return, hav 
 ing the last word; " an ye can t fool me. Ye re 
 that tired, I can see! " 
 
 But Big tried to think that the heat was a bless 
 ing. On The Beacon the reporters were now tak 
 ing their vacations by turns. This lessening of 
 the force meant that he rarely went to the office 
 
" YE DIVIL, YE! " 107 
 
 that he did not get a dollar assignment and on 
 some happy nights a two-dollar one. Booth found 
 that accuracy was second nature to the Big Fel 
 low and that he had the gift of leading men to 
 talk where old hands failed. Frequently he fur 
 nished the facts which others rewrote in a piquant 
 and slapdash style. 
 
 Time strengthened his conviction that the news 
 paper trick was not his. But it occurred to him, 
 out of his inborn knowledge of character, that 
 he knew one whose trick it was. He had always 
 liked Willy Sweetser, that class gossip, and had 
 seen more in him than anyone else thought 
 possible. 
 
 " House Afire, you would make a great confla 
 gration here," he wrote to Willy, who was at 
 home driving his good father, minister of the gos 
 pel, to special prayers for the future of an only 
 son whose erratic hop-skip-and-jump amiability 
 was his armor against criticism of cigarette smok 
 ing and a seemingly hopeless lack of any more 
 serious intention in the world than to enjoy all 
 the town gossip. 
 
 Back to Big, Willy wrote that the weather was 
 hot, the peaches on the tree by the stone garden 
 wall would soon be ripe, and " all the world is 
 fair and drowsy/ to quote him. " The butterfly 
 is not worrying about the winter store not yet. 
 I think I m in love, and when I m over thinking 
 I am, I may come down. Being a newspaper man 
 must be pretty hard work, though. Dad thinks 
 I better study medicine. No, he didn t say it that 
 
108 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 way. He is honest and lie chooses his words. He 
 said take a medical course. I guess he thinks 
 medicine best because it isn t bad form for doc 
 tors to smoke. But I might try reporting soon 
 as it gets cooler. What s the news! Did you 
 hear that " and so on, on all kinds of class 
 gossip. 
 
 Through the weeks that wore on till the intol 
 erable heat moderated the Big Fellow had not 
 missed a single day with the gang. Regularly 
 he had sent a small part of his earnings home. 
 With only one hundred and fifty dollars saved, he 
 was studying possibilities one night in mid- Sep 
 tember in The Beacon office as he waited, a teth 
 ered elephant, for Booth to give him a peanut. 
 Again this steady worker faced the necessity of 
 action. For the first time in his life a feeling 
 of anarchy ran riot in his breast in whose has it 
 not? under the leadership of discouragement. 
 
 The hard physical grind by day and the late vig 
 ils at The Beacon, of ten with only four hours sleep 
 out of the twenty-four, had slightly warped his 
 perspective, perhaps. He did not think of trying 
 to borrow the money he needed. According to his 
 instinct of the situation and he was stubborn in 
 some respects that would not be playing the 
 game. His lack of the money-making gift, which 
 Miss Two Braids intuition had so readily under 
 stood, was not a consideration that he would 
 admit as an excuse. He had set out to earn a cer 
 tain sum in a certain length of time and he would 
 earn it. 
 
" YE DIVIL, YE! " 109 
 
 But how? At this question he had the feeling 
 of one who must find still harder work and more 
 work. In a spell of dizziness, though he appeared 
 to be calm and self-possessed, he saw the electric- 
 light bulb dancing in a haze around Booth s thatch 
 of hair. He rubbed his eyes to make it settle 
 into place and had quite recovered himself when 
 Kiddy brought him a letter with The Interna 
 tional Law Review in the upper right-hand corner, 
 above the address. 
 
 The manuscript could never be inside that small 
 envelope. Probably the editors wanted postage 
 for its return. What if yes, what if ! The Bea 
 con office, where sensations sent forth to the read 
 ing public were the days routine, had a sensation 
 of its own. Eeporters pencils jumped in the mid 
 dle of a word at the sound of a mighty shout. The 
 Big Fellow sprang on top of a desk which ca 
 reened under his weight, while he held aloft a 
 slip of yellow paper which was a talisman for a 
 hundred dollars. As the youngster who coined 
 the elephant and peanut simile said, the elephant 
 had broken loose and was making a dash for the 
 jungle. 
 
 " I want you all to know it," Big cried, " be 
 cause you have all been good to me! I want 
 to tell you that I had to earn two hundred and 
 forty-eight dollars and fifty cents by October first, 
 and IVe done it! IVe won that essay prize! 
 I m so happy, Mr. Booth, that I don t care 
 whether Eddy Smith was pushed or fell, so long 
 as he had to go! " 
 
110 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Gee! " said Kiddy Witherbee, who did not 
 know what it was all about. 
 
 There was one present who did, however. He 
 was a lank, tall, slightly-stooped, smooth-faced 
 man, the law reporter of The Beacon, which gave 
 more attention to court reports than any other 
 paper in the West. Occasionally the Big Fellow 
 had seen him pass through the outer room into 
 the editorial sanctum and more than once had 
 been on the point of introducing himself, but was 
 held back by the modesty of twenty-two in ap 
 proaching sixty. 
 
 You won it ! said Theodore Dexter, who had 
 entered in time to hear that shout of joy. 
 
 " Yes, The International Law Review one. 
 Yes! Oh, what luck! " 
 
 " What college are you? " Dexter asked, 
 searchingly. 
 
 " , 88." 
 
 " I m of 48! " 
 
 While the others looked on, still puzzled, 48 ex 
 tended both hands to take the hands of 88 in his 
 grip. 
 
 Another man, who was a newcomer in that 
 office, had entered just behind Dexter. In the blue 
 atmosphere Willy Sweetser, half leaning on his 
 silver-banded cane, with a cigarette between his 
 teeth, seemed perfectly at home. As usual, he 
 was on hand at the dramatic moment. 
 
 " H lo, Big! " he said. " What s the row? " 
 
 By this time the newspaper sense of the city 
 editor had risen to the occasion. 
 
YE DIVIL, YE! " 111 
 
 " There s a head! " he said. " College man- 
 worked as a gang laborer licked the gang in a 
 fight wins great prize of International Law Re 
 view refused job from Colonel Walker honor 
 judges would crave modest, big fellow and all 
 right in our town! Good human interest! 
 Spader! " he called, " I guess you re the one to 
 do this." 
 
 But the striking figure at that moment was 
 Willy Sweetser. This teller of tales, who liked 
 to be where things were happening, his head 
 thrust forward and a little to one side, with quick, 
 greedy eye, had taken in the tableau and with 
 alert mind had grasped the situation. In his 
 movement was the keenness of a terrier after 
 rats, as three or four steps brought him to the 
 city editor s desk, over which he leaned till his 
 nose almost touched Booth s head. 
 
 " This is just like Big! " he said, in a high- 
 pitched voice. i I know him like a book. I went 
 to school with him! He is my friend! He is 
 old Big none in the same class! Let me write 
 it! " 
 
 All of which was most astonishing to Booth, 
 who had never seen Willy before. 
 
 < < There s no story in this ! declared Big. 
 " Who wants to hear that I ve won an essay 
 prize? 
 
 " And that s also like you, Big! " said Willy. 
 "I ll put that in what I write." 
 
 " Do you wonder that I found he was no news 
 paper man? " Booth asked the newcomer. 
 
112 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " I see it! I see it! " cried Willy. " I can 
 write it like mice ! I m going to write it, anyway. 
 Can I sit here? And use this paper? 
 
 Without waiting on an answer he took a vacant 
 place and began in his irregular, school-boyish 
 hand, with his whole body moving at the same 
 time as the pencil, while Spader stood by for 
 further orders. 
 
 < < See if I don t know old Big ! See if I don t ! 
 Willy mused absently, and the others watched this 
 invader curiously till he filled a sheet. " There ! 
 he cried, passing it to Booth. " Say, but this is 
 fun ! " and he went on furiously covering a second 
 sheet. 
 
 Booth read the first, with eyes pressing close 
 to the paper. 
 
 " They re born! " he exclaimed. " I always 
 said they were ! Let it run ! Let it run ! Never 
 mind, Spader! You go right ahead," he told 
 Willy. " Anything we can get? Cigars or a 
 drink? 
 
 " No," answered Willy, " not even cigarettes. 
 You just put in the dots and the curleycues for 
 me I never was much on punctuation and I ll 
 reel it off like yarn off a spinning-wheel. This 
 is nuts for me! r 
 
 Temporarily, Willy, blissfully unconscious of the 
 fact, had taken the center of the stage away from 
 Big, who, with Dexter, watched him for a while. 
 He was more concentrated on a single thing than 
 he had ever been known to be before, when he had 
 either pencil or book in hand. 
 
" YE DIVIL, YE! 113 
 
 " Won t you come over to my rooms, Har 
 den? " Dexter asked Big. " We ll have a chat 
 together. 
 
 " Oh, I would like to, Mr. Dexter," Big an 
 swered. 
 
 " We ll return for this other 88 when he is 
 through with his yarn," Dexter added. 
 
 " Coming back for you, Willy. Don t fail to 
 wait! " said Big, nudging the writer s arm. 
 
 " All right! " answered Willy, vacantly. " But 
 I ve only begun. This is great! 
 
 " Let it run! Let it run! " 48 and 88 heard 
 Booth calling, as they left the editorial rooms and 
 started downstairs. In the business office Big 
 turned to Dexter : 
 
 This means more to the folks at home than to 
 me and I have only ten minutes yet for the night 
 mail. Will you wait for me? " 
 
 Stationery he got from a clerk and, using one 
 of the wall desks, he wrote the good news to 
 Madame Mother and to Miss Two Braids and 
 had started to seal the envelopes when a " P.S." 
 occurred to him in a peal of joy. 
 
 " Yes, there ll be money enough with what I 
 earn in the next two weeks, he said aloud, i l and 
 I ll do it. 
 
 " Tell Pam, he wrote, that he can look 
 around for a cow. I ll send the price of her to 
 morrow but he will have to wait for a lawn 
 
 mower. " 
 
 And he thought gleefully: " How I would like 
 to be home to see him, perfectly correct in his 
 
114 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 mental parts, leading Liz home! Then lie 
 begged his companion s pardon for laughing to 
 himself. 
 
 " What was the idea your i lead/ as they call 
 it in the whirlwind shop up there of your es 
 say? " Dexter asked. 
 
 " I think that after I looked those old Romans 
 up," said the Big Fellow, " I tried to inject some 
 Abraham Lincoln into Justinian." 
 
 " Yes, yes, of course," was the response, in a 
 voice so even and scholarly that it was like the 
 musical hum of a brook. Theodore Dexter had 
 slipped his arm into the prize-winner s as if they 
 were about to walk, but stopped. " Yes, of 
 course, and you might have put that in the manu 
 script, too." 
 
 There was only one word and the word was fine 
 for that face which Big saw in the light shining 
 out of the business-office window, as the old 
 counsellor-at-law rather than lawyer as he pre 
 ferred to be called, paused to enjoy the news he 
 was to divulge. 
 
 " I was interested, you see," he said, " because 
 I gave that prize. I was also the judge, and I 
 never associated the name of James Harden with 
 that of a cub reporter on The Beacon." 
 
 " Well, all I can say," returned Big, " over 
 everything that has happened in the last half- 
 hour is what Kiddy says, and that is Gee ! and to 
 tell you that you are the greatest hero in the world 
 to me! " 
 
 " But," continued Dexter, " the subject was 
 
1 YE DIVIL, YE! " 115 
 
 Roman colonization and you didn t stick to it at 
 all." 
 
 " No. I thought it over, 7 the Big Fellow said, 
 " and, well, I concluded that it was high time 
 we buried the Romans ! The conditions were very 
 broad and said that each candidate was to treat 
 the subject in his own way. I tried to take a mod 
 ern view." 
 
 " Which you did," returned Dexter, " by tak 
 ing as your postulate that the United States were 
 suddenly called upon to give law and order to a 
 strange race of people. Oh, I remember one of 
 your sentences: The British have been in India 
 for three hundred years, and if they were to go 
 to-morrow they would leave only their bridges 
 and roads and no imprint on the native mind. 7 
 And you would begin with the mind. That is 
 right." 
 
 " I wrote in the way I saw things." 
 
 " Yes, and fulfilled my idea. The editor of the 
 Review thought it an odd subject, and I told him 
 that that was the reason I selected it. Men take 
 dumb-bell exercise or play golf to keep their 
 bodies in trim. But how about mental gymnas 
 tics to keep the mind in trim! Any subject would 
 have done, with the condition that each writer 
 should look at it in his own way. I wanted to 
 see these young fellows rattle their brains around 
 a bit and I had a hundred dollars to spare, which 
 you won and why should we be standing here 
 when I asked you to come over to the shop? 
 
 Across the street from The Beacon office, where 
 
116 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 the old bachelor lived, he had rooms and office 
 together. He went to sleep every night to the 
 sound of the presses, and up two flights was the 
 Promised Land to the Big Fellow. No small li 
 brary bounded the scholastic eccentricity of Theo 
 dore Dexter. In unbroken ranks his books stood 
 against the walls of the large outer room, and 
 flanking a passage the length of the building the 
 visitor saw, when his host lighted another gas-jet, 
 more files and a desk by a window. 
 
 " I call them my soldiers of peace, " said their 
 owner, " and I am their garrison commander. I 
 have a saying that a lawyer may know his fifty 
 books of precedent and reports and rise to great 
 success, but he must know the thousand books 
 to be truly a counsellor of the law. He must know 
 equity rather than precedent ; he must know men ; 
 he must know the humanities." 
 
 " I ve been taking a full course in the humani 
 ties, " said the Big Fellow, and exhibited his cal 
 loused hands. 
 
 " Most valuable! Most! " returned Dexter, 
 laughing. " But you had not given up the study 
 of the law! " he asked. 
 
 I hadn t begun, except in books I used to pick 
 up in old stalls without much regard to what 
 they were so they were law and cheap " which 
 explains how he had Somebody on Torts in his 
 senior classical year. 
 
 " You hadn t! " with surprise subdued by a 
 train of thought, which ended in more questions. 
 
 The Big Fellow simply, as if it were nothing 
 
" YE DIVIL, YE! " 117 
 
 remarkable, told his whole story, all except the 
 secret which only Miss Two Braids should share 
 about being a judge. When he half excused him 
 self for his decision by saying that if he went 
 to work for Colonel Walker he preferred to go 
 as a business man rather than as a lawyer 
 11 Foolish, but I saw the law, my love of the law, 
 that way" Theodore Dexter said, " Eight! 
 right! right!" with such a military sharpness 
 that the sober, leather-bound volumes appeared 
 guilty of insubordination in not dipping from 
 their shelves in salute. 
 
 " The love of the law! That is it! " Dexter 
 proceeded. " Unless you love it too much. I 
 loved it too much. I expect Colonel Walker is 
 glad I did. But but I would teach you that living 
 it and making it is better. All this," nodding to 
 his books, " is worth nothing unless you carry it 
 to somebody to somebody besides the experts 
 themselves. To have and not to give is rank 
 selfishness. With good laws and broad, unselfish 
 men to interpret them, there would be a cessation 
 of bloodshed in the world and largely of misery." 
 
 He faced round, his eyes glowing, and put a 
 hand on the Big Fellow s shoulder, caressingly, 
 yet firmly the touch of appreciation and of 
 seniority and instruction and in the easy way 
 of a man who takes a discovery quietly, he said: 
 
 " I think we ll let the Colonel build the trolley 
 line without your help, for I m getting fairly old. 
 I m sixty. My books on the State laws pay me 
 income enough. For thirty years I ve been cover- 
 
118 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 ing court cases for The Beacon. A strange work 
 for me, in a way, but it s been my most service 
 able work/ (He might have added that the 
 Judges read his reports and thought of them 
 before they made decisions and often came to him 
 for advice. If a law really beyond attack were 
 wanted, its promoters asked him to frame it. 
 As he said once, sententiously, however, business 
 was not always so brisk in that line.) " The Bea 
 con will keep up the feature a while yet, but even 
 tually the headlines will devour us yes, alive, I 
 expect! IVe been looking for a successor. I ve 
 found him to-night and meanwhile, you can 
 study law here with me. I m something of a uni 
 versity, myself." 
 
 " Honest? " It was a little too good after 
 the anarchy of two hours ago. 
 
 " I am not given to the Spanish politeness 
 which offers you a house and lot, meaning that you 
 are to take a cigarette." 
 
 " You you don t know you can t know what 
 this is to me! " was all the Big Fellow could say. 
 " To study here with you! " 
 
 "It s a pity if old 48 and that was a good 
 class, too can t do a turn for young 88. No 
 more thanks. Why, of course you couldn t be 
 studying law. You ve only just been graduated, 
 and, by the way, that other 88 ought to have 
 finished his yarn by this time. We ll get him 
 and have a 48- 88 banquet." 
 
 It was after midnight when they were back 
 in the street. A blaze of light came from the 
 
" YE DIVIL, YE! " 119 
 
 second floor of The Beacon building and from the 
 pressroom in the basement, and past the dim, 
 silent business office they ascended the stairs to 
 the editorial rooms, where they paused in the door 
 way watching a dramatic scene. It was only half 
 an hour before the forms for the first edition were 
 to close. All but a few of the reporters had fin 
 ished their work. They were gathered around 
 Willy, who was writing furiously with fingers, 
 head, arms, and his whole body and, to judge 
 by the varying emotions on his face, living over 
 every scene he was depicting. If the crowd at 
 Madison Square Garden on a circus night had 
 been looking on, he would have been undisturbed 
 in his serious intensity of concentration. 
 
 66 Let it run! Let it run! Don t be afraid of 
 length! " Booth called to him for the twentieth 
 time. 
 
 Plump! a second galley of proof came up the 
 pneumatic tube. As Booth read it he snapped 
 his fingers in his excitement. 
 
 " That s it! That s it! " he shouted. " I al 
 ways said they were born! " 
 
 His hair was more touseled than ever. He had 
 removed his green eye-shade in honor of an event 
 which, to that office, was like the sudden birth of 
 some hero springing into fame with a cavalry 
 charge. 
 
 Willy Sweetser had taken no literary course; 
 he had done no writing except what the average 
 college student must. But his mind was full. 
 Every sentence snapped out a contributing idea. 
 
120 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 His style, uncultivated and natural, ran like a 
 prairie fire rather than with the cultivated, slow- 
 burning, sinuous calculation of a fuse. He had 
 something to say and he kept on saying it, bang- 
 bang-bang ! 
 
 " Hope you fixed the curleycues and dots all 
 right and all the set-the-table business, " he re 
 marked, as he rose with his last page of copy; 
 " and maybe my spelling is a little off. I never 
 could see why l which shouldn t be i whitch - 
 and it s which, anyway. Gee! But this was 
 great! I even forgot to smoke : with a glance 
 at the half-burned cigarette where he had left it 
 when he took up the pencil. " H lo, Big! I m 
 yours for anything, now. I ve written you up in 
 a way to make your eyes bulge. I haven t had 
 so much fun since that night I got up the lampoon 
 and pasted it on all the professors doors " a 
 famous occasion, which might have resulted in his 
 expulsion if it had not been for the Big Fellow. 
 
 Booth followed the new reporter to the door 
 and wrung his hand. 
 
 1 1 Say, we want to take you on ! " he said ; and 
 he was praying in his heart that here was no 
 " one story " man. No! He knew better. This 
 youngster had the trick. " Drop in to-morrow 
 afternoon." 
 
 " Think I will. Can you give me another one 
 to do another one where I can fill myself full 
 of what it is all about and then dash it off slap 
 into the faces of folks so they ll have to read? 
 
 " You bet! " said Booth. 
 
" YE DIVIL, YE! " 121 
 
 And will you look after the curleycues 1 
 
 " There isn t much trouble about them. Your 
 kind of copy punctuates itself. " 
 
 66 I ll show up, all right. Now for food. Say, 
 Big, wouldn t I like to drop in at Blank s! " (a 
 chop house in the college town). " I m hungry 
 as a lean, hairy, old bear in the springtime ! " 
 
 48, however, knew Blank s equal in the city. 
 Downtown was a restaurant with no row of elec 
 tric lights or brilliant chandeliers to consume 
 money that should go into food. Here came 
 newspaper men, lawyers, or business men who 
 had to remain late at night at their offices, and 
 sometimes men from the Union Club, served by 
 Jerry, who wore broad, flat-heeled shoes, an ample 
 apron, and silver-rimmed spectacles, over which 
 he looked quizzically as he took the order and 
 moved slowly but grandly away to the grill, as 
 became a man who had served chops before you 
 were born. They ate of that which Jerry s oldest 
 customer ordered and talked of the old school 
 till Jerry said it was closing time. 
 
 " Say, that paper ought to be out now, hadn t 
 it? " Willy asked, earnestly. " I d like to see 
 it I d like to see it printing." 
 
 A man is born, a man is married, he fires a rifle 
 for the first time, and for the first time he sees 
 something he wrote in actual print. From the 
 shelf of the press Willy Sweetser Theodore Dex 
 ter having the open sesame to the holy of holies 
 took off the moist morning edition, while the 
 roar of the multiples and the rattle of the milk- 
 
122 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 wagons were breaking the silence of the sleeping 
 world. There it was, his child, in three columns, 
 an inside-page feature, and leaded and headed 
 in a way to make the Big Fellow, whose first great 
 story was made by himself for another to write, 
 blush and shake his head. But what could he 
 do? As for Willy, he read his maiden effort all 
 through without thought that anybody was wait 
 ing on him. Then he asked the pressman ques 
 tions and looked over the machine. 
 
 " Say, I d like to have one of them for my 
 own! " he declared, in his first definite expression 
 of a real ambition. " Think of talking to hun 
 dreds of thousands of people every morning ! 
 which certainly did beat mouth-to-mouth gossip. 
 
 " You ve found yourself, Willy. I always knew 
 you would;" and Big lifted him off his feet with 
 a great hug. 
 
 Theodore Dexter was for putting up the 88 s 
 in his rooms. But the Big Fellow thought he 
 ought to go back to Pete and the Missus. They 
 were his good friends and he was sure they would 
 like to know that he had won the essay prize. 
 
 Then all three were for Maloney s and, now that 
 they had started, to make a night of it. With 48 
 having 88 on either arm, they set out through the 
 deserted streets, singing the old songs of 48 and 
 the modern songs of 88. 
 
 " Everybody s been mighty good to me! " said 
 the Big Fellow, in an interval. It s a bully good 
 world, I tell you!" 
 
 " It s the best ever! Think of it! I wrote 
 
YE DIVIL, YE! " 
 
 three whole columns without smoking a cigar 
 ette! " shouted Willy. 
 
 " If you know how to bring the good out of 
 it," said 48. 
 
 Shortly after the break of dawn they appeared 
 before the Maloneys door, wherein stood Pete, 
 rubbing his sleepy eyes and surveying the 
 landscape. 
 
 " Ye divil, ye! " he said. " The top o the 
 mornin to yez all ! Come in fer breakfast. Shure 
 there s room. The childher can take theirs in 
 their hands." 
 
XIII 
 
 SOME VARYING VIEWS 
 
 A^L the world that bought The Beacon 
 regularly and some of the world that 
 did not buy it regularly read, the next 
 morning, the story of how one graduate had 
 spent his summer holiday. It was the way 
 the thing was done as much as the subject- 
 matter that caught public fancy. The reader 
 felt the writer s enthusiasm; the writer, he 
 knew, was not counting words or pay. Booth 
 called it a " feature " that amounted to a " real 
 news beat." Willy Sweetser called it " telling 
 everybody what everybody ought to know about 
 Big." 
 
 The view of each of the characters whose 
 careers had crossed or influenced that of the Big 
 Fellow, throws light on them and on him. 
 
 From Ned Walker, at a hunting-camp in 
 Northern Michigan: 
 
 " Printed in the newspaper where he worked 
 a gallery player, as I always thought, 
 though I admire his nerve." 
 From Colonel Walker : 
 
 " Politician, damn him! Wish I d got him, 
 damn him! " 
 
 124 
 
SOME VARYING VIEWS 125 
 
 From the old heavyweight, " moreover/ " if," 
 " but," " and," " whereas," and " on the other 
 hand " editorial writer of The Beacon to 
 Booth: 
 
 " Yes, I read it all through, I must admit; 
 but very sensational and er youthful 
 and an allowance of space out of all keeping 
 with its news importance." 
 From Epaminanidad, who spelled cow out of 
 all the headlines : 
 
 " Mah min s jes as kerrected an* clear." 
 From Hiram Hobber, with his thumbs thrust in 
 the armholes of his waistcoat, and his feet on the 
 table: 
 
 " Didn t I tell you, Mrs. Hobber! Didn t I 
 tell you, Mrs. Hobber ! Now who says that 
 I ain t a jedge of men! Yes, I am goin to 
 hire them potatoes dug yes, I am, and I 
 don t care a jugful what the neighbors 
 say! " 
 From Kiddy Witherbee: 
 
 " Gee! " and again, " Gee! " 
 From Theodore Dexter : 
 
 " A clean human document whose truth 
 
 shines out between the writer s lines." 
 From Pete Maloney: 
 
 " It s more ye ve been kapin in the back o 
 yer head, me b y, than ye let out o yer 
 mouth. 
 From Mrs. Maloney: 
 
 " Shure, the little gossoon 11 make ye Mayor 
 yit, an whin ye air it s a place in th coort- 
 
126 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 house f r Pete I m wantin . Wouldn t lie 
 look fine a-tindin door f r the thrials! >: 
 From Mrs. Billings, of Poverty Bow, when the 
 Big Fellow forwarded her share of the reward for 
 the magnum opus: 
 
 " I m sending the five dollars right back; but 
 if you ever come here and don t come to see 
 me, then you re not half the man I thought 
 you were." 
 From Kamsdell : 
 
 1 How like old Big ! I can see his eyes when 
 
 that gang jumped him! 
 From Miss Two Braids : 
 
 I have two copies in my room. I heard the 
 bees humming all day so happily and all the 
 fireflies are out with their lanterns and I 
 hear them singing a little song of joy to 
 night. But I m proudest of the way you 
 mastered the gang. You are a great big 
 man, aren t you, Big? I like that better 
 than Mister Ninety in Calculus, or Jim, and 
 I am going to call you Big, as they did at 
 college, after this." 
 From Aunt Julia : 
 
 11 My! My! MY! " and then, " MY! My! 
 
 My! " down the scale. 
 
 From Madame Mother, and she an abolitionist : 
 " My! And he worked beside negroes and 
 
 immigrants like some criminal! 
 But he won the essay prize ! put in Miss Two 
 Braids. 
 
 " Yes. My boy! " Still, he had not taken his 
 
SOME VARYING VIEWS 127 
 
 own mother into counsel. These sensational head 
 lines shocked her sense of quiet respectability. 
 
 " And he is going to study law, now," Miss 
 Two Braids added. 
 
 Which Madame Mother admitted gladly but 
 he should have told me all! 
 
 " Willy, you make me feel foolish," the Big 
 Fellow said for himself. 
 
 4 Get out ! You like it in your heart, you know 
 you do ! " Willy returned. 
 
 " I like to think you could write it ancl that 
 you ve found yourself, Willy," he replied; " and 
 no, I don t like it." 
 
 His mind was not subjective. It had never 
 been introspective except when he had his moment 
 of anarchy. He little cared whether the whole 
 newspaper was about him or whether he never 
 appeared in the headlines in all his life. Why 
 should he when happiness had been crowned with 
 more happiness ? For Theodore Dexter had done 
 another thing, which, the more he thought of it, 
 the more it surprised him. In his heart he, too, 
 was a little of an aristocrat. Who is not! Pete 
 Maloney certainly was that day when he dropped 
 his pick and defied Colonel Walker. The fact that 
 the Big Fellow was the son of James Harden, 
 who was only three classes ahead of himself, had 
 brought the offer to the counsellor s lips after it 
 had occurred to him in the enthusiasm of the re 
 union of 48 and 88. 
 
 "I m getting to be too much of a hermit. I 
 need company," he said. " If you want to share 
 
128 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 my rooms and live with me, breakfast brought up 
 any hour, dinners out, mostly at Jerry s, or a 
 chop if it is rainy, why, I would welcome you, and 
 any time we disagree, as becomes two honest men, 
 either of us will not hesitate to say so." 
 
 It should be added, also, that the more he 
 thought of this innovation the more he liked it. 
 The prospect set something glowing in his heart 
 which Miss Two Braids would have called the fire 
 flies of content and peace. He had a disciple, now. 
 What man not a blind egoist who reaches sixty 
 without children would not have one, if he believes 
 that there is any good in him that he would 
 perpetuate? 
 
 " Will I come! " cried the Big Fellow. " Oh, 
 will I! You have given me water and wings. I 
 was only webf ooted before ! 
 
 Dexter and Willy had planned to bring him back 
 to his new quarters that morning. But he would 
 not have such an abrupt leave-taking of his host. 
 He liked the Maloney round of the ladder so well 
 that he was always to make himself welcome 
 there. 
 
 i i No. I ll go to work with Pete as usual to-day, 
 and I can tell McPhane I ll quit to-morrow." 
 
 Of course, Colonel Walker would have called 
 him a politician and Ned would have called him 
 a gallery player for this. 
 
 " Now will ye listen to him! " said Mrs. Ma 
 loney. 
 
 " Ye divil, ye! " said Pete, which was the high 
 est compliment he could pay anyone. We might 
 
SOME VARYING VIEWS 129 
 
 cilibrate the gr-rand day it is be thrashin the 
 whole gang. Shure, we kin do it. Didn t we do it 
 oncet? " 
 
 In high feather, though in overalls, they went 
 away together. McPhane blinked and shook his 
 head over a puzzle past his understanding. The 
 gang who had heard the news stared at the Big 
 Fellow in wonder as they saw him drop into 
 action with his pick. Some of the cynical ones 
 thought the whole thing a " newspaper fake. 77 
 Pete, however, enlightened them. He was orating 
 all day, and according to the Big Fellow s rule of 
 pay for work done, Pete belonged on this day in 
 a special class by himself of fifty-cents-a-day men. 
 That night the Big Fellow said good-by to his 
 fellow-laborers and shook hands with all, includ 
 ing the negro whom he had felled. 
 
 " Maka de run for office me vota for you," said 
 the Italian. 
 
 " Yes, he ll be going into politics," said Willy 
 Sweetser, who was present on the way to get 
 facts for a new story. 
 
 The repetition of that idea amused Big, who 
 had about as much thought of politics as of 
 pugilism. 
 
 " It s the gr-rand day it s been," Pete told Big 
 that night, when he went to his place on the porch 
 for the last time, " an it s har-rd an joyful ye 11 
 hit the pillow to-night." 
 
 It was long after nine when he awoke and Pete, 
 who had made a holiday in honor of his departure, 
 was the first to greet him. Shure, twas Pete 
 
130 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 that was going to see the " stahr boarder " safely 
 into his new quarters. 
 
 " God bliss ye! " called Mrs. Maloney, from 
 the doorway. 
 
 " God bless you, Mrs. Maloney, and all the 
 children ! he answered. 
 
 " An whin ye re Mayor," said she " an it s 
 Mayor that live wire of a gossoon 11 be makin ye 
 with his noospaper spakin remimber Pete s to 
 have a place in the coorthouse." 
 
XIV 
 
 FOR A CITY 
 
 PRESENTLY, exercising a novelist s priv 
 ilege, by making the Roman numeral II 
 we shall span a decade, in which Miss 
 Two Braids, on whose moods we are to wait, 
 grows from girlhood to womanhood, and the 
 other characters are making their careers. 
 It seems worth while, however, to give a few 
 glimpses of them in the course of the years which 
 hurry by to the heart of things. But anyone who 
 chooses may turn over the pages to the heart of 
 things at once, at the risk of missing a part of the 
 mind of things. 
 
 That same reporter who was the author of the 
 " elephant and peanut " simile gave Sweetser the 
 name of " The Hummer, " which stuck, for Willy, 
 it was said, ran by electricity like the presses. 
 His rapid rise in newspaperdom, which may storm 
 a position every morning, had its likeness in the 
 rise of lieutenants to division command in the 
 Civil War. 
 
 When his father, the minister, heard of his first 
 success he wrote : 
 
 " William, you know I have never allowed a 
 
 131 
 
132 THE EIG FELLOW 
 
 Sunday paper in our house. I hope you are not 
 working for the Sunday editions." 
 
 And Willy answered: " The Sunday is made 
 up on Saturday. " 
 
 Said the father: " This is a quibble, I fear. 
 How about the Monday? 
 
 Said the son : We must get that out on Sun 
 day night, so you famished Monday readers will 
 have some news." 
 
 Later, he sent the happy word that he had 
 stopped the eternal smoking of cigarettes. 
 
 " You see now what I escaped being a satu 
 rated, third-rate, aimless doctor, who sickened his 
 patients with tobacco fumes." 
 
 But he took no credit for reform. It was a part 
 of his reborning. 
 
 " I simply am so busy I forget to smoke," to 
 use his own words. I love this work. I love it 
 for itself and the explosions." 
 
 His widening vision, with a certain genius for 
 grasping essentials, mapped the whole city in its 
 people, its interests and their character. This 
 was a bad newspaper town, as newspaper men 
 said. Its public spirit was low; a rival city was 
 surpassing it in population and increase of in 
 dustry, and the situation was due more than 
 he or the citizens realized to John Byng. Cun 
 ningly Byng had dominated the newspaper situa 
 tion with his Courier, which salaciously taught 
 people to love scandal and crime in order that he 
 might feed them more. Living partly in Wash 
 ington and partly abroad, his influence for sale, 
 
FOR A CITY 133 
 
 his one criterion was income. " I don t care 
 where it comes from so I get it, " as he said. 
 
 Willy s eye was on that broken-down Sentinel, 
 whose succeeding owners had found that an organ 
 which obeyed your orders was an expensive lux 
 ury. Once more in its tattered career of the gut 
 ters, from millionaire s door to millionaire s door, 
 it was for sale. In an hour after he heard the 
 news, a wiry little man with a puggish nose and 
 snappy black eyes and quick, nervous gestures 
 was sitting in the sacred chair beside Colonel 
 Walker s desk. The Colonel knew him well. No 
 leading citizen could easily help knowing The 
 Hummer. 
 
 " Yes, I ve heard The Sentinel is for sale," 
 said the Colonel, for he never admitted that any 
 body knew any inside matters of the financial 
 world before himself. " I owned one newspaper 
 and that cost me enough. Bather waste my money 
 on a country place that I never visit. 
 
 " I don t want you to buy it. I want to borrow 
 two hundred thousand dollars from you. I m go 
 ing to do the buying myself." 
 
 The Colonel forsook his whinny for a whistle. 
 
 " You do, eh! On what security? " 
 
 " On this! " and Willy tapped his forehead. 
 " The same kind of security with which you be 
 gan life and with which you have made your for 
 tune. One hundred thousand going into new 
 presses. Other hundred needed to get things 
 started. You ll take a mortgage for five hundred 
 thousand for three years, regular interest and 
 
134 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 profit of three hundred thousand. How s that for 
 a speculation? At the end of three years I own 
 the paper or I m busted bankrupt finished, and 
 the wreckage is yours." 
 
 Will I have anything to say about its 
 policy? " asked the Colonel, amused. 
 
 " No. Nobody but me." 
 
 " Hammer me, I suppose, long with the 
 others! " 
 
 " Maybe very likely, sometimes. I don t want 
 a paper otherwise. I m not going to sell my soul 
 for a mess of pottage, but I want some pottage to 
 give my soul a chance. If, as a railroad man, you 
 put all the sons of all your friends in all the jobs 
 and gave pink teas in the offices and dressed the 
 engineers in silks and interfered with the traffic 
 manager s getting up excursions because you 
 didn t like excursions yourself, you wouldn t 
 make much money. Your bankers wouldn t if 
 they had to loan money to anybody on his social 
 standing without security. Well, no outsider can 
 boss a newspaper. It s a business of itself. I m 
 going to tell everybody everything and tell all 
 that s fit to print. There s enough the old 
 Courier doesn t tell every day to make a big cir 
 culation. 
 
 " Nobody that wanted me to buy a paper ever 
 talked in that way, whinnied the Colonel. l But 
 I ve got no money, young man. I m borrowing 
 from the banks all the time myself. Ne-eh! Go 
 ing to hammer Byng any? " he asked. 
 
 " All the time! All the time! " Willy beat a 
 
\ 
 
 \ want to borrow two hundred thousand dollars from you. 
 
FOR A CITY 135 
 
 tattoo of delight on the arm of his chair. " I m 
 longing to get at that gold pig. 
 
 " Gold pig, eh? " The Colonel chuckled. 
 66 Won t be much room to hammer me if you are 
 going to hammer Byng so hard, eh 1 " 
 
 " I hope you know that no honest man would 
 ever think of putting you two in the same class. 
 Why, Colonel, you are a great builder, though you 
 can t have everything your own way any more 
 than anyone else can. Fact is, I ve a private rat 
 ing " and the Colonel had to laugh over the 
 idea " for every important citizen of this town. 
 Our present Mayor is about "+ 10 in official ef 
 ficiency. The County Clerk is 10. Boss Birch 
 is + 60 as a boss. Jim Harden s + 100 in the 
 light and the law. You are + 100 in corporate 
 efficiency " (which did not displease the Colonel) 
 " and Byng s in a class by himself. He s + 100 
 gold pig. But I won t promise not to criticise you 
 no, sir ! "quoth this new censor of public morals. 
 " And I m not going to tear down. I m going to 
 help build." 
 
 1 Likable little lunatic ! Full of ginger and hon 
 est in his lunacy or he wouldn t talk up to me that 
 way," thought the Colonel. Willy was at least 
 one inch shorter than the Colonel, and the Colonel 
 called everyone little who wasn t at least four 
 inches taller than himself. " Ne-eh! If your 
 ability is equal to your damned impertinence it 
 won t take you long to own all the newspapers in 
 the country ! Well, confound you ! suppose we go 
 over and see Brooks at the bank. I never got hold 
 
136 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 of the newspaper business as a business just this 
 way before. Thought nobody but jackals like 
 Byng with a yaller streak could make it pay in 
 this town, anyway. Put it up to Brooks as a busi 
 ness proposition. Talk right up to him just the 
 way you have to me ! 
 
 With hope giving him a richer vocabulary, 
 Willy, in a cataract of ideas and precious little 
 spray, pressed the banker, who quietly pressed 
 him with telling business questions which Willy 
 met with aggressive answers. 
 
 " And you re going to have a go at Byng? 
 Brooks finally asked, almost greedily, unctuous as 
 was his manner. 
 
 The attraction of the plan as a speculation to 
 both capitalists was heightened by the fervent 
 hope that the " little lunatic " might manage to 
 land on Byng; and Byng they loathed and 
 feared for what he was. He had blackmailed them 
 for traction stock; he knew no morals. " A curse 
 to the city," they said, and suffered him. 
 
 " I own a newspaper, all my own! I own a 
 newspaper ! the Big Fellow heard over the tele 
 phone and something else that sounded like i i fire 
 works ; for Willy had already rung off and was 
 calling up Booth, whom he wanted as managing 
 editor. 
 
 " William Sweetser " he put at the head of the 
 editorial columns and underneath, " Tell Every 
 body and Tell All That s Fit to Print." The 
 dead rose to life. At first, the people saw that The 
 Sentinel was different. Then it became a ques- 
 
FOR A CITY 137 
 
 tion of " What has The Sentinel on its mind to 
 day? " and everybody wanted to know. 
 
 We see Willy in action, with a stenographer at 
 his elbow the stenographer attended to the cur- 
 ley cues and the " whitches " and telephones 
 ringing, office boys running, and proofs flying on 
 and off his desk, organizing his army and loving 
 to stay late at night with the presses. 
 
 Booth s hair is still touseled; he still wears the 
 green eye-shade and snaps his fingers in delight 
 over any good features ; but he is another man, no 
 longer a mercenary with his tongue in his cheek, 
 his genius no longer suppressed. All these young 
 men in the outer room also have the spirit of a 
 craft, of a service, of a cause. From The Courier 
 youngsters came, from towns far and near, asking 
 for apprenticeship. Change, change; surprise, 
 surprise, in all honest purpose is the rule of 
 Willy s nature that catches the public. 
 
 " You re going to write about the result of the 
 caucuses to-morrow," he says to the editorial 
 writers. " Let s you and I go to some caucus! 
 Get next the people! Move about! That ll give 
 you more than you can get out of books. And 
 we re making good. We re winning friends; 
 we re spreading the light." 
 
 " So many, many words about Henry James 
 who writes so many words which so few people 
 read " this to the literary editor. " Tell us 
 about this Smith and his Heart s Hero story that 
 thousands are devouring. Why are they? Take 
 the heart out of the story and out of Smith and 
 
138 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 slap it under a two-column head for the Sunday. 
 Just talk it off! Say something with every sen 
 tence ! Say it, looking the reader in the eye ! And 
 why not answer this question next week : Why 
 does everybody talk about Henry James without 
 reading him? " 
 
 " Go out to lunch with the shopgirls " this to 
 the editor of the Woman s Page. " Meet Mrs. 
 Jones, who keeps the little candy shop; and Mrs. 
 Gorman, who is raising ten in a three-room flat. 
 We mustn t be too introspective." 
 
 Let s organize a lot of our newsboys into a bat 
 talion, give em a uniform, have the Mayor review 
 em and have em salute the police " this to 
 Booth. " It will teach them manners and 
 straighten out growing spinal columns. We ll 
 publish a photograph of em saluting. Let em 
 appoint a committee to choose a uniform! Let 
 em choose a commander! Interview the com 
 mander! And we want everybody to read, eh, 
 Booth! and we ve got a mission, too, besides the 
 fireworks and the fun we re having." 
 
 In the small hours, while the reporters lingered 
 and they grew to have a fondness for the office- 
 feeling, like soldiers on the breastworks after the 
 fight, that they ought not to go before the General 
 went, he would come out of his own room and 
 probably put his hand on some youngster s shoul 
 der and say: 
 
 " That was a bully story of yours! Then he 
 might ask: " What do you think is wrong with 
 the paper? How would you change it? " 
 
FOR A CITY 139 
 
 The reporter would tell him candidly, which 
 was The Sentinel way. 
 
 < Well, let s try it, Willy would say. < We re 
 certainly making things hum! We re going to 
 win out ! We are ! 
 
 We fear that The Sentinel was sensational. This 
 was all but a conviction in a quiet country parson 
 age where the Eeverend Sweetser hoped for the 
 best. But one of his son s letters, at least, began 
 well. It had a new quality: 
 
 " I see you with the study-light on your face, 
 dad, puzzled over these headlines," he wrote. 
 But just think that your boy has a flock, too ! 
 Yours is a fine, quiet one and you cannot give 
 them much news or increase circulation much. I 
 can ! Here s a whole city and I have to make em 
 read. You use hymns and I use fireworks to 
 get em. 
 
 * i I know I wasted my time at college. I ought 
 to have studied harder but it s too late and I m 
 too busy, now, and I ve got Big to fall back on. I 
 owe it all to Big all the good of it. When I get 
 wrong I go to him. He straightens me out on the 
 moral path he and Uncle Theodore. Big s a 
 power. You re going too far, he says. And I 
 say: We ve got to have the pottage. The 
 cashier s calling for dough. And I slow down. Or 
 maybe he says: * Keep on firing! You ve got a 
 good cause. 
 
 " Some day I m going to bring my newsboy 
 battalion up for a holiday in the country. We ll 
 camp out in Thorn s woods and have the time of 
 
140 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 our lives. You ll preach em a sermon and make 
 it a short one, won t you? But that s got to wait 
 on more money than I have now. It s a hot fight 
 and I do love the explosions." 
 
 The Reverend Sweetser sighed over this. He 
 found it enlightening on some things; on others 
 he was in deeper doubt than ever. The closing 
 sentence sounded like anarchy. It destroyed the 
 effect of the filial love of the first. 
 
 But the Reverend Sweetser little knew the 
 nature of the antagonist his son was fighting. A 
 tremor of dismay had gone out from the office of 
 The Courier to Washington. The great absentee 
 gave up a yachting party and came back himself 
 to take command and crush a rival in its infancy. 
 Now, of his kind, Byng was a devil-genius. Mr. 
 Trennet, a smug, hired creature who always 
 rubbed his hands and talked in whispers, was his 
 local manager. Willy called him the trough- 
 bearer and put him at 90 as a newspaper man. 
 The principal on returning, with wealth at his call, 
 hesitated at nothing. He blackmailed The Senti 
 nel s advertisers away from it; increased the size 
 of his paper, made a cut to the newsdealers, and 
 tried to bribe Willy s reporters to leave him. But 
 they generally remained. 
 
 " It s a fight for a city! " Willy said one day to 
 the Big Fellow. 
 
 " If you see it that way, it is. If I had a million 
 dollars I d give it all to you to go on," said Big. 
 
 Word was passed to the financial community 
 that The Sentinel could not hold out much longer. 
 
FOR A CITY 141 
 
 Credit grew difficult. Willy was oftener in the 
 business office than in the editorial rooms, without 
 any cessation in his attacks on Byng. 
 
 With a great " spread " one Monday morning 
 he made the city ring. Before the day was over 
 he found that Gudger, the witness who stood for 
 his facts, had left the city, destination unknown; 
 and the next morning came the libel suit for five 
 hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 " We ll not be long, now," said Byng. " I 
 might offer him a job when he s bust !" 
 
 And Mr. Trennet, who was always called Mister, 
 rubbed his hands and whispered his admiration. 
 
XV 
 
 PLOWING, PLOWING, PLOWING 
 
 NEITHER member of the firm of Dexter and 
 Harden old wine and young wine from 
 the same bush had any reason for re 
 gretting a partnership formed on such short 
 acquaintance. Willy made a third in spirit, but 
 was too irregular in his habits to be one of them 
 in any other respect. 
 
 When Dexter s old housekeeper died, who do 
 you think took her place? Well, who? None 
 other, as the old-fashioned novelist says, than our 
 old friend Mrs. Billings, of Poverty Eow. 
 
 With two mildly insane men to look after and 
 one raving lunatic raving but cheerful running 
 in and out and two student lamps to keep filled, I 
 am loaded down with responsibility/ she would 
 explain; " and with them never taking their din 
 ners in, I really haven t enough to do to keep my 
 mind out of mischief." 
 
 She was genuinely jealous of Jerry, of the 
 grand air and flat-heeled shoes, all unknown to 
 Jerry. 
 
 " He s a slatternly critter, I ll warrant," she 
 declared, " and things aren t cooked any too clean 
 in that hole in the wall, either! 
 
 142 
 
PLOWING, PLOWING, PLOWING 143 
 
 1 With you our menage is perfect, said Uncle 
 Theodore, as the Big Fellow called him. 
 
 i If you think you can fool me with your dead 
 languages you re mistaken," she returned. " If 
 you had any real reason for not eating at home 
 you d give it in English. It s just another way of 
 saying opus, that Mister Big Fellow always fell 
 back on when he knew that he hadn t a single ar 
 gument on his side." 
 
 That promise of being something of a university 
 himself Theodore Dexter had fulfilled in letter and 
 spirit. More than this, he was a disciplinarian. 
 
 " Put up that book, my disciple! " he would 
 say. " You re falling into the same error I did. 
 I m not going to let you waste your life the way I 
 have mine. All these " with a wave of his hand 
 to the books are but agents to help you under 
 stand humanity. They are fleshless unless you 
 study humanity, and humanity is but flesh without 
 them. Come, put it up! Let s go and tell Boss 
 Birch what a selfish, narrow-minded politician he 
 is. You ll get no dead languages from him, as 
 Mrs. Billings would say." 
 
 The Big Fellow kept on with his law reports 
 for The Beacon even after he was admitted to the 
 bar, and Kiddy Witherbee, having studied stenog 
 raphy in odd hours, took his dictation faithfully 
 and oh, how proudly, night after night. 
 
 " Boss, that was a good piece; " or, " Boss, you 
 are more at home in this kind of work than you 
 were in having Eddy Smith pushed when he 
 wasn t," Kiddy, solemn and bespectacled, would 
 
144 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 say, as he closed his notebook. It was a privilege 
 which the " friend at court " seemed to enjoy to 
 call the Big Fellow Boss when they were alone ; 
 and Kiddy himself was going to night school to get 
 all the learning he could, considering that he was 
 the sole support of his mother, * and that has al 
 ways kept me pretty busy, Boss," to use his own 
 words. 
 
 Uncle Theodore s fear that his disciple might 
 become a recluse was more playful than real, as he 
 well knew. A good practice was accruing and of 
 the kind Big liked. Some of it brought in but 
 small fees, if any, and some was profitable. When 
 men did not want to go to law against somebody 
 but wanted to know the law they sought his ad 
 vice, which was cheaper in the end. People from 
 the water-front wards had a way of coming to 
 consult him when they were in trouble instead of 
 going to brilliant political orators nearer home. 
 
 Nor was " that damned politician " altogether 
 out of politics. He has been guilty of that offense 
 so often that it would be prejudicial, though he 
 faced superior numbers as usual, to say that he 
 did have to knock down any member of a gang of 
 ballot-box staffers in those days of a cruder ballot 
 system than a later generation enjoys. He was 
 in one campaign, particularly, with all his might 
 and working hard for a principle against Boss 
 Birch, with whom, nevertheless, he was always on 
 good-natured personal relations. 
 
 He s the kind that laughs if he s licked," said 
 the Boss, " and laughs if he wins, and never gets 
 
PLOWING, PLOWING, PLOWING 145 
 
 mad, and is always on the job; and they re a bad 
 kind to beat for Big cost the Boss a heavy loss 
 of votes in one of his wards. 
 
 For everybody, indeed, he had a smile, a 
 thorough-going, all-wool kind of a smile. He 
 went about a great deal and he had in an easy 
 way the faculty of meeting all kinds of men. 
 Faces and names he remembered, and, in turn, no 
 one who had once shaken his hand was likely to 
 forget that big fellow. Many talks he made at 
 many gatherings. Usually these lacked the sen 
 sation for headlines. His hearers, at first think 
 ing him dry, listened to the end and went away 
 with the comfortable feeling that they had heard 
 the rights of the question, without any striving for 
 effect. 
 
 " Shure, people likes ye because ye like 
 thim," said Mrs. Maloney, who was perfectly cer 
 tain that one day Pete was going to have a place 
 in the courthouse. 
 
 Yes, I do like them, he answered. 
 
 Plowing, plowing, plowing; firm hand and 
 straight furrow and laughing over the roots, he 
 continued to cultivate the field which was one day 
 to bear some kind of harvest. 
 
 "I m dished! " was the way Willy Sweetser 
 put the situation after his witness Gudger had 
 escaped, as he sank limply into a chair in Dexter s 
 library. l Yes ! But that s no way to talk. It s 
 not that a big damage suit would bankrupt me, 
 and it would, but it s being beaten by the Gold 
 
146 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Pig. It s being shown up wrong when everybody 
 on the inside knows he is guilty wrong because 
 I can t prove this one point. 
 
 " Of course," Willy went on, " if I had the 
 money I could trace the man and buy him back. 
 That s what it amounts to. I haven t the money. 
 And now what do you suppose that the Gold Pig 
 has been doing! You know how he tried to break 
 up my newsboy battalion and how the little 
 bricks stuck to me. Well, he s working through 
 their parents, even evicting widowed mothers for 
 non-payment of rent. I promote him. He s 
 ;+ 150 son of a gun! He s got Boss Birch on his 
 side, because the Boss thinks I m dished and the 
 Boss is in the same boat with him on this deal. 
 But I m not! I ll show em yet! " he cried de 
 fiantly, his voice high pitched, while his whole 
 frame trembled with anger and desperation. 
 
 " Willy, will you let me take the case? " the Big 
 Fellow asked. 
 
 " And I d like to help," Theodore Dexter added, 
 firmly. 
 
 Willy drummed the chair arm with nervous 
 fingers and scowled in thought. 
 
 " Big, you re another kind of lawyer. You 
 don t know this gang I m dealing with." 
 
 " I know a little about them, Willy, and I m 
 quite a hand for studying," he answered, con 
 fidently. 
 
 " I can t prove anything, Big. It s no case 
 without Gudger. And yet if Colonel Walker or 
 Brooks would tell the truth, they d be better than 
 
PLOWING, PLOWING, PLOWING 147 
 
 Gudger but they won t. Of course not! It 
 would put them in jail along with Birch. No, it s 
 no case and no reputation for you." 
 
 This brought the Big Fellow to his feet. He 
 was intense as he said: 
 
 " Confound the reputation! I m your friend." 
 
 " Old Big ! There is none like you ! When you 
 speak that way it s settled. We ll make or break 
 together in this case. We 11 get a breathing space, 
 anyway. With all these books you ve studied you 
 ought to be a wonder at the i law s delays. " 
 
 The Big Fellow stiffened. 
 
 No ! For immediate trial as if we were con 
 fident," he said, quietly. "Immediate! Eight 
 does not wait on the law s delays." 
 
 " Yes, Big, but the cashier s office," Willy re 
 turned, slowly. Then he saw what he thought was 
 the Big Fellow s point and sprang to his feet, 
 color back in the pale face, which lighted with its 
 old-time volatile energy. i Yes ! Of course ! 
 Great guns ! You re a better newspaper man than 
 I am! I ll spread on this to-morrow! I ll say we 
 have Byng where we want him ! We accuse him ! 
 He sues ! Let him be heard the sooner the bet 
 ter ! Shall I bluff it that strong f 
 
 " You can t make it too strong, Willy, and be 
 sure of your facts," and he gripped Willy s shoul 
 ders till Willy s bones ached. " Not too strong! 
 Leave the rest to me. I want a chance to study 
 John Byng and to beat him! " 
 
 Willy felt almost afraid of the Big Fellow, he 
 seemed so rigid in look, in manner, and in body. 
 
148 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " I m always seeing new sides to you. And 
 your eyes never laugh, do they, Big? They re al 
 ways calm and kind." 
 
 Willy s did laugh, and they could storm and 
 sparkle and flash and smile. Now they snapped 
 with the daring of a man who fights for his king 
 dom with a show of bayonets of painted lath. 
 
 The Big Fellow was in command. Without any 
 apparent consciousness of Dexter s presence he 
 paced back and forth, back and forth, at intervals 
 shooting out his right arm as if he had the enemy 
 bodily incarnated before him. Uncle Theodore 
 pulled a chair out of the way to make the course 
 free and he would not have been surprised to see 
 the giant go through the wall, leaving a hole that 
 would have silhouetted his figure. 
 
 " I d like to see Colonel Walker when he s sub 
 poenaed," Big said, when he stopped pacing, and 
 broke into a laugh. " Here I am," he went on, 
 taking another turn up and down the room, if with 
 my one ambition to be a judge and I m to defeat 
 the law if I can ! I believe it is right for Willy 
 and against Byng by the thousand books I do ! 
 
 " So you laugh about it? " Uncle Theodore in 
 terjected. 
 
 * I usually do laugh when anything comes hard. 
 Then is the time to extract the humor of the situa 
 tion, if there is any, was the only explanation the 
 Big Fellow could offer of his action. 
 
 " So he wants to be a judge ! thought Dexter, 
 who was the second beside the principal to be in 
 
PLOWING, PLOWING, PLOWING 149 
 
 the secret. Confidentially he told it to Willy, mak 
 ing a third. Uncle Theodore was inclined to 
 think that the Big Fellow was fitted for a career 
 more active than that of the bench, although he 
 could not definitely fix in his mind what this 
 should be. The ambition of his disciple had once 
 been his own, in which he had failed because he 
 would not play the kind of politics which chose 
 the judges of that section; and he was resolved 
 that fulfilment this time must come for the sake of 
 the judiciary of that State, the thousand books, 
 and all that he held dear. 
 
 When Byng, who had employed the " best coun 
 sel in the State," heard the names of the lawyers 
 for the defense he languidly for languor was his 
 favorite affectation asked Mr. Trennet why 
 Sweetser had not retained a bishop and a college 
 dean, a joke over which Mr. Trennet rubbed his 
 hands most unctuously. The Sentinel kept up 
 its bombardment with, " Three weeks and two 
 days to the trial! " at the head of the edito 
 rial columns one morning; " Three weeks and 
 one day till the public hears the truth! " the 
 next. 
 
 Byng was equally impatient that the " new 
 school of journalism " should be brought to the 
 bar; but knowing Willy s resourcefulness, he was 
 most puzzled to hear from his detectives that no 
 effort had been made to recover the one essential 
 witness, who was enjoying himself in Europe with 
 a paid companion. 
 
150 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Willy, with true fatalism and trust in his friend, 
 asked his counsel no questions. When he heard 
 that no witnesses had been subpoenaed for the de 
 fense on the very day before the trial, he only 
 answered that he was not a lawyer; and he was 
 busy trying to pay The Sentinel s bills, was that 
 businesslike, intense, fighting hummer of a 
 man. 
 
 As minutely as if he were intending to write a 
 two-column biography called " The True Life of 
 John Byng," the Big Fellow was studying the 
 Gold Pig s career. Out of his prodigious memory 
 he could recite many features wholly forgotten or 
 unknown, with names and dates, as he paced to 
 and fro in Dexter s library outlining his cam 
 paign, while Uncle Theodore, who had been doing 
 some detective work on his own account, listened 
 and approved. 
 
 " But nothing about any past matters will be 
 allowed. That s against all law, isn t it? " Byng 
 asked his lawyers more than once when the Big 
 Fellow s inquiries came to his ears. " They must 
 stick to the charge and prove it! 
 
 " Of course! " the best counsel in the State 
 repeatedly told him. " Anything else is wholly ir 
 relevant and will be disallowed. Probably they 
 are getting up a history for a general vindication 
 of their attacks on you after losing their case; 
 in which the best counsel in the State, being 
 notably matter-of-fact, had no thought of being 
 satirical. 
 
 Despite these assurances, Byng did not like 
 
PLOWING, PLOWING, PLOWING 151 
 
 these repeated reminders that he had a record. 
 And Harden was no fool; if he were, Sweetser 
 was not. What had they up their sleeves ? 
 
 The evening before the trial Uncle Theodore 
 came in rather later than usual and seemed most 
 pleased with himself. 
 
 " I ve a notion to tell you something," he 
 said to the Big Fellow. " But I won t! No, 
 I won t! And how do you think you re coming 
 out with that case with no proof? " he asked, 
 teasingly. 
 
 " I m going to win," was all the Big Fellow 
 would say. He was more grim than cheerful. 
 
 They went to court together, and by premedita 
 tion on Big s part they were barely on time. The 
 spectators benches were crowded and among the 
 best counsel in the State was Kamsdell, whom 
 we met in Poverty Eow. Two of the three wit 
 nesses which the defense had subpoenaed and 
 without warning, lest they go out of town, were 
 already present and these were Colonel Walker 
 and Brooks, the banker, both of whom had been 
 in the deal with Byng where the bribery was 
 charged. 
 
 " You aren t going to * split on me! " Byng, 
 thrown off his languor, whispered anxiously to 
 Brooks. 
 
 " No! " was the growl. " I don t know what 
 we re here for." 
 
 " They ve been packing the courtroom on us," 
 said Byng. 
 
 " Have they? " whinnied Colonel Walker. Then 
 
152 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 he turned to Willy: " That lot of boys there s 
 your newsboy battalion, ain t it? " he asked. 
 
 11 Yes. I didn t know they were coming. And 
 that bunch around the man with the touseled hair 
 are Sentinel reporters and editors. It s pretty 
 good of em to be out so early when they have to 
 go to bed so late. And yes, there s Jimmy Smith, 
 the foreman of the pressroom, and the whole 
 bunch of pressroom folks and printers. The 
 unions Ve turned out for me. I tell you, Colonel," 
 and Willy s expressive eyes grew moist, " a 
 thing like that makes a man glad he plays the 
 game. 
 
 Put other men in the same position and let 
 them say the same thing, and Colonel Walker 
 asked himself if he would have considered their 
 surprise genuine. He did believe Willy. There 
 was no question that Willy was as honest a 
 little lunatic, he thought, as ever set off fire 
 works or fired a gun without knowing that it was 
 loaded. 
 
 " Any of Byng s reporters and pressmen 
 here! " the Colonel asked. 
 
 " I don t think so." 
 
 " You bet there aren t!" he thought, "not 
 from affection! 
 
 The rest of the crowd, from many walks of life, 
 knew Jim Harden as an amiable, big, good- 
 natured, sensible man whom they liked. He was 
 going to try a great case and they had come to 
 hear him. 
 
 " Suppose any that aren t your friends 
 
PLOWING, PLOWING, PLOWING 158 
 
 are that damned politician s? " the Colonel 
 pursued. 
 
 " Yes, I judge so. Pete Maloney s on hand, big 
 as life." 
 
 Perhaps the Big Fellow, who had told Willy not 
 to wait on him, made use of a sense of the dramatic 
 on this occasion. Just as the Judge was taking 
 the bench he entered the courtroom, erect as he 
 always was and cheerful, but with a certain man 
 ner of serene confidence, as if he had only to pick 
 the prize off the table and take it home. Under 
 his arm was a bundle of papers, which he held in 
 one hand while he tapped them with the other 
 as he told Colonel Walker and Brooks, with whom 
 he had not spoken a word about the case although 
 he had subpoenaed them, that he would detain 
 them only a few minutes. 
 
 " Come, now, what is it all about? " whispered 
 Colonel Walker, ingratiatingly. 
 
 " A suit for libel," Big answered, benignly, 
 leaving the Colonel no wiser. 
 
 Byng s counsel was none the less puzzled when 
 Eamsdell remarked, half to himself : 
 
 " Look at Big s eyes! There s something be 
 hind this! " 
 
 " Hello, Eamsdell! " said the attorney for the 
 defense as he took his seat. You seem to be on 
 all the big things these days. 
 
 i i And it s so rare for you to be at a trial except 
 to report it that we are all interested," Eamsdell 
 retorted. 
 
 Just before the case was called Boss Birch 
 
154, THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 came in. He gave the Big Fellow a sharp 
 glance and shot one that was fairly savage 
 to Uncle Theodore, who smiled as he nodded 
 pleasantly. 
 
 Byng s counsel presented that copy of The Sen 
 tinel in evidence of the libel and they called Byng 
 to the stand to state the damage his name and 
 business had suffered. Then the Big Fellow rose 
 to cross-examine the witness. Everybody was 
 watching him except Uncle Theodore, who was 
 watching the Judge. Objection after objection, 
 with the best counsel in the State continually 
 on their feet, was sustained; while Big kept on 
 showing that Byng had not much character to 
 damage and three or four times he caught the 
 Judge, an amiable, watery-blue-eyed man, in a 
 way that made the Judge blush. 
 
 That attorney for the defense was a very pillar 
 of Olympian assurance. He would glance know 
 ingly toward Colonel Walker and Brooks and 
 Birch in a manner that said: " We re going to 
 explode something pretty soon under this Byng, 
 aren t we? Must it be confessed that he was 
 bluffing to save a friend and in the name of the 
 moral law? He had no evidence, but he had hopes 
 with the jury. He was building his case, in want 
 of specifications, on the truth that existed in 
 everybody s mind. No doubt he was ashamed of 
 himself afterward. All the time he kept looking 
 at that stage bundle of papers. Coming to a 
 charge of perjury he said softly so that only Byng 
 and the jury could hear; " This one was dis- 
 
PLOWING, PLOWING, PLOWING 155 
 
 proved," as if he had a whole sheaf of charges 
 that were not. 
 
 Byng was most professionally good-natured 
 and indifferent in his answers. " He lies as in 
 nocently as a babe takes milk, as Colonel Walker 
 once said. His florid face, his neat moustache arid 
 elegant dress, with a false white vest inside his 
 waistcoat, a family crest ring and large emerald 
 scarf pin bore out his manner. But the Big Fel 
 low s remark, " This one was disproved," with 
 the telling accent haunted him. 
 
 Leading up, question by question, the Big Fel 
 low no longer looked at Judge or jury. He had a 
 stature besides inches which impressed all. It 
 was that intangible atmospheric effect that moral 
 stature alone will produce. Byng still simulated 
 languor, while his nails were pressed against the 
 chair arm and he showed his teeth more and more 
 with his answers. 
 
 With occasional short steps yet regularly 
 timed, it seemed to Byng the Big Fellow ap 
 proached the witness. Still that Jovelike smile 
 and the grey eyes not letting Byng s look away 
 from them! Byng felt that this man was only 
 playing with him yet. He had some piece of truth 
 unrevealed behind his steady gaze, and presently 
 Big, come to the question of the bribe, summed up 
 everything in his : 
 
 " Did you or did you not! 
 
 Byng hesitated when he should have been most 
 prompt. For the rest of his life he was to wonder 
 why he did. 
 
156 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Did you or did you not! " 
 
 What was in that pile of papers ? What if, to 
 use an inelegant expression out of keeping with 
 one who dressed so elegantly, Walker or Brooks 
 should " split " on him? Being the plaintiff, his 
 lawyers could not help him with the excuse that 
 the witness need not incriminate himself. It was 
 for Byng to speak and his delay made a silence, 
 taut and quivering, which was broken by a crack 
 ling, whinnying voice of nasal satire from Colonel 
 Walker: 
 
 " Coming harder n usual, ain t it, Byng? " 
 
 Eamsdell, the quickest of the plaintiff s at 
 torneys, sprang to his feet and seized his stra 
 tegic opportunity by demanding a new trial; but 
 Byng, stepping down from the witness stand, 
 stopped him: 
 
 4 We have had enough ! " he said, with his lan 
 guid ease returning. " I have no desire to pro 
 ceed any further against a fellow newspaper 
 owner; " and he felt as relieved as if he had 
 escaped from prison, where he well knew he 
 belonged but not more relieved than Boss Birch. 
 
 So the case was dismissed and the victory was 
 with the humanities and the thousand books over 
 the books of precedent. When the Judge left the 
 bench, Willy, with a spring, threw his arms 
 around Big s neck. 
 
 11 You old Olympus! I owe all to you! " he 
 cried. 
 
 " I ve been doing my best for the best citizen 
 of this town," answered Big, and he lifted Willy 
 
PLOWING, PLOWING, PLOWING 157 
 
 onto a table and shook him. " Yes, the best 
 citizen of this town! " he repeated; and whis 
 pered: " I did it all on the guilt in their minds, 
 and I found a wicked pleasure in it ! " 
 
 Byng and his counsel and the Boss and Brooks 
 had already gone; but Uncle Theodore and Pete 
 Maloney and, yes, Colonel Walker, also, had 
 remained. 
 
 " Thank you, Colonel! I knew you were at 
 heart a thoroughbred ! Willy told him. 
 
 66 I ve always liked you, you little lunatic! " ad 
 mitted the Colonel, " and I ve told you before that 
 I m the most public-spirited man in my town, with 
 a lot of jackals like Byng on my back. I guess 
 you ll put him where he belongs after this." 
 There was something else he said to himself on 
 his way home, which might be quoted here: 
 " Damn politician! Wasn t I right when I 
 wanted a popular lawyer? Look at the way he 
 did it!" 
 
 " Ye divil, ye! " said Pete Maloney to the Big; 
 Fellow. 
 
 " You did pretty well, but I don t want you to 
 play this kind of game often," said Theodore 
 Dexter. 
 
 " What was that thing you were going to tell 
 me! " Big asked. 
 
 4 * I ll not now. Boss Birch is the only one that 
 will ever know," was the answer. 
 
 With Booth of the touseled hair bareheaded 
 and leading, the reporters and pressmen un 
 hitched the horses from a cab and drew Willy in 
 
158 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 triumph through the streets, with the newsboy 
 battalion acting as escort. 
 
 " Big swatted the Philistines a hard one , to 
 day, " Willy telegraphed home; and prided him 
 self on a Biblical reference that his father would 
 understand. " Eead the full report in to-mor 
 row s Sentinel/ he added, instinctively. 
 
XVI 
 
 EXIT THE TWO BEAIDS 
 
 A S distances go by train, the city was not far 
 /\ from Bolton and the Big Fellow had made 
 the journey many times before John Byng 
 felt the weight of the thousand books. These 
 home-comings were the milestones along the fur 
 row s way, when he had sympathy from those 
 whose sympathy was most dear. The first one 
 came on a court holiday in mid-October, soon after 
 he had begun his studies with Theodore Dexter, 
 when the reddening leaves had their warning of a 
 season s end from breaths of wind that sent them 
 flying and the tyrant sun of summer was a genial 
 servitor, welcome on field, road, and porch. 
 
 Miss Two Braids made herself a reception com 
 mittee of one, with Pam as her chief assistant, 
 which was more courteous to him than to state the 
 bare truth that he was the only assistant. Her 
 conceits met with but mild approval from Aunt 
 Julia, who had passing minutes of skepticism 
 about that French and Irish blood, for which, of 
 course, she knew that Ellen was not to blame. 
 
 Mrs. Hobber frequently expressed the opin 
 ion to all her friends, " between you and me, 
 not that I d say it generally, bein in the same 
 
 159 
 
160 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 church. I m afraid they re goin to have a 
 dreffle harum-scarum girl over at the Harden 
 house." This apostle of worry was unable to be 
 present on the great occasion of Big s return, as 
 she had to can pears " and somebody s got to 
 work if we ain t goin to the poorhouse." But 
 Hiram would not have missed the treat for the 
 price of his winter wood-pile, as he said. He was 
 the one highly honored guest chosen by our mis 
 tress of ceremonies. 
 
 " I ain t a-losin any sleep," said Mr. Hobber. 
 1 i All I Ve got to do now is to draw my entrest on 
 my investment." 
 
 Ellen had the flag out over the porch. Pam had 
 raked the lawn clean of every leaf and put fresh 
 gravel on the path. When they heard the train 
 Liz, the new cow, whose style of beauty appealed 
 to Pam " kase spotted cows looked so purty 
 standin in de patches of sunlight under de trees," 
 was led forth to her appointed place in front of 
 the porch. Miss Two Braids had not much to 
 work with, but she made the most of what she had. 
 Undisturbed by the ribbons on her horns and a 
 string of maple leaves around her neck, Liz 
 chewed her cud on the approach of the capitalist 
 who had pulled off a big thing on the Koman col 
 onies, while Miss Two Braids was most solemn as 
 she began a speech of her own composition : 
 
 " Great hero," she read from manuscript, " it 
 is fitting that when you return from your trials an 
 address of welcome be made. Ahem! (Which 
 we fear was in the manner of the pastor of their 
 
EXIT THE TWO BRAIDS 161 
 
 church.) " This quiet home saw you depart for 
 battle and it has watched your career with devour 
 ing interest." (She was uncertain about " de 
 vouring/ but allowed it to go as it sounded very 
 oratorical.) " You went without flags flying, in 
 the stern determination to win, and in honor of 
 your victory we present you with the freedom of 
 our porch. " 
 
 " I read about the freedom of the city in a 
 book and it seemed just to fit the occasion," she 
 said, in an aside, as she gave Big the key to the 
 front door. At this stage there was a commotion. 
 Mr. Hobber, who had been " trying to do all my 
 laffin on the inside," had slipped the leg of his 
 chair off the porch floor, but he recovered himself 
 promptly. 
 
 " Great hero," Miss Two Braids proceeded 
 from that set speech (the kind given out the day 
 beforehand to the reporters), " we of the quiet 
 home know, as no one else can, that you are no 
 dreamer, but a man of this earth and practical. 
 When you set out the world to conquer we had no 
 cow and no lawn mower and now we have both. 
 In honor of which we decorate you," and she 
 slipped a wreath of asters over Big s head. " Be 
 hold the reward of your efforts! Behold Eliza 
 beth herself, showing her gratitude for the home 
 you gave her! Behold this faithful old friend, 
 Epaminanidad, spelled with two d s and not as in 
 Thebes of ancient days, who has been true to his 
 promise! " 
 
 This was Pam s cue, according to the stage mis- 
 
162 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 tress s instructions. Out of his pocket came a 
 little tin box with the one dollar and sixty-seven 
 cents which he had already saved from selling 
 milk to the neighbors. 
 
 " Didn I tell yo I had a business haid! Yose 
 gotter keep it, yo has," said he. " Dat was de 
 bargain. 
 
 So Big made an end of argument by taking the 
 box. 
 
 i Speech from the hero ! y cried Miss Two 
 Braids. 
 
 " Speech! Speech! Speech! " all present 
 were calling together, as they had been told to do. 
 And, yes, it was all most foolish but what fun 
 for Miss Two Braids ! 
 
 Big struck a highly dramatic attitude. 
 
 " The honorable chairwoman of the reception 
 committee, he began. 
 
 " That s me! " put in Miss Two Braids. 
 
 " That s I! " corrected Aunt Julia. 
 
 I i and Madame Mother and Aunt Julia and Mr. 
 Hobber and Pam," Big proceeded, " well may 
 other heroes envy the luckiest of men ! None ever 
 had such a home as this and none ever had so 
 charming a spokeswoman. My efforts have been 
 exaggerated by your affection which made them 
 possible. All I had to do 
 
 " Was to knock somebody down! " Miss Two 
 Braids interjected. 
 
 " He did not interrupt your speech," Aunt 
 Julia warned her, but in vain. 
 
 II Oh, Big, I can t wait! These ceremonies are 
 
EXIT THE TWO BRAIDS 163 
 
 too stifling! " Miss Two Braids cried, and sprang 
 into his arms. 
 
 " I allus said he d do it jes as easy," said Pam. 
 
 1 i I knew character when I met it, said Hiram 
 Hobber. 
 
 And everyone was speaking at once, while he 
 had eyes only for Madame Mother. It was their 
 day and his. No triumph ever quite equaled this 
 over poverty this triumph of bread-winning. 
 With his growing income he could now make them 
 all more comfortable. 
 
 Among his home-comings, holidays of sweet 
 content and peace, Madame Mother discovering 
 each time some new feature of her son s develop 
 ment, were two others, equally memorable and 
 more important, as they concerned the education 
 and the future of Ellen Moore. So this chapter 
 divides itself into three scenes. 
 
 On the Big Fellow s return in June of the 
 second summer, Pam was at the gate and the two 
 old ladies framed in the vines of the porch as 
 usual. He had barely asked the question, Where 
 was Miss Two Braids? when she appeared in the 
 doorway and shyly held out her hand. 
 
 " Miss Ellen, you should call her, now," cor 
 rected Aunt Julia. " Don t you see she s doing 
 her hair up? " 
 
 " Yes, I should say so! " he exclaimed. 
 
 Ellen blushed and looked at the floor. 
 
 " Was it warm on the train, Pig? " she asked, 
 primly, 
 
164 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " I don t like this at all ! " he said. It doesn t 
 look like you." 
 
 " But it is I," with a return to her two-braid 
 manner. " I leave it to all present. Besides, 
 when you start geometry it s time to to do some 
 thing quite radical, and I ve put your algebra 
 back in its place. It s studied most to pieces and 
 I ve forgotten most of what is in it already." 
 
 " But you have absorbed a habit of logical 
 thought," he suggested. 
 
 " Have I? " she asked, archly. " Have I, do 
 you think, Aunt Julia! Have I, Pam? " 
 
 " I ain got no eddercation. How kin I tell, 
 cept by pearances, an I specs dey don count 
 nohow in g ometry! " and grinning, Pam shuffled 
 away. He had the joke on Miss Ellen now, "yis, 
 indeedy! 
 
 A sense the Big Fellow had then, which the 
 hours strengthened, that something had gone out 
 of their old comradeship forever, with no thought 
 on his part or hers if anything would take its 
 place. Otherwise she was the same. After the 
 noonday meal they sat under the shade of the 
 maple which his father had planted in honor of 
 the son s birth and he told her all about his work, 
 the new people he knew, and much that he had 
 never told anybody else. 
 
 " You re always going to tell me your secrets, 
 aren t you? " she asked. 
 
 Why, yes ; that was the bargain, forever. 
 
 " I wanted it to be," she answered. 
 
 4 It would hurt me intensely if you didn t. But 
 
EXIT THE TWO BRAIDS 165 
 
 that certainly, that doesn t look right," with a 
 glance at her hair, " not when we hold council^ 
 and I m going to change it back." 
 
 " No! You mustn t! " 
 
 He laughed at her denials and took the pyramid 
 down. While he braided the dark strands he 
 made a discovery from watching the little, close- 
 set ears, the delicate nostril, the mobile mouth, 
 the oval chin, and the long eyelashes. She was to 
 be not only tall, which he knew before, but she was 
 to be very good-looking. He found himself re 
 gretting this, without knowing why. 
 
 " You re always to be Miss Two Braids when 
 I am here," he said; and until she left home for 
 further trials in mathematics, she used to wear 
 her hair in that way to please him on his holidays. 
 
 When she had all that the local school afforded 
 and she was sixteen, he asked her what next? Was 
 she to study no more? 
 
 "Yes, what next, Big? That is it. I ve 
 thought of that a lot of late," she responded, with 
 a touch of sadness. 
 
 He feared that his beginning had been unhappy, 
 for he had brought to her mind a sense of her de 
 pendence. It had never occurred to him before 
 that she might have such a feeling. The thought 
 was depressing. 
 
 " There s a school on the Hudson Eiver that s 
 just the thing for you," he proceeded. 
 
 She raised her eyelashes, with which she could 
 talk all unconsciously in so many languages, and 
 
166 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 in her eyes he saw what she was seeing in imag 
 ination, through the books she had read, hundreds 
 of miles away where she had never been. 
 
 " Wouldn t you like to go? " he asked. 
 
 She did not answer his question, but put one. 
 
 " How could I ever pay you back! " 
 
 " How? Why, that is not a thing to be dis 
 cussed." 
 
 " Yes, it is," she said, firmly. "Yes, it is, 
 Big." 
 
 " Between comrades! Don t comrades share 
 and share alike! Pay me back! Why, Two 
 Braids, I am paid ! I was paid in all the good-by 
 cheer you gave me when I went to the city, paid by 
 all the letters you wrote, paid by the help you gave 
 the folks at home, paid by the very fact of your liv 
 ing. The money is nothing as long as one has it. 
 I ll be making quite enough more than enough. 
 Why shouldn t a big brother out in the world as 
 sist a sister who shares his secrets? " 
 
 " But you re not my real brother," she said, 
 seriously, looking at the ground. " You re the 
 nearest I have, though, she added, with her rare 
 smile as she looked at him fondly. 
 
 " Would you like to go! " he persisted, gently, 
 still at a loss to understand her mood. 
 
 " I will not say," she admitted. " But I think 
 I ll not go," she declared, inscrutably. Per 
 haps she dared not confess to herself the long 
 ings for a wider life than the old house afforded 
 and the restlessness which, unbidden, found place 
 in her mind. 
 
EXIT THE TWO BRAIDS 167 
 
 " Well, we ll think it over. We ll talk it over," 
 lie concluded, to give her time in which to be con 
 vinced. 
 
 Aunt Julia, when she first heard the proposal, 
 refused to commit herself until she had given it 
 more thought. Madame Mother approved at 
 once. The next night so important a matter was 
 made the subject of a straight-backed-chair oc 
 casion by the two old ladies, slightly to the 
 sympathetic amusement of Ellen and Big, who 
 thought it might be discussed in open session at 
 the supper table. 
 
 Aunt Julia had not allowed the prospective loss 
 of the " light of the house " to influence her at 
 all. Was it better for Ellen? Her fears about the 
 French and Irish blood, after the nature of the 
 school had been fully described, were outweighed 
 by her inborn belief in the value of education. All 
 the members of the council sitting around the 
 parlor lamp were in favor of the proposition ex 
 cept the one most directly concerned. 
 
 " But I could learn to teach or something, 
 couldn t If " Ellen said, finally. "I ll go, Big, if 
 I may pay you back all you give me some day. 
 Will you let me! I ll consent if you will, but not 
 otherwise," with the mobile mouth firmly set and 
 the chin thrust out. 
 
 He agreed to her condition to gain his object, 
 and she matriculated the following autumn at the 
 school on the Hudson Eiver. 
 
BOOK II 
 XVII 
 
 IN his old age Theodore Dexter had fallen intcv 
 strange habits. You saw him browsing in 
 bookstalls, not for history of the law, but for 
 sentimental novels of the most widely circulated 
 types. 
 
 I want to be sure that after their troubles all 
 will be bliss on the last page," he told the dealers. 
 " Don t you give me any with sad endings! I 
 prefer a lowly lover and a lady of birth, though 
 I ll not press that point. Let it be the other 
 way around, if you choose. But I do insist that 
 I want no young hearts broken." 
 
 In seventy s cupidity for youth s happiness he 
 used to read himself to sleep every night, his 
 sympathy running high with the heroine, while 
 he mentally berated the heavy father. 
 
 " My disciple," he said, " this is not for you. 
 Don t you take it up till you re seventy. It s 
 a beautiful rest for the mind then. When I think 
 of the number of couples I have seen married 
 and living happily ever afterward in the last 
 year, I feel a cheerful paternity in all the world s 
 
 168 
 
A SCHOOLGIRL S LETTERS 169 
 
 young. I am become a bubbling well of optimism. 
 And confound the heavy fathers and scheming 
 mothers, I say! " 
 
 That evening Uncle Theodore continued read 
 ing until he was convinced that the Lady Gwen- 
 dolin would get the penniless artist who wor 
 shiped her by moonlight. 
 
 " Zounds, villain! We have thee now! r he 
 said, with a chuckle. Turning out the light and 
 snuggling into the bedclothes, he called to the 
 figure bending by the study lamp: " Come, my 
 disciple, don t worry about it! You are right. 
 It is the law! " 
 
 "Good-night, Uncle Theodore!" said the 
 Judge, a little absently. 
 
 " Night! If I m not up when you go out, de 
 pend on me to walk back with you from the court 
 house. Have a good laugh and pace up and 
 down, and remember you serve for twelve years 
 yet, Your Honor. And you re right! You re 
 right!" 
 
 Theodore Dexter s flippancy being something 
 new to him, he made the most of the affectation. 
 From this you must not think that he had suf 
 fered any abatement of his mental powers. His 
 comments on the decision re the State vs. Walker 
 spoke the contrary. Now, for the last time, Judge 
 Harden had gone over the two score of type 
 written sheets that Kiddy Witherbee, his secre 
 tary, soon to be admitted to the bar himself, had 
 brought that afternoon. 
 
 " You are right! You are right! " his con- 
 
170 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 science told him. Not a comma would he change. 
 Yes, right! But the result would be wrong; and 
 it would be wrong, too, if he made a contrary 
 decision. The statutes were clear. It was not his 
 place to change them. 
 
 An Eastern law journal, which came in the 
 day s mail, remarked that it was rare, indeed, 
 that one of his years came to the bench and a 
 noteworthy coincidence that a great test case on 
 which public attention, partisan and highly 
 wrought at the time, was centered, should fall to 
 him. Judging by the papers and addresses that 
 we have seen," continued the editorial, " few 
 members of our judiciary are better equipped by 
 training and nature for this responsibility or 
 freer from any influences which could lead to 
 an insinuation of bias by the thoughtless." 
 
 Gladly would he have foregone the honor and 
 the compliments. They were ashes and exaspera 
 tion. In this decision he went back to the right 
 of a man to labor and his right to organize, which 
 was ingrained in him by study of the thousand 
 books and by his own experience with the mixed 
 gang. Either he had to take the side of disorder 
 or the side which aided the powerful. There was 
 no middle road of reason and justice, for the law 
 was wrong. 
 
 With his gift for philosophy he might have 
 sought relief in a laugh and in pacing the room, 
 as Uncle Theodore had suggested, if his decision 
 had been the only thing on his mind that night. 
 Many other things, both prospective and retro- 
 
A SCHOOLGIRL S LETTERS 171 
 
 spective, pressing for a place in his thoughts, 
 made him wakeful. Had he been one who ever 
 admitted a sense of the occult to a consciousness 
 bound by friendship, logic, and the humanities, 
 he would have wondered if some change in his 
 life or his career were not at hand. 
 
 The decision he placed in his leather portfolio, 
 so familiar to all who recognized him as he passed 
 along the street with his happy " Howdy do s " 
 and his interest in how everyone was prospering. 
 He sank deep into his chair, looking at the calen 
 dar which he did not see and musing. At length 
 he rose to go to a cabinet where he kept his 
 papers, and on the way was struck by his own re 
 flection in a mirror at the other end of the room. 
 
 An unbiased eye would have seen one erect 
 and boyish for his age, although men who talked 
 with him on any serious matter gave him ten 
 years more than he had, which they reduced by 
 fifteen if they saw him at a game or in skylarking 
 mood. Then he seemed even younger than Willy 
 Sweetser, who had that juvenile type of face 
 which time marks with fine wrinkles around the 
 eyes. Only for a second did Big survey him 
 self, before he turned away with mixed feelings 
 of sheepishness and doubt and unlocked a drawer, 
 out of which he took four bundles of letters, one 
 for each year that Ellen had been at school. 
 
 How well he knew them! What a fresh pleas 
 ure it was to go through them again! The first 
 was written from the train; the next briefly an 
 nounced her arrival at the school, and the next 
 
172 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 was a long one describing that new world of 
 people and manners which " your goodness has 
 opened to me." From this he imbibed the very 
 joy of living and he sensed the grace and inno 
 cent abandon of freedom from the restraint at 
 home which had been so gentle and kind that she 
 never resented it. 
 
 He ran through all of the letters, nodding to 
 the contents of one as to a passing friend, but 
 reading every word of another, all contributing 
 a part to that chronicle known only to him. But 
 Aunt Julia knew enough to cause many a thought 
 of the French and Irish blood, which she fully 
 believed had certain mercurial qualities not to be 
 found elsewhere. A milestone without directions 
 to the Judge was the last signature of the girlish 
 Portia before she became Ellen altogether. 
 
 His summer holidays had been spent at home. 
 He and Ellen had played tennis and tramped the 
 fields, and in his delight of her growth to a 
 broader if no more compelling charm, he had 
 compared the living girl with the girl of the 
 schoolgirl hand. 
 
 1 i Another secret ! she begins one letter. * l I 
 tell you everything, Big. I don t think it s sinful 
 to keep it from Aunt Julia when she just wouldn t 
 understand." This part was honey dripping to 
 him. It appealed to the only sense of egoism he 
 had: He liked to have a special place in her 
 existence. 
 
 She had been " found " in her studies more 
 than once not in music or drawing or literature, 
 
A SCHOOLGIRL S LETTERS 173 
 
 and then had sat up all night with a towel 
 around her head and taught the tortoises seem 
 ingly that the rabbit had a chance in the race. 
 He liked her the better for this ; far better than 
 if she had been prim and correct and Number 
 One in her class. After all, she was Miss Two 
 Braids, who always had too many thoughts of 
 her own to learn textbooks by rote. 
 
 "I m having such a good time that I don t stop 
 to think that I owe you for it all, she writes fre 
 quently, or to that effect. i How am I ever going 
 to pay you! " She could teach, anyway, she con 
 cluded " at least, abc s, but not math ! " 
 
 He never sent her a check without being hap 
 pier the whole day for this piece of monthly rou 
 tine. Why shouldn t he pay her way when his 
 salary was larger than he could possibly use? he 
 asked her; though, truth to tell, he did manage 
 in his generous way to spend it all. And he for 
 bade any mention of the subject again. 
 
 " I may not mention it, Big, but I shall think 
 of it," she answered; and this hurt him. 
 
 He was fondest of her own side of the contro 
 versy when she was suspended and threatened 
 with expulsion for a prank. " I wouldn t tell who 
 did it never! never! never! Not if they threw 
 me in the Hudson I wouldn t ! " This he had sent 
 to the head of the institution and it served its 
 purpose. 
 
 " She is one of our nicest girls and bright and 
 bubbling over with spirits, and has the fault of 
 being good-looking," wrote the head of the insti- 
 
174 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 tution. Evidently she took the Judge for some 
 elderly guardian, a misconception that displeased 
 him. But " the fault of being good-looking " 
 the fault! Big pondered over that. 
 
 To come to the last letter. The aroma of June 
 flowers and the joy of classes over and wonder 
 about a future unsettled were here ; and some fire 
 flies and some splintered lightning. By this time 
 she was already back in Bolton, he knew, and in 
 two days he was going home for a holiday, to find 
 her, for the first time, no longer a schoolgirl. 
 
 " Have you ridden in automobiles yet, Big? 
 Not fast ! Not on such roads as they have on the 
 Hudson, " she wrote. " Ned Walker took us out 
 yesterday in his French machine. ... I told you 
 that he is staying with the Whittleseys " (friends 
 of hers whom she had mentioned), " didn t I! 
 ... I think we went fifty miles an hour. . . . The 
 Whittleseys have asked me to visit them in Maine 
 this summer. . . . Ned Walker is thirty, but he 
 doesn t look it." (" And I do, I fear," thought 
 Big.) " Everyone says Ned is much nicer and 
 livelier than when he was younger. ... I am 
 quite dizzy with all the praise we have been re 
 ceiving for our senior play. Think of being actor 
 and author, too! I was so scared I don t know 
 how I did anything. ... I start for home, an 
 alumna, in the morning. What then? Do you 
 remember when you returned, Mister Ninety in 
 Calculus, so many years ago? " (" Not so 
 many! " mused Big.) " And how Colonel 
 Walker surprised us! Why, he was a regular 
 
A SCHOOLGIRL S LETTERS 175 
 
 hobgoblin to me! And how stiff we sat in our 
 chairs! 
 
 She concealed nothing from her friend yes, 
 her friend, exactly her friend, he feared. When 
 he folded the letters and put them together, cer 
 tain sentences were quite as clear in their chirog- 
 raphy as if they were before his eyes. He knew 
 just on what part of the page each one began. 
 
 1 Folly ! " he thought ; but not as if folly were a 
 thing to be dismissed. He clung to it. 
 
XVIII 
 
 THE STRAIGHT LINENS WAY 
 
 IT was a joke of the Judge s that his personal 
 political machine consisted solely of the Ma- 
 loneys and Kiddy Witherbee. Mrs. Maloney 
 insisted that Pete ought to give up his clay pipe 
 except at home. 
 
 " Ain t he ashamed of ye, him the gr-reat man 
 that he is, an yersilf, ye ingrate, a-shlippin out 
 into th corrydoors to puff at a dudeen? 
 
 Pete took a different view. 
 
 " Shure, it s natcheral ye look, he says to me. 
 1 Didn t we both wur-rk on the mixed gang 
 t gither an didn t the two of us lick all Italy? 
 says 1 1 him. That we did! says he to me. 
 
 Some solace, however, Mrs. Maloney s new 
 sense of dignity found in Pete s little " side 
 board whiskers, silky white and always brushed 
 forward, giving him the look of a fine old blade of 
 Irish aristocracy. 
 
 " You re good for sore eyes always, Pete," 
 the Judge had said, as Pete opened the door for 
 him to enter his chambers the next morning. 
 
 He thought of the first time he had met Pete 
 and of the right of a man to earn all he could 
 and the right of union they had established on 
 
 176 
 
THE STRAIGHT LINE S WAY 177 
 
 the mixed gang. Whatever the public thought, 
 Pete believed in him ; and so did Theodore Dexter. 
 What did Ramsdell, the leader of the counsel for 
 Walker, believe in ? In his client, right or wrong ; 
 in the aristocracy of intellect. 
 
 It would have been so easy for the Big Fellow 
 to have made his name popular throughout the 
 country ; so easy for him to interpolate an appeal 
 to the passion of the hour in that decision! If 
 he had, he would have put his own private opinion 
 above the law, which is the first step toward mak 
 ing the law the will of whomsoever shall be in 
 power to interpret it. He was to be praised by 
 those with whom he had no sympathy; to be cen 
 sured by those with whom he had all sympathy. 
 
 The two score of typewritten pages were 
 handed to the clerk, according to form, and the 
 news was sent ticking over the wires to the ends 
 of the land. On the front page of an evening 
 radical paper, in scare headlines of angry cen 
 sure, the Judge and Uncle Theodore saw the first 
 result when they left the courthouse that after 
 noon. As they were walking homeward they met 
 Colonel Walker and Ned, in a new French 
 machine. 
 
 " Howdy, Mr. Dexter! Howdy, Judge! Ned 
 here s trying to get me to give up the buggy for 
 this new-fangled omnibus from Paris! " said the 
 Colonel, gleefully. " Well, Judge," he added, as 
 he shook hands, " I take it all back. Blood will 
 tell. I might have known that when you came 
 to the crux you d be on the right side. Never 
 
178 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 mind what the crowd says. You ve got the brains 
 of this town on your side and intelligence rules. 
 Want you to come up to that place of ours in the 
 country some day. Only ten miles from your old 
 home." 
 
 Praise for the water that grinds your grist 
 and floods the other fellow s farm; praise for 
 what had been an axiomatic rendering of a 
 statute; praise, human and partisan, sounded 
 peculiarly blatant to the Big Fellow at this time. 
 
 " It was not for you or them or any class," 
 he answered. " And I will say, as a citizen off 
 the bench, that the law is wrong. I would vote as 
 a citizen for its repeal." 
 
 This did not disturb the Colonel. He had the 
 bird in his hand, clever old hunter. 
 
 " Well, have it your way any way to please 
 you. Giddap ! Yes, turn her on or whatever you 
 say, Ned. Good-day, Judge. I never could under 
 stand him, damn politician! he resumed to 
 Ned. 
 
 " I understand him! " said Ned. " It s pride 
 and pride deserves respect." Ned had a good 
 deal of pride, himself. 
 
 Meanwhile, Theodore Dexter looked skyward 
 and dropped into parable. 
 
 Once a crooked line and a straight line started 
 traveling, he said to his disciple. i The crooked 
 line went around hills and never missed any or 
 chards. The straight line kept on plowing. 
 Whenever the crooked line met the straight 
 line it said: You re on the right road. When 
 
THE STRAIGHT LINE S WAY 179 
 
 the straight line would not follow, it said: 
 6 You re queer. " 
 
 " And when they got to the journey s end 
 what then! " asked Big. 
 
 " Probably they both had a good time, but the 
 straight line had turned a lot of sod and shown 
 the shortest way to those who were to follow." 
 
 Yet the Big Fellow was in poor mood for phi 
 losophy. He failed to respond to Uncle Theo 
 dore s quips. If he were not a judge, he was 
 thinking, he would lead a movement to change 
 this law. 
 
 They were hardly back to their rooms before 
 Willy Sweetser came in, after ascending the stairs 
 two steps at a time, and began, breathlessly : 
 
 " Of course, I couldn t ask you what the deci 
 sion was to be before you gave it out, but I did 
 take it for granted that the thousand books would 
 get it over the fifty. I tell you, Big, you ve broken 
 all the crockery and the apple cart is floating 
 down stream with the harness over the donkey s 
 ears and the old lady sitting in a squash of fresh- 
 laid eggs ! 
 
 " Now, Willy," said the Big Fellow, contem 
 platively, as if taking a new measure of an old 
 friend, " you surprise me! " 
 
 " Surprise you! Well of all the " 
 
 " Yes. I had to follow the law and I thought 
 this was just the time you would be busy in your 
 department. It is with the people to change the 
 law, and I pray that they will at once." 
 
 No idea ever came a-glimmering to Willy, If 
 
180 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 it entered at all, it was on a sun ray with the 
 sash thrown wide open. 
 
 i Kick me ! Just kick me ! And I call myself a 
 newspaper man ! We 11 change that law ! Willy 
 danced on his tiptoes. " I ve got it ! "he shouted. 
 " I ll have every member of the State legislature 
 yes, I ll have the Governor on record before 
 the morning! And and wouldn t it be nuts to 
 have old Boss Birch, too! " 
 
 "I ll get Birch," put in Uncle Theodore. 
 
 " You? " 
 
 " Yes. Just leave it to me. The Boss and 
 I have known each other for forty years. 
 There s been more between us than anyone could 
 guess." 
 
 " Well, Uncle Theodore, if you get a signed 
 statement from him," Willy cried, " I ll I ll in 
 vite you to dinner at Jerry s " knowing that 
 Uncle Theodore had everything in the world his 
 simple tastes wanted " and I m off! Oh, joy! 
 joy!" 
 
 But he stuck his head through the doorway 
 after he had shot out, his eyes popping with an 
 other idea : 
 
 " Look here! We ll make a new law! Can t 
 we frame one that s right! I ll slam it on the 
 front page heavy type! Governor s statement 
 on one side, the Boss s on the other! 
 
 " Yes," answered Uncle Theodore, " my dis 
 ciple will make one in a quarter of the verbiage 
 of the present law, so tight a thousand Ramsdells 
 couldn t drive a needle through it! " 
 
THE STRAIGHT LINE S WAY 181 
 
 " Bully! bully! Thousand Ramsdells and one 
 needle! I ll put that in an editorial! The apple 
 cart s all right! Hear the donkey s bells a- jin 
 gling in the main street and the old lady with a 
 ribbon on her whip is driving at a trot, the first 
 to reach market ! 
 
 From the sounds on the stairs Willy must have 
 touched the second flight about three times before 
 he reached the first landing. He could barely 
 have arrived in his office when the Judge s tele 
 phone bell rang. 
 
 " H lo, Big! " came that strident, nervous 
 voice. " Say, could you write that law right 
 quick! That s something concrete to work with. 
 When any of these stick-in-the- throat, phlegmy 
 legislators begin to talk investigation and dis 
 cussion we ll chuck it right at em and say, 
 i Here s your law! " 
 
 "All right! In half an hour!" the Judge 
 answered. 
 
 " Bully, old Big! I ll send a boy over. He 
 won t knock or anything to disturb you, but, Mr. 
 Jovial Olympus, when you re ready he ll be Mr. 
 Marathon Mercury waiting right outside the door 
 to come on the run." 
 
 Meanwhile, Theodore Dexter had been taking 
 an envelope out of his safe. He was whistling to 
 himself as jubilantly as if never a young heart in 
 all the world had been broken. 
 
 "I m going to enjoy this little talk of mine 
 with the Boss more than Araminta s Hope 
 and that was a specially good one," he said. 
 
182 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 i When I put this letter in the safe five years ago 
 I thought I d feel different when I took it out 
 than I do. Time softens you. Put the perspective 
 of time in your mind and you are a philosopher. " 
 
 " And philosophy? Does it accomplish so much 
 in the world! " asked the Judge. " Look at 
 Willy I" 
 
 1 1 A prince of philosophers ! Consider him well, 
 my disciple, should you ever become a man of 
 action. The courage to make mistakes, the facil 
 ity of readily forgetting them as he rushes on 
 to fresh battles! And the power of getting a 
 philosopher on his staff! But go on with your 
 law." 
 
 That law the Big Fellow had written many 
 times in imagination. With the positive period 
 of the straight line s end he punctuated it. The 
 refined product of all his study, of all the plow 
 ing of his career he passed to his patron, who 
 read the lines slowly. 
 
 " You ll do! " said the patron, softly. 
 
 We may well follow Uncle Theodore and his 
 letter to the room over a saloon in the water 
 front district. Boss Birch s character was too 
 firmly fixed on his leathern face for him to show 
 any surprise over the nature of his caller s er 
 rand. In the adjoining room, where the city s 
 inner history was made with a closed door, their 
 conference was held, with the Boss at a small, 
 flat-topped desk and Theodore Dexter in a chair 
 beside him. 
 
THE STRAIGHT LINE S WAY 183 
 
 " Well, come pay-day and what s your price! 
 the Boss asked, a cigar in his mouth. 
 
 An act for the public welfare, said Dexter. 
 
 They all began that way, especially reformers. 
 The Boss smiled sardonically. As Dexter took 
 an envelope from his pocket the Boss s eyes grew 
 greedy for that which had cost him a million dol 
 lars, as he often told himself. When he had been 
 on the point of some bold action, a word from 
 Theodore Dexter by mail, or " I hope you re not 
 going as far as the papers report " in his ear, 
 made him hesitate. 
 
 " Well, that taught me a lesson never to write 
 letters. What is your price! " he repeated. 
 
 " Just that you say publicly over your name 
 that you will support the passage of this law with 
 all your influence a statement in your own 
 hand." 
 
 The Boss read the law slowly and thoughtfully. 
 
 " It s so plain I can understand it myself," he 
 asseverated through the narrow opening between 
 his teeth. He took out his cigar only to listen, 
 never when he talked. With a stub pen, in a 
 scrawling hand he wrote: " I will work to pass 
 this law, and any man that s a friend of mine 
 will. (Signed) Tom Birch." 
 
 " That has the true ring, Boss, which charac 
 terizes a leader of men! " said Dexter. 
 
 " I don t slop over much, as a rule," he re 
 turned, as he seized the letter. Without even 
 looking at the contents he began tearing it into 
 strips. 
 
184 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " The Hummer s at the bottom of this, ain t 
 he? " he asked. 
 
 " Partly/ 
 
 Knew it. Count on that little he-devil! " 
 Strip by strip he kept on tearing. " D ye ever 
 hear," he continued, warming with the joy of 
 having that damning evidence in his power, 
 " what he said when I offered to run him for 
 Mayor this last time? Run me for Mayor! he 
 says. Me! jerking it out. I m in a service! 
 I couldn t take office! That would make The 
 Sentinel a personal organ. I d be almost as bad 
 as a man who uses his paper to get himself a 
 foreign mission. Then I couldn t tell everybody 
 everything. No, sir! My work s cut out. No, 
 sir, Boss, you don t get a chance to massacre 
 me! " 
 
 " Can I help you tear? " the philosopher asked, 
 gently. 
 
 1 1 Not by a damned sight ! I ve paid enough for 
 this pleasure to enjoy it alone." 
 
 " What was it Judge Harden said when you 
 tried to run him for Mayor? " Dexter pursued. 
 
 " It was an honor he couldn t refuse. He would 
 be glad to have my support. That s going to be 
 easy, I thought. I wanted his name. It meant 
 votes. When I began on details he laughed and 
 said he wouldn t make any promises. The more 
 I talked the more he laughed. And I didn t have 
 to run him because I could scrape through with 
 out him. What s going to be his future? Always 
 on the bench, I wonder? I wonder! Say, he 
 
THE STRAIGHT LINE S WAY 185 
 
 didn t have anything to do with this game that 
 brought you here? " 
 
 " Yes, partly. " 
 
 " I thought so. Powder and shell together. 
 Fireworks and law." 
 
 Here the Boss gathered up all the little squares, 
 triangles, and polygons of paper from the desk 
 and put them in his pocket. 
 
 " What I would like to know," he said, " is 
 why, when you had this right in court the day 
 of the Sweet ser-Byng case, you didn t use it! 
 
 " Possibly I wanted to see if my disciple could 
 win without it. I enjoyed a test of character. If 
 he couldn t have won, I was going to save Willy 
 and the future that I saw in his single-hearted 
 madness. Possibly I saw good in you, Boss, and 
 in Colonel Walker and I didn t want to drag you 
 into the same class with John Byng." 
 
 " Thank you. I wouldn t like that! " the Boss 
 said, savagely. " If I had to go to jail I d like 
 other company. And you never told the Judge 
 nor anybody! " 
 
 " Nobody." 
 
 " Thank you for that;" and the glance of the 
 Boss s shrewd eyes spoke his gratitude. " I 
 reckon the way you have of looking around the 
 block," he said, after Dexter had risen, " makes 
 you understand me better n I understand you. 
 And how do you find it feels to get old? It makes 
 me pretty blue, sometimes." 
 
 " I ve just the thing to cure you." All the 
 wrinkles of Theodore Dexter s kindly, classic 
 
186 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 face were illumined with his lively sense of the 
 humor of his recommendation. You read about 
 these young hearts. You try Araminta s Hope. 
 I ve a lot of young hearts a whole crate, if you 
 say so I ll send you. I ve read them, too, so that 
 I can guarantee that they have happy endings." 
 
 " Well, I ll try it," said the Boss, tilting his 
 cigar and showing his firm teeth in a smile. 
 " That he-devil never lams that polite blackmailer 
 Byng that I don t kind of wish him luck. I guess 
 I m for him because, for one reason, I guess I ll 
 have to be pretty soon. Suppose this statement 
 of mine will be in The Sentinel in the morning. 
 Suppose he s got you reporting for him. He d 
 get the Pope if he could ! 
 
 11 Yes, he s pretty busy to-night." 
 
 " Well," was the Boss s final word, " yon don t 
 charge me so much. That is a good law. I m 
 glad to be on the band wagon." 
 
 And Willy was busy, madly busy, his mind 
 churning. He knew that this was the greatest 
 day of his career, so far. A commander on the 
 field of battle, he stood at his desk sending his 
 directions broadcast. All his reporters were forth 
 on this mission which engrossed him with a thou 
 sand details. In the country law offices of legis 
 lators telephone bells were tingling; along coun 
 try roads men were racing in buggies; on trains 
 or vacations State Senators were being traced 
 all for the sake of that law in a copperplate hand 
 which was like the lettering of some old book, 
 
THE STRAIGHT LINE S WAY 187 
 
 with a permanency in its every stroke, which 
 lay on Booth s desk in the midst of ephemeral 
 flimsy and copy in scrawling, if plain, reportorial 
 hands. 
 
 Time had mapped that State in Willy s mind 
 in more than geography. In every town and vil 
 lage he knew some man who had felt the touch 
 of his mercurial vitality. He knew the qualities 
 of his agent and the qualities of the man his agent 
 was sent to convince. 
 
 " You re sure you oughtn t to have tried the 
 Governor first? " Booth asked. 
 
 66 Yes. I know the Governor. Storm him at 
 ten o clock. Madden is waiting for the word to 
 charge. He ll have a list of all the names. The 
 Boss s will help. i There s your legislators sen 
 timent so strong they didn t even wait on a word 
 from you. Even old Boss Birch is on! I hear 
 Madden saying it to the Governor." 
 
 Mr. Trennet, Byng s manager, was planning 
 a coup, himself, and he had the word of Byng that 
 he might go ahead. 
 
 " The Sentinel will have to support the Judge. 
 Sweetser can t go back on his friend," he had re 
 ported. " There s a wave of indignation that will 
 let us ride back into favor. I m spreading with 
 interviews on the injustice done the city and the 
 people by this Walker triumph through Sweet 
 ser s judicial hero." 
 
 The drift of Byng s policy The Sentinel men 
 discovered, and they telephoned in word of it 
 
188 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 with the avidity of scouting parties developing an 
 enemy s advance. 
 
 " We re willing to let The Courier help on the 
 good cause, Booth, " said Willy. " How it does 
 work out! How it fits in with all we ve been 
 trying to do in this town! Now that we have 
 the chance for a great thing we can get it, be 
 cause, with old Big advising us, we ve never gone 
 off half primed on a thing that looked great when 
 it wasn t." 
 
 Booth ran his hand through his touseled hair 
 and could not keep the Governor off his mind. 
 At ten they sent Madden the names of more than 
 half of the State legislators and waited. At ten- 
 thirty, "I ve got it!" came over the long 
 distance. 
 
 " Bully for you, Madden! " answered the com- 
 mander-in-chief. " Oh, we re all going to remem 
 ber this night s work! Now, quick, give us what 
 the Governor said! " 
 
 Booth was in a fever of delight. 
 
 "It s not time to yell yet," said Willy, " not 
 yet! He s the bell-wether to fifty other legis 
 lators." 
 
 These men he had located. Someone was wait 
 ing at a telegraph wire ready to repeat the Gov 
 ernor s statement to each one of them. All the 
 keys in The Sentinel s telegraph room were set 
 clicking. 
 
 " Now we have the fireworks the next thing 
 is to set them off properly! " Willy turned to 
 other features in his plan. Already the multiples 
 
THE STRAIGHT LINE S WAY 189 
 
 were knitting out the first edition, with two pages 
 blank except for the black lettering : 
 
 < < This is Free ! Watch for the Second Edition ! 
 It Will Have Something Vital to Every Citizen of 
 the State! " 
 
 The regular edition he trebled. Long after mid 
 night he watched the first copy run off, and he 
 and Booth gloated over it. That law in bold type 
 stood between the Governor s and the Boss s 
 statements, followed by the names of more than 
 three-fourths of the State legislators, nailed to 
 the promise to pass the amendment. On the edi 
 torial page he had written: 
 
 4 The Judge was right ! The people are right ! 
 They will change the law! " 
 
 He remained watching the big presses at their 
 work in the automatic precision of their thousand 
 parts, and for a time he was unconscious that 
 Theodore Dexter and the Judge were standing by 
 his side. 
 
 " They are yours now, Willy," said the Big 
 Fellow. 
 
 66 They re ours they re the service s! All I 
 get out of it is my automobiles! " He did like 
 automobiles. They fitted his nature exactly. 
 i Yes, the automobiles ! Let the money go back. 
 It s a service and I m hungry as a lean, hairy, 
 old bear in springtime, Big. Here is where 48 
 and 88 go to Jerry s. I phoned him to keep 
 open. It s just ten years since I came on The 
 Beacon. You brought me to this, Big! You ve 
 made me ! You remember what you said that day 
 
190 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 out of the window about 88 being a power for 
 good in the world? 
 
 And a power for good at least two of the 88 s 
 had been, with the wisdom, the affection, and the 
 experience of a 48 at their call. The bench had 
 risen in the respect of the bar and the people. 
 Industries thrived in that city, which was now 
 overtaking the old rival in population. A public 
 spirit that had a distinct character had been born. 
 Boss Birch was finding that all the people, even 
 his own wards, demanded many things, to which, 
 formerly, they were indifferent. Men were more 
 cheerful and less cynical and they worked with 
 a better will. 
 
 Real estate was booming, as Colonel Walker 
 said. This community was no longer known as 
 " a bad newspaper town." Uncle Theodore could 
 see, if others did not, that the result was due 
 to the tone of the daily lesson sent out from The 
 Sentinel office for all to read by Willy Sweetser, 
 who was no reformer of academic " isms " gaz 
 ing skyward, but a merry man of his hour and 
 his day, who loved the explosions. " You can 
 make a good thing just as interesting as a bad 
 one if you know how," he said, " and you don t 
 always have to point a moral with a sigh i order 
 to get a moral result. 
 
 While Jerry fed that lean bear, the 88 s tried 
 to draw Uncle Theodore on how he had been able 
 to thaw out Boss Birch. 
 
THE STRAIGHT LINE S WAY 191 
 
 " That s between him and me," said he, with a 
 whimsical sing to his sentences. " The Boss is 
 mellowing, I think, and I hope to do him a good 
 turn by sending him Araminta s Hope. He and 
 I may yet form an old men s club : Object, to keep 
 young hearts from breaking; and you are ex 
 pected to agitate for a new law, Willy, that will 
 hit the heavy fathers hard ! 
 
XIX 
 
 THE OFFICE SEEKS THE MAN 
 
 POOR Mr. Trennet ! There was genuine sym 
 pathy for him in the office of The Sentinel, 
 for he had faithfully served his master s 
 purpose in life. All its interviews and all The 
 Courier had to say on the decision were but the 
 echoing cheer of a rival s victory. Its attack on 
 the Judge was an attack on itself, in the minds 
 of thinking men. 
 
 When John Byng saw the two papers side by 
 side, he said in disgust that he would get out of 
 the newspaper business it was not fit for a gen 
 tleman and stick to breweries and traction. 
 When Colonel Walker saw them his feelings were 
 mixed. At first, himself a great commander, he 
 could not restrain his admiration for a general 
 who could accomplish all that Willy Sweetser had 
 in sixteen hours. Then, reading deeper than the 
 headlines, he thought: 
 
 " Damn him! Damn politician! He s the 
 man behind it behind everything! His father s 
 son, but more ballast, more chin. I knew it right 
 from the start." 
 
 This was the last time in this era that he ever 
 used a " damn " as an honorific for the Big Fel- 
 
 192 
 
THE OFFICE SEEKS THE MAN 193 
 
 low. In this " damn " there had been a little 
 fondness, which was at an end. Other cases of the 
 State vs. Walker were on the calendar. Judge 
 Harden, no passing trouble, now rose to the dis 
 tinction of an arch enemy. The old Colonel, who 
 loved obstacles and loved a good fight, ate his 
 breakfast with the zest of one planning a new 
 campaign. He might be sixty-five and becoming 
 a bit careless, as he frequently remarked to him 
 self in those days, but let him wake up and he 
 could still set the pace for any of these young 
 fellows who mistook ambition for a knowledge 
 of the game. So let them be warned in time. 
 
 Turning over the other pages of The Sentinel 
 which he always read first because " it was so 
 interesting " he saw in an inside column a dis 
 patch from Washington which told how the gov 
 ernment was looking for a Governor for Bar. 
 None of the men asked would accept, and none 
 who offered their services were satisfactory in 
 this extremity. Having read that item twice, the 
 Colonel, after lighting his cigar, concluded that 
 the brand was not depreciating so much as he 
 feared and he ordered another thousand of the 
 same kind. 
 
 " Talk about coincidences ! " he said, as he rose 
 for that afternoon he was to spend an hour on 
 the private car of the President, who was passing 
 through the State. 
 
 Now, the Islands were much in the public eye in 
 those days. Some said that we got them from 
 destiny and some said from Spain in that little 
 
194 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 war in which one of the original members of 
 Willy s newsboy battalion went up the hill with 
 the Rough Riders. We cheered our heroes and 
 paid the bills. In certain quarters there was much 
 concern over our moral wickedness in ruling an 
 alien people; in others, only the conviction that 
 we would have to make the best of a bad bargain. 
 But generally we were too busy to bother over 
 details. The Judge thought colonial expansion 
 against our principles, but believed we must not 
 shirk our duty. Theodore Dexter took a stronger 
 view. 
 
 " By the thousand books," he said, " from 
 Moses down, we have the right to teach them if 
 a schoolmaster has the right to teach a child! 
 Nothing can be so cowardly as intellectual mo 
 rality. If we don t believe in our right, then we 
 don t believe in our civilization, and would better 
 start a new one." 
 
 Primarily, wouldn t somebody please find a 
 way to keep the Islands quiet? And more par 
 ticularly that island of Bar? To Colonel Walker, 
 who had never thought of them as anything except 
 a means of more taxation which he would have 
 to assist in paying, they became, for the first time, 
 an appealing entity. He saw a use for them. 
 
 With the tongue of experience he spoke into 
 the great man s ear. Do you think he suggested 
 that it would be better if Harden were out of 
 the State? Hardly. He was the felicitous dis 
 coverer of the ideal man. Willy Sweetser could 
 not have better sounded the Judge s praises. 
 
THE OFFICE SEEKS THE MAN 195 
 
 " A big fellow! " said the Colonel. " Big in 
 heart and in mind. When he comes into a room 
 with his smile and his handshake he makes friends 
 all around. You may go to him boiling angry and 
 he can send you away pleased, though you didn t 
 get what you wanted. I confess I don t quite 
 understand him no, I don t. Ne-eh ! But I never 
 did admire a man more. 
 
 The President was interested. He had met the 
 Big Fellow once and had heard much of him, and 
 he concluded to make further inquiries. 
 
 " He s the kind that looks all around a sub 
 ject," the Colonel continued. " Everybody who 
 sees him says at once: i Here s a big, honest man; 
 what s his opinion? Seems to me, when he be 
 gan to pour oil on the troubled tropical waters 
 they d have to go down. Why, he s big enough 
 to scare the natives with his size and hypnotize 
 em with his laugh! " 
 
 The Colonel felt quite patriotic wasn t it pa 
 triotism of a high order to send the Judge out 
 of the State? as a secretary took a message ask 
 ing Judge Harden if he would not come to Wash 
 ington and, as an appointment must soon be made, 
 at his earliest possible convenience. 
 
 The Big Fellow received this telegram on the 
 afternoon of the day after the decision. With a 
 shout of astonishment he passed it to Uncle Theo 
 dore, who settled deep in his chair and seemed to 
 shrivel when he had read it. 
 
 " Don t ask me," he said. " That people 
 need the thousand books. Who so fit as you to 
 
196 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 carry them? And what shall I do without my 
 disciple? 
 
 " I would have to leave the bench," Big re 
 turned, slowly. " It changes my whole career. 
 It upsets everything. " 
 
 " If that s the only reason, I doubt if it holds 
 water. You ought not to be a judge, though you 
 are such a good one. You only think you ought. 
 
 1 l There you are developing one of the wrinkles 
 in your brain that I don t understand, Uncle Theo 
 dore," Big responded. 
 
 The essay ! exclaimed Uncle Theodore, sud 
 denly reverting to the thing that had brought the 
 two together ten years ago. " There you said 
 that, with our civilization and our principles, we 
 would be warranted in taking charge of a foreign 
 people only for the purpose of implanting in their 
 minds the character that would enable them to 
 govern themselves." 
 
 i So we would! " answered Big. " I suppose 
 I ought to get out my long and high. With 
 out any show of enthusiasm he took his dress-suit 
 case down from the closet shelf. Anyway, I can 
 hear what the President has to say." The worst 
 of this surprising thing was that it had come just 
 as he was about to start for home full of other 
 thoughts. 
 
 " You could not well do otherwise." 
 
 However, Willy Sweetser, who came in directly, 
 was not between two opinions. Once he sat on 
 the frock coat and refused to let the Big Fellow 
 go on with his packing. He stormed ; he argued ; 
 
THE OFFICE SEEKS THE MAN 197 
 
 he threw a pillow at Uncle Theodore as a shame 
 ful teacher for not spanking his pupil. 
 
 " You, Big, are you out of your senses ? " he 
 stormed. " You, a judge here in this State with 
 twelve years to serve, going out among a lot of 
 chocolate drops that wear a mango leaf on a 
 string for week days and a frayed palm leaf for 
 Sundays out there to bury yourself? Here in 
 these big United States is the place to be. Why, 
 those islands aren t the tail of a dog to us ! They 
 aren t the bob-tail of a fox terrier! They aren t 
 one hair on the elephant s tail! " which was the 
 limit, for the present, of Willy s exaggerated sim 
 iles. " I ll phone over a telegram to go from 
 the office, saying : t Highly honored, but prefer 
 ences for the bench. " 
 
 He started for the telephone. The Big Fellow 
 grabbed him by the shoulders and set him on 
 a chair, and Willy threatened to kick somebody s 
 shins if not let alone. 
 
 " I haven t decided yet. You ve gobbled bait 
 and line," the Judge remonstrated. 
 
 1 i But you will ! When you get in the Frock- 
 coated Presence you will ! Well, there s one thing 
 I can do. I ll have a few words to say to the 
 President for a confounded meddler ! 
 
 " I haven t decided yet," Big repeated. " I 
 don t expect to accept. But courtesy demands 
 that I go to Washington." 
 
 " And what am I to do without you!" Willy 
 pleaded. 
 
 "And what am I?" asked Uncle Theodore, 
 
198 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 sinking still deeper into his chair. He would not 
 let himself think of the prospect. " I have just 
 found a new line of young hearts. I will try 
 to be cheerful," he added, with an effort at a 
 smile. 
 
 The Big Fellow paused, with his hand on the 
 lid of the dress-suit case-: 
 
 " And what am I without you, my friends my 
 friends? " Fondly he looked into their faces. 
 Fondly he looked at the walls of books. " And 
 
 what without " but this corollary he did not 
 
 utter aloud. It was in his mind not to go. For 
 an instant they saw him hesitate before he 
 snapped the clasps. 
 
 " It s unlikely; it s out of the question," he 
 said. " I ll have a look round in Washington. 
 I ll meet some men I want to know. That s all." 
 
 All the way to the station Willy argued. He 
 had an impulse to jump on the train, which he 
 did not act on, though he did on most of his im 
 pulses. At every important station came tele 
 grams from him, with, " What am I to do with 
 out you? " at the end of every one. " I ve looked 
 up the trade of that archipelago of tropical gold 
 bricks and it is less than half this State. Our 
 city s worth the whole lot," he said; and again: 
 " If you want to go into the governing business 
 stay right here where there s something that 
 wears clothes to govern. I ll make you Governor 
 of the State in two years." 
 
 To the President he sent a thousand words, the 
 sum of which was that kidnapping valuable public 
 
THE OFFICE SEEKS THE MAN 199 
 
 servants ought to be a felony. " Send a mission 
 ary to preach to them and a soldier to convert 
 them," he concluded. It was a mad wire-letter, 
 and so interesting that the whole Cabinet read 
 it as a literary curiosity. 
 
 When Big left Washington the next evening, 
 although he could guess none of its difficulties in 
 detail, he understood broadly the uninviting con 
 ditions of the task which he was now definitely 
 asked to undertake, at the sacrifice of his career 
 and comfort at home, for the one reason that the 
 office sought the man. The previous Civil Gov 
 ernor had failed miserably, by his own confession. 
 " If you want to bury your reputation and get 
 the fever there is your chance," as a friend in 
 the War Department told Big. 
 
 Martial law was the only thing to prevent a 
 continuation of anarchy and massacre, said the 
 army. But the President, ever of a hopeful na 
 ture, would not give up his idea of inculcating 
 civil rights at the same time that military meas 
 ures proceeded. The right man who would work 
 in harmony with the commander of the forces he 
 sought, and would send at once; and he saw that 
 here was one who knew the law and the humani 
 ties of the thousand books. 
 
 " I want a man in whose blood runs the very 
 spirit of our Constitution," he said. 
 
 " You will have my answer in thirty-six hours, 
 Mr. President," responded Big, simply. " I ll 
 think it over on the way and there is someone I 
 wish to consult at home, besides." 
 
200 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Bound for Bolton, he passed the city by. When 
 he started to look through the envelopes of re 
 ports and other information, which the Depart 
 ment had prepared for him, he found himself 
 looking out of the car window, where he saw 
 letter pages in a schoolgirl hand. 
 
XX 
 
 WHEN A TELEGRAM ARRIVED 
 
 THE Harden family was at supper. Pam, 
 who was gravely waiting on table, went to 
 the door when the bell rang. 
 
 " Any answer? " the telegraph boy asked. 
 
 " Yo sit right dar in dat chair, " said Pam, in 
 a lordly way, as if several telegraph boys waited 
 on the porch every day, " an don yo git impa 
 tient an I ll tell yo in due co se o time if 
 dey is." 
 
 With the care of one drawing up a will he 
 signed his name to the receipt book. 
 
 11 Mrs. James Harden," he spelled out, as he 
 laid the yellow envelope on the table in front 
 of Madame Mother. 
 
 It must be from Big, everybody thought. Had 
 anything happened to him? Silence prevailed, 
 while Aunt Julia and Ellen made pretense that 
 they were still eating. 
 
 " Will you bring my glasses, Pam? " Madame 
 Mother requested. 
 
 Pam fidgeted about, looking in one place and 
 another, each being the wrong place. 
 
 " In my work-basket, of course, you simple 
 ton! " she told him. 
 
 201 
 
202 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Meanwhile, she held the envelope up to the 
 light. When the glasses were brought she slit 
 it with a fruit knife and opened the sheet delib 
 erately; but at first she did not read the message 
 aloud. Of course not, when it was addressed to 
 the head of the household personally. 
 
 She made a movement as if she were going to 
 lay it to one side, still without revealing the con 
 tents, and then proceeded to read again, while 
 Pam, standing close behind her chair, lifted first 
 one foot and then the other as if they pricked him. 
 
 " Character will tell in the long run, 7 said 
 Madame Mother, finally, a touch of color, the color 
 of pride, in her cheeks. " We have always had 
 character in our family. " 
 
 11 But what is it? What is it! May we know? " 
 Ellen could hold her tongue no longer. 
 
 " Yis, yo se in de light, but we s plumb in de 
 dark an bustin with curiosity," said Pam. 
 
 Then she informed them as if it were nothing 
 to take a Harden off his feet when the head of 
 the nation honors him of the President s offer 
 and of Big s journey to Washington. Ellen was 
 elate with the wonder of the thing. Aunt Julia 
 had an opinion instantly. 
 
 " Well, he won t go not out among all those 
 savages! " she declared. 
 
 " Any answer? " called the boy from the door 
 way. 
 
 " No, dey ain ," said Pam, on a nod from 
 Madame Mother; but Ellen jumped up from the 
 table. 
 
WHEN A TELEGRAM ARRIVED 203 
 
 " Yes, oh, yes! " she said. " I want to send 
 one! I must to splendid old Big! Let s see- 
 it s ten words for twenty-five cents i Splendid 
 Big Ninety in Calculus Honorable Court poten 
 tate salaams prostratipns. There, that s ten and 
 the signature is free. But I can cut out in and 
 that gives me another word. I ll make it 
 6 hooray ! " 
 
 Aunt Julia opposed the extravagance. 
 
 " He ll be here day after to-morrow and you 
 can tell him enough nonsense when he arrives," 
 she added. 
 
 So the telegraph boy departed without an an 
 swer. A shade of annoyance on Ellen s face lasted 
 only long enough for a smile to drive it away. 
 Bebuffed in one direction, her enthusiasm found 
 an outlet in another. Oh, that French and Irish 
 blood! 
 
 " We must inform ourselves! " she declared. 
 " We must know all about the island of Bar ! But 
 isn t it like old Big, so simple and good, to be 
 asked by the President to be a potentate ! 
 
 Supper only half eaten, she hurried away. Mr. 
 Hobber she knew was a great reader. Despite 
 Mrs. Hobber s stubbornly maintained opinion 
 that Ellen was a harum-scarum girl who would 
 elope or do something strange, she and Hiram, 
 out of a common interest in the Big Fellow s 
 career, had struck up a real and understanding 
 friendship. 
 
 " Well! well! " drawled Mr. Hobber. " This 
 is ewtresting! Come back and let s talk it over 
 
204 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 when you get posted ;" and he gave her a pam 
 phlet which he had received under the local Con 
 gressman s frank. 
 
 From the library of the local doctor were forth 
 coming a map and a book that had a chapter on 
 Bar; and with these in her arms she went trip 
 ping back to the house, reveling in the prospect 
 of an whole evening in the Far East. 
 
 " He did not wire me, his partner in secrets," 
 she thought. " No. But he wrote, I know! I ll 
 have a letter from him for my own self to-morrow, 
 with all kinds of details, and I must think what 
 to tell him when he is making up his mind about 
 accepting. 
 
 On that map, spread on the sitting-room table, 
 she pointed out the island itself, a dot, which her 
 forefinger tip would completely cover, in the 
 broad Pacific, with its sea routes so many sprays 
 of dotted lines proceeding from the great ports. 
 
 " Why don dey go straight! Why is dey 
 circlin when yo don have to go roun no hills 
 in de ocean? " asked Pam, proposing to inform 
 himself, also. 
 
 " Because," Ellen answered, " they cut the 
 curve of the earth, that being the shortest way." 
 
 " Dey do, eh? " Pam scanned that flat stretch 
 of blue skeptically. " Well, all I kin say is dat 
 dat air shows de value of an eddercation which 
 don splain nuffin to no one dat ain got no 
 eddercation. 
 
 Ellen forgot Bar for the fraction of a second 
 that it takes to consider what the family would 
 
WHEN A TELEGRAM AREIVED 205 
 
 do without Pam, and then flew back to the realm 
 of speculation. 
 
 " Eight thousand miles from San Francisco! 
 Think of it ! And a good deal farther from Bol- 
 ton! Think of Mister Ninety in Calculus, that I 
 bombarded with cherries and who split wood for 
 Mr. Hobber and couldn t really wash the dishes 
 as fast as I could wipe, traveling so far to a king 
 dom we never heard of! What a voyage it must 
 be! What revelations! " 
 
 " Let us hear something from the book. Won t 
 you read it? " asked Madame Mother. 
 
 Ellen took up the book after another longing 
 glance at the voyage routes in the blue space, 
 " whar de Lawd dropped a li l hunk o yearth 
 fo dem Wawyan Islands on His way cross to 
 make Asia af tah He done make Merica, as Pam 
 said. 
 
 " Capital, Takar. Population, one million," 
 she began. " A million people! That s half the 
 population of this State and Big would rule 
 them all and be President and teacher and boss ! 
 What a great, picturesque, far-off thing to do ! I 
 am sure he will go ! " 
 
 " Ellen, I m afraid a college education has 
 filled your head with romantic notions," Aunt 
 Julia remonstrated. "I m sure he won t go, 
 when he s a Judge with twelve years to serve." 
 
 " That Jimmy and I," with a trace of accent on 
 the pronoun, " will have to consider," Madame 
 Mother, who was never stampeded, reminded her 
 sister. 
 
206 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " * Takar has one hundred thousand people, a 
 large public square, with a cathedral and a Presi- 
 dencia, " Ellen quoted. " The Presidencia is 
 where Big would live and dispense the law. I 
 wonder if he has a gold chair to sit in and a 
 retinue in yellow silk? * A few foreign traders 
 beside the officials and priests form the white 
 population/ " she read on. " Five per cent., 
 mostly in the capital, are mixed blood, who earn 
 their living by their wits, while the natives are 
 the most martial and cunning of any of the 
 Islands. And Big will have to master them ! It s 
 good he is a giant. Can t you see him talking it 
 over with them, guiding them, scolding them, 
 spanking them, maybe? He is big enough to 
 spank them, two at a time." 
 
 " If dey s a million of em he d have to have a 
 spankin machine," interjected Pam, who was 
 making a pretense in the background of polishing 
 the silver. 
 
 " That will do, Pam " (from Madame Mother). 
 
 " Ellen, if you wouldn t comment so much and 
 read straight ahead we would get the sense bet 
 ter," said Aunt Julia. 
 
 This she did quite obediently, reserving her 
 own thoughts for bed-time, when she lay awake, 
 seeing the Big Fellow land on a sandy beach 
 under the palms, where he received the saluta 
 tions of a brown populace. How she would like 
 to be present, she thought, on this august occa 
 sion! But in the morning she would have a let 
 ter from him in that copperplate hand with the 
 
WHEN A TELEGRAM ARRIVED 207 
 
 whole story. A letter did come in the morning, 
 addressed to Madame Mother and inside to " All 
 the Folks at Home, and it related at length what 
 the telegram had told them in brief. 
 
 Ellen s gayety was a little affected at the break 
 fast table. She had almost nothing to say about 
 the island of Bar. She was preoccupied with a 
 bargain that she had made one night, sitting on 
 the porch roof a bargain for keeps. Hadn t he 
 broken it? When such a great thing had come 
 into his life didn t it occur to him to write one 
 word to the partner of his secrets! What did 
 he think that when that bargain was made 
 she was only a little schoolgirl, who would help 
 to keep things going happily at home and how 
 hard she had tried to do this! and now that he 
 was famous and successful she was only a grown 
 up schoolgirl, to whom he would be kind! He 
 meant the world to her all the world outside of 
 Bolton and always had. In world affairs she 
 wanted to be his real counsellor. 
 
 Having said the night before that she was going 
 to Stottstown for more books about Bar, she went, 
 and, besides, the journey gave her something to 
 do, when she was finding none too much to occupy 
 her busy nature at home. 
 
 " After all that trouble she didn t read them, 
 but goes tramping across the fields," Aunt Julia 
 confided to Madame Mother at tea-time. " I m 
 afraid Ellen is getting very changeable. I m al 
 most afraid she is going to be headstrong." 
 
 The tramp, at first glum, grew delightful when, 
 
208 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 on a new tangent of reasoning, she explained the 
 situation to her own satisfaction and accused her 
 self of selfishness and her usual impulsiveness 
 and thoughtlessness for ever having seen it in 
 any other way. Big was very busy. He had 
 written a hurry note for the general information 
 of the family. But before he decided he would 
 have a long talk with her. Of course he would. 
 They would be quite by themselves for hours, and 
 this thought set her to guessing his questions and 
 planning what her answers would be. When she 
 returned to the house, the argosy of her imagina 
 tion was bending on full sail in Pacific seas. 
 
 11 Have you heard, Pam," she asked him, sol 
 emnly, " about the strange thing that happens in 
 the Pacific Ocean when you cross the 180th mer 
 idian? You either lose or gain a day. For ex 
 ample, you have two Tuesdays or no Tuesday 
 at all! " 
 
 Pam was growing wise to the pitfalls in Far 
 Eastern intelligence. 
 
 " Dat ain nuffin. Dat s jes as easy jes as 
 easy. Ise often fought it was a Sunday when it 
 was a Sat day an fought it was a Monday 
 speshully when de washin was heavy two days 
 a-runnin . Yis indeedy! " 
 
MADAME MOTHER DECIDES 
 
 WHO gave him his first " stent," anyway? 
 Who told him that his future character 
 rested on the payment of two hundred 
 and forty-eight dollars and fifty cents on time? 
 Hiram Hobber felt a genial proprietorship in the 
 Judge and a partnership in all his fortunes ; and 
 he had the luck to board at Stottstown the train 
 which was bringing the Big Fellow home from 
 Washington. 
 
 11 Not spectin to do any travelin soon, eh, 
 Judge? " he began, Yankee fashion. 
 
 " I don t know yet," was the answer. " It is a 
 long journey." 
 
 " Well, you take that heathen job," said Hiram. 
 " I ve been readin up on the subject an the 
 President ain t sent out no thin yet but politicians 
 an perfessors. They re all right in their way 
 politicians is useful sometimes, an perfessors is 
 but it s plain as day they ain t to be mixed; 
 leastwise, not when affairs is pressin ." 
 
 " Not when affairs are pressing, hardly," Big 
 admitted. In quiet times, with plenty of leisure 
 to experiment, it might be worth while, in the hope 
 of finding how many parts professor and how 
 
 209 
 
210 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 many parts politician you should mix for an ideal 
 combination. " 
 
 " Why, you don t want some thin everybody 
 else has found easy, do you! " asked Hiram, the 
 advocate. " That s where the fun an glory come 
 in. Yes, sir, you go out an clean up that heathen 
 job, Judge. You can do it." 
 
 Epaminanidad, who was at the station, was al 
 lowed to carry the case containing the " high," 
 which the Big Fellow refused, Judge though he 
 was, to wear on any except formal occasions, while 
 he himself carried the bulging dress-suit case. 
 Hiram walked with them as far as the gate. After 
 it was opened Pam began snickering. 
 
 " What are you laughing about up in your nose, 
 you humbug? " Big asked, as they started along 
 the path. 
 
 "Me! I isn t laffin , deed I isn t! Jes a li l 
 snuffles cotched from leavin de winder open las 
 night te-he-he! 
 
 In proof that he was not laughing, Pam dropped 
 the hat case and doubled up in a convulsion just 
 as something struck His Honor on the nose. 
 
 1 i Wuss n she ever was ! De mischief in her 
 done kep right on growin aftah she stopped 
 growin herse f ! " said Pam. 
 
 With ten years difference between their ages, 
 Ellen had come home from graduation just ten 
 years after Mister Ninety in Calculus had, and 
 when cherries were ripe. In spirit and in quality 
 she had changed little. At times she was as young 
 as on the day of the first bombardment; at times, 
 
MADAME MOTHER DECIDES 
 
 as her schoolmates had said, she could be so wise 
 and sensible that you would never guess her 
 capable of a fanciful senior play. It was a supple 
 figure and slim that Big saw half leaning against 
 the trunk of the old tree, while her eyes, whose 
 spell was always over him, were speaking a 
 dozen kinds of electric defiance as she inquired, in 
 mock solemnity: 
 
 * Shall I aim for the honorable shirt bosom of 
 His Honor or shall I drop one into the brim of the 
 honorable hat! 
 
 i i Jump, or I come after you ! " he called. 
 
 " Oh, no, not I! " she returned, in sober cal 
 culation. " The Honorable Court is not good 
 enough on the catch. I would not rumple his dig 
 nity. 7 
 
 Up he started, the tree shaking with his weight. 
 She slipped to one side, managing her skirts 
 gracefully, and alighted. Then she seized a 
 dangling foot and had him there between ground 
 and limb, helpless. 
 
 " What a position for the Honorable Court to 
 be in ! Observe him, Pam ! 
 
 " Yo suttinly done got him! Te-he-he! " gig 
 gled that partisan of the Spartans. 
 
 Aunt Julia had left the porch at the inception of 
 the performance. 
 
 " Ellen! " she called, severely, " if you went to 
 school in the East one more year I presume you 
 would be walking the fence in a circus rider s cos 
 tume! Don t you know that passing neighbors 
 will see how you are behaving? " 
 
212 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Yes, aunt, the Honorable Court does look 
 ridiculous ; and she let him down. 
 
 "Ellen! Ellen! " Aunt Julia repeated, sol 
 emnly. 
 
 The Big Fellow broke into a peal of joy which 
 startled Madame Mother, who was sitting on the 
 porch, suffering a little from rheumatism. It did 
 not seem quite in keeping with a Judge s dignity 
 for him to laugh so loud and she hoped that he 
 was not absorbing bad manners from associating 
 with Willy Sweetser. The more important her 
 son grew in the world, the more she was inclined 
 to keep him in hand. 
 
 " You re bigger than ever, Big," declared 
 Ellen, surveying him. " I believe you are grow 
 ing again." 
 
 "I m not! I m not! " he said, in an assumed 
 voice of stage thunder. This was a sore point 
 with him. He would willingly hear anyone but her 
 speak of his size. " I haven t gained a pound in 
 six months." 
 
 " Great Heavens! what if you were growing 
 think what if you were secretly all unbeknown to 
 yourself! She drew in her chin and knitted 
 her brows dolefully. * How d we ever know then 
 when you were going to stop? There s only one 
 thing to do, that s to measure." 
 
 " Ellen! " (from Aunt Julia). 
 
 The old mark, dim but distinguishable, was 
 found under the later growth of vines and she 
 noted that when he put his back against the pillar 
 it was still as straight as the pillar. 
 
MADAME MOTHER DECIDES 
 
 " No, you haven t altitudinally, " she admitted. 
 " I suppose it s longitudinally, " she added, mis 
 chievously. 
 
 * Not longitudinally, either not a bit ! "he re 
 turned. "I m not so thundering big! No, by 
 the thunders, I m not! " 
 
 She was measuring her own height, now six 
 inches less than his, which was not so great a dif 
 ference between a man and a woman, as he re 
 minded her. 
 
 "I m not so thundering small while you are 
 thundering about it, O Mountain! " she asserted. 
 "I ll be thundered if I am, Mr. Thunderer! " 
 
 6 l Ellen, it seems to me that when a young lady 
 reaches the age of twenty- two it s time " 
 
 For tea, aunt. Let me bring it ! 
 
 Aunt Julia shook her head. 
 
 " I don t know about this higher education for 
 girls. What do you think she did yesterday! She 
 had Mr. and Mrs. Hobber over to tea without ask 
 ing us! " (Aunt Julia had never quite approved 
 of Mrs. Hobber, though in later years she took a 
 different view.) 
 
 The Judge made no comment on this breach of 
 discipline. He changed the subject with some 
 photographs and government reports, which he 
 took out of his dress-suit case and laid in Madame 
 Mother s lap. 
 
 " All about that island of Bar! I must tele 
 graph my answer to-night. 
 
 " Yes, Jimmy, yes. So these are the people we 
 are to civilize out of hand? " she asked, taking up 
 
THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 an envelope containing photographs and putting 
 on her spectacles. 
 
 " My! " said Aunt Julia, looking over her sis 
 ter s shoulder at an exhibit marked " A city type 
 of the Tongals," by the Anthropological Sub 
 division, which certainly had no connection with 
 the Textile Subdivision. " My! I do hope you 
 will teach them enough manners to tuck their 
 shirts in ! 
 
 i They say it is cooler that way, Big explained 
 discreetly. 
 
 " It isn t respectable and decent, whatever it 
 is ! " Aunt Julia averred. 
 
 The next was A rural type of the Tongals. 
 
 "Goodness gracious!" she exclaimed. "They ve 
 got almost no clothes on at all ! " 
 
 The next was " A mountain type." 
 
 " For Heaven s sake! Here s a lot with none! 
 There they stand an whole family as perfectly 
 unashamed of it as a cat and her kittens! " 
 Then Aunt Julia looked the other way. " Ellen 
 mustn t see this! " she gasped. 
 
 i Jimmy, you had better put them back in your 
 case and then burn the lot, Madame Mother said, 
 turning them face downward without further in 
 spection. 
 
 " I hadn t seen them myself," he said, obey 
 ing. " Honestly, I hadn t looked inside that en 
 velope yet." 
 
 " Well, I hope, Jimmy," Aunt Julia concluded, 
 " that if you do go out there you will make the 
 government send at least one pillow case apiece 
 
MADAME MOTHER DECIDES 215 
 
 with a puckering-string for the whole population, 
 and I hope you ll stop the United States being a 
 party to such scandalous- 
 There she dropped the subject, as Ellen came 
 with the tea-things. The Big Fellow wanted to 
 assist in passing the cups, but Ellen sent him for a 
 chair for herself instead. Then he sat down on 
 the steps. After a sip, a precise sip, Madame 
 Mother signified by her manner that the family 
 was about to go into straight-back-chair executive 
 session without waiting to light the lamp with 
 the glass standard. Big had intended to have his 
 talk with her after he had spoken with Ellen; and 
 here she was beginning quite as she had when 
 some question about his conduct had arisen in his 
 boyhood. 
 
 " Now, Jimmy, as I understand it," she began, 
 " we have a foundling on our doorstep, and when 
 we decided to take him in and not send him to the 
 foundling home we made ourselves liable to duties 
 which we cannot neglect. We must bring these 
 islanders up to order and civilization and start 
 them right. 
 
 " Yes, Madame Mother, precisely. You have 
 put a big thing as simply as you would a little 
 thing." 
 
 " It is a long way for you to go away from us," 
 she continued, " a very long way. We like to 
 have you near home. 
 
 " Yes. That s the hard part "the part of 
 separation from her, Aunt Julia, Uncle Theodore 
 and Willy, and from Ellen, whom he put last in- 
 
216 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 terrogatively, as if the weight of decision rested 
 with her. 
 
 " Out there among a lot of savages and fever 
 and flies! " put in Aunt Julia. " But he s your 
 boy, not mine, Martha, she hastily added, to clear 
 her conscience of any charge of interference. 
 
 Madame Mother heeded neither his nor Aunt 
 Julia s remark, but proceeded along her own 
 straight line of catechism: 
 
 " Your absence we must not consider if the 
 change is for the best. It will not be a promotion 
 for you? " she asked. 
 
 " No. Hardly, when I have twelve years to 
 serve! No, all my friends everybody consider 
 it the contrary. " 
 
 " You did not ask to go? This offer came en 
 tirely unsought? " 
 
 " Entirely! r the witness on the stand 
 answered. 
 
 The office does seek the man and the President 
 finds it hard to get good men ? 
 
 " Well, yes, I m afraid few nurses who can 
 make a living at home are applying for the 
 foundling. Everyone is saying what a noble thing 
 it is to go and doing his part by urging the other 
 fellows on ! 
 
 Was the mother of the Gracchi as dramatic as 
 the poets make her? Or was she soft-spoken and 
 firm? Did the Spartan woman shout from the 
 doorway for the street to hear her parting mes 
 sage bidding her son to come home with his shield 
 or on it? Or did she say it quietly to him alone? 
 
MADAME MOTHER DECIDES 217 
 
 In both instances we must accept the history of re 
 mote hearsay. Madame Mother, we know, gave 
 her head only a slight nod of finality. 
 
 " When you have not asked/ 7 she said, " and 
 the President of the United States asks you be 
 cause he thinks that you can best do this work for 
 your country, I don t see how you can refuse. It 
 is your duty to go." 
 
 Duty ! Duty to any task that came to him was 
 the sum of his character, and love of work and 
 optimism the sum of his strength. Madame 
 Mother had struck home to his conscience! She 
 had made him see the situation in its true light, as 
 he was bound to see it eventually. Now he knew 
 that from the moment the call had come, all the 
 elements in his nature were gathering to send him 
 on this mission to bring into being the dreams of 
 a senior classman s essay. 
 
 Why had he hesitated? Because of Ellen, he 
 knew. Her approval and her advice he wanted. 
 But she was also one to stand for duty, if not in 
 the grey that is supposed to be duty s favorite 
 color, yet none the less steadfastly in brighter 
 and warmer tones. To Madame Mother he made 
 no answer except the silence which she accepted 
 as assent to her dictum. 
 
 " The Governor will have another cup, I think, 
 Ellen," she added, quite settling the matter, 
 there on the front porch in Bolton, as to the gov 
 ernorship of Bar, ten thousand miles away. 
 
 Ellen, in the background unobserved, without 
 touching her lips to her tea, had listened in a 
 
218 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 tempest of feeling. Not once had he asked her 
 opinion about the greatest thing in life! Y, T hy 
 should she expect it? Of what value was the ad 
 vice of one who had been nearer the foot than the 
 middle of her class? Oh, that French and Irish 
 blood! It is warm, quick, sensitive, proud. She 
 labeled a certain bargain as dead. In swift imag 
 ination, as she sat so still, watching Big look up 
 to his mother, she built a new, practical world for 
 Miss Ellen Moore, free from any of the illusions 
 of a fool s paradise. All this she could do did 
 she not write the senior play and take a leading 
 part? with no outward expression except a 
 strange brightness of the eyes, which the long 
 lashes hid, and the slightest tremble of the lip for 
 a second, as she poured for the great man who did 
 not consult grown-up schoolgirls whom he had 
 sent to college. 
 
 " Four lumps for the Governor! We ll pro 
 mote him from three! " she said. " And we all 
 drink to the Governor," she added, after she 
 passed him his cup and raised hers on high. " To 
 the Governor! To the Governor! " 
 
 i To the Governor ! said Madame Mother and 
 Aunt Julia, in a mild chorus. 
 
 " Pam has yet to hear the news. He must be 
 formally introduced to our nabob. I ll find him ! 
 Ellen announced, a little wildly. 
 
 It was an excuse, this run about the house and 
 yard after Pam, to still an unaccountable beating 
 of her heart. In her lively wake across the lawn 
 Pam came shuffling in protest against being " led 
 
MADAME MOTHER DECIDES 219 
 
 a lamb to de slaughter o mo nonsense o yose, 
 Miss Ellen. " 
 
 " Do you observe? It s like an opera, truly," 
 said she, pointing her finger at the Big Fellow on 
 the steps. " Do you observe, Pam, that this is the 
 Governor of Bar, a real, true potentate! " 
 
 " Fo de Lawd s sake! " said Pam. 
 
 " He s going to rule the natives and the jungle., 
 the Mohammedans and the heathen, and dress all 
 in gorgeous costumes and sit on a gold throne 
 chair in the midst of a gorgeous court and shout 
 Off with their heads when conversation runs 
 low." 
 
 " Fo de Lawd s sake! " With that Pam shuf 
 fled away out of the domain of controversy. 
 
 " I ve got some striped silk. I ll make you a 
 turban. Will you wear it, Mogul? " Ellen 
 asked. 
 
 " I do wish you would take things more serious 
 ly, Ellen " (from Aunt Julia). 
 
 " Oh, yes, I can be serious very serious, Aunt 
 Julia," Ellen answered, in a changed tone. 
 
 " Will I wear it! " cried Big, who sprang to his 
 feet, beaming. " Yes, over the hills with you. 
 Will you come for a walk? " 
 
 She was in a mood to which any suggestion of 
 activity would appeal. 
 
 Done ! I want to walk, too and fast ! I hope 
 you can keep up with me, Your Excellency, the 
 Governor. 
 
 He was already on his feet, in ecstasy, and 
 standing in the doorway as she took her simple 
 
220 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 stiff-brimmed straw hat down from the rack. In 
 masculine awe he watched her slim fingers slip the 
 long pins home, while he was thinking that now he 
 was going to hear all that she thought of Bar and 
 he was to do some brave talking himself if he 
 could only find a way to begin. But he reckoned 
 wholly without his host. The builder of a new 
 world to take the place of a fool s paradise set 
 him a pace over the fields, dry for the want of 
 rain. 
 
 Avoiding Bar entirely in a tyrannous stream of 
 chat that gave him no opening, she told of the 
 school and the East, in good humor, mimicking 
 people and their traits. In butterfly mood, which 
 may be a brittle mood, she chased butterflies. She 
 wagered him that the Honorable Court, who 
 might find a flaw in a law by lamplight, could not 
 by daylight catch a gentleman in yellow and black 
 stripes, and the Honorable Court proved himself 
 a strategist who, after many dashes, announced 
 his victory with a ringing shout of triumph. With 
 the tips of the wings between his fingers, dust- 
 sprinkled, robbing the captive of some of the tin 
 sel powder of glory, he released the gentleman in 
 yellow and black stripes under her chin. 
 
 " You said I was big," he told her, rejoicing in 
 the spirit of play and of muscles unbound, i l but I 
 can outrun you, and give you a good start, too." 
 
 Anything to prove that he was not big! If 
 mechanical science had invented a lathe which 
 would prune a human being s size he would have 
 been one of the first patients. 
 
MADAME MOTHER DECIDES 
 
 They ran fifty yards and the Honorable Court 
 won. The fault was in a woman s skirts, she ex 
 plained ; and she bade him help her over a fence to 
 another stretch of pasture land, never mentioning, 
 in the renewed vivacity of her small-talk, his 
 island or his journey. 
 
 How unlike her it was! How out of keeping 
 with the bargain! What change had come over 
 her in the last year! He counted no loss of 
 charm. On the contrary, her charm had matured. 
 The change was toward him ! 
 
 Now he might have said: " What is it, Ellen? 
 Don t you take any interest in Bar! " Which 
 would have been like the real Big. What then 
 would have been her answer ! But he was not the 
 real Big. He was a man trying to find himself in 
 a new gallery, preoccupied, groping, conscious. 
 Her new manner made him unnatural, distrustful 
 of himself. With his heart full of the subject 
 which had brought him in a glad, half -defined hope 
 out of the house, when there did come a chance to 
 mention it, he asked all but casually : 
 
 " What do you think of the idea of my going! 
 
 She answered distantly, irrelevantly, as if he 
 were speaking of things with which she was un 
 familiar. 
 
 " I should think you ought to go, Big, but how 
 am I to know! " she said. 
 
 How was she, indeed! Only last night, with 
 the window open and watching the fireflies, she 
 had known all about it, she thought. Then had 
 she told herself that being a judge was a stuffy 
 
222 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 kind of thing beside this new task whose needs she 
 succinctly expressed as requiring a man a big 
 man. 
 
 The picturesqueness of the mission, the mys 
 tery of elements unknown, the pull of problems 
 unsolved to one who is strong, all appealed to her 
 as fit for him. Without Madame Mother s 
 catechism, with Madame Mother s fine ideals no 
 more than a quick instinct, without rehearsing any 
 part beforehand, she was going to tell him to go ! 
 go! go! it was a splendid thing go! Why ask 
 her now, when he had decided? Why, when he had 
 his armor on, his banner raised, when she had 
 not even fastened a buckle why ask her what she 
 thought of his crusade ? 
 
 But she did not let the conversation flag and 
 spanned a possible awkward pause when he was 
 thinking what to say. 
 
 " The bronze Buddhas all have jewels of wis 
 dom in their foreheads," she went on. " You are 
 to be the jewel of wisdom to these people. How 
 strange it is ! To you it must be like sealing your 
 career in a jar and taking it far across the ocean, 
 there to release it without knowing in what form 
 of genii it will arise." 
 
 " Yes. I I it will be a good work." 
 
 " A good work! 
 
 They were ascending the easy slope of a high 
 hill, which had a local name from the single large 
 tree that stood sentinel of a broad pasture at the 
 crest. She paused and looked eastward in the 
 direction of Stottstown where, on another hill, 
 
MADAME MOTHER DECIDES 
 
 stood a house of many gables at the end of a 
 graded road which ran among young trees and 
 past an artificial lake. 
 
 " Look, Big! You can see the Walkers place 
 from here a thousand acres, and the Colonel 
 whinnying in his funny way because he hasn t 
 enough, I suppose. I had a note from Ned. He s 
 to be back in a few days, and he s bringing his 
 new machine. He takes it with him wherever he 
 goes, as most people do a traveling bag. I think 
 he will have a stiff time of it with these roads. 
 Ned s really a very nice fellow, Big." 
 
 " Of course, he is! At least, I ve always liked 
 him," he told her, honestly. 
 
 " So have I! " she rejoined. " He thinks his 
 father has money enough, I fancy, and would 
 rather enjoy what they have than try to make 
 more," and she set the pace up the hill again. 
 
 What more had either to say about Bar? That 
 subject past rather than in anticipation, she 
 was silent, except for an occasional rally. His 
 thoughts, which now separated Bar from her 
 future, ventured : 
 
 " Do you find this little village restricted and 
 life in the old house not what it was, youth and age 
 not mating 1 ? " 
 
 Her sense of loyalty would allow no one of the 
 annoying restraints a voice, 
 
 "I m afraid I m a scatterbrain," she answered. 
 "I m afraid I find the joy of living too great apd 
 there s the unexplained for me as there is for 
 everybody. I like movement. And, Big, I ough* 
 
224. THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 to be doing something. I will! I will teach. I ll 
 get over this joy of living as soon as the summer 
 is over. Watch me suddenly turn a diligent ant 
 one day." 
 
 He was about to protest that she was approach 
 ing a forbidden subject. But it occurred to him 
 that this new side of her character, which he 
 thought had been revealed to him that afternoon, 
 made the idea that she would seek to earn a live 
 lihood out of the question. 
 
 " This is the butterfly season, " he answered, 
 with a try at gayety. 
 
 No, she would never try to pay back that debt. 
 Through his cloud shot the happiness of still be 
 ing able to care for her while, joyously, as a girl 
 should, she would drift on to some event that 
 would change her life. And this set him thinking 
 of Ned Walker and into paths he little knew. 
 
 They had not noticed the darkening sky except 
 with a passing remark that the sun was hidden. 
 A peal of thunder warned them of the shower 
 from which they sought refuge under the big tree 
 now only a few rods away. The bolts of lightning 
 out of the purple roof, shooting in zigzag shafts of 
 obliqueness into the blackening green of the pas 
 ture, made him say : 
 
 * It is magnificent ! 
 
 " Yes." She was looking straight away from 
 him vacantly, a figure appreciably beautiful to any 
 eyes in her obsession with the storm s glory. 
 
 " I don t think this is a good place for us," he 
 was suddenly reminded. " I see that this tree 
 
MADAME MOTHER DECIDES 225 
 
 has already been struck." He took her arm to 
 lead her away. 
 
 * Twice, if I remember, she returned, absently, 
 without moving. 
 
 " That s the more reason. You better run the 
 risk of getting wet. It s the only tree out here in 
 the open. Come! 
 
 * * Oh, no ! You know the saying that lightning 
 never strikes twice in the same place," she said, 
 with a revival of her practical side. " If it s 
 struck twice it will surely not strike a third time. 
 
 The logic of women is sometimes hard for the 
 judiciary to understand. 
 
 " But this is a heavy storm ! " he insisted. 
 
 11 Yes." 
 
 " It s what you call splintery." 
 
 " Yes, splintery yes " (absently). " Oh " (as 
 she came back to earth), " you mean the lightning 
 is! Of course " (rousing herself). " It will not 
 last long. These storms soon pass over the 
 valley." 
 
 After the last spatter of drops, as the clouds 
 in billowy majesty went rolling over the hills, 
 flashing the moist green back to fresh brightness 
 and making the windows of the houses in the vil 
 lage blaze, she cried: 
 
 " We must hurry. Now we ll forget the butter 
 flies and be diligent ants." 
 
 Her lithe stride knew the slopes well. In the 
 descent she was to show that she was as good at 
 silence as at chatter. 
 
 * One can t talk when one is walking fast, she 
 
226 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 half apologized. " You ll be going soon? " she 
 asked at length, as they neared the house. 
 
 " To Washington early in the morning for in 
 structions; then to close up all my affairs in the 
 city; then for a real holiday at home." 
 
 To this she made no answer until he held the 
 gate ajar for her to enter the yard. 
 
 " Stay as long as you can when you do come 
 back," she said gently, looking directly into his 
 eyes for the first time since they had left the tree. 
 " Madame Mother is old and you are going on a 
 very long journey." 
 
XXII 
 
 COLONEL WALKER HAED PRESSED 
 
 among them savages! Of all things! 
 Him! " 
 
 Without any variation of expression 
 Mrs. Billings said this at breakfast ; she said it as 
 she was dusting the rooms, and probably over the 
 dishes. 
 
 " If you think your own melancholy is any 
 solace for mine," Uncle Theodore told her, some 
 what testily, " you are mistaken." 
 
 "I m not seeing it that way, Mister Books, con 
 sidering your melancholy s your own business and 
 mine is mine ! she snapped. And I don t know 
 as it will look just right in the eyes of folks for me 
 to stay here as housekeeper after he s gone." 
 
 6 i Oh ! He was the chaperon, was he ? Uncle 
 Theodore laughed and got a little cheer out of this 
 quaint notion, anyway. 
 
 " The what? I ve known him a good deal 
 longer n I have you, and whatever scrape those 
 savages get him into you re more to blame than 
 anyone else. I always knew something foolish 
 would happen to him if he had all the law non 
 sense he wanted. It s like letting children have all 
 the sweets they want. I saw that back at college 
 and warned him, too" and to prevent any ques- 
 
 227 
 
228 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 tioning of the oracle she slammed the door behind 
 her. 
 
 This dialogue took place the morning after his 
 patron had a wire from the Big Fellow telling of 
 his decision. 
 
 " He is right. He is the man for the work," 
 said Uncle Theodore to himself. " But the 
 thought will not make me any the less lonesome 
 when he is gone," he added, dismally. " Nor 
 have I any reason," he concluded, after a turn 
 around the room, " for asking him to carry my 
 burdens. Mrs. Billings is right. One s melan 
 choly is one s own business. He shall have a wel 
 come back worthy of his honors." 
 
 Of the two, after Big s arrival Uncle Theodore 
 was the more cheerful. Patron had never seen 
 disciple in such a mood before. Big was blue. He 
 was hard hit. He was a man in love trying to find 
 himself, after Ellen s action had fully awakened 
 him to the depth and distinctness of the thing in 
 his heart. All the way on the train he had been 
 thrashing over their talk on the walk. No word 
 or look of hers was forgotten. He was big and old 
 and a judge and she was young and blithe. He 
 ought to drive out of his mind this thing which 
 refused to be driven. 
 
 " The 88 s and the 48 must dine together at 
 Jerry s," said Uncle Theodore, " and not a sad 
 thought will I allow to be spoken. 
 
 " Good! I have my friends always my true, 
 firm friends," spoke that unaccountable mood of 
 Big s. 
 
COLONEL WALKER HARD PRESSED 229 
 
 He telephoned at once to Willy and heard in 
 answer, " Mr. Sweetser s busy," and found him 
 self talking to a dead wire. 
 
 " But that was his own voice! I ll see about 
 this! " 
 
 He started for The Sentinel office immediately. 
 In the lobby of the editorial rooms the office boy 
 interrupted his progress. 
 
 " Your card, sir." 
 
 4 Why, Tommy, you know me ! What does this 
 fooling mean? " 
 
 But the office boy was obdurate. He obeyed no 
 orders but Willy s. 
 
 " Mr. Sweetser said I wasn t to admit you with 
 out it." 
 
 " You take him the name of Jim Harden and 
 tell him if he doesn t let me in I ll break in; 
 and if I have to do that, so much the worse for 
 him." 
 
 The boy returned to say that the Judge might 
 enter. 
 
 " Take a seat, Governor! " Willy called with a 
 nod, as he went on with his work, answering tele 
 phone rings and running through letters and copy, 
 without further attention to his guest. Big sat 
 for a minute enjoying the situation. 
 
 " Oh, yes, Governor of course," said Willy 
 reminiscently, at length. He pressed a button for 
 a boy, whom he sent for any news from the 
 Islands. The boy returned with a piece of flimsy, 
 which Willy glanced through. 
 
 " Four white soldiers killed chasing worthless 
 
230 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 natives in a worthless jungle. Four soldiers 
 killed and another insurrectionist plot discov 
 ered/ he remarked, casually. " The Associated 
 Press gives it a hundred words. Four white sol 
 diers worth a whole tropical sea peppered with 
 islands ! I suppose The Sentinel might allow it a 
 stick for the soldiers 7 sake! It s that island of 
 Bar, again, too the worst of the lot. By the way, 
 Bar is your island, isn t it, Governor? I can re 
 member all the aldermen in town but, of course, 
 there is a limit to the details one can keep in 
 mind." 
 
 In a condescending manner he passed the flimsy 
 for Big to read. 
 
 " Anything else The Sentinel can do for you 
 any time, let me know. The city editor s always 
 glad of items," Willy added, picking up a pencil 
 as if concluding the interview. " And if I can t 
 see you, myself, you ll understand I m very busy." 
 
 " Yes, there is something else! " The Big Fel 
 low rose threateningly. " Yes, there is some 
 thing, and I m going to do it for you, personally 
 throw you out of the window ! " he said in a big 
 voice, and struck his fist in pantomimic display on 
 the desk. 
 
 Oh, indeed ! Willy poised his pencil. Get 
 ting into the potentate habit already. Well, I ve 
 only to press the button to bring in the police. 
 That s how we deal with potentates in these 
 United States." 
 
 " Nonsense! You can t play this on me! " the 
 Big Fellow protested. " Now to come down to 
 
COLONEL WALKER HARD PRESSED 
 
 earth, Willy. Uncle Theodore and you and I will 
 eat to-night at Jerry s. What do you say? We 
 shan t have many more sessions together." 
 
 Willy fixed him with a stare of social superiority 
 that put presumption in its place and broke into a 
 rapid fire of talk: 
 
 You deserter ! " he cried. Who got me into 
 this newspaper business! You! Who was to 
 stand by me and help? You! Do you suppose I 
 have any time to waste on convivial habits, now? 
 I ve work to do and I must do it alone. You re 
 out of the game dismissed, disowned! Who s 
 going to stop me from running away with the 
 bait? Who s going to warn me when I get too 
 red-headed? Myself, you rank backslider, just 
 myself ! 
 
 " I ve got to begin my education over again. 
 You ll see me studying law nights to make up for 
 my folly of misplacing confidence in a quitter. 
 I ve engaged two tutors. Going to have an hour 
 a day with each one. Getting a chauffeur, too, so 
 I can take lessons from the tutors on the road. I m 
 going to build a new building twelve stories high 
 and start an evening edition. Somebody s got 
 to work, I tell you. That s all! I m done with 
 you except to be polite." 
 
 Then he called up the business office and shouted 
 through the speaking-tube : 
 
 " Have a box of chocolate peppermints sent 
 once a week to His Excellency, James Harden, 
 Governor of the Island of Bar, etcetera, etcetera. 
 Get it all in. Don t leave out the etceteras. 
 
232 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 That s the real title etcetera! And mind! 
 chocolate the Governor s favorite color." 
 
 " Oh, come, Willy! Come! come! " Big was 
 getting flushed and embarrassed, while Willy 
 picked up his hat from his desk, where he usually 
 laid it when he came in full of business. 
 
 " Well, pleasant journey, Governor. You can 
 look over the back files for any Island news, if 
 you want. Unless an unusual number of white 
 men that ought to be at home building up the 
 United States are massacred, you ll find it all in 
 the back pages, in agate. We like an interview 
 with an alderman, but to save you postage let 
 me say that we don t print heathen Governors 
 proclamations, however beautiful and legal they 
 are. Mornin ! You ll excuse me I ve an en 
 gagement. I m a busy man ! 
 
 With this parting shot from the doorway Willy 
 left the Big Fellow alone, beaten and wondering. 
 
 The Sentinel s manner of announcing the 
 Judge s resignation kept perfect faith with 
 Willy s views. The Judge s career was narrated 
 at length and highly praised. All that saved the 
 account from being an obituary was the announce 
 ment, with no reference to his future work, that 
 his address hereafter would be the island of Bar. 
 
 This was a miserable period for the Big Fellow. 
 He laughed his way through the packing of his 
 books, through closing up his affairs for depar 
 ture, while he kept thinking that he was yet to see 
 Ellen, yet to have days with her at home, before 
 he started on his long journey across the Pacific. 
 
COLONEL WALKER HARD PRESSED 233 
 
 He heard of Willy at work with his tutors, 
 dashing about in his automobile, planning his new 
 Sentinel building, buying books in quantities ; then 
 one afternoon with a message over the telephone 
 the face of the world changed for The Hummer. 
 For all the waters of the gossip of a city passed 
 through Willy s sieve which caught news for The 
 Sentinel. Anything political concerning any 
 prominent men once whispered from Washington 
 was bound to come to him. 
 
 " What! " he sang back. " What! It was on 
 Colonel Walker s advice ? To get him out of the 
 State ? Thanks ! You Ve done me the biggest kind 
 of a real favor ! 
 
 He sent for his car and sought Big, who was in 
 his rooms, and to whom the news was a thunder 
 clap. First, he asked Willy quietly whence it 
 came. The source seemed to satisfy him. 
 
 " I ll go to Colonel Walker at once," he said. 
 " I 11 find out about this." 
 
 So he was not fulfilling the demand of duty ; so 
 he was not answering an uninviting call to work 
 because the highest authority in the land had 
 thought that he was specially fitted for it. The 
 calm, kind eyes which never laughed were frosty. 
 He was quivering with controlled rage over hav 
 ing been a witless pawn in a game to defeat the 
 ends of justice. 
 
 On their way across the city Willy simply 
 babbled. Why should he study law now? He 
 would discharge his tutors. A hundred plans of 
 new conquests in as many different ways all 
 
THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Sweetserian ways he made as they spun through 
 the streets. 
 
 i I ll keep you, Big! The chocolate drops 
 won t get you ! I 11 keep you ! 
 
 The Big Fellow did not answer ; for that matter, 
 he did not speak once during the ride. Willy 
 thought of him as a rumbling volcano about to 
 erupt. Inwardly, his curiosity was high pitched. 
 He would not have missed this meeting between 
 the two men for ten thousand additional circula 
 tion. When they stepped out of the elevator, 
 waiting on no formality, the Big Fellow plowed 
 past the clerical keeper of the drawbridge in the 
 outer room, whose " Who do you wish to see, 
 sir? " was answered by a grim " Colonel Walker, 
 at once ; and on he went, his coat tails brushing 
 papers off the desk, straight into the Colonel s 
 private office. 
 
 The Colonel was most palpably delighted to see 
 him. 
 
 " Well, Judge, or Governor, I suppose I should 
 call you now " and that was as far as he went 
 with his amiable greeting, which was cut short by 
 the aspect of that Olympian figure, devoid of 
 either the smile or the laugh. 
 
 " I want to know," demanded the Governor, 
 his voice unusually low, " if it was on your ad 
 vice that the President sent for me." 
 
 If it had been John Byng in his place, as the 
 Colonel thought afterward, Byng would have lied 
 directly " jes as easy, jes as easy," to borrow 
 a phrase from Pam and said that he had never 
 
COLONEL WALKER HARD PRESSED 235 
 
 heard a thing about this fool gossip; some news 
 paper yarn, probably. 
 
 " Well, I did tell him that I couldn t imagine 
 a better man ! the Colonel admitted. 
 
 " To get me out of the State? " 
 
 " Well, I didn t mention that no, sir, Gov 
 ernor! " 
 
 " You may have me in this State a long time," 
 Big answered, " and not being a judge now I ll 
 be busier. It all depends on what the President 
 says. 
 
 He took up the telephone from the Colonel s 
 desk and called for the White House. 
 
 Say that former Judge Harden asks to speak 
 to the President at once on a matter of pressing 
 importance. 
 
 For the privilege of a few words in the Presi 
 dent s ear before the Big Fellow spoke with him, 
 Colonel Walker would have given a large block 
 of stock. After he had won the trench he hated 
 the prospect of being thrown out; and for some 
 reason that he did not explain to himself, he would 
 rather be beaten by any man in the world than Jim 
 Harden. But his cheerfulness masked his feel 
 ings in the interval while they waited for the 
 answer from Washington. 
 
 " Ne-eh! Have a chair, Governor. Have a 
 chair, Sweetser," for neither had yet seated him 
 self. " Don t know as I remember ever seeing 
 you here before, Governor. Some mischief up 
 when you two come together. Expect you ll find, 
 Governor, that the President asked a good many 
 
236 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 men about you. He s a great hand for looking 
 around. Not wanting a pass, eh, Sweetser? 
 and the Colonel chuckled over his joke. 
 
 11 No! Issuing many to The Courier now? 
 came back the reportorial question. 
 
 Willy had about broken up the pass business 
 in that city. His reporters paid their way and 
 fhe railroad paid for its advertising. 
 
 " Ne-eh! Sweetser, I congratulate you," said 
 the Colonel, in his most affable manner. " You 
 deserve credit for that reform. It s just another 
 case of business is business. I gave orders about 
 two months ago to shut off The Courier. They 
 yapped and threatened, but we ain t afraid of old 
 Byng any more. The Gold Pig has to root a little 
 harder, eh? " and the Colonel laughed quite heart 
 ily for him. 
 
 The bell tinkled and the Governor heard the 
 mellow voice of the President. In a strong, un 
 yielding tone the question went over the long 
 distance : 
 
 " Mr. President, did you appoint me to Bar be 
 cause Colonel Walker recommended me? It is 
 vital that I should know." 
 
 " No, Governor, that is not true," came the 
 answer. " He did call my attention to you, for 
 what reason I do not know, nor is it to any pur 
 pose. I inquired about you from many sources. I 
 had heard you speak and I talked with you before 
 I made the definite offer. You were chosen be 
 cause I concluded that you had the qualities which, 
 so far as I can judge its needs, preeminently fit 
 
COLONEL WALKER HARD PRESSED 237 
 
 you for the task. Colonel Y\^alker is a great rr.il- 
 road organizer, but in the choice of a governor 
 for an island I do not accept his opinion. 
 
 Thank you, Mr. President. I will go. But I 
 wouldn t if he had been responsible for my ap 
 pointment. 
 
 I know you would not, and this is one of the 
 qualities in you to which I referred. I, myself, 
 want you to go. 
 
 " I will, Mr. President. " 
 
 Colonel Walker gave Willy one triumphant, 
 meaning glance and begged them not to hurry 
 away. 
 
 " Our relations revert," said Willy to Big, as 
 they passed into the street. " You ll get your 
 chocolate drops regularly every week, Excel 
 lency. 
 
 " Stop such nonsense ! I won t have it ! 
 
 In a bearish hug, Jim Harden, the big fellow, 
 threw his arms around Willy, the little fellow, 
 mindless of the attention they attracted, and shook 
 him good-naturedly. 
 
 " Willy, you re my best friend! " he said. 
 " You really don t think I m a quitter! " 
 
 " Yep! Willy answered. " Squeeze me to 
 death but you are ! 
 
 The Big Fellow released him. 
 
 " Come on, Excellency. I m a busy man. Tak 
 ing two lessons to-day. Jump in! Let me drive 
 you back to your rooms." 
 
 " I ll walk," the Big Fellow said, disconsolately 
 and out of temper. 
 
238 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Deserter and quitter! " Willy called, as he 
 speeded away. " You re a stuffed Olympus with 
 the sawdust running out. That s what you are ! r 
 
 Willy was an individualist and full of char 
 acter, as Uncle Theodore said; and as Big was 
 leaving the city the next day, this might be the 
 farewell of his dearest friend. 
 
XXIII 
 
 A BIG, SIMPLE MAN IN LOVE 
 
 WREN a big, simple man with the boyish 
 heart of sixteen and some of the wisdom 
 of sixty falls in love, the abounding im 
 pulse and faith of sixteen urging him on and the 
 wisdom of sixty bidding him pause and consider, 
 neither " Araminta s Hope " nor the thousand 
 books will help him. He must make a law for 
 himself. 
 
 The Big Fellow hastened to finish his business 
 in the city and in Washington, the sooner to begin 
 his holiday. It pleased him not to name the day 
 that he should reach Bolton. He would appear 
 before the family as a surprise. The time of his 
 going should depend on Ellen. It might be within 
 two days or two weeks. Yes, two weeks would be 
 time enough to make his happiness complete, he 
 thought in a moment of wild hope. 
 
 For boyish sixteen was having its way and fool 
 ish old sixty was getting its just deserts. No 
 graduate girl maturity should be allowed to break 
 that bargain he had made with a two-braid girl. 
 He would laugh her out of any such idea. She 
 should still listen to his secrets. They would walk 
 
240 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 together and they would sit together in the moon 
 light. 
 
 He would tell her of all that happened in Colonel 
 Walker s office, which it would never do to tell 
 Madame Mother, and of his long talk with the 
 President, and the cold, legal, Important Member 
 of the Cabinet; of how the President had said: 
 " It may not seem as important to you as the 
 bench, but it means that you may bring the light 
 and the law to an whole people. We are sending 
 school-teachers, but with you is the opportunity to 
 implant a greater thing in the minds of the 
 natives. " All this he knew she would understand, 
 not legally, not in detail, but in a sympathy which 
 is the nerves to the muscles of a man s strength 
 when he undertakes a task in which others have 
 failed. 
 
 And then? No quibble could stop him. There 
 was a good deal of Jim Harden to fall in love and 
 it had all fallen in completely. How he should 
 express his feelings to Ellen no longer puzzled him. 
 The words would come, he knew. This mighty 
 thing would flow out of his heart in a flood. There 
 would be no stopping it. 
 
 If she would if she would go with him to the 
 altar of the little church in Bolton! " It s too 
 good! It s too good! It would make me too 
 proud! I believe it would make me great! " he 
 said many times to himself. 
 
 " Too good! He spoke it once aloud, break 
 ing the silence of their rooms and making Uncle 
 Theodore start. Uncle Theodore, expert in youth- 
 
A BIG, SIMPLE MAN IN LOVE 
 
 ful romance, student of all the signs of smitten 
 hearts, concluded that this exclamation was caused 
 by something in the papers which his disciple was 
 overlooking before finally filing them away. Was 
 any other hypothesis likely from a bachelor whose 
 knowledge of the ways of lovers was entirely liter 
 ary! Had the afflicted one written on a piece of 
 paper " and he (the hero) sighed and in a trans 
 port, " etc., Uncle Theodore would have under 
 stood the situation at once. Oh, the thousand 
 books which he thought he knew so well ! 
 
 If she would! An affirmative gave Big wing- 
 spread possibilities in a clear sky. It made him 
 happy to be out of the judgeship, which, with all 
 his attachment to the bench, in some way fettered 
 growing qualities in his mind. The prospect of 
 having her with him on that voyage to a strange 
 shore, where his career was to be unbottled in 
 some new form of genii, carried him over many 
 pleasant streams in a way that was too fast or 
 too lingering to win the approval of a judicial 
 temperament. And did he think she would con 
 sent! What does sixteen! It hopes. It goes with 
 heart on sleeve, partisan and pleading. 
 
 Out of the car window on his homeward trip he 
 saw palm trees as shadowing backgrounds for an 
 individual. The first object to define itself pro 
 nouncedly in that Middle Western landscape was 
 the big tree under which he and she had found 
 shelter from the storm. Before the afternoon was 
 over they might be sitting on one of its roots, with 
 no splintered lightning to interrupt their colloquy. 
 
THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 He did a thing in suggestive contradiction to the 
 day when he came from college a self-borne 
 caravan, by having a boy carry his bag from the 
 station. Then, with a new attention to such de 
 tails, he looked through his pockets to see if there 
 were any bulging contents that ought to be re 
 moved. When one is about to fly he wants no im 
 pedimenta. 
 
 His bonhomie had an aerial abstraction as he 
 greeted passers-by in the main street. Always his 
 steps were light. Although tall and sturdily built, 
 he had little spare flesh and he carried himself in 
 such a way that people who saw him for the first 
 time said: " What a cheery, big fellow! " and 
 never, l i Isn t he enormous ! He walked rapidly, 
 answering the call of sixteen to the scene of play, 
 smiling at all the world, which could not do other 
 wise, if it were polite, than smile back at him. Was 
 not he saying : What a fine world it is ! all the 
 way until he glanced at the church door and asked 
 himself another question, whose answer might 
 make it a most dour world, indeed? 
 
 No one was in sight at the house except Epami- 
 nanidad, who was mowing the lawn. 
 
 Hello, Pam ! Always on the job, aren t you ! 
 Big called. " How re the folks? " 
 
 Pam dropped the lawn-mower handle abruptly, 
 mumbling " Fo de Lawd s sake! " to himself. 
 He did not make any other answer to the Big 
 Fellow s greeting except to shake his head in a 
 troubled way and start across the lawn. 
 
 " Surprised you, eh? " 
 
A BIG, SIMPLE MAN IN LOVE 243 
 
 " Yissah, yo did, yissah! But dat am it no, 
 dat ain it," and his voice quavered. " No, sah, 
 dat ain it, an I bettah keep my mouf shut, kase 
 it ain fo me to say." 
 
 " What is the matter? What makes you so 
 glum! Anyone ill? " Big asked, with a sudden 
 change of manner. 
 
 Pam s misery was interwoven with mystery. 
 
 " No, sah. Nobody s ill. Ev ybody s jes too 
 lively an spry. Aunt Julia, she was dat mad she 
 was a-tearin up an down de po ch. Ise hopin 
 she s ca med a li l by dis time. But tain fo me 
 to say, no, sah. De lawn didn need it nohow, but 
 I says right away when de ructions began, I says, 
 Ise gwine to mow it all over gain to-day so s to 
 keep my min kerrected." 
 
 * What is it! What is it? Stop talking around 
 the bush! " 
 
 " Tain fo me to say." He hesitated as he 
 started to return to his work. "I d laugh at em, 
 I would," he whispered, confidentially. " Tain 
 so easy, tain so easy, dough, to laugh at dem two 
 old ladies, when dey is ridin high." 
 
 Some family difference; some minor accident; 
 or, possibly, the servant had given notice, the Big 
 Fellow told himself. Whatever it was he would 
 soon make it right. 
 
 Aunt Julia must have at least partially 
 " ca med," for she was seated in the sitting-room 
 with Madame Mother, the blinds being drawn to 
 shut out the bright afternoon light. Both had 
 their work-baskets, and a little psychologic per- 
 
244 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 ception would have shown that they were in the 
 process of " thinking " very hard. The sound 
 of Jimmy s step prepared them for his entrance. 
 In their distraction they greeted him simply and 
 less effusively than usual. " Why, Jimmy! " they 
 both exclaimed, and then they exchanged glances. 
 
 So far as they were concerned, his plan of a 
 surprise was not a brilliant success. But that 
 feature scarcely occurred to him. He was ab 
 sorbed in the joy of his return. 
 
 " Here I am, home home! " he told them. 
 " Consider me an idler! I ve nothing to do except 
 to play about the old place; nothing to do but 
 enjoy looking into your faces and drink in all that 
 home means ! Pet me, spoil me, praise me, scold 
 me, make me stand in a corner if I steal jam, send 
 me to bed early, make me split wood, mow the 
 lawn, or wash dishes, and wake me early. But I ll 
 have a sick headache oh, awfully bad, mother, 
 and sudden if you ask me to go to school! " 
 
 Madame Mother joined in the spirit of the oc 
 casion with a flitting beam of happiness, as she 
 surveyed him proudly. Aunt Julia endeavored to 
 smile as she knit in repressed fury. 
 
 " There s a lot I can do, too," he continued. 
 " Don t you think this wall paper is getting a 
 little dingy? I ll tell you what! We ll hire a 
 double-seated carriage and go to Stottstown for 
 some new rolls and I ll hang it ! 
 
 To this he received no answer except another 
 smile, which he accepted as an affirmative, as he 
 looked about the room and recollections of his boy- 
 
A BIG, SIMPLE MAN IN LOVE 245 
 
 hood days were springing to mind from the 
 touchstone of familiar objects. His sweeping 
 glance was arrested by a portrait of a little girl 
 with braids, and he rose and opened the blind and 
 slanted the frame sideways in order that he might 
 see it better. 
 
 66 Oh, but isn t that good of Ellen! She hasn t 
 changed much, has she 1 
 
 Was it something concerning her, he suddenly 
 thought, that made Pam so miserable! 
 
 " Where is she! Where is she! " he asked. 
 
 Aunt Julia increased the speed of her needles. 
 Her lips moved nervously, but not in speech. 
 
 i She is out, Madame Mother answered. 
 
 " I ll find her. Oh, I ll give her a surprise. 
 Where had I best begin to look! " 
 
 The way in which Madame Mother glanced at 
 Aunt Julia showed that further light must come 
 from her sister. Aunt Julia stopped knitting with 
 spasmodic abruptness. She spoke starkly: 
 
 i She s out in an automobile with Ned Walker ! 
 
 We may excuse one in an aerial frame of mind, 
 fresh from the city, for the response of his sense 
 of humor to the picture of the two old ladies so 
 overwrought in their conscientious views of what 
 seemed to him only a passing disappointment for 
 himself other afternoons were coming, however 
 and otherwise, unless to him, a negligible 
 incident. 
 
 " Horrors! " he exclaimed, unthinkingly, and 
 broke into a laugh. 
 
 " It s not a laughing matter, Jimmy," Madame 
 
246 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Mother reproved him sharply. He saw tears start 
 ing in Aunt Julia s eyes. 
 
 " That is not all," Aunt Julia resumed. " He 
 called her Ellen when he came and it seems she s 
 seen a lot of him. Indeed, he has been paying 
 attention to her quite regularly while she was at 
 school." 
 
 " Well, little aunt, what if he has? He s not a 
 hobgoblin and she is " 
 
 " Jimmy, did you know of this! Of their rides 
 together on the Hudson? It was Madame 
 Mother s turn, in the division of authority, to ask 
 this question. 
 
 " I do know that she is young " 
 
 Aunt Julia shook her head in sad conviction. 
 
 " You admit it, then. You have been an acces 
 sory! And she told nothing to me to me, the 
 nearest person in the world to her ! She deliber 
 ately deceived me ! 
 
 The Big Fellow was getting a little out of 
 temper. 
 
 " No. We re taking it too seriously, just be 
 cause his name is Walker. Why shouldn t she go 
 riding? Why shouldn t she have friends? Why 
 shouldn t she enjoy life? " 
 
 " Not by deception," Aunt Julia insisted. " No. 
 not by deception." 
 
 61 She couldn t deceive anyone. She is day 
 light! " 
 
 4 And you defend her action ! This from his 
 mother, with a gasp. 
 
 * * Far be it from me to defend one who needs no 
 
A BIG, SIMPLE MAN IN LOVE 
 
 defense. Soon she will be back radiant and we ll 
 welcome her and remember that we were young 
 once ourselves/ 
 
 How could he ever reconcile them in their little 
 world, in which motes of pleasure might be beams 
 of transgression, to the life of the outer world, he 
 asked himself, after he had kissed them both on 
 the forehead and patted Aunt Julia s hand with 
 out receiving a word in response and started 
 alone over the fields which he and Ellen had 
 tramped together a week before! 
 
 On top of the hill under the big tree he rested 
 for a long time, watching the road toward Colonel 
 Walker s country place. With the waves of fear, 
 of disappointment, of inquiry that passed over 
 him his reason permitted no cousinship. Why 
 shouldn t she go! She did not know that he was 
 coming home. He made sport of himself in having 
 been the victim rather than the cause of a sur 
 prise, which served him right, perhaps. Yes, 
 other afternoons were coming which would be his. 
 Then he would speak. His resolution on this 
 score was not in the slightest weakened. Nothing 
 should prevent his telling all he felt, now. 
 
 With sunset yellowing the ribbon of dust that 
 lay between the dark lines of the fences, over 
 which no welcome flash of the brass of motor 
 fittings had passed, he returned to the house to a 
 solemn supper with one seat vacant. The two old 
 ladies manner and his denoting no change of 
 view, if not the presence of Pam, would have kept 
 them from mentioning the absent one. 
 
248 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 After the table was cleared, Madame Mother 
 and Aunt Julia went back to their knitting. He 
 saw that if any talk were to break the strain of 
 churchly monotony it must come from him. In his 
 search for a topic to divert them he found, as one 
 always does when he wishes to be amusing, that 
 lively narration will not come to order. Audience 
 and speaker had the same fault ; their minds were 
 elsewhere. Between sentences he was conscious 
 of listening, and he knew that they were. 
 
 He talked of Theodore Dexter a while. Wasn t 
 it odd and enjoyable this new habit of his for fol 
 lowing young hearts in their trials? Madame 
 Mother remarked dryly that Mr. Dexter was in 
 his dotage, evidently; yes, very evidently. Still 
 other tacks Big tried, for he hated to hear the tick 
 ing of the clock and the clicking of Aunt Julia s 
 needles. At eleven Madame Mother rose and 
 turned down the lamp wick. The act had all the 
 significance of preparation for a siege. 
 
 " Perhaps she will stay all night at Colonel 
 Walker s/ he suggested, speaking at last of the 
 common subject of which all three were thinking. 
 " The automobile may have broken down. We 
 may be sure she is safe. Why should we wait up ? 
 Why shouldn t we go to bed? " 
 
 " There s no reason why you shouldn t, 
 Jimmy, was the only encouragement he had, and 
 this from Madame Mother. 
 
 " Aunt Julia, I am sure you love me a little, 
 don t you f He took her hands, which were cold 
 and unresponsive, in his and stopped the needles. 
 
A BIG, SIMPLE MAN IN LOVE 249 
 
 " Do something for your nephew! Just wait till 
 morning and morning will make everything clear, 
 and there will be Ellen at the breakfast table ex 
 plaining and asking your pardon. 
 
 " Do you think I would sleep? " she asked 
 metallically, with an effort at stoical patience 
 with his incomprehension. " Do you not know 
 that I have been responsible for her ever since she 
 was a baby! But, Martha, you need not stay up." 
 
 i i My place is with you, said Madame Mother. 
 
 Here he gave up battling with windmills for 
 want of a proper weapon and sat down at the 
 window, listening to the old clock striking the 
 quarters. 
 
 "Twelve!" Aunt Julia exclaimed, after the 
 last stroke. 
 
 In a few minutes they heard the whir of the 
 cylinders and the lights of the machine as it took 
 the curve of the drive flashed through the window- 
 panes, reflecting the calm, set faces of the wait 
 ing tribunal. The culprit was riding on the front 
 seat alone with Ned. 
 
 " I ve had a glorious time! I wonder if one 
 ever could get tired of it ! " the Big Fellow heard 
 her say. 
 
 " I know a girl I would never tire of," Ned 
 answered; and the moonlight was bright enough 
 for the Big Fellow to see Ned s bare, bent head 
 and his earnestness and grace of pose. He felt a 
 shameful eavesdropper, but what he saw lasted 
 such a short time that the instinct to withdraw 
 was only felt before the little scene was over. 
 
250 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Ellen drew her hand away from Ned, laughing 
 lightly. 
 
 1 It s ridiculous, Ned! " she told him. " Why, 
 you re ten years older than I am! You know it s 
 ridiculous. If you speak of it again I ll refuse 
 ever to go riding with you. 
 
 " Ten years older! " Big repeated, under his 
 breath. 
 
 " I obey for the present till after the next 
 ride," Ned returned, good-naturedly. " Now, if 
 anyone is up, shouldn t I apologize and explain 
 how it was you were kept so late! 
 
 " Oh, no. I can do that. Good-night! " 
 
 The Big Fellow heard her footstep on the porch 
 distantly in a moment when he was transfixed 
 with his own thoughts. If Ned with his youthful- 
 ness for his years and his good looks were too old, 
 how about himself? And what was it Willy had 
 called him? " A stuffed Olympus with the saw 
 dust running out! 
 
 Then she was speaking to him to him first 
 as she stood in the doorway, her hair and hat 
 sparkling with dew and bringing into the room 
 something that made the air vibrate with the joy 
 of living; and though her hands were gloved, as 
 she outstretched them both his went a-tingling at 
 the touch. 
 
 " Oh, Big! I didn t know you were coming! 
 You old fraud ! And you waited up for me ! I do 
 need scolding ! 
 
 With this, she turned to the others, who sat 
 quietly looking at her. 
 
The lights of the machine flashed through the window pane. 
 
A BIG, SIMPLE MAN IN LOVE 251 
 
 " You make me seem wicked! " slie cried to 
 Aunt Julia. " I didn t expect you would wait 
 up for me ! 
 
 " Did you think we would go to bed! " asked 
 Aunt Julia, her accent high-pitched and tremu 
 lous. 
 
 " Why, yes," she answered innocently, in sur 
 prise. " The machine got out of order and I 
 stayed to dinner at the Walkers and the telephone 
 to the village was out of order, too, so I couldn t 
 send word ; and we came home as soon as we could. 
 Oh, I am so sorry ! 
 
 She took two or three quick steps in her con 
 trition, meaning to kiss Aunt Julia and ask for 
 giveness, when the forbidding grimness of Aunt 
 Julia s face made her pause. 
 
 6 You will go to your room at once, Ellen, and 
 wait in the morning till I come in. 
 
 Ellen took a step backward in quivering recoil. 
 The Big Fellow saw her eyelashes lift in wonder 
 and her nostrils tremble with a quick breath. Then 
 she recovered herself and smiled. 
 
 " Why, I was going, anyway, Aunt Julia," she 
 said. " Oh, please don t feel so! I was very 
 thoughtless. I should have insisted on a buggy. 
 But I was hungry and dinner waiting, and after 
 dinner they kept saying every few minutes that 
 the car would soon be ready." She was more 
 than contrite now ; she was appealing. 
 
 1 Hours ! Hours ! Hours there at Colonel 
 Walker s, while we waited and worried here at 
 home ! I ve given my life to your care, Ellen ! " 
 
252 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 There were tears in Aunt Julia s voice and 
 tears in Ellen s. 
 
 " Everything I owe to you everything to you 
 and Big! What was I when I came ? A baby in a 
 blanket ! I do not even remember the faces of my 
 parents." 
 
 So you realize that, at least ! You say you do 
 and so easily ! Aunt Julia was still dry-eyed ; 
 her voice was now metallic. So easily, and you 
 have deceived me. You have known Ned Walker 
 for months. I, who should have been your con 
 fidante, have never been consulted. " 
 
 Ellen hung her head as if confessing guilt, but 
 when she looked up it was into Aunt Julia s eyes 
 serenely : 
 
 " Probably there were little things I might 
 have told you and did not," she said, " but no 
 wrong was meant. I was conscious of none. I 
 was happy. I may have thought that you would 
 not understand unless you were present, and so 
 not have written as fully as I ought. And I am 
 thoughtless and I do like movement, as you 
 know, Aunt Julia." 
 
 Such admissions formed a confession without 
 reparation to the stern old lady. They only 
 pointed her sense of outrage. 
 
 " I taught you not to lie, and you lied! " she 
 declared. 
 
 "No! no! Don t say that! " Ellen pleaded. 
 
 1 i And you Ve done a wanton thing to-night ! 
 
 "No! no! Oh, Aunt Julia, take that back! " 
 Ellen begged ; and she sank on her knees and took 
 
A BIG, SIMPLE MAN IN LOVE 253 
 
 Aunt Julia s hands in hers. " Think, Aunt Julia, 
 think! You do owe me a little! " she said, sob 
 bing. 
 
 Yes, Aunt Julia did owe her a little, the little 
 being the happiness of that household. Had the 
 Puritan guardian never thought that Ellen s 
 proud spirit might sometimes feel the leash of her 
 dependence? That Ellen s thoughts might some 
 times dwell, kind as the household was to her, on 
 that real father and mother whom she had never 
 known? Gratitude and discipline mate well and 
 quietly till the harness breaks. 
 
 " Please just say that you don t believe what 
 you are saying and I ll do anything, anything! 
 Ellen concluded. 
 
 But Aunt Julia s anger fed on anger. Stub 
 bornness would not allow her to make a retraction, 
 even if she thought one were due. 
 
 " I do believe," she rejoined, " that you have 
 done what no right-thinking, respectable girl 
 would do, and after this there is nothing I might 
 not expect! " 
 
 Oh, that French and Irish blood ! It had borne 
 all it could. From contrition it flew into cool pas 
 sion, borne on by a will as strong as Aunt Julia s. 
 That relaxed body which had been bending for 
 forgiveness rose in unyielding steadiness and the 
 eyes that had been pleading with soft lights were 
 afire. 
 
 Madame Mother, watching and listening, her 
 manner plainly showing dissent from Aunt Julia s 
 action, though Ellen was her sister s special care, 
 
254 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 leaned forward and opened her lips as if she 
 would speak ; but Big was ahead of her. 
 
 It s shameful ! You are entirely wrong, Aunt 
 Julia! " he said. 
 
 Then on Madame Mother s face as she looked 
 toward her son who was regarding Ellen in pity, 
 in sympathy, in worship which he was unable to 
 repress appeared the light of a new understand 
 ing, and she was silent. 
 
 Good-night, Aunt Martha. Good-night, Aunt 
 Julia. I ll not be in my room in the morning, 
 Aunt Julia," Ellen said, and went up the stairs. 
 
 The Big Fellow had no thought of his words, 
 which now came quickly. He spoke out of his 
 raging heart : 
 
 You ought to ask her forgiveness after that ! 
 You have done her a cruel wrong, Aunt Julia! 
 You will be sorry for it in the morning. This 
 minute we ought all to go on our knees to her! 
 The worst of her is better than all our virtues to 
 gether! " 
 
 Madame Mother was only firm, properly firm, in 
 keeping with her view of the situation, as she 
 said: 
 
 Jimmy, I am sorry to see that you are not yet 
 entirely cured of your temper. This is clearly a 
 case for Julia s authority, with which you and I 
 have nothing to do." 
 
 I have everything ! " he answered. 
 
 Madame Mother shook her head at him, compre- 
 hendingly; and the pleader, put out of court, ran 
 upstairs, calling to Ellen: 
 
A BIG, SIMPLE MAN IN LOVE 255 
 
 " She doesn t really mean it ! She loves you, as 
 we all do ! I promise you she doesn t realize what 
 she was saying and she will ask you to forgive her 
 the instant that she does " as he was sure that 
 she would. 
 
 Ellen had already closed her door. He knocked. 
 Waiting outside for her to respond, he saw that 
 Ned Walker s automobile had been stopped in the 
 road, evidently by a tire puncture, for he was 
 working over the rear wheel by the light of a 
 lantern. 
 
 66 Do let me speak a word! he persisted. 
 " Consider how Aunt Julia was worried what a 
 martyr to her sense of duty she is and how over 
 wrought! " 
 
 Now she did answer, quietly from within : 
 
 " Thank you, Big. I understand. And, Big, I 
 see Ned s machine is broken down out by the gate. 
 He will gladly come for me in the morning and 
 take me to Stottstown. Will you send Pam to say 
 that I ask him to come over at seven ? 
 
 " Oh, no, Ellen! Please wait a little. I ask 
 you to old Big asks you! 
 
 She seemed not to hear him; or, if she heard, 
 not to consider what he said. 
 
 i Never mind. I can do it myself. That s bet 
 ter, anyway." 
 
 She opened the door to come out just as 
 Madame Mother and Aunt Julia were at the head 
 of the stairs. There in the hall they paused and 
 she paused for a brittle second, their faces white 
 in the flicker of the candlelight. 
 
256 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Now, Aunt Julia, " he begged, " you see the 
 result. She s going away! You re driving her 
 out! You re breaking my heart! 
 
 If she chooses to run away from me after all 
 I have done Aunt Julia began. 
 
 " No! Not that! That is not fair! " he in 
 sisted. 
 
 Perhaps Aunt Julia, who had done all out of 
 love, agreed with him in her heart. She did not 
 finish the utterance of that reproach. 
 
 1 I cannot stop her. She is of age ! And 
 with her leading, she and Madame Mother passed 
 on to Madame Mother s room. 
 
 Ellen, still, cold, her expression masklike, waited 
 on the end of the interview as a release from the 
 futile and unbearable and hastened, without hav 
 ing spoken, down the stairs. What a message her 
 action had for the Big Fellow! In her hour of 
 need she passed him by to go to Ned Walker ! 
 
 There was no other sound except her footsteps. 
 His thoughts threshing, he heard her unbolt the 
 door. Through the hall window he saw a slim 
 figure, intent purpose in its aspect, flit across the 
 lawn to Ned Walker. Their faces he could not see 
 or guess their words. All this was wrapped in 
 the mystery of the night and the moonlight. She 
 spoke to Ned for a moment and then came running 
 back. Big heard her bolt the door, and when she 
 returned he was standing exactly where she had 
 left him. 
 
 1 i Ellen ! He was going to speak all he had in 
 his heart. 
 
A BIG, SIMPLE MAN IN LOVE 257 
 
 She stopped him by the very quickness of her 
 manner if not of her words, which bore at their 
 outset the finality of a parting message. 
 
 " Ned will come," she said. " And now, Big, 
 don t! Don t hurt me by saying anything more. 
 It will always be the same between you and 
 
 me " her voice caught and she paused, only 
 
 to proceed passionately " and I ll write to the 
 potentate, if I may. 
 
 Then that winning impulse of his in great 
 crises, as concentrated as a rifle s course to its 
 target, sent his blood whipping in his veins. He 
 wanted to take her in his arms, to say that she 
 should not go without him, for he loved her. But 
 will held impulse in control. What right had he, 
 the big one, the Judge, the Governor, the man on 
 the threshold of middle age, to presume on his 
 position as her guardian and benefactor, which 
 he knew that he was in her eyes! He could see 
 that she was smiling and the thought that she 
 could smile smote him an ill student of a 
 woman s smile. 
 
 Will you tell Pam to help me with my trunk 
 at seven? " she asked. " And you would not like 
 to be pled with if you were in my place, would 
 you, Big? I can t help what I am doing. Things 
 are too splintery. A few hours will not change my 
 view. It s just I what is in me stubbornness 
 anything! I could not sit down to breakfast in 
 this house in the morning I should choke! I 
 can t do anything but go. And you try to dissuade 
 me you when the whole thing is hard enough 
 
258 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 with without that! Good-night, Big. Good 
 night, Governor of the tropic island! " 
 
 She dwelt on the word " Governor " as she held 
 out her hand frankly. He took it, but in the bar 
 est interval it was withdrawn and she was back in 
 her room, while he stood, a forlorn statue in the 
 dim light, that scene by the automobile reproduc 
 ing itself to his mind as one in which her blithe- 
 ness seemed truly at home. She had spoken to 
 Ned with an unmistakable fondness. Her censure 
 of Ned s persistence had had the playfulness of 
 one little offended. The Big Fellow thought now 
 that he understood everything. Yet, one more 
 effort would he make for her sake. 
 
 " Madame Mother! Aunt Julia! " he called, 
 as he rapped on his mother s door. 
 
 No answer came. 
 
 Madame Mother ! Aunt Julia ! She s going ! 
 Won t you let me say one word for you to her? 
 
 " We are praying, Jimmy," Madame Mother 
 responded. 
 
 " We shall not change," said Aunt Julia. " It 
 is her place to speak first." 
 
 Too much respect he had for Ellen s position, 
 too much respect for his own, now, to be present 
 at her departure. With dew-soaked boots he 
 marched and countermarched over the fields, mak 
 ing a new bargain with life; and from the hill he 
 saw the machine speeding along the road toward 
 Stottstown shortly after seven. When he re 
 turned he went to his room and began to pack. 
 
 " I am sorry, but I can t stay after she has 
 
A BIG, SIMPLE MAN IN LOVE 259 
 
 gone," he told his mother, gently. " I want to be 
 at my work. I will start at once. 
 
 By leaving that afternoon he could catch an 
 earlier steamer than he had planned. Madame 
 Mother and Aunt Julia, pale and haggard, but 
 uplifted by that Puritan conviction, which is its 
 own solace, of duty done, understood how little 
 holiday, after what had happened, there would be 
 in that house in the week to come. Though suffer 
 ing keenly in their hearts, they conspired that his 
 parting should not be gloomy. For this was a 
 matter having nothing to do with his opinions or 
 theirs. What were a few days to Madame Mother 
 with the span of sixty years behind her, when she 
 lived in another s progress rather than his pres 
 ence? In time he would return from his island, 
 his great work done, and all would be well. She 
 was hopeful. She gave him a little advice. Moist- 
 eyed, yet speaking cheerfully far more cheer 
 fully than he in her pride of him, she bade him 
 Godspeed on his mission. 
 
 As Epaminanidad, the true philosopher of the 
 household, had said, you couldn t take a step in 
 the dark in that family without bumping into 
 * some kara&ter f urnichur. 
 
XXIV 
 
 DOUBLE PAY FOE ABC S 
 
 " TT DUNNO why yose gwine an I dunno wheah 
 yose gwine, " Pam said, as he and Ned 
 Walker lifted the trunk into the tonneau; 
 " but dey s one t ing I do know, jes as kerrect 
 an easy. I knows mah heart s with yo an yose 
 right. An , Miss Ellen a lean and stooped old 
 figure, with grizzly, kinky hair and dusky, 
 wrinkled skin bluish in the early light, he looked 
 into her eyes, appealingly " Miss Ellen, some 
 times a pusson has a kind o deep feelin he cain t 
 spress in any other way an , Miss Ellen, I d 
 like to kiss yo hand." 
 
 " You old silly! " she said. " You old dear! " 
 she added, her voice catching, and she held out 
 her slim, beautiful hand while he made a cere 
 monial of touching his lips to the fingers. 
 
 " Miss Ellen, keep cheerful. All de clouds roll 
 by jes as easy, jes as easy, when yo keeps cheer 
 ful. Good-by!" 
 
 Ned threw in the gear, and Pam stepped back 
 from the machine with tears glistening on his 
 cheeks. 
 
 " There is someone else who kisses your hand," 
 Ned suggested. 
 
 260 
 
DOUBLE PAY FOR ABC S 261 
 
 " Not in that house, I fear," she said, absently. 
 
 " Well, speaking for myself, IVe been more 
 ambitious, " he returned. 
 
 " And not very successful." 
 
 "Wholly unsuccessful. Which way?" he 
 asked. " To Stottstown, I suppose." 
 
 " Yes, of course, and then I ll direct you," 
 she answered. 
 
 Why had she not mentioned that she wished to 
 go to Stottstown before she went into the house 
 last evening? Why had she sent for him so sud 
 denly? It was not for him to conjecture about 
 private matters. But they did concern him if 
 he had been a cause. So he put a question : 
 
 " It was all right? They understood why you 
 were so late? " 
 
 " I don t know just how much they understood. 
 There was a little quarrel. I m going away." 
 
 He would explain, he began earnestly ; he would 
 write a note; he would but she stopped him. 
 
 " That is all over. It s very good of you to 
 take me, Ned," she said, definitely, looking di 
 rectly at him for the first time since she had come 
 down the steps and then almost immediately 
 back to the road, which was flowing no faster 
 than her thoughts. 
 
 He could not keep away from the topic which 
 she had forbidden. 
 
 " Come to our house to stay!" he begged. 
 1 1 Oh, I wish you would stay forever ! My mother, 
 I know, would like to have you, and father is fond 
 of you, and yes, he d like to have you." 
 
262 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Do you think the Colonel really would? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " I know he would! You you mustn t think 
 family rows have any influence with him on this 
 score. 
 
 Xed stole such glances at her face as his atten 
 tion to the machine would permit. Her pallor 
 was passing with the rush of the air. Her absorp 
 tion in her troubles, the traces of pain in the lines 
 of the mouth, made sympathy urge on his suit. 
 
 " Xo, no! He doesn t care, either, whether you 
 have money if that makes you hesitate. Xo, 
 he s not selfish that way. He is selfish only in 
 that he loves the game of making money and 
 beating his enemies. He loves it as an opium 
 fiend loves opium. Yes, that part would be all 
 right. What does it matter if it isn t! He could 
 go to the devil if you would only say " 
 
 By this time his earnestness had so far invaded 
 her preoccupation that she was hearing him quite 
 distinctly. This outburst, she suddenly realized, 
 must be the result of some question, indistinct 
 in her memory, which she had asked him about 
 the Colonel just to make conversation. 
 
 k * Xed, you agreed and, Xed, now. of all 
 times ! " she pleaded, with a little cry, which made 
 him ashamed and confused. 
 
 "Oh, I m a brute! " he exclaimed. " But I 
 couldn t help it, and if if " (with conviction) 
 " if I couldn t help it, doesn t that show how 
 deeply I feel? Doesn t it. 
 
 " Yes;" and she had to smile at his ingenu- 
 
DOUBLE PAY FOR ABC S 263 
 
 ousness, which, in a handsome man, has its 
 attraction. 
 
 They were nearing the private road which led 
 to the Walkers country place. 
 
 " You ll come up for breakfast, won t you? 
 he asked. 
 
 She started at the suggestion. 
 
 " No, no! " She spoke with a touch of impa 
 tience which a second thought told her was incon 
 siderate. " Xo, Xed," she said, more gently; and 
 he had another glimpse of her eyes begging for 
 comprehension from under the curtains of the 
 wonderful lashes. " I m not hungry and unless 
 you are, I d really like to keep right on to Stotts- 
 town. Is that too far? It is so good of you to 
 bring me." 
 
 " I could take you clear to Xew York without 
 getting hungry, myself," he said. 
 
 She had to smile at him for this. It was a 
 pleasant compliment after one has been called 
 wanton. 
 
 " You re going beyond Stottstown, aren t 
 you! " he asked, greedily, over the prospect that 
 rose before him. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Then we ll have breakfast there at the hotel. 
 Shall we? May I? " 
 
 " Y r es, of course you may," she answered. 
 
 11 Splendid ! Splendid ! " Oh, but I ll enjoy it ! " 
 Xed cried. 
 
 His thoughts were all of the breakfast as they 
 sped along, while she was trying to think, think, 
 
264 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 think how she could earn money, just as Big, she 
 reminded herself, had had to think ten years 
 before when he set out for the city. 
 
 Ned picked flowers from the hotel-keeper s gar 
 den and, lacking a vase, put them in a pitcher 
 for the table, and he made believe there was never 
 such another meal in the world as this in the cool 
 of a summer morning. He was quite in a mood 
 to have it last all through the forenoon; only she 
 insisted that they proceed to the home of a school 
 girl comrade some ten miles beyond Stottstown. 
 There he carried the trunk onto the porch in the 
 best porter s style, and doffing his cap suggested 
 that it was " a hot day, Miss," as if a tip would 
 relieve the temperature considerably. She gave 
 him a five-cent piece, which he reverently put in 
 his pocket. 
 
 " You have been good about this, Ned," she 
 told him. " You ve made it easier by being so 
 light-hearted. 
 
 He knew something that would make him really 
 light-hearted, but he could not say that in the 
 presence of Miss Tyson, the girl friend. 
 
 "I m coming to take you both out for a spin, if 
 I may," he said; " and is there anything else I 
 can do for you? " 
 
 " Yes, Ned," she answered, " if you would send 
 word to the post-office at Bolton to forward any 
 letters or, no, I can write as well." 
 
 " No, you can t not nearly. I ll go right over 
 before I return." Then he called from the ma 
 chine before departing, in triumph: " I ve got a 
 
DOUBLE PAY FOR ABC S 265 
 
 better way. I ll bring your mail every day ;" and 
 before he could be answered, this young-old mil 
 lionaire s son, who was a puzzle to his father, was 
 out of hearing. 
 
 Ned kept to his schedule with faithful regu 
 larity. When there was nothing for her at the 
 Bolton post-office, he thought it was his duty to 
 go and tell her so. One morning he brought her 
 a letter with the address in a firm, copperplate 
 hand. She did not read it at the time. Even 
 when she went to her room she laid it on the 
 bureau until after luncheon. When, finally, she 
 tore open the envelope and breathlessly caught 
 its sense, she told herself that everything was as 
 she wished. All the nonsense was out of her head, 
 and happily he had never had any in his, she 
 thought. She laughed at herself a " profession 
 ally cheerful " laugh. The Big Fellow had writ 
 ten from the train, and he had not mentioned that 
 he had left home on her account before his holiday 
 was over. A part may be quoted: 
 
 " Here I am speeding at forty miles an hour on 
 my ten-thousand-mile journey, with all the mar 
 vels to unfold at the end. Am I to be the jewel of 
 wisdom in the forehead of a people, as you sayf 
 It s a beautiful idea and romantic, but, between 
 you and me, I seem to be one of the bearers of 
 the little red schoolhouse and the town meeting; 
 one of the instruments to show the Tongals how 
 to be wise for themselves, without depending on 
 anyone s else wisdom, which is the true American 
 
266 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 way. Flattery though it is, I m extremely pleased 
 to be called a jewel of wisdom by a competent 
 authority such as yourself. 
 
 " All of Lincoln s speeches are in my trunk. 
 Could I make this people understand him, it seems 
 as if my mission were all accomplished and my 
 mind perfectly corrected, as Pam says. 
 
 " I have also a score of books about the Eastern 
 peoples Chinese, Japanese, Malays, Indians, and 
 all the rest. You can picture me poring over 
 them on the voyage, somewhat ticklish about ac 
 cepting made-to-order opinions, for no other coun 
 try s experience will fit the situation when you 
 are taking the little red schoolhouse to such a 
 destination. 
 
 " Imagine me forgetting everything else in my 
 work (untruth No. 1, from a Governor who 
 ought to tell the truth), " striving for patience 
 and really to be that jewel of wisdom, with many 
 a big brother s " (untruth No. 2) " thoughts for 
 your happiness and welfare, believing in your 
 own rare jewel of brightness, goodness, and wis 
 dom. I put wisdom last, you see, and put bright 
 ness first. Will you not write to me? Tell me all 
 you are doing. Every detail will interest me 
 when I am so far from home. 
 
 " BIG." 
 
 They were to be good friends and correspond, 
 like comrade brother and sister, two-braid bar 
 gains forgotten in their maturity. She wrote to 
 him at once, saying what a splendid thing it was 
 
DOUBLE PAY FOR ABC S 267 
 
 that he could bend his whole mind to a task that 
 would be disagreeable to most men and telling 
 him what a good time she was having. 
 
 But he would not this thought occurred to her 
 afterward no, of course he would not think that 
 what she was about to do was because of any 
 
 of any Of course not. Why should he? Had 
 
 she ever given him any reason to suppose such 
 a thing? Wasn t she going on her own responsi 
 bility, not even mentioning to the authorities that 
 she knew him? 
 
 " It s abc s to little brown children and no 
 math, 7 as she told Miss Tyson, confessing her 
 secret, " and I do know my abc s, and it s double 
 any pay I could get at home and she would like 
 to travel and that was all there was to it. 
 
 For recommendations she required only that 
 of the famous school on the Hudson Eiver, whose 
 principal wrote that " you are foolish, I think, 
 as a good many who are going I am afraid are not 
 very nice " " nice " being a favorite word of 
 the writer which made one Miss Destiny, of 
 Plymouth Kock and Virginia, who had never been 
 so hard pressed for help of the right kind in any 
 crisis, most grateful to enlist Miss Ellen Moore. 
 
 She was going away without another glimpse 
 of the old house or of Aunt Julia and Madame 
 Mother, to whom she had sent her address when 
 she first arrived at Miss Tyson s. " You are wel 
 come here always when you show some appre 
 ciation of your offense and some contrition," 
 Aunt Julia, suffering, had written stiffly in an- 
 
268 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 swer. Ellen wrote again the night before her 
 departure was arranged, saying she was well and 
 had found a position as a teacher. That letter 
 cost her many tears, because she could not speak 
 either of the love or the pain in her heart without, 
 it seemed to her, asking forgiveness for having 
 been wanton. That she would never do. 
 
 Of her dectination she had said nothing what 
 ever to Ned, who took her to the station in his 
 car. Miss Tyson was along, of course ; but he did 
 manage to be alone with Ellen for a moment. 
 
 " I haven t your address yet," he said, plan 
 ning to follow in the automobile, if he could; if 
 not, in a Pullman. 
 
 " The island of Bar," she answered. 
 
 Ned dropped her trunk check in his surprise. 
 Nonplused, speechless, he bent to pick it up, 
 groping for it on the flagging in broad daylight. 
 
 " This isn t fair!" he declared, in sober 
 reproach. 
 
 61 Why, yes, Ned, it is and quite necessary 
 when you don t know math and you get double 
 pay for teaching brown children their abc s," 
 she answered. " Besides, I forbade one topic 
 from the first. And, Ned now don t look as if 
 I were so cruel I m not the first one. You ve 
 so many interests that you ll soon forget. Think 
 if I had accepted you at first what a position you 
 would be in! 
 
 " Oh, I know," he stammered, a culprit con 
 victed, * I know all about what can be said on that 
 score. I " Miss Tyson here rejoined them and 
 
DOUBLE PAY FOR ABC S 269 
 
 the block signal tinkled out the tram s approach. 
 i i But this, I thought, he concluded, with a brave 
 effort, " was to be rather permanent/ 7 
 
 Looking out of the car window she waved her 
 hand to him as he stood on the station platform 
 beside Miss Tyson. He brightened, and, without 
 regard to appearances, from the tips of his 
 fingers, handsomely, he blew her a kiss, which was 
 as near as he nad ever come to the real article. 
 
BOOK III 
 XXV 
 
 MISS DESTINY MARCHES 
 
 THERE is a young woman called Miss Destiny, 
 who is the guiding spirit of the nation. 
 She is a great care to the folks out Plym 
 outh Eock way, and if you will look at her career 
 in one spirit it is only natural that she should be. 
 Isn t she theirs? Didn t they nurse her in in 
 fancy and in short dresses, with the future 
 uncertain 1 
 
 In fond parental disapproval they have re 
 sented, in turn, all the steps she has taken away 
 from home, although on the Fourth of July, when 
 the steps are recognized as the path of history, 
 they may say, " Look at our noble daughter 
 our daughter! " only to go on worrying and criti 
 cising as soon as the bunting is down and the lit 
 ter of exploded firecracker wrappers swept up. 
 
 Yes, oh, yes! you may be succeeding very 
 well, my dear, but do not forget your mother s 
 principles and beware of the salaaming faithful 
 who believe that whatever the mistress of their 
 adoration does must be right because she does 
 it. Miss Destiny rarely talks back, possibly be- 
 
 270 
 
MISS DESTINY MARCHES 
 
 ing too busy, when she might to some contro 
 versial purpose, with allusions to King Philip s 
 wars and a later generation s irresponsibility for 
 the things that blood will tell. In the fashion of 
 Mrs. Harden, the greater grows the child, the 
 more particular is the parental inclination to keep 
 the child in hand. 
 
 " This is too much! " said the folks out Plym 
 outh Eock way, after that long leap across the 
 Pacific. " You shake the tropical dust off your 
 skirts at once, young lady, and return by the first 
 steamer to Boston, and don t forget to ask for 
 prayers " prayers of foreign colonial secre 
 taries, perhaps. 
 
 Was she unfilial to disobey? No doubt; yet so 
 long had they seen only her receding back that 
 they would scarcely recognize the face of their 
 own offspring if they met her in Back Bay. 
 
 " Don t you know it s sinful and against the 
 Constitution to colonize? " they gasped. " At 
 least, do say you are only visiting! You aren t 
 really laying out quarter sections and getting 
 property rights when sugar is a glut in the mar 
 ket, we grow our own tobacco, and the banana 
 trade is overdone already! " 
 
 16 I m not colonizing. I m doing this thing in 
 my own way," she answered, glancing over her 
 shoulder with an enigmatic smile. 
 
 She is young. She never knows just what she 
 may or may not do. This new departure had been 
 easy, not to say delightful, because she went as 
 the guiding spirit of a victorious squadron, which 
 
272 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 was faster, not to say more sanitary, than the 
 Mayflower. Having concluded to remain tem 
 porarily, she now found that the prospect did not 
 altogether please. Her Emersonian brow was 
 wrinkled by the riddles of a new problem. 
 
 " Come back! Come back, anyway! It s not 
 too late! " insisted the Plymouth Eock folks, re 
 doubling their cries at this stage. 
 
 To yield was to forfeit the very thing which 
 the Plymouth Kock folks thought that she had 
 forfeited by remaining. She would have no right 
 to look the morning sun in the face. 
 
 It was not the first time she had been in trouble. 
 A light-hearted traveler who may trip to the 
 sound of music and compliments, this guiding 
 spirit of the nation is a hard mistress when the 
 band has gone home, the flatterer s words are 
 forgotten, and labor begins. Then she sends gold 
 lace to the rear and calls for men in working 
 clothes. She appeals to a Madame Mother for 
 her son. She casts the silver net of her wiles 
 over such girls as Miss Ellen Moore. 
 
 Kiddy Witherbee was put on her list at the 
 same time as big Jim Harden. All he asked in 
 the world of Miss Destiny was this honor of sit 
 ting beside the Big Fellow on the train, taking 
 notes of letters to be written. A disciple of the 
 disciple was he; and through the windows of his 
 eyeglasses he observed more than most people 
 guessed. 
 
 Pete Maloney s permanency in the courthouse 
 did not mean that the other half of the Big Fel- 
 
MISS DESTINY MARCHES 273 
 
 low s personal political machine was unrepre 
 sented. Was not young Tim, with a touch of his 
 father s brogue, the chaplain of a regiment in that 
 very island of Bar, from which he sent home ac 
 counts which Mrs. Maloney was always quoting. 
 
 "It s a good praste he is. Didn t I have it 
 from the Bishop himsilf that he was! " said she. 
 " An that naden t interfere with his havin a 
 sinse of humor, as the Bishop himsilf says, too. 
 Shure, what he tells about thim haythin makes me 
 cry mesilf asleep a-laughin whin I m wide awake 
 with me pride of him. 
 
 "I ll bet the haythin aren t funny, at all, at 
 all. It s the way he tells it intirely," Pete in 
 sisted. "He s the droll one. Shure, but I d like 
 to seen him in th fight, longside the sojers, him 
 a-forgittin himsilf an th ould blood a-risin up 
 an , in want of a rifle, him a-usin a club ! " 
 
 " Shure, he prayed for the shame of it," re 
 turned Mrs. Maloney. " An I tould the Bishop 
 that, an what d ye think he said! Mrs. Ma 
 loney, says he, * I wouldn t worry. Maybe he 
 wasn t near enough to use his fists. It s a strange 
 counthry an customs are different. " 
 
 But Mrs. Maloney would talk right on through 
 the whole book if permission were given, and with 
 anything Miss Destiny did when Tim was along 
 you may be sure that she would have no quarrel. 
 
 " I will look after the young hearts if you at 
 tend to the great lady," Theodore Dexter had 
 said to the Big Fellow, endeavoring to be cheerful 
 at the railroad station. 
 
274 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Willy Sweetser was not present. In a telegram 
 received on the train, " Have a look at the great 
 country you are passing through and be penitent," 
 his farewell thoughts were spoken. 
 
 By the route which the pioneers answering Miss 
 Destiny s call had taken in their westward march 
 ing, the Big Fellow was traveling across the Mis 
 sissippi and the farms of the plains to the higher 
 levels of the ranges, over the Eockies to the garden 
 spot on the other side, which looks across the 
 world s broadest waters. A few of his many 
 friends scattered through the country, friends 
 made, some of them, in a single meeting, who 
 greeted him at stopping-places, brought him near 
 in feeling to the common quality of all the people 
 of his own land whose ambassador he was to be. 
 
 " We re carrying a message for all our fellow 
 Americans, Kiddy, you and I," he told his 
 secretary. 
 
 " And you re just the one to carry it, Boss, 
 too," said Kiddy. " You re just like America." 
 
 With all local associations in the perspective 
 now, the sweeping panorama of States out of the 
 car window brought Big what he thought was a 
 clearer vision of another affair. He had not re 
 ceived Ellen s letter. All he knew was that she 
 had gone away in Ned Walker s car. Of her 
 sense and taste, his judgment was too sure to 
 allow him any worry on that score. In his heart 
 was a sore and vacant place which he must fill 
 wi^h work, while he had the armor of his laugh 
 and his smile to hide his feelings from the world. 
 
MISS DESTINY MARCHES 275 
 
 Hard plowing on a straight line for him, and the 
 harder the better ! 
 
 Could he believe that Ellen had failed to see 
 the truth behind the actions of an old fellow like 
 himself who had been so thoroughly in earnest? 
 Did not this explain her conduct! Her lack of 
 interest in his journey? Her insistent chatter 
 that afternoon when they ascended Big Tree Hill 
 together! Now he understood that she had not 
 wanted to appear ungrateful to her benefactor. 
 She had aimed to avoid a situation where she 
 would have to say anything to hurt old Big. In 
 the hope of relieving her of any fears, he had writ 
 ten to her in the spirit of comradeship. 
 
 If the knowledge of one human being, which he 
 showed in this letter, was an example of his knowl 
 edge of human nature in general, then the judg 
 ment of the treaty ports of China might be well 
 grounded. Wherever white men gathered, in some 
 corner of the doorstep of a trade route to the 
 yellow and brown millions, ran the titter of amuse 
 ment over the little red schoolhouse. Plymouth 
 Eock and the New England town meetings were 
 coming to the East! How American! How 
 vastly amusing! Had not the British been learn 
 ing the game in India for three hundred years! 
 Did New England schoolma ams know more than 
 British civil servants! 
 
 For this was the view held by the white men 
 in the regions to which he was bound. His route 
 of travel was the usual one. The East he first 
 saw while his steamer stopped in Japan, where 
 
276 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 an ancient civilization, broken out of feudalism 
 by the touchstone of foreign relations, had made 
 a great State. The East he next saw in treaty- 
 port glimpses of the coastal edge of China, with 
 its still older civilization. But from China to the 
 Mediterranean no government has ever been 
 known except that of the autocrat by birth, by 
 conquest, or by appointment from some throne. 
 And that is the great truth of the East, so old, so 
 very old and set in its thought, which sits on an 
 cestral tombs waiting for life to pass; in which 
 through generations has never arisen the idea that 
 children could know more or do differently than 
 their revered grandsires. 
 
 Between Hong Kong and the Red Sea, if we 
 may speak of half the world in a few words, lay 
 India and all the regions where the British rule 
 honestly and build roads and bridges in the op 
 portunism of year-to-year control, but have left 
 no impress on the native mind. To the South lay 
 the islands of a people who were nomadic bands 
 when Spain came, long used to Spanish profit- 
 taking Governors whose hand was hard and 
 this was the Big Fellow s destination. In an in 
 sular outpost of that old, old East he was to try 
 to establish a thing new in half the world, and 
 the thing which was so good to us that the folks 
 out Plymouth Rock way said that either we ought 
 to carry it with the flag or haul the flag 
 down. 
 
 Was the appointed man of Miss Destiny, in 
 whose blood ran the Constitution, tilting against 
 
MISS DESTINY MARCHES 277 
 
 windmills? His career and the success of an idea 
 lay with his patience, his skill, and his humanity. 
 The representatives of the great white races who 
 live in the East, absorb the Oriental faults of 
 the masses among whom they dwell. Our clerk 
 from Hamburg or Tooting, who has four or five 
 Chinese servants and owns a race pony, is a great 
 authority. How could the wisdom of Uncle Theo 
 dore s thousand books, from Palestine to the pres 
 ent, take the place of three or four trips out and 
 back on a P. and 0. or a German liner ! 
 
 Into these communities of the treaty ports came 
 the big young Governor, with his happy " I am 
 glad to meet you s," asking questions of every 
 body he met in his friendly way, as if he had 
 known them a long time. He was like some genial 
 American justice of the peace, they said, with 
 none of the hauteur and the side which you must 
 have oh, positively must ! to rule these Eastern 
 peoples. Out of their great experience they 
 warned him of his folly. Fancy the Islanders 
 learning the use of the ballot ! Why, they would 
 accept kindness as a weakness. They understood 
 nothing but the strong hand. A governor who 
 was not master would not be a governor to them, 
 any more than a soldier with a cornstalk for a 
 rifle would be a soldier. Did he think that the 
 Tongals of Bar were farmers of the Middle West ! 
 (No, he did not, by a long way, we will say for 
 him.) But the philosophical said that he would 
 learn with time, as everybody in the East had, 
 the impracticability of his programme. 
 
278 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " You will see, Governor," he was told, " that 
 you will have to fall back on the old methods." 
 
 " No! " he answered. " I was sent to carry 
 out a different idea or I would not have come. 
 It is not so many centuries since we ourselves 
 thought that we got our food and air by the grace 
 of a lord of the manor, who, naturally, tried to 
 keep us in the illusion by a commanding manner. 
 Gradually our vision has widened and our ca 
 pacity grown. A little of what we have we would 
 transplant. We will give the Tongals schools; 
 we will let them elect their own head men and 
 mayors; we will teach them to creep first, in the 
 hope that they will learn to walk. It may be a 
 long time before they can take their own course 
 without our direction, but that is for time to 
 tell. 
 
 " You say we will only sow the seed of re 
 bellion? I can t believe that will prove true in 
 the end. The pupil will not always misunder 
 stand a patient and honest teacher. I don t think 
 human nature can be so different in Bar but it 
 will respond in self-interest to benefits bestowed." 
 
 Yes, he was a most provoking optimist, this son 
 whom Madame Mother had sent out to look after 
 the foundling, and smiling, even laughing, as he 
 rushed into the arms of the gods who would 
 destroy him. Our clerk from Tooting would 
 like to see him and his little red schoolhouse 
 after he had been on the job for two years. 
 The big American would be lucky if he escaped 
 assassination. 
 
MISS DESTINY MARCHES 279 
 
 But some far-seeing merchants and students 
 and governors were less inclined to sneer. They 
 were only scrutinizing and skeptical and too con 
 scious of the slightness of opportunism s control 
 of the mighty powers that the countless millions 
 might unloose to be cocksure of anything. And 
 was that knight who tilted against the windmills 
 altogether ignoble! Didn t you like him? The 
 treaty ports, whose opinion was worth while, had 
 to like the Big Fellow. 
 
 Miss Destiny trying out an unselfish ideal to 
 salve her conscience for too hasty a leap, if you 
 will with her face set, is little minded to look 
 up the gossips or the old herb doctors for advice. 
 The Big Fellow was as unconscious of the chatter 
 about his inexperience and nai ve inadequacy as 
 a battleship of foam bubbles spinning out from 
 its screw. If all the talk of the China coast had 
 been in his praise, it would not have been worth 
 as much to him as the cablegram he received on 
 the eve of the last stage of his journey. 
 
 Willy Sweetser, you must know, had had a 
 change of heart, such a change as such a heart 
 as Willy s was bound to have. With money in 
 the cashier s drawer of The Sentinel to pay for 
 the shot, he did not allow a rate of one dollar 
 and seventy-five cents a word to blue-pencil his 
 feelings : 
 
 " Did my best to keep you from going. You 
 went. Duty done. I failed. Have been thinking. 
 Light breaks. Apologies, salaams. Governors, 
 islands, judges, brownies, tropical gold bricks not 
 
THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 interfere with true friendship. Editorial to-day 
 Jim Harden will fix that island business. Trust 
 him. All needed was right man. Circulation 
 booming. Studying law hard. Three tutors. 
 Trying to be wise, but prefer you on tap. Hurry 
 up, Big, and finish job. Make you Governor real 
 State. Two years limit allow you stay. Plan 
 ning visit you. Theodore, Mrs. Billings well. 
 Love. Willy." 
 
 We have the word of Kiddy Witherbee, who 
 keeps the record, that the Governor of Bar 
 danced around and around the table, shouting in 
 abandoned, rollicking glee. His friend, his best 
 friend, was won back. 
 
 " More power to you. Welcome to the bar. 
 You can t visit me too soon. You re stuffing 
 your old Olympus with muscle for fray," he 
 cabled in answer. " You and Theodore eat 
 Jerry s to-night and think of me " as they did, 
 ten thousand miles away. 
 
XXVI 
 
 HIS WELCOME TO BAR 
 
 NOW, with their temperate zone chrysalis of 
 wool packed in their trunks, the Big Fel 
 low and Kiddy, clad in their tropical cotton 
 suits bought at a treaty port, were carried south 
 ward by a cruiser of the white navy to seas and 
 skies that became a lighter blue as the sun grew 
 hotter. On the shores of the islands among 
 which they passed, they saw a darker and richer 
 green than they had known before and rows of 
 cocoanut palms where the pearly foam of the surf 
 licked the sandy beaches ; and on the fourth morn 
 ing the mountains of Bar appeared out of the 
 mist. 
 
 The seamen began to prepare one of the steam 
 launches to disembark the passengers; but this 
 was unnecessary. That speck alone on the waters 
 on approaching proved to be a small gunboat of 
 a hundred tons burden, with two Colt s rapid-fire 
 forward and two three-pounders aft. Boiling to 
 the long, low swell the U. S. S. Paktowan, Ensign 
 Roger Clancy commanding, came smartly along 
 side and received the new Governor and his sec 
 retary aboard. A dapper, boyish, round-faced 
 youngster was Clancy, who supplied his guests 
 
 381 
 
282 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 with the only two chairs on his diminutive 
 quarter-deck. 
 
 " You ll have to move about with the sun and 
 sit close to each other, " said he, " or you ll get out 
 of the shade of that postage stamp of an awning." 
 
 " In case your engines break down, I should 
 think you might use a napkin for a sail," said the 
 Governor, cheerily. 
 
 "Yes, if it was reefed she could carry it," 
 Clancy answered. " But she s the navy of Bar, 
 sir, at your service, and I m her admiral, who ll 
 hear nothing against her." 
 
 The Governor thought that he and Clancy 
 would get on first rate together. 
 
 How are things on the island ? " he asked. 
 
 " They re pretty bad. Old General Prairie 
 
 Fire s still swearing " and then Clancy 
 
 stopped, impulsively. 
 
 " General who? " pursued the Big Fellow. 
 
 " General Strong, sir." 
 
 Clancy would not be drawn any further. 
 
 " Just forget I said that, sir. My business is 
 not to call names, but to patrol the rivers and 
 the coast, with an eye to filibusters, and to be 
 ready to fight any time I m wanted. That s all, 
 sir. And after you have looked around I ll be 
 glad to answer any and all questions as intelli 
 gently as I can. And your navy is in a most ef 
 ficient state, Governor," said the Lord High Ad 
 miral of the five bays of Bar, not to mention the 
 many streams. 
 
 When the Americans occupied the island they 
 
HIS WELCOME TO BAR 283 
 
 had found the Pdktowan, a rusty piece of junk, 
 stalled in the mud. Clancy asked the Admiral if 
 he might have her provided he could make her 
 run, and the Admiral gave his consent. So the 
 Ensign had patched and doctored her till she 
 was a great command, to his mind s eye. 
 
 It was an incident in her varied career, and 
 Clancy enjoyed all incidents, to introduce the new 
 Governor to his island. As they steamed toward 
 the harbor, out of its massy green shores devel 
 oped the roofs and the white house-sides and 
 the cathedral tower of Takar. From what he 
 had heard and what Clancy had said, the Big Fel 
 low had not expected a hearty welcome, but he 
 had only half guessed how cold an official recep 
 tion can be. 
 
 The Paktowan proceeded up the turbid Takar 
 Eiver, from which the capital took its name, 
 to the landing-place, which was only a few steps 
 from the plaza. Here the General commanding 
 and his staff and the officers of the garrison were 
 in waiting with two companies of the Sixty-fifth, 
 a rigid line of white faces and khaki on the back 
 ground of white clothes dotted by a hundred or 
 more brown faces. 
 
 One of the natives, a boy of sixteen or seven 
 teen, had edged ahead of the others, his moon face 
 and soft black eyes full of up-gazing wonder at 
 this fair-haired giant. Big, not yet weaned from 
 the habits of home, where man-service is dear, by 
 the habits of the East, where man-service is cheap, 
 came ashore carrying his suit-case. Benito may 
 
284 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 have been drawn on by the Governor s stature 
 or by his smile; at any rate, the Governor, as he 
 spoke to the General, felt a hand next to his on 
 the handle and heard a shrill voice say, " I 
 carry him," and the case was out of his grasp. 
 
 " Here, you imp, get out of that! " said the 
 General, reaching for Benito, who adroitly 
 dodged. 
 
 " I carry him, Great Bigness. No want pay! 
 Benito appealed to the big smile above his head. 
 
 l All right ! Go ahead ! You carry him, my 
 boy," said the Governor, who was being intro 
 duced to the officers. 
 
 Father Tim Maloney, in khaki, with a cross on 
 his shoulders, had meant to wait his turn; but 
 the Big Fellow spied him with a hearty, " Well, 
 how are you, Tim I Are you tongue-tied? " Tim 
 was well, blue eyes dancing with humor. 
 
 Two rattle-trap carriages had been provided, 
 and, with the troops as escort, the Governor and 
 the General and his staff drove into the oblong 
 plaza, with its double rows of palms in the 
 center, the cathedral at one end, the Government 
 Palace at the other, and the barracks and shops 
 and residences of the well-to-do along its long 
 sides. The people, most of them in native attire, 
 their shirts hanging outside their trousers, and 
 some of a lighter complexion, telltale of Spanish 
 blood, in European cut of duck, looked on disin 
 terestedly or loweringly. 
 
 There was little curiosity, except when they 
 remarked the size of the newcomer and compared 
 
HIS WELCOME TO BAR 285 
 
 him to the giant soldier of the General s staff, 
 Major Staton. No shout of welcome came from 
 their lips ; no sign of welcome was in their faces. 
 The Governor felt that but for the row of bay 
 onets he might be put aboard the first steamer, if 
 the charitable had their way, or, more likely, shot 
 on the spot by will of the majority. 
 
 The troops came to rest at the foot of the steps 
 of the big building from which the island had 
 been ruled by Spain, and within the Bishop of 
 the diocese and some local officials received the 
 Governor with Spanish politeness, while he was 
 thinking how he would ever reach the hearts and 
 minds concealed by those expressionless Oriental 
 faces. This roomy, unhomelike Palace, with 
 hardwood floors and bare walls, he was to 
 occupy alone. If Ellen had only come with him ! 
 But why should she? He always became argu 
 mentative when these unbidden thoughts which 
 would not down appeared. Why should he have 
 brought her to this isolated island, with no out 
 look and no diversion, except a problem which 
 most of the world thought un worth solving! 
 
 Instead of playing the sorrowful knight, he had 
 better be getting acquainted with the men of the 
 island who were friendly or, at least, had come 
 to pay their respects. If the General failed to 
 introduce him to any of the officials and leading 
 citizens, Father Tim, ubiquitous, talkative, the 
 life of the party, made good the neglect. Thus 
 we come to a group of new characters, each of 
 which is to play a part in the Big Fellow s career 
 
286 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 and Ellen s, while the old characters in the home 
 land may not be forgotten. He catalogued them 
 at once as a cabinet of first influences. 
 
 No. 1. General " Prairie Fire " Strong, who 
 received his sobriquet from the Indians in his 
 younger days in the Sioux campaign. He was 
 fat, bald, red-faced, with a bristling moustache, 
 and suffered much from the heat. His position 
 as a military autocrat was endangered by the 
 arrival of a civil governor who was to cooperate 
 with him. Against this outrage he had been talk 
 ing ever since he heard the news. His whole idea 
 of a campaign was Indian tactics. It is said that 
 Mrs. Staton, wife of the Major, who formally 
 denied the allegation, once remarked that the 
 prairie fire found the jungle too moist and green 
 to burn. A brave man gone to seed, the General 
 was now complaining and garrulous. He drank 
 heavily, but not more heavily than he swore. His 
 profanity the wits of the garrison had classified 
 in five strings. He fired No. 1 string, and some 
 times No. 2 string in intervals between the blasts 
 of No. 1, when in a great rage. As the situation 
 demanded, the other strings were used, No. 5 
 being amiably conversational and supplying the 
 place of a discriminating adjectival vocabulary. 
 
 No. 2. Felipe Guzman, the Spanish Bishop of 
 the island, in canonicals of spotless white, with a 
 voice whose softness belied his face, which was 
 fat in keeping with his person, while his eyes, 
 having a peculiar wall effect, never seemed to 
 look into yours. It was to him, he said, a source 
 
HIS WELCOME TO BAR 287 
 
 of great gratification that statecraft should have 
 its turn. Statecraft should go hand in hand with 
 strong measures, which were the most merciful 
 under existing conditions. The natives were chil 
 dren, with half-formed minds. They had mis 
 taken liberty for license, and as a father to them 
 he hoped for a consistent policy. For any meas 
 ure of self-government they were quite unfit. 
 
 No. 3. Don Luiz Cortina, called by the natives 
 * The Thinker, 7 a slight, short man with a smooth 
 face, an aquiline nose, bright little eyes, and white 
 teeth, with thin lips drawn over them. He had 
 a slight impediment of speech and a halting of 
 one leg when he walked. In blood he could have 
 been only a quarter native. A lawyer, once a 
 Spanish official, again an agitator against the 
 Spaniards, a graduate of the University of 
 Salamanca, he was known as the best educated 
 man in the Islands. His attitude was one of 
 scholastic disinterestedness and he seemed to 
 agree generally with the Bishop, though once, 
 when neither the Bishop nor the Governor was 
 looking, he gave the Bishop a glance of hate and 
 his teeth showed catlike under his drawn lips. 
 But he was a man of many hates, and soon the 
 Governor was to be numbered among them. 
 
 No. 4. Eugene Willard Parkowitz, the leading 
 hemp dealer and foreign merchant. A pronounc 
 edly British subject, he spoke with a decided 
 English accent, was confident of His Excellency s 
 success, hoped that things could be kept quiet for 
 the hemp season, and was convinced, from his ex- 
 
288 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 perience in India, that a little " side " was very 
 important in keeping down the natives. Parko- 
 witz s British firm often reminded him to keep 
 out of politics and not to trade with the insur- 
 rectoes. He was suspected of both offenses. 
 
 No. 5. Major Edward Staton, about to receive 
 his number as Lieutenant- Colonel ; tall, well built, 
 known as " Eamrod to the natives, and as 
 the " brains of the staff " to the army; a silent 
 man, except when with Mrs. Staton, as they talked 
 things over in their rooms. 
 
 No. 6. William Winterburn Worth, missionary 
 of the Society of the Word, no larger than the 
 average Tongal himself, with a pleasant voice 
 and a quick, nervous manner. He was Parko- 
 witz s favorite joke. " Another example of the 
 half-baked missionary fools who couldn t earn 
 their living at home," expressed the view of that 
 old Eastern expert over his whisky and soda. 
 " A disturbing element," said the Bishop. " I 
 like the little man, I do, bless him! " said Father 
 Tim. 
 
 No. 7. Arthur Thompson, a young American 
 mining engineer, who was interested in the coal 
 mines of the island. 
 
 No. 8. George Horswell, a young Australian, 
 Parkowitz s assistant, whom Parkowitz had tried 
 in vain to have the firm discharge. His superior 
 had led him an unpleasant life, and he and Thomp 
 son were fast friends, both hoping for " some 
 thing better " when the island was pacified: 
 
 And Father Tim we know. Two other charac- 
 
HIS WELCOME TO BAR 289 
 
 ters not present, for a very evident reason, may 
 as well be mentioned at once. Campo, a full- 
 blooded native, was the head of the insurrecto 
 forces in the field. Pardo was a brigand chief, 
 an iconoclast, who took orders from no one and 
 fought after his own fashion. Could you have 
 known the native inner circle, you would have 
 heard it whispered that Cortina s were the brains 
 back of Campo. 
 
 All eight of that catalogue of first influences, 
 and all the others of which they were typical, de 
 pended for their presence upon the bayonet, the 
 Governor saw. Was there no one to speak for 
 those brown and forbidding faces he had seen 
 in the street? Was there no full-blooded native 
 friend of America? he asked the General, and the 
 General took the Governor to headquarters to 
 show him the lone Tongal in the whole benighted 
 island who, in the General s words, was worth 
 the powder to blow him to the hell place. 
 
 " Enrico, the new Governor, Mr. Harden! r 
 said the General, introducing a young Tongal in 
 khaki, who sprang up from his desk with military 
 precision. 
 
 Excellency ! breathed Enrico, bowing to the 
 knee. 
 
 " Enrico fought me once, didn t you, Enrico? " 
 (String No. 5, the amiable one.) 
 
 " Yes, General," with another bow. 
 
 " Yes, he fought well," continued the General. 
 " Now he is for me. Now you re good Indian, 
 eh? " 
 
290 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Yes, General, I am very happy. I love my 
 new country, America! " with the bow. 
 
 " IVe put him on salary. I tell you he gets 
 me more information than all the staff. He talks 
 with the natives and comes and tells me, don t 
 you, eh? " 
 
 " Yes, General. It is a great honor if I can 
 help you against your enemies," with the punc 
 tilious bow. 
 
 " And I ll tell you, by (String No. 3) ! "here 
 the General was giving the civil authorities still 
 another one of the thrusts which the Governor 
 had heard smiling, " he knows his place. He s 
 no town-meeting, agency, good-as-you-are Indian. 
 He doesn t think he ought to mess with the offi 
 cers. You know your place, and you keep it, eh, 
 Enrico? " 
 
 " Yes, General. You are my benefactor who 
 teaches me everything," with the bow. 
 
 There, by the jumping, hyphenated profanities 
 Strings Nos. 3 and 4, you had one loyal native 
 and the only one on the whole damned island 
 that ought to be sunk and washed of all the bare 
 backed, hornet human kind that called it theirs. 
 Yes, by the Almighty! 
 
 You could not help enjoying Prairie Fire if 
 you looked at him in the right light, a quality 
 which the Governor had infinitely, or he could not 
 have remained in such invariable good-humor. 
 That evening when he went to his room he found 
 that he had a native follower of his own. The 
 moon-faced boy who asked to carry the Big Fel- 
 
HIS WELCOME TO BAR 291 
 
 low s suit-case had unpacked his trunk and laid 
 out a suit of white on the bed. 
 
 I look after you ! You let me look after you, 
 Great Bigness! No pay. Little rice," said he 
 to the giant who held his imagination captive. 
 
 " All right! Go ahead! You seem to know 
 pretty well how to do it! " said Big. 
 
 The highest of Benito s privileges was to 
 dust the Governor s desk, which was to him 
 a kind of throne. It was a broad, flat-topped 
 desk of native hardwood in the end of a series 
 of three great, high-ceilinged rooms, with shining 
 hardwood floors and windows and casements al 
 ways open to let in any vagrant breeze that rip 
 pled the heat of the day. Over it, on the rear 
 wall, had been the portrait of a former Spanish 
 Governor. He was quite a famous man, this Gov 
 ernor, who drove a thousand natives into the sea 
 as a punitive measure. That portrait the Big 
 Fellow removed to the hall, and in its place he 
 put a steel engraving of Lincoln. 
 
 Here he held audience for all who would come 
 of their own volition or at his call. Evidence on 
 which he thought he could rely one day was con 
 founded by that of the next. Boss Birch seemed 
 a jewel of simplicity, directness, and truth com 
 pared to the Presidentes with whom he had to 
 deal. But there was one most important Presi- 
 dente he had not met yet the Presidente of Toll, 
 whom the natives called Don Francisco in a way 
 to attract the Governor s attention. 
 
 " A disturber/ said the Bishop, 
 
292 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 A man of strength, but always against any 
 government and hypocritical, " said Dr. Cortina. 
 
 " Damned rebel! " said the General. 
 
 " A good business man, but ought to be exiled, " 
 said Parkowitz. 
 
 i A full-blooded native, with much power 
 among the natives and against us," from Major 
 Staton, when pressed; for he was careful, as a 
 member of the General s staff, not to express pri 
 vate opinions. 
 
 Meanwhile, all the news the Governor had from 
 that trailless land, infested with hate, was of 
 many small fights, bitter and vindictive, and of 
 plotting native leaders with the dangerous little 
 education, who incited rebellion with argument 
 and with threats of assassination and collected 
 taxes when khaki backs were turned. 
 
 1 1 We have the Americans beaten ! they whis 
 pered in at the doorways. " The white giants 
 grow weary. Their people at home will no longer 
 bear the expense. Yes, countrymen, and we have 
 good news from America. Here is what their 
 statesmen say! You may read it yourselves, or 
 we will read it for you. l Keep on fighting and 
 you will be free/ they say. Now, as a last resort, 
 the tyrants in power in America have sent a big, 
 soft, unknowing man who palavers. Doesn t that 
 show that they are afraid? Having failed to find 
 us with rifles, he would draw us into the open and 
 trick us with smiles ! And remember, if they win 
 they will treat you like negroes as we treat the 
 negrito dwarfs of the mountains ! 7 
 
HIS WELCOME TO BAR 
 
 A people bearing in blood and in spirit the 
 Spanish memory, saw a new set of rulers with 
 out Spanish politeness. Every brown face smiled 
 a polite greeting, learned from Spain, and every 
 native hand was secretly against the Americans. 
 Reprisals bred reprisals. Treachery had made 
 the men in khaki in the jungle, whose temples beat 
 with the heat and dull resentment over comrades 
 boloed in the dark, indiscriminate when anything 
 clad in a white shirt appeared in front of them. 
 They were fighting an enemy which, in the phrase 
 of Prairie Fire, would not " stand up to be 
 killed; " enemies who hid their rifles on the col 
 umn s approach, stood so many gaping peasants 
 as it passed, and straightway became imps under 
 cover of night. 
 
 When the Governor tried to explain that a bet 
 ter regime was to come, a veil seemed to be drawn 
 over the native mind. After weeks in the capital, 
 sore with baffling experience, he made a tour. 
 From the thickets the people came to the towns 
 and villages to look on the American giant as 
 they would at a show. He told them of how they 
 were to elect their own mayors and councilmen 
 and what this meant; of how teachers were com 
 ing from home to teach them English and arith 
 metic and writing, so they would know how to 
 govern themselves. But they asked no questions, 
 they exhibited no interest, while they made Span 
 ish bows and distrusted all pretensions after their 
 experience with Spanish proclamations. 
 
 Parkowitz, local type of the clerk from Tooting, 
 
294 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 was laughing in his sleeve and quoting the words 
 of the poet about the East being the East sneer- 
 ingly to the little foreign colony. 
 
 " White solidarity and a superior manner the 
 Americans must learn," he said, " and I doubt if 
 they have the savey, you know, anyway. As for 
 this Governor, I fancy he d do very well in Amer 
 ica, where everybody is better n anyone else, you 
 know. 
 
 The Big Fellow returned to the capital de 
 pressed, but not discouraged. Not a single man, 
 so far as he knew, had he really convinced of his 
 sincerity, while at home everyone seemed to take 
 his sincerity for granted. The one Presidente, 
 Francisco Martinez, of Toll, whom he had most 
 wanted to meet had been absent in a distant prov 
 ince, buying hemp. 
 
 " If I could only get a single real native, a 
 leader among his people, " as the Governor said 
 to Kiddy, in talking of the situation, " who 
 knew how to reach them, that would be a be 
 ginning." He paced up and down the hard 
 wood floors, making them creak. " We are right 
 and we must win in the end;" and after another 
 turn: " The schools will help." In blue moments 
 he always harked to them. " They will reach the 
 children. I have great hope of the teachers, and 
 they will be here soon." 
 
 Why not ask Benito about this man of Toll? 
 Usually, Benito s only answer to any question 
 was : " I no know politics. I work for you, Great 
 Bigness." But at mention of Martinez the first 
 
HIS WELCOME TO BAR 295 
 
 disciple, as the Governor called Benito, broke into 
 a torrent of words : 
 
 " Don Francisco! There is a man! " Benito 
 cried. " Don Francisco he all Tongal like me! 
 No Spaniard! Not little drop of Spaniard! He 
 can fight like I do, and I can fight, too, Great 
 Bigness! " 
 
 Benito squared his shoulders soldier-fashion 
 and dramatically opened his shirt : 
 
 "I get this fighting/ 7 he said. " It not 
 hurt, it come so quick. It only sting like an insect 
 bite and I fall down, and I get well again." 
 
 He pointed to the little white spot on his breast 
 where a Krag bullet, fired by the soldiers of the 
 first landing party, had passed through his chest. 
 What chases, what marching, what weariness 
 there had been since that day! 
 
 " Don Francisco, that old man he is savage 
 he is the strongest one in Bar. A Spanish officer 
 and Don Francisco s daughter yes and Don 
 Francisco, who deal in the hemp and harm no 
 body, he kill that officer; yes, and he make war 
 and he make war so hard the Spaniard he make 
 peace. Anything he would do, this old man, who 
 look so simple and so calm! He fight against 
 you, Great Bigness, for his people. I fight with 
 you, Great Bigness, yes, because I see your laugh 
 and smile, oh, so big ! and you are a man that act 
 good, just like the proclamation read good. 
 
 " Oh, the proclamation from the Spanish- 
 proclamation, proclamation, so beautiful and the 
 men so bad, who do nothing in the proclamation ! 
 
296 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 How can my people believe you are different, as 
 I do? No, no ! Don Francisco he not believe. He 
 prepare; he think, so calm, that old man. He 
 make war by and by; yes, Great Bigness. You 
 watch him! He not afraid! He not run away! 
 He fight hard when the time come. I no know 
 politics ! I serve you ! and he went on putting 
 clothes in a drawer. 
 
 Don Francisco was worth knowing and worth 
 winning, the Big Fellow thought ; but he would not 
 send for him, he concluded. No. It were better 
 that the meeting, which was bound to happen, 
 were of Don Francisco s own volition. With only 
 an occasional question about the old Presidente of 
 Toll, the Governor kept on listening to the Gen 
 eral, the Bishop, and the other special pleaders. 
 He little knew of the bargain for rifles that Parko- 
 witz, upholding white men s solidarity, was driv 
 ing, or of the visits of the only loyal damned one 
 in all the damned island with his budgets of 
 news of military plans to the house of Dr. Cortina, 
 that sleepless one, who sent his unsigned mes 
 sages far and wide and relished the new order 
 of leniency as an opening for great things. 
 
XXVII 
 
 THE SECOND DISCIPLE 
 
 BENITO, Guardian of His Great Bigness and 
 by himself so named, sat at the entrance 
 of the Palace, a motionless, squatting fig 
 ure on a mat, pulling a punka and watching with 
 half-closed eyes, through the blazing light of the 
 square, the sentry of the Sixty-fifth pacing slowly 
 in front of the barracks, mango vendors listless 
 or napping in the shade of the cathedral with its 
 splotches of moss-grown walls, and a carabao 
 with a melancholy, pendulous stride drawing a 
 cart along the street. 
 
 Presently, around the corner came a thick-set, 
 elderly native under the shade of a large um 
 brella. His appearance was that of some well- 
 to-do merchant or small planter of the rural dis 
 tricts who had not fallen into the habit of the 
 European cut of duck. He was sturdy of build, 
 with a bronzed skin pockmarked, though not un 
 pleasantly, high cheekbones, thin lips, and an 
 open manner that was winning. Somewhat hesi 
 tatingly he went up the steps of the Palace. 
 The absence of any functionary in uniform made 
 him doubtful if these eccentric Americans had 
 
 297 
 
298 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 not chosen a new entrance to the Governor s 
 chambers. 
 
 " I am the Presidente of Toll, senor, the young 
 keeper of the door," he said, with a Spanish bow, 
 " and I hope you find yourself well." 
 
 It might be worth while to get a little in 
 formation from the boy before proceeding, he 
 concluded. 
 
 " You have come to see the Governor? " asked 
 Benito. " The Kiddy of His Great Bigness is in 
 side. He is the true keeper of the door." 
 
 But Don Francisco did not act on the sug 
 gestion. 
 
 " They say this newcomer is larger than any 
 two Spaniards larger, even, than the Major 
 Staton." 
 
 " He is the Great Bigness, " Benito answered, 
 enigmatically. " Did you not see him when he 
 went to Toll? " 
 
 " No. I was away buying hemp." 
 
 " Buying hemp? Benito spoke with a trace 
 of the rising inflection, never lifting his eyelids, 
 and continuing to pull the rope that kept the 
 hanging fan of cloth moving back and forth over 
 the Governor s desk. 
 
 " Yes, buying hemp! " the old Presidente re 
 peated, softly. " All through the land they are 
 talking of him. They say he has a laugh which 
 makes the palm leaves shuckle, but it is not the 
 laugh of thunder; it is the laugh of cheer. Some 
 say, too, that it is the laugh of the surface of 
 things and of little understanding." 
 
THE SECOND DISCIPLE 299 
 
 "It is the laugh of His Great Bigness," an 
 swered Benito. 
 
 They say he wears no uniform except a white 
 suit and he shakes hands with everybody, walks 
 about without an orderly, and anybody may go 
 in to see him. How can he really be a Governor? " 
 
 " He is the Great Bigness." 
 
 " How, then, do.es he rule! " 
 
 " With the laugh, with this," and Benito laid 
 his hand on his heart, " and with these," Benito 
 pointed to his eyes. " It will be well for you, 
 O Seiior Presidente of Toll! to watch the eyes 
 closely. And, senor, the Great Bigness can also 
 be the Great Anger." 
 
 " They say, when he walks up and down of 
 nights, that the floors creak like the bamboo clus 
 ter in a storm and the Palace shakes." 
 
 " The church would shake if his eyes should 
 will it, Benito said. " He is the Great Bigness. 
 
 " You answer not my questions. You are deep 
 for a boy." 
 
 " He is the Great Bigness this answers all 
 questions! " as it did for Benito. " I know him 
 well." 
 
 Who should know him better? Did not Benito 
 insist on sleeping on a mat outside the Big Fel 
 low s door? which was no hardship in a land 
 where nearly everybody sleeps on a mat on the 
 floor, and the few who do not, sleep on one drawn 
 taut between the four posts of a bed. 
 
 " He is the Great Bigness," Benito kept on, 
 with monkish, prayer-wheel, Eastern monotony. 
 
300 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " You cannot measure him or think of him the 
 way you say. But I no know politics. I serve 
 His Great Bigness, who is like the proclamations 
 read." 
 
 " Like the proclamations read! " repeated the 
 old man, smiling to himself. " All servants are 
 faithful to the bread of their masters, " he 
 thought. 
 
 I i Yes, like the proclamations read ! Here is the 
 Kiddy. Speak with him, the true keeper of the 
 door. 
 
 Kiddy Witherbee, dapper in his suit of duck, 
 appeared in the doorway, and Benito, who had not 
 stopped pulling the punka, went on watching the 
 sentry. 
 
 I 1 I came to pay my respects to His Excellency, 
 the Governor, " said Senor Francisco Martinez. 
 " I am the Presidente of Toll. I missed him, 
 senor, when he was at Toll on his way to the 
 northern provinces, as I was away buying hemp." 
 
 Yet another reason had kept the Presidente 
 from being present. Something in his nature re 
 volted at fawning on the head and front of 
 oppression. Curiosity, born of the many stories 
 of the Big Fellow he had heard, in part brought 
 him to the Palace. Another factor was that 
 he knew that his absence from Toll had made him 
 a marked man in the mind of one Major Staton. 
 
 Kiddy welcomed him as respectfully and benefi 
 cently as a Yamen runner would receive a 
 mandarin. 
 
 " I am glad, indeed, sir, to know you," said 
 
THE SECOND DISCIPLE 301 
 
 that wise secretary. " The Governor will be most 
 pleased. He wants to meet you and talk with 
 you, I know. The Bishop is with him now, but 
 I don t think he will stay much longer. Won t 
 you come in and have a chair ? 
 
 Kiddy stood to one side to let the Presidente 
 enter his own office, but just then the Bishop, fat 
 and slow-moving, came out of the Governor s 
 chamber. His wall eyes looked to Don Francisco 
 as if expecting an obeisance and met a glance of 
 unblinking, serene dislike. After he had passed, 
 the old Presidente, a good Catholic, crossed 
 himself. 
 
 " He s not any Bishop to me! " he said to 
 Kiddy, with a frankness that was a startling de 
 parture from the habit of polite Tongalese indi 
 rection. " But I like your Padre Maloney;" 
 which was no surprise except in its further ex 
 pression of candor from a Tongal. " I said to 
 him, when my people win their independence I 
 hope they may have many priests like you." 
 
 " The Governor is an old friend of Father 
 Maloney s father," said Kiddy, making use of 
 a diplomatic opportunity as he opened the swing 
 ing doors. 
 
 As they entered, the Big Fellow s face lighted 
 with that spontaneous pleasure which never 
 seemed to abate, whether it was friend or stranger 
 who came. From every visitor he hoped for some 
 information that would help him in his work. 
 
 i Don Francisco ! I want to know you ! I want 
 to have a long talk with you! " 
 
302 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 The old Presidente of Toll had made a bow, 
 but not an obeisant one, as he announced himself 
 with a serene dignity. Yes, this new Governor 
 was immense, bigger than any man he had ever 
 seen; and that smile of which he had heard was 
 neither Spanish nor formal, but generous and 
 pervasive; and that hand that came out to meet 
 his had a grip that did not let go, but drew the 
 visitor in pleasant welcome to a seat beside the 
 desk. 
 
 " When you honored Toll with your presence 
 it was my ill fortune to be absent buying hemp/ 
 the Presidente said. 
 
 " Then it is my good fortune to have a visit 
 from you now," the Governor responded. " I 
 have heard many stories to your credit. You 
 were not afraid to make war when you had a just 
 cause. 
 
 " I fought for my family honor," Don Fran 
 cisco observed, discreetly. " This was before 
 the Americans came, with different ideals from 
 the Spaniards." 
 
 The Big Fellow began to ask most surprising 
 questions about Toll. He remembered the names 
 of leading citizens. He knew which land grew 
 the best hemp. All his " talk it over together " 
 talent was genially in play, while the old Presi 
 dente studied this new species covertly. Di 
 rectly, he heard the happy laugh, with its true 
 and natural ring, while his own experienced eyes 
 watched the Governor s, of a different color than 
 those to which he was used. They puzzled him 
 
THE SECOND DISCIPLE 303 
 
 with their clear grey. But the big man s heart? 
 That was the third thing which Benito had men 
 tioned. That was the thing you might not see. 
 
 " By pleasant words while his soldiers kill," 
 thought the Presidente of Toll. " When there is 
 peace the words will not be pleasant. Then we 
 will be negroes. Yes, an old man like myself 
 can see ahead." 
 
 Presently two more callers appeared. Gen 
 eral Prairie Fire Strong shook the old Presi 
 dente s hand gingerly. 
 
 " Not late, I hope, Governor," he said, mop 
 ping his brow. " Talk about the hinges (String 
 No. 5) they may stick on in hell, but they re 
 melted off here! What we ever wanted to take 
 this (String No. 3) country for I can t see." 
 
 " The Major here is a little jealous," the Gov 
 ernor said to Don Francisco, introducing Staton. 
 " He is only second biggest, now." 
 
 But the Major, who was young and active and 
 went among the provinces a good deal, already 
 knew the old Presidente, whom he greeted warmly, 
 receiving in return an appreciable glance of ad 
 miration, if not of favor. Then Don Francisco 
 made his bow to the Governor, accepting the ar 
 rival of the officers as a signal that it was time for 
 him to withdraw. 
 
 " Excellency, I thank you for your politeness. 
 I wish you good health," he said, still discreetly, 
 for he could not honestly wish the Governor 
 success. 
 
 1 1 Oh, no ! We don t let our visitors go away at 
 
304 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 tiffin time, Don Francisco. Here, put another 
 place, Chang, " said the Governor to the Chinese 
 boy, who had just announced luncheon. 
 
 " Al-li." Chang had learned by experience al 
 ways to have two or three extra places ready. 
 
 What did this new Governor mean, inviting him 
 to the family meal with General Prairie Fire 
 in as friendly a way as if they were neighbors? 
 Don Francisco s recollection flew back to the 
 night in the field when he had been asked to dine 
 with the staff by one of its members and the 
 General had refused to eat with him. The next 
 day he had begun to buy rifles for the " men out 
 in the long grass." 
 
 " You invited me to tiffin, too, Governor! " the 
 General said, sharply. Here was a principle for 
 which he had stood, and Mrs. General even more 
 valiantly, when he was military Governor. 
 
 " Of course. We re five, with Kiddy. Don t 
 worry, General. There ll be curry enough to 
 go around," returned the Big Fellow, " and Don 
 Francisco can tell us a lot about Toll." 
 
 Red and angry, the General straightened him 
 self in the best military manner that his cor 
 pulency and sagging shoulders would permit. 
 
 " This is a social and not an official matter," 
 he muttered, thickly, " and, by (String No. 
 1), I never did sit down to eat with a nigger, and 
 never will ! 
 
 " Pardon, Governor, pardon! " Don Fran 
 cisco picked up his hat and umbrella, and he 
 spoke most politely, if grimly, his lips closing 
 
THE SECOND DISCIPLE 305 
 
 on his words in a thin, ashy line. But the Gov 
 ernor put his hand on the old man s shoulder to 
 restrain him and Don Francisco saw something 
 in the grey eyes he had not seen before. 
 
 " General, if any customs due to race asso 
 ciation at home influence you in this matter, let 
 me say that Don Francisco is a Tongal and less 
 a negro than many a Spanish grandee. " 
 
 " They re all niggers to me and it s time to 
 teach them their places. Come on, Staton ! the 
 General commanded from the doorway. 
 
 Staton, always stiff of figure from West Point 
 training in spite of himself, seemed to be con 
 sidering. A slight flicker of disgust with his 
 superior may have passed over his face. His 
 square jaw indicated that he could have and hold 
 an opinion of his own. On this occasion he 
 stood between loyalty to the General and his 
 convictions. 
 
 " As you say, General, it is a social and not 
 an official matter," the Governor remarked, 
 quietly. " Major, I hope you will stay." 
 
 " I certainly will. I want to talk with Don 
 Francisco." The Major spoke as quietly as the 
 Governor. 
 
 " Tring-trang-thir-r-r ! " sang the swinging 
 blind doors, as the General, hammering the hard 
 wood with his heels, passed along the hall. He 
 went immediately to Mrs. General. A " nigger " 
 invited to tiffin by the Governor ! His own Major 
 insubordinate ! This was what came of the town- 
 meeting business ! This was what came of send- 
 
306 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 ing out politicians! There would be a massacre 
 one day in this island that the world would re 
 member! He took a liberal drink of rye, which 
 only made his face the redder, while he choked in 
 his rage over the cold chicken which Mrs. General 
 served him. 
 
 But to return to the Presidente of Toll. He 
 had not failed to notice the phenomenon that the 
 Major took his cue from the Governor. It was 
 not unpleasant, either, to take tiffin seated on 
 the right hand of His Great Bigness. Another 
 place was made for the Lord High Admiral of the 
 hundred-tonner, who came in at the last moment. 
 
 " How s the navy? " the Governor asked. 
 
 " Topping! If you ll give me enough grease 
 I ll run the Paktoivan up to the square so you 
 can see her from the window. Does well enough 
 on the level; not enough horsepower for hill 
 climbing. I went over a bar yesterday where 
 you could see the sand above the water. Jumped 
 it! I ll teach her to take a hurdle yet." 
 
 The Governor laughed heartily. He always 
 liked to have Clancy drop in. For one 
 thing, Clancy reminded him of Willy in im- 
 petuousness of spirits; for another, he liked 
 to keep a close eye on the Ensign for any signs 
 of mischief. There was no more telling what 
 the Lord High Admiral might do with the Pak 
 toivan than what The Hummer might do with The 
 Sentinel. 
 
 " I suppose the navy," put in Major Staton, 
 " is claiming that the Paktoivan is doing all the 
 
THE SECOND DISCIPLE 307 
 
 work and not admitting that the army is pres 
 ent, at all/ 7 
 
 11 No, Major. How could we when we tow the 
 army about from place to place and watch it get 
 seasick? " Without waiting for any reply from 
 the Major, Clancy turned smartly to the Gov 
 ernor for the object of his call. " I got clear 
 to Laglag with her yesterday, Governor." 
 
 1 The deuce you did ! Aren t you going to eat 
 any tiffin! " 
 
 " No. I ll tiffin aboard, thanks, after we re 
 under way. If you re willing and I believe I can 
 do it I shall try to take her up to Toll." 
 
 " To Toll! " queried the Presidente, with a 
 covert glance at Clancy. 
 
 " The Admiral gave me carte blanche, sir, as 
 you know," Clancy continued. " But as this is a 
 kind of exploring trip and a civil matter I thought 
 I d ask you." 
 
 " No wonder. If he hadn t, like Lord Nelson 
 you d take it! " said the Governor. 
 
 " Never can tell when you ll need information, 
 sir. Once I have made the trip I ll be able to 
 go a-humming if I m needed." 
 
 All right ; but mind, no mischief no fight 
 ing! " 
 
 " No, sir, thank you. Good-by, Don Fran 
 cisco; " and the Lord High Admiral of the hun- 
 dred-tonner bolted. 
 
 She was a devil, that little gunboat, as the 
 Presidente knew by reputation. Around the bend 
 of a stream she would come, and then rat-tat-tat 
 
308 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 from her Colt s automatic and look out, unless 
 you wanted a line of holes punched across your 
 anatomy. 
 
 Don Francisco did not again betray his deep 
 curiosity as to whether or not she could navigate 
 to Toll. With his napkin tucked under his chin 
 he was smiling benignly and laboring with his 
 knife and fork tentatively. It was pleasant to 
 sit between the army and the navy in the coun 
 cils of state; yet flattery would not fool him, 
 he told himself. He was too old a hand. 
 
 " Excellency, may I ask you some questions? 
 he said. " There is much that puzzles between 
 the benevolent assimilation and the 
 
 " Killing/ assented the Governor. " Ask any 
 questions you please," which was also surprising. 
 
 " In your country does the General Strong 
 come from what you call the more aristocratic 
 family more aristocratic than 
 
 " More aristocratic than the Major s or mine, 
 you mean? " the Governor asked, divining what 
 lay behind the inquiry. 
 
 " Yes, yes, if you please. I would not be im 
 polite, Excellency, and I do not know the Ameri 
 can customs." 
 
 * * Ask me questions all the afternoon and I will 
 answer them," the Governor responded, in ex 
 pansive enthusiasm. " Yes, and answer them 
 all night." For at last he had met something 
 besides polite indirection. At last he had met an 
 inquiring mind. " I don t know the General s 
 family; do you, Major? " 
 
THE SECOND DISCIPLE 309 
 
 " No. I " the Major began, and his eyes 
 
 met the Governor s in a glance which Don Fran 
 cisco did not fail to note. He smiled a little to 
 himself. He was having a most enjoyable tiffin. 
 
 And in America is it true that the Secretary 
 of War, he does not wear a uniform? " 
 
 " Yes, it is quite true." 
 
 " Ah! He shook his head wonderingly. 
 " And is it true that he is not a soldier? " 
 
 " He is not a soldier. He is appointed by the 
 President." 
 
 "Ah! And the President, he is elected by the 
 army I " 
 
 " No, by the people." 
 
 " And " but the Presidente of Toll, as he 
 
 came to the point of his questioning, forgot to 
 take care in the use of unfamiliar tools. With 
 a sudden " Ph-h-h! " he put his handkerchief 
 up to his mouth. 
 
 " Excellency," he spluttered, " the fork I do 
 not know and I am very stupid; but the knife 
 is so sharp. The Spaniards complain of the 
 same thing about the English knife." 
 
 " Try the Tongal way," said Kiddy Witherbee, 
 true and solemn diplomatist. " Fingers are bet 
 ter for rice. Use them, by all means." 
 
 This made Don Francisco more at ease as a 
 trencherman ; but he determined to learn not only 
 how to load the fork with rice, but to bear it with 
 out loss of cargo in transit to the destination. 
 If others could, why not he with practice? He 
 would show these Americans that he could be 
 
310 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 as well mannered as they. But first he would 
 show the Governor that he was no fool. Now 
 he asked that poser he had in mind when the 
 accident occurred : 
 
 " And why don t the officers put in whoever they 
 want for the President till another army is raised 
 to beat them? " 
 
 To the clerks in the War Department this sug 
 gestion that the Chief of Staff march over with 
 a regiment and take possession of the White 
 House is preposterous enough. But to make the 
 Presidente understand this was another thing. 
 The civilization that he knew rested on the basis 
 of armed power. 
 
 "Why, they don t! They couldn t! It is 
 against the law! " Even the Governor was mo 
 mentarily thrown out of administrative equilib 
 rium. " There was Lincoln, one of our Presi 
 dents, for example." He turned toward the 
 portrait visible in his office. 
 
 " Oh! That is the " Governors were Ex 
 cellencies and Presidents were not Majesties, Don 
 Francisco had heard, but they must be something 
 " the the Honorable Lincoln! " he concluded. 
 
 " Yes. Lincoln was once Commander-in-Chief 
 of a million armed men, prepared with all the 
 munitions of war." 
 
 " Didn t he wear a uniform? " Official power 
 without a uniform was scarcely believable. It 
 was like being civilized without wearing clothes. 
 It was against custom and precedent. 
 
 " No. When his term was about to expire, for 
 
THE SECOND DISCIPLE 311 
 
 the sake of the work he was doing he wanted to 
 succeed himself. Yet he had to go to the people 
 and get a majority of all their votes for re 
 election." 
 
 This was a pretty big one for the Presidente 
 of Toll to swallow. He was inclined to think that 
 the Americans had their ways of lying, with the 
 same intent as the Spanish ways to deceive and 
 control the natives. 
 
 61 Why, Excellency, why? I do not wish to be 
 impolite, Excellency, but you said I might ask 
 questions. Ah! " perhaps this was the real ex 
 planation " did some other man that wanted to 
 be the President have a big army, too? " 
 
 " No. His was the only army." 
 
 " Why did he not say to the people, I choose 
 to stay? How could they have stopped him? " 
 
 " They could, easily." 
 
 " They could? " This was, of a truth, too 
 much. " Does not the army obey? The army in 
 Takar does." Don Francisco leaned forward 
 with real Occidental show of interest. Perhaps he 
 had struck on the reason for the report that soon 
 a new party would be "in power " in America. 
 The insurrectoes had only to keep on fighting, 
 he had heard, to make a change of American 
 Presidents. 
 
 " No. They would not obey. The law, the Con 
 stitution, would not permit. All that is bred in 
 us as Americans would not permit. Congress 
 would not permit. The soldiers would have con 
 cluded that the President was mad or would 
 
312 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 have laughed at him but wait ! Let me explain 
 this more slowly." 
 
 It was nothing to be cynical about in the dawn 
 ing days of the twentieth century, this picture of 
 the Big Fellow trying to put the essence of the 
 thousand books and all the meaning of the com 
 plex system of upgrowth of constitutional gov 
 ernment from its English origin in civil control, 
 which is second nature to us, into comprehensible 
 form for a mind, touched with no outside inter 
 est except Spanish colonial policies, which had 
 spent all its days in a little barrio of the hot, 
 out-of-the-world island of Bar. 
 
 Kiddy Witherbee went to say to callers that 
 the Governor was engaged, and, unless they pre 
 ferred to wait and take their chances, probably 
 they would be wiser to come to-morrow. Plow 
 ing, plowing, plowing! Beginning at the founda 
 tion of the great thing he would expound, the 
 Governor kept on with his exposition, answering 
 all questions with genial patience. He was try 
 ing as hard to win the Presidente of Toll to his 
 side as he had tried to win Hiram Hobber, on 
 another occasion. The pity is that Hiram could 
 not be present to observe his protege " on the 
 heathen job! " 
 
 " The corruption! There is a great deal of it 
 in the American cities, " the persistent objector 
 continued, repeating what he had heard from 
 Parkowitz and Cortina. " They buy the voters." 
 
 " Yes, there is corruption," the Governor re 
 turned. " You see, Don Francisco, we have not 
 
THE SECOND DISCIPLE 313 
 
 finished. We are working, ourselves. Only we 
 are a little further ahead than you. We would 
 like to give you the advantage of what we have. 
 We will be the book; you will have to be the life 
 and experience, yourselves. Though there is 
 corruption, it can be stopped by the citizens. The 
 power is all with them, without firing a shot. 
 
 " The constitutional rights of the minority! " 
 mused the old Presidente. That phrase which 
 the Governor had used more than once in his ex 
 planation stuck in Don Francisco s mind. " Did 
 not the Honorable Lincoln, with his army of a 
 million men, ever abuse the the constitutional 
 rights of the minority! " He repeated the phrase 
 in full, as if it were a talisman. 
 
 i i No. He would not. In fact, Congress and the 
 checks and balances I have been explaining made 
 it impossible, had he chosen to." 
 
 " The Honorable Lincoln was a very remark 
 able man," Don Francisco said, tentatively, de 
 termined not to be drawn into praise of any 
 American statesman against his will. " I would 
 like to look at the Honorable Lincoln closer." 
 
 It was four o clock. They had been three hours 
 at the lesson. Major Staton, a listener, who had 
 sent word to the barracks that he was detained, 
 followed the Governor and his guest into the 
 other room, still inclined to remain as long as 
 there was no sign that he was out of place. Don 
 Francisco looked steadfastly at the portrait of the 
 great President. 
 
 " The Honorable Lincoln has a good face," 
 
314 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 he concluded. " It is most different from the 
 Spanish Governors very! Was the Honorable 
 Lincoln born of the aristocracy that made him 
 become so powerful? I should like to hear how 
 it was he rose and who his people were. But, 
 Excellency, I have made the questions like the 
 child. I thank you for your 
 
 " No. I am here just for this thing. Please 
 stay! " the Governor responded. " I will tell you 
 about Lincoln. " 
 
 In chairs on the shady side of the broad 
 veranda overlooking the square, with the length 
 ening shadow of the cathedral lying across its 
 blaze, the Big Fellow talked about Lincoln s 
 youth, which he was able to do most convincingly. 
 When he stopped the old man looked at the Gov 
 ernor frankly and said, suddenly: 
 
 " Excellency, you have been frank with me. I 
 will be frank with you. I was not buying hemp. 
 
 I went to the coast to arrange for a cargo of 
 rifles." 
 
 " Yes, so I knew," the Governor returned. 
 
 II Or, at least, I had it from the Major." 
 
 The Presidente gave the Major another glance 
 of admiration. A second thought made him 
 ashamed of his perspicacity. The big Governor 
 was hypnotizing him. 
 
 " How, if you knew it how is it that you 
 do not arrest me? he asked, suddenly. Of 
 course they had not known it. They said so to 
 make believe they had. He had been giving his 
 position away. They would never let him out of 
 
THE SECOND DISCIPLE 315 
 
 town now. Why, they were not children! Here 
 he was speaking straight to the point according 
 to the rule these Americans taught, instead of 
 around the bush and down in the well, and they 
 had drawn him into their own game and trapped 
 him. 
 
 11 We had not the evidence to convict," said the 
 Governor. 
 
 " But with your army you could have thrown 
 me into jail. You could have applied the water 
 cure ! and he thought of General Prairie Fire. 
 
 " That would have done no good in the end, 
 without the evidence." It was automatic the 
 way the Big Fellow reasoned. There was some 
 thing easy and simple about his system. It did 
 save a lot of traveling. 
 
 61 Besides, you wouldn t have landed the rifles," 
 the Major said, " not unless the Paktowan blew 
 up and the legs of the men of Company B were 
 paralyzed. 
 
 This Major he was the silent one. He was 
 the army that obeyed the man without uniform, 
 who did not arrest a man who was buying rifles. 
 Don Francisco was in the midst of strange things. 
 
 " I walked to Toll once from Takar, between 
 eleven at night and seven A.M.," Staton added, to 
 change the subject. 
 
 " You walked! " The Presidente was amazed, 
 even after all he had heard of American march 
 ing. But the Major looked quite equal to the 
 task. 
 
 " Yes. That s better than liver medicine. 
 
316 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 When I arrived in the outskirts of the town I 
 bought something to eat of a woman who kept 
 a little shop and then fell sound asleep under a 
 tree where I had sat down, and it was noon when 
 the woman woke me." 
 
 The muscles of the Presidente s mouth 
 twitched. There were some things he knew that 
 the Major did not know. He could return news 
 for news. 
 
 " If she had not waked you, you would have 
 been boloed," he said. " She remembered, Major, 
 how you brought a broken-legged boy in from 
 the jungle. The fellow in the bush, he did 
 not care to face your revolver when you were 
 awake. 
 
 Staton said gratefully that he would thank the 
 woman some day. Then there was a spell of 
 silence. Don Francisco was looking at his hands 
 and weaving his fingers together. 
 
 " Excellency," said he, " when we first heard 
 of the Americans coming we thought that you 
 were to deliver us of all our troubles. Then we 
 heard that you were going to stay and organize 
 us into working gangs to make money for the 
 trusts. Spain s authority had gone. The wild 
 element gathered into bands. The sober citizens 
 tried to keep the peace, while we awaited the ar 
 rival of your troops. When they came, the Gen 
 eral Prairie Fire he was in command. The sober 
 people began to believe that all that the agitators 
 had said was true." 
 
 " Are we exploiting you when we are keeping 
 
THE SECOND DISCIPLE 317 
 
 Chinese contract labor out? " asked the Big 
 Fellow. 
 
 61 No. That is true" and therein lay the real 
 animosity of Parkowitz. " You would make it 
 Bar for the Tongals." 
 
 " Yes, it is your land. You must be pro 
 tected until you have developed efficiency. " 
 
 Don Francisco exhibited a skepticism which 
 might have been called well-bred if he were of 
 Fifth Avenue. 
 
 " But do you do this just for the love of man 
 kind! " he asked. Such altruism was not in his 
 mental horizon. " I know not American human 
 nature. Our people cannot believe that you have 
 no dark and selfish aim." 
 
 " Yes, a very dark and selfish aim," laughed 
 the Governor. l If you develop and succeed you 
 cannot do so without helping others." 
 
 The old man was silent. Unused brain cells 
 were coming into play. 
 
 " I see! " he said, finally. " If I grow more 
 hemp I will buy more goods. Everybody pros 
 pers. If I grow bayonets I will buy only powder 
 and powder does not pay. And, Excellency, I 
 have another question. Will you send away Gen 
 eral Prairie Fire! " 
 
 11 That is for the President to say. The Gen^ 
 eral is under the President s command," was the 
 answer. i i I hope to get along with fewer troops, 
 and I am learning." 
 
 Don Francisco nodded to himself affirmatively, 
 his brow lowering. 
 
318 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " General Prairie Fire he makes recruits. 
 
 He is easily fooled. He " and the old man 
 
 stopped himself. Anyone taking note of Major 
 Staton would have noticed that he was gripping 
 the arm of his chair rigidly. But he said nothing. 
 
 11 Still another question, Excellency, if you 
 please." This was the pivotal inquiry. "It is 
 the priests. Have you seen the Bishop? Should 
 a bishop have so many children as he has ? These 
 men are not priests. In this out- of -the- world 
 place we are forgotten, and one religious order 
 farms out these islands. If you are here for our 
 good, why do you not send away the bad priests 
 and let us have the good priests, Excellency? " 
 
 " In America a Governor knows no church. 
 His power is temporal. That of the church is 
 religious." 
 
 A government that could not order away 
 priests! This was a corollary to the practice 
 of a Governor who did not wear a uniform. 
 
 " Excellency," he asked, with a show of fire, 
 " will you support these priests with your 
 bayonets? 
 
 " I will protect them only when their lives are 
 in danger." 
 
 " You will not make us go to church to priests 
 that are polygamists? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 The old man took his points slowly. He would 
 not go on to the next until the preceding one was 
 clear in his mind. Now he considered this one 
 a long time. His cigar went out. Playing the 
 
THE SECOND DISCIPLE 319 
 
 witness rather than the pleader, the Governor 
 waited on him. 
 
 " Your idea of the religion," Don Francisco 
 said, when he broke the silence, " is that it is a 
 matter between a man s soul and himself, is it 
 not, Excellency? It is the thing of his hereafter. 
 Government is for this earth, to let him work in 
 peace and sleep without thought of being boloed, 
 and for training the head. But the soul he must 
 arrange for himself, as he pleases. Yes, I see. It 
 seems simple and wise, yes, and far away from 
 Bar and strange." 
 
 Again he lapsed into thought, weaving his 
 fingers in and out slowly, preoccupied and grim. 
 
 " The constitutional rights of the minority! " 
 he repeated, getting the phrase correct and com 
 plete and confident that he had it for good. t i The 
 majority can do only what the law says. We go 
 to the courts, Excellency, instead of buying rifles 
 and sharpening our boloes. We do all the fight 
 ing with our heads. Excellency, you would teach 
 us these things and protect us while we learn 
 them? Excellency, they may assassinate me, but 
 I think I am doing my best for our island. I am 
 at your service." 
 
XXVIII 
 
 IN a few hours the Big Fellow had learned 
 more of the native mind from Don Francisco 
 than from all the catalogued personalities of 
 first influences since he had been on the island. 
 Looking back over his experience, it seemed to him 
 that he had enjoyed no first meeting and no first 
 talk with a man as much since Theodore Dexter 
 had taken him across the street from The Beacon 
 office to the Promised Land. But how was he to 
 make use of this new disciple who was to be his 
 spokesman to the Tongalsf He answered this 
 question by proposing the governorship of the 
 province of Takar. 
 
 Don Francisco was astounded. Did he hear 
 aright? Was he, who had confessed himself a 
 rebel, really being offered a place which had never 
 been held by anyone except a Spaniard or a half- 
 breed! 
 
 " Yes, by giving you Takar I shall have you 
 near me. We can consult together, " the Gov 
 ernor explained. 
 
 i It is a great honor you do me, Excellency," 
 Don Francisco responded; and the old man was 
 silent, thinking of the personal triumph of holding 
 
 320 
 
WANTED, A CHARMING LADY 321 
 
 that office which had been beyond his dreams. 
 " But, Excellency," he continued, after a space, 
 " it would not make the good politics for me to 
 accept. You are a little too much like the Honor 
 able Lincoln to understand the Tongals. All my 
 enemies would say that having failed with the rifle 
 you now use the dollar. They would say you had 
 bought the Presidente of Toll and must have paid 
 a good price for him." 
 
 " Suppose they do," answered the Governor, 
 " we cannot stop slander. Time will prove 
 the truth and all their talk will react on the 
 slanderers." 
 
 " Yes, Excellency," mused Don Francisco, 
 " but I would not like to leave my Toll and my 
 people. I would like to begin by teaching the 
 American idea in Toll first. 
 
 This pleased the Governor. 
 
 1 I see ! You would make Toll a nucleus for our 
 wopk," he said. 
 
 " Yes, nucleus! " Here was a new word for 
 Don Francisco. He repeated it to get the hang 
 and sound of it. " Yes, nucleus for the constitu 
 tional rights of the minority. Is that right, 
 Excellency? " 
 
 " It is, perfectly. And you will hold a munici 
 pal election at once? " 
 
 So I think, Excellency. I will tell my people 
 that I shall run for Mayor, myself, and I think my 
 people will vote for me," concluded that boss of 
 Toll, serenely. 
 
 " Without doubt you are the one for Mayor. 
 
322 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 But you must let the people talk over candidates 
 among themselves and choose their own council- 
 
 men." 
 
 " Yes, yes, Excellency." Don Francisco smiled 
 knowingly, and the Governor was glad to see that 
 smile; for he feared that his second disciple was 
 to be a graven image, and in times of stress even 
 more than times of cheer, Big did like smiling 
 men around him. " Yes, Excellency, that is the 
 good politics. What a talking there will be among 
 my people ! I hear them ! He actually chuckled. 
 " If they choose the council and the council turns 
 out bad they cannot blame me. I will what you 
 call pass the buck, as your soldiers say when they 
 sit in a circle and play at the cards. The council 
 will get all the scolding." 
 
 " You already grasp the checks and balances 
 of a democracy," said the Governor, " and you 
 can tell them it is in their power to get a new lot 
 of councilmen more to their satisfaction at the 
 next election, without having to make war with 
 their boloes." 
 
 " True, Excellency, true! And, Excellency, I 
 have another idea! I would like to work with 
 you in another thing. The schools they please me 
 very much, and you will have an overseer with the 
 high education from your country, is it not f 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Excellency, I am a most presuming and un 
 grateful man," Don Francisco lapsed into the 
 Oriental affectation of self-deprecation. " I re 
 fuse the office and yet I ask for the office. I would 
 
WANTED, A CHARMING LADY 323 
 
 like to assist the overseer by preparing the ground 
 for the schools. It is in the rural districts we 
 should begin. There the minds of the people are 
 not spoiled. In the capital they have the many 
 wrong things to unlearn before they can begin 
 to learn the right things. When the country is 
 won the capital is won. 
 
 " You shall be the assistant overseer. This is 
 just the thing I wanted/ the Governor told him. 
 
 " And, Excellency, I will go about in the coun 
 try preparing the way for the teachers," con 
 tinued Don Francisco. 
 
 Then you will have to hurry, for they are ex 
 pected inside of two weeks." 
 
 Two weeks ! That is too bad. Two months 
 would be better. I would like to excite the curios 
 ity of the people, and have a fiesta when the teach 
 ers arrive. Our people like the fiestas. I think 
 two months will be the better politics." 
 
 " Two months it shall be, if I can arrange it," 
 the Governor returned. 
 
 He wired immediately to Washington asking if 
 the lot of teachers destined for Bar might not be, 
 for the reason he gave, transferred to some other 
 island. They might, was the answer, but with an 
 exception. It seemed that one of them, a Miss 
 Moore, had found passage for herself and rather 
 than wait on the transport was already on the way 
 by an inter-island steamer. 
 
 Now there are many Miss Moores in the world 
 and this one was only a name on a cable form. It 
 conveyed no more suggestion to the Governor, 
 
324 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 who knew nothing of Ellen s plan, than if it had 
 been Miss Smith or Miss Jones. Should they re 
 call her, too 1 Washington asked. 
 
 This question the Governor took to Don Fran 
 cisco. 
 
 " One, and a lady? " quoth the old Presidente, 
 and was silent for a while. 
 
 " One, and a lady," repeated the Big Fellow. 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Excellency, it is not the proper question, per 
 haps, but do you think she is a charming lady? 
 
 " I hope she is efficient, but as to the other 
 qualifications I would not undertake to say. I 
 fear they aren t in the Civil Service requirements 
 and that the Department would scarcely care to 
 pass an opinion on so delicate a subject." 
 
 1 1 No, that would not be the good politics for the 
 the Department, I can see," said Don Francisco. 
 " But I ask, Excellency, because it is most im 
 portant to a plan I have. It is the beautiful plan. 
 It fits into the one for the other teachers coming 
 like my fingers so ! " he wove them together. I 
 know a place, Bowang, in the country, where the 
 people are not spoiled. It is only two miles away 
 from Takar, so it would be very easy to take the 
 people to see it this nucleus. There I would 
 make the first school to show to everyone." 
 
 "I see! The model! Exhibit A! Don Fran 
 cisco, you are a man after my own heart! " said 
 the Governor. 
 
 " Yes, the Exhibit A of the schools." Don 
 Francisco had a new expression. " It would be 
 
WANTED, A CHARMING LADY 325 
 
 to all the other schools what the nucleus of my 
 Toll is to the constitutional rights of the minor 
 ity. But the Tongals, they make much of the 
 first impressions. You will know that because 
 they so much honor the quick Clancy after what 
 he did with the Paktowan in his first fight. So a 
 charming lady would help very much, Excellency, 
 even if she were not so wise or good a teacher as 
 some plain ladies. " 
 
 " Let s hope for the best, Don Francisco. Let 
 us take the risk ! concluded the Governor, unwit 
 tingly speaking a word for Ellen. 
 
 " Very good, Excellency. Ah, I will make a 
 new schoolhouse on a beautiful knoll on the river 
 bank, to show the people how all the Tongals 
 are to know how to read and write, instead of the 
 few who use their little learning to fool the others, 
 like Campo does. And we will have a portrait of 
 the Honorable Lincoln over the blackboard, and 
 proceed quite as if she were a charming lady 
 which he was warranted in doing where Ellen was 
 concerned. 
 
 " Excellency," said Don Francisco, as he rose 
 to go, " I am always asking the questions and I 
 have another which has caused me the very much 
 thought, for my people are asking it and it is hard 
 to answer. Why is it that the statesmen in 
 America keep saying so all the insurrectoes can 
 hear that if Campo keeps on fighting he will 
 win? " 
 
 i They want to give up the islands at once. 
 
 " But then, Excellency, we would have no 
 
326 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 schools. I would fight. We would all fight. 
 Campo for a little time, he would be the ruler. 
 Then if someone beat Campo, for a little time he 
 would be the ruler. There would be no end, Excel 
 lency, no end ! 
 
 " That is true. But everyone at home has the 
 right to speak as he pleases. A bad cause will 
 speak itself out in time. We have to be patient." 
 
 " Was that the Honorable Lincoln s way? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 And he won the great war 1 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " The Honorable Lincoln was a very remark 
 able man," concluded Don Francisco, with a bow 
 to the portrait ; for he was still Oriental enough to 
 personify any idea with a figurehead. " I will 
 tell our people that a few people in America make 
 the big talk like the lazy fellow who sings loud and 
 picks no hemp, and that your amiable Excellency 
 is too busy getting in the crop to mind them." 
 
XXIX 
 
 THE THINKER AND THE TRADER 
 
 WORD that Don Francisco had been con 
 verted by the Governor traveled fast. It 
 was news and great news to one Dr. 
 Cortina, lawyer, graduate of the University of 
 Salamanca, part Spanish and part Tongal, whom 
 the natives called The Thinker ; to one Parkowitz, 
 that pronouncedly British subject, who kept cer 
 tain personal accounts quite separate from those 
 of the firm he represented ; and to all and sundry 
 plotters in the closets of the town and the jungles 
 of the country who had had any association with 
 the Presidente of Toll. Parkowitz sought Cortina 
 at once. 
 
 My word ! gasped the trader, thrown off his 
 " side " which he thought was the distinguishing 
 characteristic of a gentleman. " The Governor s 
 not such an ass as not to pump him! If the old 
 man should tell all he knew my word! twould 
 make a nasty mess ! 
 
 "It is a difficult situation," said Cortina, 
 softly. " Have a whisky and soda, Parkowitz. 
 I ll have a mint. Yes, assuredly a most difficult 
 situation for you." 
 
 6 For me! I like that ! You know it s the other 
 
 327 
 
328 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 way round ! " said Parkowitz, chirking up a little. 
 " I m a British subject, and you are an American 
 citizen or something of the sort, aren t you? " 
 
 " Their Supreme Court has not yet decided 
 what we are," Cortina continued, sarcastically. 
 The Americans quibble over moral peccadilloes. 
 They are a provincial people. They have not the 
 gift for what the French call high politics." 
 
 He hitched his lame leg into a more comfortable 
 position, licked the mint off his teeth and lips, and 
 looked around the spacious room. There were a 
 number of French etchings on the wall and tall 
 Chinese vases in the corners. 
 
 " Yes," he resumed, with a grimace, " if Don 
 Francisco should tell all he knows and he were of 
 a mind he might break up my happy home. I 
 never did believe that he was a true patriot," Cor 
 tina added, devoutly. 
 
 " No! " answered Parkowitz, with a grin. 
 
 " There is a way to take care of Don Fran 
 cisco," Cortina resumed; but he did not say what 
 it was. His eyes glittered, however. Then he 
 drained his glass and called for his hat and stick. 
 " We don t know that he has told anything," he 
 continued. " What do you say to my feeling the 
 official pulse? I ll go and have a chat with the 
 Governor while you wait for me here. 
 
 1 My word ! He has a nerve ! thought Parko 
 witz, who settled down to pass the time until the 
 return of The Thinker, whom he watched half 
 limping along in the shade of the buildings and 
 then up the steps of the Palace. " It s an artistic 
 
THE THINKER AND THE TRADER 329 
 
 bit of probing he can do if anybody can. ... I 
 shall be glad to be back in old Mother England, 
 where I can associate with honest men. . . . My 
 word! I shouldn t be surprised to hear any time 
 that Don Francisco had been assassinated ! : 
 
 Shrewdly Cortina studied Kiddy s face when 
 he asked if he might see the Governor. 
 
 " I am sure you may," answered Kiddy. 
 " There s no one inside now." 
 
 His secretary had heard nothing unusual, any 
 way, Cortina thought, as the doors were swung 
 open and The Thinker hitched his way in. The 
 Big Fellow was as affable as usual to this visitor, 
 who was an intellectual puzzle to him. When 
 seated beside the desk Cortina was profuse with 
 congratulations. 
 
 " Don Francisco is more valuable than anyone 
 else could be," he said. " Now, one who lives in 
 town like myself would be mistrusted by the 
 natives." Then he talked on in his soft manner, 
 hinting that Don Francisco, of course, had his 
 prejudices. " And he ought to bring you a great 
 deal of information, he concluded. 
 
 This was as near as the artistic prober could 
 come to the inquiry he had in mind. It brought 
 no response from the Governor, except something 
 about the coming of the teachers, the new school 
 at Bowang, and the election at Toll. Big was most 
 hopeful. He included Cortina and everyone in the 
 brighter outlook since he had won Don Francisco. 
 
 " Excellency, I mistrusted the wisdom of your 
 generous measures at first," said Cortina, " but I 
 
330 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 begin to believe in them myself, thanks to your 
 gift for making friends. My health will not let 
 me take an active part, but I shall avail myself of 
 saying a word for your policy whenever I can. 
 Again, Excellency, I congratulate you." 
 
 11 Thank you, doctor, thank you! We shall see 
 Bar a peaceful, happy island sooner than we 
 think. " 
 
 Cortina withdrew all but convinced that the 
 Governor had heard nothing to his discredit. Yet 
 the big man nettled him. He found it hard to look 
 into the calm, clear eyes for long and sometimes 
 he thought that the Governor might be deeper 
 than he imagined. At the head of the steps he 
 stopped to speak to Benito, that immovable, squat 
 figure. 
 
 " How is our little keeper of the door! " he 
 asked, ingratiatingly. He had known Benito a 
 long time and had always felt the boy s dislike. 
 
 * * Happy as the palm leaves in a shower, was 
 the answer, as the Guardian looked across the 
 square and kept the punka going. His free hand 
 was under his shirt ; and, as if it had accidentally 
 fallen, a revolver rolled out on the mat at his 
 side. 
 
 " Our little keeper of the door is armed," said 
 Cortina, concealing his uneasiness. " He is wise, 
 as he protects a great man." 
 
 " His Great Bigness protects himself," an 
 swered Benito. " I study to shoot." He slipped 
 his finger under the trigger, raised the revolver 
 and pointed toward the square. " Doctor, do you 
 
THE THINKER AND THE TRADER 331 
 
 see that spot on the palm tree? Yes! Will the 
 doctor watch it? " 
 
 Benito fired and dust flew out of the trunk at one 
 side of the spot. 
 
 " Wonderful! " exclaimed Cortina. "Who 
 taught you? " He knew that no native could learn 
 such accuracy of himself. 
 
 " Ensign Clancy teach me, the quick Clancy 
 who cannot be still. He shoots quick and most 
 always hits. I watch the Major Staton and him. 
 The Major Staton not so quick, but always hits. 
 You must have the straight eye to shoot well. Men 
 who have not the straight eye, they cannot shoot 
 well." 
 
 At the sound of the shot, Kiddy Witherbee came 
 hurrying out, and saw the smoking barrel in 
 Benito s hand. 
 
 * Here, give that to me, Benito ! What do you 
 mean? M he demanded. 
 
 But Benito held fast to his precious weapon. 
 
 Mind, now, you keep it only on condition that 
 you never fire it again, here or in town, unless you 
 are attacked," Kiddy warned him. " Do you 
 promise? " 
 
 " I promise! I promise honest, the Kiddy! >: 
 Benito answered, after a little hesitation. He 
 slipped the revolver back under his shirt, the 
 punka recommenced its swing, and Kiddy re 
 turned to his office. Cortina started down the 
 steps. He was at the foot when Benito called to 
 him, in a loud whisper : 
 
 " Oh, yes, I shoot very well. If a snake bite 
 
332 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Don Francisco in the dark I think I could hit the 
 head of the snake easily when the snake is out of 
 town." 
 
 Cortina s only answer was a wry smile. How 
 much did this boy know? No matter! The Gov 
 ernor was not the man to listen to a servant s 
 whims or gossip. 
 
 Parkowitz had begun on his third whisky and 
 soda when The Thinker, mounting the stairs to 
 the main living floor of the house, appeared, call 
 ing for another mint. 
 
 " How was it! " Parkowitz asked. 
 
 Cortina shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 1 1 No danger, I think. Smiled in the same man 
 ner as usual. Talked about his school-teachers 
 like some great simpleton who is just out of the 
 shell and thinks all the world as beautiful as the 
 sky, returned the doctor. 
 
 11 Did you ever hear such bally rot! " said 
 Parkowitz. " Educating all these jungle bare- 
 backs! " 
 
 " The natives need a master, that is all," Cor 
 tina returned. They can understand nothing of 
 this Utopian programme. But, to my mind, all de 
 mocracy is wrong. An autocracy is the true gov 
 ernment and I would like to be one of the auto 
 crats! Why should hemp-pickers be taught 
 abc s? " 
 
 " Quite right! A good whip-lash makes them 
 work better," said Parkowitz. " But I say, it s 
 not all over by a long way. Don Francisco has 
 plenty of time to tell all he knows, if he hasn t al- 
 
THE THINKER AND THE TRADER 333 
 
 ready. What was that you were saying about 
 taking care of him? " 
 
 61 Oh, that would never do! " answered Cor 
 tina; and he saw the glint on Benito s revolver 
 sight and the burst of dust from the palm tree. 
 1 It would be too unpleasant, he concluded, sar 
 donically. 
 
 " My word! but there s the old duffer, now! " 
 exclaimed Parkowitz, nodding toward Don Fran 
 cisco, who was coming across the plaza. He was 
 making direct for Cortina s house, and a moment 
 later the sturdy figure appeared in the shadow at 
 the head of the stairs. Cortina rose to receive 
 him effusively. 
 
 " Old comrade," he said, " we congratulate 
 you on a rise in the world! When do you hold 
 your election? When do you begin building your 
 school at Bowang? " 
 
 Don Francisco did not answer and he refused 
 the chair which was placed for him. 
 
 It will not take me long to speak what I have 
 to say," he explained. " I come straight to you, 
 for that is the way the young Governor always 
 does." 
 
 " Will you not have a mint? " pursued Cortina. 
 Do sit down, if only for a moment ! 
 
 Cortina showed his nervousness ; Parkowitz was 
 tugging his moustache, for Don Francisco looked 
 most forbidding. They realized that their careers 
 were largely in his keeping. 
 
 " Cortina, you and I have had the relations to 
 gether, working for the cause ; and, Parkowitz. I 
 
334 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 have bought the rifles from you. Now I am through 
 with all these things. I work for my Toll and for 
 the Governor. But I come to tell you that I will 
 tell the Governor nothing of all that has passed 
 between us. You are safe. But in the future I am 
 your enemy. " 
 
 " Very handsome of you, I m sure! " said 
 Parkowitz. 
 
 " I am glad to have my idea of your character 
 borne out," said Cortina. 
 
 But Don Francisco had no more to say. Having 
 kept the faith among plotters, he turned on his 
 heel in disgust. 
 
 When he was gone Parkowitz exclaimed wildly : 
 
 " That lets us out ! " But it would never do for 
 him to appear excited. He recovered his i i side. 
 " I never worried, anyway, being a British sub 
 ject. I say, Cortina, when you ve money enough 
 to go to Spain and take life easy, why do you 
 stay? " 
 
 I have plans ! returned Cortina. I like to 
 play with the devil in me ! 
 
 " Nasty little beast!" thought Parkowitz. 
 " Soon I ll be back in Mother England with my 
 fortune, among honest men ! 
 
 Oh, they were both, these two characters, so 
 true of the Bar of that day, and must be drawn 
 as they are! 
 
 16 And when are you going? " asked Cortina. 
 
 " I shan t be long now," Parkowitz returned. 
 
 But he still hoped to sell one more lot of rifles 
 and close up the coming hemp season before he 
 
THE THINKER AND THE TRADER 335 
 
 retired for good. That deal consummated, he 
 would soon be seen afternoons in Piccadilly, 
 where they bother as little where your fortune 
 comes from as on Fifth Avenue. He might have a 
 bit of shooting in the season, too, and pose as a 
 bronzed man of the world who has seen life in the 
 tropics. 
 
 " By the way," he went on, coming to business, 
 " weVe been er talking so much of this other 
 thing that I forgot to ask if you landed that five 
 hundred all right. 
 
 " Prettily! " answered Cortina. " Prairie 
 Fire sent Clancy and the Paldoivan to Nogal 
 Bay, while we did the trick at Bambang Bay and 
 Staton fumed! " 
 
 " Smart boy, that Enrico! " thought Parko- 
 witz ; and he said aloud : * You know, I can lay 
 my hand on two thousand, all Mausers, and four 
 hundred thousand rounds at Hongkong, and I 
 have my eye on a tramp steamer that can bring 
 them." 
 
 "Two thousand, all Mausers!" mused Cor 
 tina, indifferently. 
 
 " I suppose that all this schoolma am business 
 and the rest of the bally brown brother rot has 
 made you change your mind! " Parkowitz con 
 cluded. 
 
 " No. That s all the more reason to go on. I 
 have plans ! plans ! said Cortina. 
 
 " Never could understand the nasty little 
 beast," thought Parkowitz. 
 
 " It s a question of price," continued Cortina. 
 
336 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " But I think," he added, with a leerish smile, 
 " that two thousand rifles ought to collect their 
 cost off the people once we have them in hand. A 
 question of price ! If you ll be reasonable, Parko- 
 witz, we ll talk. " 
 
 The evening was old before the bargain was 
 driven with all details of purchase, transport, and 
 cash payment at Hongkong on delivery. The pair 
 were having a drink in sociable consummation of 
 the deal when Enrico came in. He never visited 
 Cortina except at night, for it was well to take 
 ordinary precautions, even if Prairie Fire did 
 tell his faithful informant to circulate in all circles 
 and pick up all the news he could. Enrico joined 
 them in a mint before the departure of Parkowitz, 
 that apostle of white solidarity, feeling that this 
 deal had made him very near, indeed, to his goal 
 of Piccadilly. 
 
 " Enrico! My Enrico! " said Cortina, affec 
 tionately. " Two thousand rifles! Do you think 
 we can have Clancy sent to Pading when they 
 come? " 
 
 " Am I not the only damned one in the whole 
 damned island? " answered the faithful inform 
 ant, confidently. Then he fired all the strings, 
 with a native s quickness for imitation, in such 
 amusing mimicry of Prairie Fire s manner that 
 Cortina broke into a laugh. 
 
 " Enrico, my Enrico," said Cortina, " with the 
 fairy of democracy in the Palace and Prairie 
 Fire at the barracks, I shall have work for you. 
 When Don Francisco has his new government in 
 
THE THINKER AND THE TRADER 337 
 
 Toll running well, perhaps Campo will but 
 wait! " 
 
 " The Governor! " interjected Enrico, sud 
 denly. " I do not like his eyes. Sometimes I 
 think they see far and sometimes I think he waits 
 and waits and he and Major Staton are great 
 friends. " 
 
 " Nonsense! He sees school-teachers! " an 
 swered Cortina. " He is big and simple, that is 
 all. We have only to keep on and all the 
 Americans will be called home by their own peo 
 ple. My Enrico, I have been corresponding with 
 a great American statesman. He encourages us 
 to fight on. 
 
 Most impressed was that great American states 
 man. Cortina s scholarly letter in a fine Spanish 
 hand he had offered as an exhibit to his fellow 
 countrymen to prove how fit were the Tongals for 
 self-government. 
 
 " Two thousand rifles, my Enrico! We will 
 make them pay for themselves. To-night I am 
 sending out word to all our friends that the Gov 
 ernor bought Don Francisco for twenty thousand 
 pesos and what the great American statesman 
 wrote to me and some newspaper photographs of 
 him and newspaper clippings from his speeches. 
 My Enrico, I shall be in that Palace yet and you 
 will have a General s red trousers! " which was 
 the height of Enrico s ambition. 
 
 " I can do anything with Prairie Fire," said 
 Enrico, his confidence returning. " Am I not the 
 only damned one in the whole damned island? " 
 
XXX 
 
 ELLEN AUKIVES 
 
 PACING, the capital of the tractable island of 
 Danoy, is only thirty miles from Takar on a 
 different inter-island steamer route, which 
 disconnects with that to Bar by anywhere from a 
 day to a week. On her way to the position to 
 which Miss Destiny, or whoever or whatever you 
 please, had called her, Miss Ellen Moore, arriving 
 at Fading at the break of day on Monday, faced 
 the ordeal of waiting over until Wednesday. 
 
 Clancy, who was in these waters with the Pak- 
 towan, first saw her across the veranda of the 
 Spanish hostelry that was called a hotel in Eng 
 lish for no reason, he said, except the paint on 
 the sign. For dinner they served you fish in 
 grease and peppers and meat in grease and pep 
 pers and no fruit. And what do you think was 
 the breakfast on sudsy-hot mornings, when your 
 eyes were starting with the heat from your ach 
 ing head and your tongue was a hot stone in your 
 mouth? A thimbleful of chocolate as thick as 
 molasses and one small sweet-cake ! Probably the 
 proprietor would have turned out something bet 
 ter for Ellen ; if he had not, he would have broken 
 
ELLEN ARRIVES 339 
 
 the precedent set by other people she had met on 
 her journey. 
 
 " She s come out to teach, you say! " quoth 
 the Lord High Admiral of the hundred-tonner to 
 the Captain of the Port. " What! To teach! " 
 as he got a better view of her face. " And wait 
 ing for a steamer, you say? What! Going to 
 Bar! Why, of course she is! Of course she is! 
 She s going on the U. S. S. Paktowan, which sails 
 at nine! " 
 
 If no one had introduced Clancy he would 
 have introduced himself, as he never wanted for 
 words or a way. 
 
 " Don t you worry about time. We will do it 
 nicely before dark," he told her. " I can do five 
 knots with the Pakky right regularly. Once I did 
 eight for a while, till everything began to break 
 at once and she lay a gasping wreck, undone. But 
 with hammer, rivets, a piece of stovepipe, and some 
 putty I can patch any part. That s the beauty 
 of her. I have target practice, battle practice, 
 quarters, swing compasses, and everything in the 
 book. You ll not only get there sooner, but you ll 
 see a great command." 
 
 His one Chinese boy, cook, ammunition-passer, 
 and head devil, had Ellen s trunk aboard inside 
 of fifteen minutes and in half an hour they were 
 out at sea, she seated in the one chair with a back 
 under that postage-stamp of awning aft, while he 
 sat in Oriental fashion on the deck, talking to 
 her as if he had known her all his life. 
 
 " It s funny you re coming out to teach," 
 
340 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 he remarked, ponderingly, " out into this jungly 
 country. " 
 
 Why should everybody be asking her and her 
 particularly this question! Ellen wondered. She 
 had learned to give a stereotyped answer : 
 
 " It s double pay for abc s and no math. I 
 do know my abc s, anyway, and I had to earn a 
 living. 
 
 Judging by his own mind, Clancy thought there 
 ought to be a lot of men in the United States who 
 would be slaves of the desk to keep her in a car 
 riage and pair. But he must not allow him 
 self such thoughts. Wasn t he engaged! as he 
 promptly told everyone in his transparent manner 
 of the sea. She did remind him of Clem, however, 
 and thereon he took her into the stuffy box of a 
 deck-cabin to show her a portrait of a young lady, 
 though he might have shown her the one in his 
 pocketbook. A third he had in his trunk. 
 
 11 The only unhappy thing for us both," he ex 
 plained, " is that her name is Clementine. But 
 she can t help that any more than she could hav 
 ing the measles. Her folks call her Clemmy, but 
 I concluded that sounded too much like clammy, so 
 it s Clem! " 
 
 " I wouldn t mind what her name is," said 
 Ellen, " she s so good-looking;" as Miss Clemen 
 tine Underhill was, no doubt, but she had a look, 
 too, which might indicate fickleness to a student 
 of character. 
 
 " Everybody says so and I say so most of all! 
 I m a lucky one ! We re going to be married when 
 
ELLEN ARRIVES 
 
 this cruise is up. Think of it! " exclaimed that 
 quick Clancy. " We knew each other only three 
 weeks before I sailed. It took us both sudden. She 
 certainly did get me hard, right there! " 
 
 He put his hand over his heart and blushed, and 
 then changed the subject by asking Ellen if she 
 wouldn t like to come on the bridge. 
 
 " It s a great and rare privilege to go on the 
 bridge of the Pakky," said he. " There s only 
 one of her kind, while we have eight battleships. 
 So you see I m not boasting." 
 
 The truth was that the Paktowan had no bridge. 
 You stood by the wheel and looked over the bow 
 and the Colt s. He showed Ellen the working of 
 the Colt s and then drifted back to Clem. 
 
 " The mails are something fierce out here," he 
 told her, as they went aft to that one shady spot. 
 " I haven t had a letter from Clem for four weeks 
 and I know she writes every day. Anyhow, I ll 
 have a big bunch when they do come. But here, 
 I ve talked more to you than I have to anyone 
 about her ! Do you usually draw confidences out 
 of people this way? " 
 
 " Yes. Haven t I been quizzing you? " she 
 asked. 
 
 He returned her teasing glance with one that 
 comprehended. 
 
 66 Because you haven t had a chance," he ad 
 mitted. "Til be old Mr. Sphinx and you will do 
 all the talking at lunch. Hey ! Ah Fong ! 
 
 Out of the galley came slippered feet and hands 
 being wiped on apron. 
 
342 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " All Fong, did you bring any flowers for the 
 table! " 
 
 " Flowlahs? " quoth the graven image. 
 
 " Yes, flowers. Don t you know that there 
 should always be flowers on the table when I have 
 a lady to tiffin? " 
 
 Of course, Ah Fong knew it now. But he acted 
 as if he had learned it on his grandfather s knee. 
 
 " Yes, Mlasta. Me savey long time! Yes, me 
 catchee flowlahs at Fading. Fall ovahboahd! 
 Velly solly, Missy, velly solly! " 
 
 " Did you ever know anybody to get ahead of 
 the East ! exclaimed Clancy. 
 
 Ah Fong, however, cut a mango to look like a 
 yellow lily, set it on a teacup bottom for a vase, 
 and, without a smile, said, in monosyllabic monot 
 ony : i l Flowlahs ! Me catchee ! when he served 
 the meal. 
 
 This was all very good nonsense and there was 
 more of it to come between Clancy and his guest ; 
 but in the back of Miss Ellen Moore s head was the 
 awakening sense that with the hills of Bar in sight 
 across that slightly rolling, laundry-blue sea her 
 journey was at an end and surprises and explana 
 tions were to come. 
 
 What would Big think of her? What could he 
 think of her? It was not possible that he knew of 
 her coming. All the news he had was the letter 
 she had written when she was staying with Miss 
 Tyson. And why was it any of his affair? More 
 than ever was she glad that she had asked for a 
 rural school, where she would be away from the 
 
ELLEN ARRIVES 343 
 
 capital and would not be under any charge of hav 
 ing used his influence. She was really in earnest 
 in this point of view, too, or, at least, thought she 
 was. 
 
 " Do you know the Governor? " she asked. 
 
 " Oh, the Big Fellow! Well, I should say so! 
 He s a splendid sort. Only I m afraid he s too 
 simple. He s always saying don t kill any 
 body. Old Prairie Fire and he don t jibe. The 
 General s idea is, when in doubt shoot. If you hit 
 the mark you re bound to kill an insurrecto, he 
 thinks. But the trouble is that by the time he 
 arrives all the real insurrectoes have gone and 
 he kills a few of the populace, whose relatives 
 then turn insurrecto." 
 
 " Now you mustn t say anything against Big 
 to me not a word! " she declared, sharply, her 
 loyalty to him flaring up. 
 
 " I wasn t! "Tisn t the navy s business. I 
 wasn t! The Pakky does what she s told, which 
 is mostly to go where the rifles aren t being landed. 
 No! The Governor s too good for this kind of a 
 job." 
 
 But why did she call him Big? he asked him 
 self. 
 
 It now occurred to her for the first time that the 
 fact of her relations to Big must be known. It was 
 clear that explanations would be inevitable. She 
 began, at once, with Clancy. 
 
 " You know, I m a sort of adopted sister of the 
 Governor s," she said. " We lived in the same 
 house until I was twelve though we aren t any 
 
344 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 blood relation. And we ve always been like 
 brother and sister, quite! 
 
 Clancy thought this threw a new and unpleasant 
 light on the Governor s character. There must 
 be something wrong with any man who would 
 allow such a sister as this to come out to Bar to 
 teach school. 
 
 " And I m going to let you into a secret," she 
 continued. She saw that this, too, must be known 
 in order to make her position clear. li I got my 
 position and came all the way without ever telling 
 him a word, as a surprise ! 
 
 That was different. The Governor rose to his 
 former place in Clancy s estimation. 
 
 "What a lark! " 
 
 Talk about girls ! Clancy doubled his feet under 
 him and, locking his arms around his knees, rocked 
 in glee. Wasn t he glad he had seen her on the 
 veranda at Fading ! Well, if he hadn t met Clem 
 first he but he was most loyal to Clem. 
 
 " You ll have to call on the Governor at once. 
 That s official! " he told her. 
 
 Yes, I suppose so. I m quite official now, my 
 self." 
 
 " Certainly. I ll try to give the Pakky an 
 other knot so as to be sure to arrive before sun 
 down." 
 
 " I ve letters to Major and Mrs. Staton. Do 
 you know them ? she asked. 
 
 "Do I? The Major s just all soldier, to my 
 mind. And Mrs. Staton! She is one of those 
 women, so pleasant and simple, that nobody can 
 
ELLEN ARRIVES 345 
 
 help liking her. But you ought to know that 
 kind " and Clancy recalled that he had prom 
 ised Clem not to flirt. 
 
 They were in the lee of the land. The wake of 
 the little gunboat creased greasy ripples in the 
 sea. Her speed made a trifling breeze. The sun 
 was a furnace s round, open door, in a sky of flam 
 ing yellow on the western horizon, while the gleam 
 of the sand on the shore under the cocoanut palms, 
 with their unmoving, unreal, glazed, dark plumes, 
 suggested the still heat ashore. 
 
 Miss Ellen Moore was nervous. She could not 
 deny that she was, even to herself, over that pros 
 pect of actually seeing Big inside of an hour. 
 Clancy had an irresistible desire to be present at 
 the meeting, fully appreciating that it was not a 
 thing to ask. He received the most delightful of 
 thanks for his kindness, but no invitation, and 
 found himself the guardian of a trunk marked 
 " E. M.," which was to go to the Statons . 
 
 In her American gown of white with step so 
 alert and carriage so free, she made the natives, 
 coming out of their houses for their desultory 
 promenade, turn to look at this new phenomenon 
 from that far-off, incomprehensibly energetic 
 temperate zone. She was unconscious of their 
 stares. Her nervousness had gone. Anticipation 
 was supreme. She was going to see old Big, whose 
 " face was so good to look at," as she had always 
 said. 
 
 This was his island; these were the people he 
 ruled. The large white building at the end of the 
 
346 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 plaza, now bathed red with that gorgeous tropical 
 sky s change of mood as the sun sank into the 
 sea, was his home. Somewhere within he re 
 ceived the petitioners, the plotters, and the others 
 who came up the stone steps, and that slim, young 
 fellow, with the bulging forehead and the spec 
 tacles, must be Kiddy Witherbee, of whom she 
 had heard but had never met. 
 
 " Will you say to the Governor that Miss 
 Moore, a new teacher, has come to pay her re 
 spects! " she told Kiddy, in a most businesslike 
 fashion. 
 
 11 Yes, indeed," said Kiddy, oh, most politely! 
 and when he told the Governor he added : She s 
 very good-looking," in an unofficial opinion ex 
 pressing an emotion. 
 
 Is she f That s bully ! That fulfils Don Fran 
 cisco s wish for a charming lady," said the Gov 
 ernor, rejoicing, as he gayly rose. 
 
 " Then I ll bring her in? " asked Kiddy, sol 
 emnly. 
 
 For he had been so impressed by the new 
 teacher that he had asked her to take a seat in his 
 own office. It had not looked right to him that 
 she should stand in a hall for even ten seconds. 
 
 " He will see you," Kiddy reported to Ellen. 
 i Won t you leave your parasol 1 " he asked, hop 
 ing to be helpful in some way. 
 
 There were few American women in Bar, and 
 the thought that such a one as this Miss Moore 
 was to be a permanent fixture in Takar made him 
 grateful to Providence. 
 
ELLEN ARRIVES 347 
 
 " They ve a fine school building for you," he 
 added, after she had told him she would keep the 
 parasol. 
 
 Now, this was a great moment for the Big Fel 
 low. He was about to meet the advance guard of 
 that propaganda in which he placed his faith for 
 the future. She had come on a long journey, this 
 charming lady who was to be the divinity of Ex 
 hibit A, and she must have a welcome that would 
 make a good impression. He felt of his string 
 tie to see if the knot was tight up to the collar and 
 he placed the chair for visitors at a better angle 
 to his own. With his gladdest smile, our Governor 
 of Bar took a step forward as the lattice doors 
 swung open to admit the first teacher. 
 
 But he did not finish the step, at least not 
 properly, and in place of the smile was a look of 
 blank incredulity. He was a dumbstruck, groping 
 giant, with all his unbidden thoughts focused in 
 a vision. If it had been in the middle of the day 
 he would have thought himself heat-struck. He 
 went pale at first and then color came to his 
 cheeks, as he put his hand to his eyes skeptically 
 and let it fall to the side of the desk, on which he 
 supported himself. 
 
 " Ellen! Ellen! Is it really you! " he asked. 
 
 She was standing just inside the door, the 
 bright twilight through the casement on her face 
 which was perplexed, inquiring, fearful, defiant, 
 smiling in relish of the situation. 
 
 " I think it s I. Indeed, I am quite sure it is ! " 
 she answered. 
 
348 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 He saw that there was no doubt of her reality 
 and then it seemed as if he were shouting aloud 
 his welcome ; but his lips did not open. 
 
 " Aren t you going to shake hands, Big? " she 
 asked. 
 
 For all the advantage was on her side. She had 
 been the cause of the surprise and she could enjoy 
 its dramatic effect. Oh, that French and Irish 
 blood! 
 
 Her question brought him to himself. Now he 
 was smiling ; he was laughing, with all the light of 
 sunrise in his eyes. Seizing her hands he drew 
 her toward the window, as he drank in his fill of 
 her presence. 
 
 6 Ellen ! Ellen ! This is bringing home to Bar ! 
 Ellen, why did you come? " he asked. 
 
 She had her stereotyped answer ready. 
 
 " It s double pay for abc s and no math ! " 
 
 " And why didn t you tell me? " 
 
 " Why didn t I? " She frowned. There was 
 no stereotyped answer to this. " Why, I dealt 
 directly with the Department in Washington. 
 And is it the custom in Bar for the Governor to 
 hold the teachers hands when they make official 
 calls? " she added. 
 
 He had been looking at her in a way that any 
 woman ought to have understood had she been 
 seeking the thing which his eyes spoke. He had 
 the winning impulse not to let her go, but, never 
 theless, he did. 
 
 " Well, when she was the partner of Mister 
 Ninety in Calculus ! A big brother has priv- 
 
ELLEN ARRIVES 349 
 
 ileges," he returned, trying to play the game. 
 " And I always do offer a chair to visitors. " 
 
 But she preferred to lean against the desk. 
 
 " And didn t the Department inform you! " 
 she asked. 
 
 " Yes, one Miss Moore was named," he said. 
 
 And of course you were not thinking of me ! 
 she said. i You were busy with your work. 9 
 
 " I wasn t thinking of you as being in Bar. I 
 was hoping that " 
 
 " Yes. I wrote to Aunt Julia. I said all I 
 could, but I couldn t go home till she " 
 
 "No! Never!" he told her. "You were 
 right." 
 
 " And, Big, how is the work? Are you win 
 ning! " she asked, with sudden intensity. She 
 thought he looked thinner and she was sure he 
 had lost color. 
 
 " It s been a hard pull and pretty lonesome," 
 he said. But now I begin to see a few rays of 
 light." 
 
 " Oh, it s all new to me, all a wonderland ! I ve 
 so much to learn! But having first paid my of 
 ficial call, as duty bound, on my superior officer, 
 Your Excellency " here she made a bow " I 
 must hurry to Mrs. Staton s and pay my re 
 spects." 
 
 " No. You re staying here to dinner," he 
 answered. " And I m not an Excellency. That s 
 a Spanish custom I seem unable to overcome." 
 
 " But, really, Big, I better " she began, 
 
 strangely. 
 
350 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Why, the Statons are coming here to din 
 ner! " he rejoined. 
 
 " They are? " 
 
 " Yes, I know they are! " he declared, boldly, 
 and sat down to the military telephone. 
 
 " Yes, the new teacher s here! " he said at his 
 end. " Oh, Clancy told you who she was. No get 
 ting ahead of Clancy. . . . Oh, never mind if 
 you have roast fowl; so ve we, and the sauce of 
 conversation. No, I ll not take no. And tell 
 Clancy to come along, too." 
 
 " There, didn t I tell you the Statons were com 
 ing to dinner! " he said, as he hung up the re 
 ceiver. " And Mrs. Staton says you re to make 
 her house your home as long as you please. 
 
 " But, Big, I applied for one of the rural 
 schools," she demurred. " I shall be going into 
 the country right away." 
 
 " No. Two miles from town and you re to ride 
 out and in every day." 
 
 " Oh! " she exclaimed in a prolonged breath, 
 and looked away from him. 
 
 Then she was to be near him all the time ! Then 
 it would appear as if she had come to seek him! 
 This presented a new problem. It occurred to her 
 that she had done a terrible thing, outraging all 
 the proprieties of her heart. She must ask to be 
 transferred to the country. In this second of her 
 silence he saw her clear, pure profile in the glow 
 of that swiftly dying twilight, so fresh and so 
 beautiful. 
 
 " Ellen! " he said quietly, without any response 
 
ELLEN ARRIVES 351 
 
 from her; for she it was now, her imagination 
 busy, who was at a loss for a word. 
 
 That winning impulse was in his mind again. A 
 storm of words was knocking for exit. He was 
 afraid of the very strength of his love which was 
 like the strength of his nature when it was in 
 action, bearing down on an object. And gently he 
 had spoken that " Ellen," and he was gentle in 
 the way that a big man, fearing that he will be in 
 considerate, may be. 
 
 He thought of her side. Evidently she did not 
 want a school near the city, fearing the embarrass 
 ment that would come from his love, which, in his 
 ignorance, he believed that she knew. Driven 
 from home, she had not come to Bar on his account 
 or through his influence or wouldn t she have 
 written him of her plan! but to earn the double 
 pay with which, in the declaration of freedom from 
 dependence, he feared that she meant to pay off 
 that hateful debt. 
 
 But he did have her near him. She had brought 
 a part of home to Bar. She was actually there, 
 livening that bare room where he worked into the 
 room of a real palace, and she would be living 
 only across the plaza at Major Staton s. 
 
 " Two Braids! " he exclaimed, in a glad im 
 pulse of fellowship and thankfulness. " Two 
 Braids ! Partner in secrets ! at least she would 
 not deny him this. 
 
 She looked full at him, smiling. 
 
 " Well, Big, partner in secrets? " she returned, 
 
352 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Two Braids, this is the biggest task I ve had 
 yet. It s a great work and I must do it ! "he said. 
 
 " And never mind the splinters. You ll win, 
 Big, she answered, brightly. 
 
 And you can help ! 
 
 He slipped his hand over hers which lay on the 
 desk, and through both ran such a thrill of part 
 nership as there ran on the night she bade him 
 Godspeed to his fight for fortune in the city. 
 
 " I can? Honestly I can? " she cried, all 
 aglow, nostrils quivering and eyes speaking 
 more than words can. Oh, that French and Irish 
 blood! 
 
 " Yes. You re to be Exhibit A. You are to be 
 the Charming Lady to show the way. You are to 
 convince the Presidentes what a good thing 
 schools are ! 
 
 " I ll do my best my very best for your great 
 work, Big," she answered, " and obey orders like 
 a soldier, she added, happily. 
 
 With the Big Fellow bending forward in his 
 chair while she, leaning on the desk, looked down 
 into his eyes, they talked. Kiddy Witherbee, 
 starting to come through the door, saw them and 
 withdrew, without really telling even himself what 
 he had seen. Truly, he was the most discreet of 
 secretaries. 
 
 The two were still talking when the Statons and 
 Clancy arrived, and triumphantly the Big Fellow 
 introduced Ellen with all his gift of carrying any 
 company with him. 
 
 " This is the Miss Two Braids that we brought 
 
ELLEN ARRIVES 353 
 
 up in our old house at home, he said. This is 
 the new teacher of Exhibit A. 
 
 Thus the situation was clarified. Thus a new 
 bargain, without any formal admission, had been 
 struck in the consciousness of both. It con 
 templated no knowledge on her part of his true 
 feelings toward her, he thought. She saw herself 
 freed from suspicion on his part that she had 
 come for any reason except abc s for double pay. 
 Natural, easy, pleasant working relations were 
 established. 
 
XXXI 
 
 CLOTHING THE NAKED WITH ABC s 
 
 WAS there ever before such a man as Wil 
 liam Winterburn Worth, of the Society 
 of the Word? Take a vote of all the 
 Americans in Bar and you would have had a 
 unanimous, Never ! Since his arrival a week after 
 the first landing party he had not been off the job 
 a single day, in the words of Sergeant Smith, of 
 Company B, of the Sixty-Fifth, who ought to 
 know. William Winterburn Worth looked as if he 
 would roll up in the heat like a leaf on a griddle 
 (to quote the same authority), but the sun must 
 have found nothing on his bones to melt and 
 leniently passed him by as not worth while. 
 
 In the early days of the fighting before the 
 guerrilla horrors, while there was still an enemy 
 in being that you might locate, you saw him going 
 from camp to camp with slung bag and pockets 
 full of tracts, saying, as he passed out his leaflets : 
 
 Boys, while you are fighting for your country, 
 here is a little food for your soul." 
 
 At first the tired soldiers wished he would make 
 it a piece of pie or a package of tobacco and 
 laughed about him. But a brave man is a brave 
 man, whether there is a bottle or a hymnbook in 
 
 354 
 
CLOTHING THE NAKED WITH ABC S 355 
 
 the back pocket of his khaki breeches; and when 
 they saw the little missionary holding fast to his 
 tracts under fire, keeping up cheerfully on the 
 march, and helping the wounded, they initiated 
 him into full membership of the confraternity of 
 fighting blood. 
 
 " William Winterburn Worth is my name," he 
 would say, " but they call me W. W. for short. " 
 
 W. W. he became in barracks and on trail. The 
 troops began to read his leaflets just to please him. 
 1 That was a pretty long one, that last, a soldier 
 would say; or, " Don t put in any more milk and 
 honey references. It makes us homesick for apple, 
 mince, and brown the wheats;" or, " That one 
 about the sword of Gideon was to the point, 
 W. W." 
 
 1 1 Yes, I thought that would be appropriate. 
 Boys, I do do you some good, don t I! " he some 
 times asked, wistfully. 
 
 " You do us all a hellofalot of a good," said 
 Sergeant Smith, of Company B, earnestly. 
 
 By which William Winterburn Worth knew that 
 the adjectival language with which soldiers keep 
 dragging legs on the move when they carry a Krag 
 and a hundred and fifty rounds had no sin in it; 
 and by which he knew, also, to his satisfaction, that 
 the benefit referred to was spiritual and had 
 nothing to do with the Syndicate. 
 
 Whether that Pie Syndicate was born in the 
 head of Mrs. Staton or W. W., who would give all 
 the credit to her, this history cannot say. Cir 
 cumstances point rather to W. W. as having de- 
 
356 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 veloped it from his experience in observing the 
 inedibility of tracts. Mrs. Staton, however, did 
 give the lessons in the art of making to the puta 
 tive Tongalese cooks, whose first results bore 
 packing better than hard tack. But it is on the 
 records of a thousand palates that they improved 
 with time. Far into the interior traveled these 
 discs which gave heart and sustenance and con 
 tent to American manhood and pinned to every 
 one, you may be sure, was a leaflet of the Society 
 of the Word. 
 
 Naturally, W. W. enthused over the school cam 
 paign, for it held out the prospect of the Tongals 
 reading the Word in English. He was fond of 
 parables and similes, and he went among the par 
 ents of Bowang, saying: " Your children will 
 come to us naked and we will clothe them with 
 learning; " and he was the first to call socially, 
 without his bag of tracts, though with a few in 
 his pocket for First Aid in case of an emergency, 
 on Miss Ellen Moore, who was taken into the heart 
 of the Staton family in short order. The Major 
 was almost talkative on her account, being known 
 to have committed himself, without any apparent 
 injury to his throat, of a dozen relative clauses 
 during dinner at the Palace. 
 
 " It is beautiful! It is beautiful! " said Don 
 Francisco, after his first interview with the new 
 schoolmistress; which is what W. W. said, and 
 Mrs. Staton wondered whether they referred to 
 the idea of primary education or to the person of 
 Miss Ellen Moore. Both were beautiful, and we 
 
CLOTHING THE NAKED WITH ABC S 357 
 
 will leave it at that. Besides, the second disciple 
 whispered in the Governor s ear: 
 
 It was a good risk we took, Excellency. 
 
 At a luncheon on the day after her arrival at 
 the Major s, with the Governor, W. W., Father 
 Tim and others present, all being for the moment 
 educational experts, they spoke of nothing much 
 except that school. The assistant overseer had 
 everything ready, but he would not tell Ellen 
 many details. 
 
 " Excellency," he said to the Governor, " I 
 would let our first teacher see with her own eyes, 
 as a surprise " (which it was, no one can deny). 
 I have chosen only the little children, none over 
 eight, for the primary. That is better. It will win 
 their parents. It will be more beautiful. 
 
 Don Francisco was a pretty good politician, as 
 we know, and he knew that native mind. So by 
 common consent all the details were left to 
 him. 
 
 " Does the lady approve of the little ones 
 only? " he asked, with his best bow. " She will 
 not think it too simple for one of the high educa 
 tion from America 1 
 
 " Oh, the little ones, by all means ! " said Ellen. 
 " I do not want to teach grown folks abc s, and 
 I m fairly wild to see them and begin. I m glad 
 it s to-morrow. " 
 
 It had been Don Francisco s plan to precede the 
 party the next morning to make sure that all was 
 right. How he wished, later on, that he had! A 
 little persuasion from the others who wanted his 
 
358 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 company, and he sent word to one of the leading 
 fathers, on whom he could depend, that all the 
 pupils were to be in their seats inside the school- 
 house at nine. 
 
 Ensign Clancy took the party on the Paktowan, 
 as by the river, he said, the trip could be made 
 quicker than by land, and principally, because it 
 pleased him to have an excuse to play the host. 
 The Governor, Major and Mrs. Staton, W. W., and 
 Father Tim would not have missed the occasion 
 for any bribe; but the General and Mrs. Strong 
 were suffering from the heat. By Strings Nos. 3 
 and 4 old Prairie Fire would not be party to any 
 programme of teaching a lot of brown brats how 
 to kill American soldiers. To him, the abe s were 
 loaded with dynamite. 
 
 Don Francisco was standing beside Ellen watch 
 ing her as they rounded the bend. What would 
 she say after the higher education in the noble 
 edifices at home to his poor effort to please ? She 
 promptly called for a cheer at sight of the poor 
 effort. Don Francisco had cleared a bluff on the 
 river bank. From a pole floated the flag which 
 looks well over any schoolhouse. This school- 
 house, however, was not a little red one. It was a 
 creation of bamboo, with a thatch of nipa palms, 
 on stilts for the rainy season, and a bamboo ladder 
 leading up to the door. 
 
 Everything seemed to be as planned. The par 
 ents were gathered around the house in unblink 
 ing, grave curiosity, and evidently the pupils were 
 all inside. With the Presidente and Ellen leading 
 
CLOTHING THE NAKED WITH ABC S 359 
 
 for were not the honors theirs ? as the Governor 
 said the party left the PaJctowan. Ellen could 
 not wait on formality. 
 
 " Oh, I d like to see them first quite alone! " 
 she said, running ahead. " You follow. The 
 teacher leads. " 
 
 l A fine woman ! A fine woman ! said Father 
 Tim. " Now, if the others that are coming are 
 like her, we ll simply charm these islands into 
 peace." 
 
 As she went up the bamboo ladder, William 
 Winterburn Worth, who could be poetic on oc 
 casion, was thinking that her light steps were 
 steps in history. Ellen entered and saw rows of 
 popping eyes, showing their whites at the appari 
 tion, and rows of brown faces, and the next the 
 others knew she was precipitately coming down 
 the ladder with her hands held up to her blushing 
 face. 
 
 " I I didn t know they were were like that ! " 
 she gasped. 
 
 " What is it? " the official party all asked at 
 once. 
 
 Ellen only turned her head away from them, 
 with her lips screwed together and twitching, too 
 full of emotion to answer. 
 
 All the men sprang to the rescue. It was 
 the Governor, well in the lead, who entered first. 
 He simply could not help breaking into laughter, 
 while Father Tim sniffed through his nose and his 
 blue eyes radiated the inexpressible as he looked 
 at those rows of brown children in purls 
 
360 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 ralibus, keeping their places quite as bidden and 
 possibly thinking that the Governor s laugh was 
 a part of the educational programme. 
 
 Poor W. W. ! He stuttered and turned red and 
 turned green. Hadn t he said that " they should 
 come in their nakedness and be clothed with 
 learning! He was to blame all to blame, he 
 thought ; but we are not so sure that he was. As 
 Father Tim said, there might have been a few 
 shirts if it had not been for W. W. s miscarried 
 good intentions; though, generally speaking, it 
 was in keeping with the rural custom for children 
 of that age. 
 
 Don Francisco, a man of action and decision, 
 grasped the situation at once. His first duty was 
 to prevent a still greater calamity. School must 
 not be dismissed until the Paktowan was back 
 around the bend. He told the lot of popping black 
 retinas in the white balls that they were to wait 
 till he gave the word, and they said, " Yes, Senor," 
 all in chorus, like so many automatic dolls. Back 
 in the yard the Big Fellow could not resist laugh 
 ing again. He was ashamed of himself and he 
 was a most undignified Governor, he knew. Don 
 Francisco s stolid chagrin only added to the 
 humor of the situation. 
 
 " The little innocents!" said Father Tim. 
 " They were so unconscious of it! Inadver 
 tently he caught Mrs. Staton s eye and Mrs. 
 Staton promptly dropped her parasol in front of 
 her face. 
 
 " Stop! " she said, thickly. 
 
CLOTHING THE NAKED WITH ABC S 361 
 
 " Stop! " cried poor W. W., tragically, on gen 
 eral principles. 
 
 Ellen, having recovered herself, demurred at 
 the suggestion that they should return to Takar 
 and wait until another day. Why shouldn t the 
 class go out the back door to their homes and re 
 turn with only their minds naked? 
 
 This plan Don Francisco soberly saw carried 
 out, while the party waited under the shade of a 
 mango tree. Then all went up the ladder, Don 
 Francisco leading, and on a word from him all 
 the youngsters bobbed up and said in chorus, as 
 they had been taught, * Greeting, Senorita ! We 
 will strive to learn! Viva! " and then bobbed 
 down again, all those popping eyes out of expres 
 sionless faces regarding the Charming Lady in 
 Oriental curiosity, while all the native women out 
 side were wondering how she made her gown fit 
 so well. 
 
 " Now, let s have a lesson," said the Gov 
 ernor to Ellen. " You re on trial ! " 
 
 l I expected that from you! she answered, in 
 lively defiance. 
 
 She picked up an ant off the floor the nearest 
 one and held it up for all to see. They knew 
 what it was. They knew it by millions, and they 
 shouted its Tongal name. 
 
 " A-N-T! " she said in English; and turning to 
 the blackboard she wrote A-N-T, and began spell 
 ing it to them and having them repeat it after 
 her. 
 
 " You ll have to wait and stand, too, till they 
 
362 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 have learned it, Excellency/ 7 she interjected, in 
 
 the midst of the lesson. 
 
 You win ! " he answered. All right. 
 
 He waited and all did learn it; and thus the 
 
 abc campaign was begun in the island. 
 
XXXII 
 
 MISS TWO BBAIDS EEDIVIVUS 
 
 SO Ellen became known as the Charming Lady 
 to the natives of Takar. Every morning she 
 rode out to Bowang, the plantain leaves, 
 which she pushed to one side along the trail, spat 
 tering her skirt with dew, and the people, whose 
 children were in her school, greeting her with 
 their " Good-morning, Charming Lady!" 
 
 But she rarely went or returned alone. Major 
 and Mrs. Staton often came to meet her, and 
 Sergeant Smith, of Company B, riding at her 
 side, in expressing his view of the good she was 
 doing those brown boys and girls, took great care 
 to make it simply " a lot." Once, however, he 
 did slip: 
 
 " Father Tim says they are only adjectival ac 
 celerators," he stammered, in explanation, " and 
 they don t count against you in the high place." 
 
 " I can understand how they may help on the 
 march," Ellen said, brightly. 
 
 " They do, a a lot! " he declared, honestly be 
 lieving that they did. 
 
 "I ve seen times when I d like to use one, my 
 self," she returned. "I ve thought them even 
 if I didn t speak them." 
 
 368 
 
364 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " My goodness! " he exclaimed. 
 
 If it were not Smith it was someone else who 
 had the honor of being her escort. Once Parko- 
 witz offered himself, and the story of the way, 
 with a glance and a few words, in which she put 
 him in his place pleased the garrison. Clancy, 
 when he had a few hours between the fruitless 
 trips on which he was being sent by General 
 Prairie Fire, would run the Paktowan against 
 the bank at the foot of the flagstaff of the school- 
 grounds and maybe bring the Charming Lady 
 home by water. He was getting so few letters 
 from Clem now that he found a genuine solace for 
 his disquietude about her in watching Ellen at 
 the abc s. 
 
 And the Governor was often her companion on 
 that morning ride, when he was not away in the 
 provinces trying to make more " nucleuses," as 
 Don Francisco called them. That working ar 
 rangement formed on the day of her arrival was 
 playing its part well. She was Two Braids again 
 and he was the Big of old, holding council and 
 sharing secrets. He saw her enjoying her work 
 and bringing cheer to everyone. 
 
 " I am really helping? " she asked him many 
 times. 
 
 4 More than you can guess, Two Braids. Your 
 coming was a Godsend to me," he said. " Your 
 school is the keystone of all my plans for the 
 future." 
 
 This abc idea was the hardest thing Cortina 
 had to combat. Parental human nature did seem 
 
MISS TWO BRAIDS REDIVIVUS 365 
 
 something the same in Bar as elsewhere, as the 
 Big Fellow, out of his knowledge of the humani 
 ties and the thousand books, had maintained. 
 .Fathers and mothers were glad to have their chil- 
 dren learn. Don Francisco came frequently with 
 his parties of inspection to see Exhibit A. Old 
 head men of villages from up country would 
 gravely watch the Charming Lady at her work 
 and depart convinced that popular education was 
 a beautiful idea. 
 
 The Thinker, however, was not idle. Plotting 
 so easily under Prairie Fire s nose, through 
 his underground route he sent out his answer 
 to the abc s. The Americans, having failed at 
 fighting, had found a new and cunning trick. They 
 would win the parents through the children, and 
 when this was done, that would be the end 
 of schools and the beginning of slavery. Thus 
 he aroused enmity enough to warrant the guer 
 rillas in burning some of the new schoolhouses 
 that Don Francisco was building. 
 
 " But there is another way," thought Cor 
 tina. If he could only capture the Charming Lady 
 herself, then the people would see how little there 
 was in this abc magic. Yes, capture her within 
 two miles of the capital. 
 
 At first, by Major Staton s order, a squad of 
 soldiers had always been stationed at the school. 
 By the General s order and without the Gov 
 ernor s knowledge they were withdrawn, though 
 no one thought it possible that any party of insur- 
 rectoes would approach the outskirts of the town, 
 
366 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 and none did. The score or more came as indi 
 viduals to a given point in the brush, and, just 
 as Ellen was beginning her morning lesson, with 
 their boloes in hand they ran across the school- 
 ground and up the ladder in barefooted stealth. 
 She turned from the blackboard to see them. 
 
 " Seiiorita, you will come with us," said the 
 leader. 
 
 Instinctively she looked around for some 
 weapon. The nearest approach to one was the 
 frail blackboard pointer, which was useless, of 
 course. 
 
 " You will go and go instantly!" she com 
 manded. " Yes, you will go instantly or you will 
 not have time to escape our soldiers! They are 
 here in hiding. I have only to scream to warn 
 them." 
 
 " No, senorita, none is nearer than town," said 
 the little leader, grinning at her subterfuge. 
 
 A few of the older children had gathered 
 around her in a hopeless kind of loyalty. The 
 others fled out of the back door, and she knew 
 they would carry the news. She had no sense of 
 fear yet. Relief would come, she thought, and 
 her first object should be to gain time. 
 
 " Tongals are always polite," she remarked, 
 and wondered that her voice sounded so natural. 
 " You will let me put on my hat before we start." 
 
 She was very leisurely about this, even trying 
 to laugh over a pretended mistake in having stuck 
 a pin into something more solid than hair. 
 
 Come ! We cannot wait on tricks ! and the 
 
MISS TWO BRAIDS REDIVIVUS 367 
 
 little man with the bolo put his hand on her arm. 
 She shook it off, and saw that the others were 
 pressing closer. Anything but that they should 
 touch her, was her thought. And still she was con 
 fident that help would come as she went down 
 the ladder with her captors. No one was in sight 
 in the grounds, and, with half of the band in single 
 file ahead of her and half behind, they took up 
 the trail along the river bank. 
 
 When they told her that she was walking too 
 slowly she took a few steps more rapidly, and 
 later with her dignity and command of self kept 
 the leader at his distance when he threatened to 
 use force. It struck her as ridiculous, as well 
 as tragic and inconceivable, that she should be led 
 through the jungle by these miserable little 
 ruffians. 
 
 When the trail broke into a clearing her quick 
 ear was the first to hear the engines of the 
 Paktowan, which was coming around the bend. 
 Clancy caught sight of her white gown at the 
 same moment. He could not fire without endan 
 gering her, as she realized instantly. Her swift 
 glance for cover was rewarded. 
 
 11 Fire! " she cried, at the top of her voice, as 
 she dropped into the crotch of the shelving roots 
 of a big tree and snuggled there. 
 
 Clancy at the Colt s lost not a second. Swish 
 came the stream of bullets. They were so close 
 to her, and yet she was as safe as if behind armor ! 
 For an instant she closed her eyes. When she 
 opened them that little leader of the band was 
 
368 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 lying dead so near her that she could reach his 
 revolver. Without any squeamishness she took 
 it from his holster and then looked around de 
 fiantly, feeling really safe for the first time. In 
 this position Clancy found her when he and his 
 crew, all with rifles, including Ah Fong, the 
 Chinese cook, came dashing up the bank in pur 
 suit of any members of the band that the Colt s 
 had not cared for. 
 
 " What luck! " said Clancy. " I must have 
 reached the school not less than five minutes after 
 you went and I guessed they d take this trail." 
 
 Oh, Clancy ! She was weak and faint, now, 
 as he assisted her to rise. 
 
 What a girl you are ! What savey for you to 
 cry Fire! and jump behind that tree, which gave 
 me just the chance I wanted! " he said; and he 
 was going to let her lean on his shoulder as they 
 went down the hill to the Paktoivan. But she was 
 quite herself again and disdained any aid, as she 
 chattered nervously. 
 
 I must tell Sergeant Smith," said Ellen, 
 
 that I wanted to use a lot of adjectival 
 accelerators, myself, when that miserable little 
 ruffian ugh! I had no idea that bullets could 
 sound so sweet. Oh, the Pakky looked bigger and 
 finer to me than any battleship ! 
 
 " A battleship wouldn t have been much use 
 for this job, would she? " said he, proudly. " The 
 Pakky is a great command ! 
 
 " And you re her Lord High Admiral and al 
 ways on the spot! " 
 
 14 
 
 i . 
 
MISS TWO BRAIDS REDIVIVUS 369 
 
 6 With perfect cooperation from the land forces 
 on this occasion, Charming Lady ! My ! What a 
 girl you are! " he declared, in his transparent 
 manner of the sea. 
 
 By the time they returned to the school, Com 
 pany B came tearing along the trail, with murder 
 and hate in its eyes, the Governor and Staton 
 leading. Ellen was embarrassed by all the atten 
 tion showered on her, while the Governor in tears 
 shook Clancy and patted him and thanked him. 
 
 " You ll have the largest escort home you ever 
 had," said the Major to Ellen. 
 
 " But I m not going! The idea! " she flared. 
 " I m mad clear through! Please summon the 
 children back. I ll finish the morning lesson! >: 
 
 What about your French and Irish blood, now, 
 Aunt Julia? And you folks out Plymouth Rock 
 way, as you sit before your Thanksgiving turkey 
 and think of the brave old days when the Indian 
 arrow through the window nailed the textbook to 
 the school-mistress s table, pray don t overeat 
 in your fears that the old spirit is dying out ! 
 
 But Ellen would not hear to Big writing home 
 the story of the affair, which she never liked 
 to have anybody mention. Besides, all danger 
 was over. Even the General did not object to a 
 guard at Bowang thereafter. If that were not 
 enough, Benito rigged up a punka at the school 
 and through the session, which was held in the 
 morning, he would sit outside the door, steadily 
 pulling and perfectly ready to hit the head of 
 a snake. 
 
xxxm 
 
 ELLEN WRITES TO THE PERSONALITY 
 
 MY ! What a girl ! Clancy would keep say 
 ing this to himself on his sea-marches. 
 He was sure that Clem would never have 
 had the sense to take cover and cry " Fire! " in 
 the way that Ellen had. My! What a girl! The 
 Lord High Admiral in wondering admiration 
 sought her company when he was in port, which 
 often brought him to the Governor s veranda, 
 where, in the cool of the evening, so delicious after 
 the heat of the day, you would find at one time 
 or another Ellen and the Statons ; Thompson, the 
 young engineer; Horswell, the young Australian, 
 assistant to Parkowitz; Father Tim, and W. W. 
 and officers of the garrison. 
 
 By their very handicaps this little band of 
 friends was held together. All hoped against 
 odds, including Thompson, who had a good coal 
 prospect. " Only I need a company of soldiers 
 hard-by to work it in comfort," he said, for it 
 was off the beaten trails. 
 
 " Patience! " the Governor would say to him. 
 "We are all young." 
 
 Horswell was plodding along, enduring Parko- 
 
 370 
 
ELLEN WEITES TO THE PERSONALITY 371 
 
 witz s patronage. At the mention of Parkowitz s 
 name he would change the subject. He could not 
 speak loyally of his superior and would not speak 
 disloyally. 
 
 The silent Major was in much the same position 
 as Horswell. He would not allow a word to be 
 said against the General in his presence. When 
 pressed, he admitted that the military situa 
 tion was no better and feared it might grow 
 worse. 
 
 " I m confident that more rifles are getting in," 
 he said, " and a more cunning mind than Campo s 
 is behind the insurrecto movements." 
 
 No week passed without some record of casual 
 ties. Prairie Fire s insistent call for more 
 troops only strengthened the conviction of the 
 military extremists in Washington that this 
 young civil governor was embarrassing the com 
 mander of the forces. In the garrison towns, 
 where the schools were to be located, a friendlier 
 feeling had developed, but it could not spread, 
 perhaps not even last, while the underground 
 route was continually sending out its insidious 
 promptings. 
 
 " Yes, the Americans are very sincere in their 
 moral ideas, very. They teach the abc s and love 
 of religion and retain in his office a bishop who 
 has a harem! " 
 
 This sneer met Don Francisco s school propa 
 ganda at every turn. Father Tim cried out 
 against it in shame. The Bishop, sitting under 
 bis punka in white canonicals, was a &wm$ oJ4 
 
372 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Pasha, mindless of any criticism, while Cortina 
 plotted and Prairie Fire blundered. 
 
 Ellen with her intuitive gift for understanding 
 and hearing all sides, saw the Governor held at 
 bay by incompetence over which he had no con 
 trol. She saw him going and coming to the prov 
 inces, with sleepless nights on the trail, expending 
 his store of energy in that sapping climate with 
 out stint while, to use her own words, she was 
 filling up with wrath. She knew that she was 
 going to lose her temper with Big if things did 
 not change. One evening when she. and the 
 Statons had been to the Palace to dinner, and 
 she and Big were pacing up and down together 
 on the veranda, the explosion came just after he 
 had told her what he thought was good news. 
 
 " I believe we will get the power to organize 
 under my authority a couple of companies of na 
 tive constabulary," he said. " This will show 
 the people that they are to have a share in their 
 own police work. Who would you say, Charming 
 Lady and expert in the workings of the native 
 mind, would make the best commander? " 
 
 11 Sergeant Smith," she answered, promptly. 
 " He understands the Tongals. They have great 
 respect for him." 
 
 i So everybody says, he responded. * l I think 
 that I know one good soldier who will have a rise 
 in the world." 
 
 Ellen was delighted that he should, but the idea 
 of the constabulary was the match to the fuel 
 that had been accumulating in her mind. 
 
ELLEN WRITES TO THE PERSONALITY 373 
 
 " What is the good of this or the abc s as long 
 as that horrible old Bishop stays? Why don t you 
 tell him to go! " 
 
 " I haven t any right, Two Braids. But I have 
 made every possible hint; and Father Tim, in his 
 blandest way, has suggested to him that he has 
 earned a vacation in Spain; but all to no 
 purpose." 
 
 " Don t you know that this hateful Cortina is 
 against us! " she went on, bound to thrash the 
 matter out. 
 
 " I assume that he is. But Cortina speaks in 
 a most friendly way." 
 
 " Yes, if he does that it is enough for you, you 
 big simple! You think everybody is honest be 
 cause you are! I d have Cortina up and say, 
 i Four hours to pack! You re off this afternoon, 
 little scorpion! " 
 
 " Exile! Oh, no, no! That would never do! 
 It is quite out of keeping with my programme. 
 And you must remember that the opposition at 
 home would make a hero of him." 
 
 Hero ! The people at home must be mad ! 
 
 " You see, if I took any action against Cortina 
 without evidence, why, I would stultify the very 
 sense of the law I am trying to impress on this 
 people." 
 
 " Evidence ! Fiddlesticks ! Sometimes I d like 
 to box your ears! " she said, getting angrier, 
 while he looked as if he wouldn t mind having his 
 ears boxed by her. * You are the big, simple one, 
 as the natives say! Don t you know that boy 
 
374 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Enrico tells all the General s plans? That pudgy, 
 profane old thing ! He ought to be called Fire 
 Alarm instead of Prairie Fire ! : 
 
 The Governor could not resist the truth of the 
 designation or its humor and laughed contem 
 platively. 
 
 " Yes, it doesn t seem to me that Enrico ought 
 to be made a military confidant. I have written 
 and spoken to the General about it, and he was so 
 angry that it only made him stubborn and matters 
 worse. He said that I better study medicine and 
 get a brigadiership. You see, he had me rather at 
 fault. It wasn t in my department." 
 
 " Department! Department! Bosh! Eed 
 tape! Superannuated fossilism! Don t you 
 know that things are growing worse and worse, 
 while you sit here and play the noble idealist! 
 More rifles ! More insurgents ! And your career, 
 Big! Think if you should be beaten if there 
 were defeats and the army stepped in with an 
 other military governor and that is what old 
 Prairie Fire wants ! 
 
 The Big Fellow grew sober. It was not that he 
 was thinking of his career: He was thinking of 
 the success of his work. 
 
 " Why don t you tell the President and every 
 body? Oh, if Willy Sweetser were only here and 
 could write that old thing up as he is! 
 
 Yes, if Willy were there ! How long could Gen 
 eral Prairie Fire, in his adipose incompetency, 
 last under public scrutiny? But this was ten 
 thousand miles from home. 
 
ELLEN WRITES TO THE PERSONALITY 375 
 
 " I have come pretty near losing my temper 
 with the General two or three times, " mused the 
 Big Fellow. 
 
 " Oh, do lose it! " she pleaded. " Thunder at 
 him ! Thrash him ! Oh, I d love to see you on the 
 rampage and knock them all down the whole 
 lot! " being quite irresponsible for what she was 
 saying. 
 
 " You see, Two Braids, there was a good deal 
 of opposition in the Department to any civil gov 
 ernor and I came on trial, as it were." 
 
 " Yes, you are between the kill-alls," she an 
 swered, " and the allies of Cortina in our own 
 country. 
 
 " Time! Time! Evidence collects," he said, 
 thoughtfully. " My reports are going in regu 
 larly." 
 
 " Reports by mail ten thousand miles away 
 good Heavens! You re worse than the god 
 Buddha sitting a thousand years by the river 
 bank with folded hands ! 
 
 Some by cable, he added, by way of extenu 
 ation, on the defensive before increased fire. 
 " The cable is always open." 
 
 " Cable! Who ll read it? But what s the use! 
 I m done! You re a great, simple fool, Big! 
 A fool! " 
 
 Having done her little best, having spoken her 
 mind to the full, without waiting for an answer 
 she sped off the veranda. 
 
 " Not a fool! " he called after her, in boyish 
 injury. 
 
376 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 He felt sheepish and really a good deal like 
 what she had called him, he had to admit. With 
 more than admiration in his eye he followed her 
 rapid progress across the square to the Statons , 
 and he was overcome with a sense of isolation and 
 almost of discouragement. He thought that he 
 knew a few people who really deserved knocking 
 down. 
 
 She kept on calling him a fool under her breath 
 until she began to think of some way to help him. 
 What could she, one of the many teachers in one 
 of the Islands, do to make the truth known in that 
 far-away Washington, where the truth, traveling 
 by many typewritten processes, is sometimes lost 
 in the abundance of words that no one has time 
 to read? 
 
 Yes, there was a way. Of late a new per 
 sonality had risen into high official being. Ex- 
 ertive and manifest, dominant of will, insistent 
 of questioning, irrepressible of spontaneity of 
 purpose, the tremors of its vitality, making the 
 typewriters all along the line jump, had spread 
 as far as Bar. Someone was always wanting to 
 know why. Someone was not afraid to think for 
 himself. Someone was not afraid to act. At 
 the Major s, Ellen went immediately to her room 
 and to her writing-table. With the spur of her 
 idea, without thought of form, she indicted the 
 most unofficial letter that ever went out of 
 Bar from government employee to government 
 superior. 
 
ELLEN WRITES TO THE PERSONALITY 377 
 
 " If this is not the right way to begin a letter 
 to you, she wrote to the Personality, i i then I am 
 beginning the best way I know how. It is from 
 one who is so full of things you ought to know 
 that she can t keep quiet. I am the first teacher 
 in the Island, and many others are coming later. 
 My school is Exhibit A, the pioneer, and I m 
 proud of it. 
 
 " The little ones are getting on finely. If you 
 could only see them at recitation, and when they 
 all sing school songs together like so many little 
 brown manikins, showing the white of their 
 teeth and the whites of their eyes, I know you d 
 enjoy it." (You may be sure, Ellen, the Per 
 sonality would.) " I have some of the best ones 
 already so they can spell mango and even that 
 whopper banana, although some of the back 
 ward ones cannot do palm yet but what is the 
 use? 
 
 66 I know I am prejudiced. I can t help it. 
 Anybody would be. I am an informer, I know, 
 but I ll face General Prairie Fire before any 
 body and prove it all, too yes, every bit of it! 
 Once he chased some Indians out West. Some 
 honest people of influence who knew him then 
 think he is still the same man. He puffs with every 
 step from the heat. All his plans he tells to every 
 body, and when they go wrong he takes it out 
 of the soldiers and the natives. He doesn t know 
 this isn t Arizona it s jungle. 
 
 66 Now, Major Staton did not tell me this not 
 
378 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 a word of it ! I saw it for myself. He is the Chief 
 of Staff and he stays on and is sworn at for duty s 
 sake, all in silence. But he sits up nights with 
 his maps and books. If there is a change in a 
 gun mechanism or any improvement of any kind 
 he knows it. This has nothing to do with fight 
 ing Tongals, he says, but it s his profession. He 
 works and rides and walks. He is hard-muscled 
 and clear-headed. Isn t that the way a soldier 
 ought to be? He shouldn t be pudgy and growl 
 ing and swearing, should he? 
 
 " Why send teachers if you are going to keep 
 old Prairie Fire? All the little ones need, then, 
 is to know first aid to the wounded, and all our 
 soldiers need is legs. Why send a Governor to 
 teach the people that the Americans are the peo 
 ple s friends; to establish schools and town gov 
 ernments and peace and order, when everything 
 that he does old Prairie Fire spoils? He is 
 a big man, the Governor. Oh, you don t know 
 what a big man he is! He is the law and the light. 
 But he is so high-minded, so considerate, so 
 broad, that he cannot realize all the meanness 
 this island breeds. He is trying to work it out 
 without troubling Washington when it can t be 
 worked out! There will be something terrible in 
 this island if General Prairie Fire stays. The 
 Governor says the military is not in his depart 
 ment. But it is in yours. I can tell you and I 
 do the truth the whole truth. 
 
 " Most respectfully yours, 
 
 " ELLEN MOORE." 
 
ELLEN WRITES TO THE PERSONALITY 379 
 
 She mailed the letter at once. When her head 
 was on the pillow between the two braids a little 
 reaction came. 
 
 " My goodness ! I don t really remember what 
 I said! It must have been fearfully impertinent 
 and dreadfully worded! " she thought. " But I 
 don t care! I was mad clear through. It is the 
 truth. I wish I could cable I wish I could just 
 talk to him for a few minutes ! 
 
XXXIV 
 
 WHY THE BISHOP WENT 
 
 THE first party of teachers for Bar was on 
 its way. Ellen felt her responsibility as a 
 pioneer in the abc s who was to come up 
 for examination before a superintendent from 
 home and other censorious professional eyes. 
 Don Francisco, paternal, busy, gravely enthu 
 siastic, who had traveled far in sun and rain 
 spreading the new propaganda in face of the 
 difficulties that we already know, would make the 
 most of a great event. 
 
 " With your permission, Excellency," he said, 
 " we will have a fiesta in the plaza. There will 
 be an address by you, recitations and singing by 
 the pupils of Exhibit A, a prayer by Father Ma- 
 loney and William Winterburn Worth, and food 
 and dancing and gayety generally. Our people 
 like the fiestas. They will come from afar for 
 the day, though they plan to fight us at night. 
 But the fiesta is the good politics. Some will be 
 convinced, and everyone convinced is what you 
 call a nucleus; is it not? 
 
 The Governor concurred, while General 
 Prairie Fire said if there was to be any 
 damned-fool business of this kind he would have 
 
 380 
 
WHY THE BISHOP WENT 381 
 
 to bring in troops from the outlying districts to 
 prevent a massacre, whose horrors he pictured 
 with String No. 1. The army was being made 
 a side show, he told Enrico, with String No. 3, 
 and that military expert agreed with him. 
 
 A thing of more import was that Father Tim 
 might not make the prayer, which W. W. took 
 even more to heart than the chaplain himself. 
 The Bishop as soon as he heard of the plan had 
 put on his spotless canonicals and proceeded to 
 the Palace, where he signified his approval of the 
 function and that he would grace the occasion 
 with his presence, as kings say, and this with his 
 heavy face set and his inverted eyes looking at 
 the corner of the desk. 
 
 How he came by those eyes is a story of com 
 mon report, whose authenticity has not yet been 
 the subject of antiquarian inquiry in Spain. It 
 was said that his grandfather, a famous bull 
 fighter, had been caught by the tip of a bull s 
 horn between the eyes, making a wound that be 
 came a birthmark in future generations. Of the 
 partial truth of this, so far as one generation was 
 concerned, there was proof enough to be seen in 
 the streets of Takar, where certain natives, of 
 ages from five to twenty-five, with inverted eyes, 
 had a name among the people that was unpleasant 
 enough in suggestion without repetition here. 
 
 " How many do you suppose there are? 
 Father Tim once asked Sergeant Smith, with 
 whom he was great friends. 
 
 " Don t get me a-guessing, said he. " When 
 
382 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 the census sharps come out from Washington they 
 ought to put them in a special class." 
 
 Don Francisco, when he heard of the Bishop s 
 intention, feared a demonstration. He wished 
 that he had not undertaken a fiesta, after all. For 
 the first time the Governor saw him in a passion 
 ate temper. 
 
 " Should a bishop have so many children? 
 the old Presidente asked. " Not of our church, 
 no ! What does it say to all the people when the 
 Father Maloney he is not to welcome the school 
 children and the Bishop is ? Order the polygamist 
 to stay away, Excellency." 
 
 But the Bishop of the diocese could not be 
 refused a place on the speakers platform. He 
 was the head of an organization. 
 
 I begin to think the law is a fool ! Don Fran 
 cisco declared. " The law is not the good politics. 
 I fear there will be trouble. Our abc s will be 
 proved the lie." He departed still loyal, but in a 
 new mood. 
 
 As for Father Tim, he had been saying in re 
 gret and chagrin for months, " If Mother Rome 
 only knew it! " Letters he had written through 
 such channels as he could, and gradually they 
 were finding their way to higher places. Only a 
 parish priest before he became chaplain, he had 
 the temerity to go to the Bishop and try to ex 
 plain; but the Bishop seemed to think that that 
 prayer was his golden opportunity for official 
 vindication. 
 
 Father Tim was pretty blue until he met Ser- 
 
WHY THE BISHOP WENT 383 
 
 geant Smith, of Company B, in the street, when, 
 suddenly, his eyes began to twinkle. 
 
 " Ye divil, ye! " said he, lapsing back into the 
 brogue may he never lose it! 
 
 He whispered to Smith and Smith whispered 
 to him, this Brutus and Cassius of a conspiracy 
 in which Brutus needed little encouragement, al 
 though in saying so one makes a guess; for offi 
 cialdom was not in favor of publishing the details 
 of an affair which a layman thinks too good to 
 remain a secret of tropical administration. 
 
 " If there s anybody asks any questions refer 
 him to me, Father," said that lean soldier, who 
 seemed to regard it as a privilege to be the goat 
 from the energetic and discreet manner in which 
 he set to his task. While the stands were being 
 built in the plaza he went out into the jungle twice 
 a day, where he was " doing a little abc militia 
 work," as he called it gleefully, on his own ac 
 count. 
 
 " How many have you altogether? " asked 
 Father Tim. 
 
 11 Twenty strong cases," said he. " I don t 
 know as they re all the straight goods, but they 
 say so and they ve got the look, and any that 
 ain t will make up for a number I m sure to have 
 missed." 
 
 61 It s a shameful thing to do, but I m human, 
 Tommy Smith, I m human, and I ve had to carry 
 this thing with the natives long enough," the 
 chaplain explained, in justification. " And how 
 do they drill? " he asked. 
 
384 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Bully! They re the real original gugu bat 
 talion, all right. Yes, sir, they re putting their 
 hearts into their work." 
 
 11 Sure, they ought to. It s a family matter." 
 And the Father was ashamed of himself for this 
 remark, too. At times he wondered if he were 
 not unpriestly. Was not this tropical life de 
 moralizing him? 
 
 Of all that world of Takar, he and the Ser 
 geant had the most anticipatory interest in the 
 fiesta. At dawn of the great morning the people, 
 in their best starched shirts and with their hair 
 oiled, began to stream in from the trails. Some 
 had walked half the night. After the months 
 of fighting and of suffering they were to have a 
 day of pleasure. They were to see the fair-haired 
 giant Governor, who was beaming happy " How 
 do you do s " as he shook hands and tried in the 
 second that he looked into each face to win the 
 trust and confidence of its owner. He was like 
 some genial, generous young father of a mighty 
 family. 
 
 Two native bands and a large crowd were at 
 the landing-place at the appointed hour. Espe 
 cially interested was the group of up-country 
 Presidentes, each of whom was to be sponsor for 
 one of the newcomers in a garrison town. They 
 betrayed their surprise at sight of the teachers, 
 some of whom were middle-aged, while some who 
 were young were not good-looking, some wore spec 
 tacles and some were mere commonplace males. 
 
 " We thought everyone was just like the 
 
WHY THE BISHOP WENT 385 
 
 Charming Lady/ insisted those disappointed 
 Presidentes. 
 
 But that rare old politician, Don Francisco, was 
 equal to the occasion. He promoted Ellen at 
 once. 
 
 " The Charming Lady is one of the divinities 
 of the abc s," said he. " There are only a few, 
 and we are lucky to have one on our island. And 
 all the others have her spirit and wisdom. 
 
 Then, with the bands playing, they marched 
 to the Palace. The chattering crowds in the plaza 
 were like a numberless opera stage chorus play 
 ing the revels of the country folk. Ellen s school 
 was in an honored position among the reserved 
 places inside the Palace green. She was a little 
 embarrassed by the distinction, but determined to 
 do her duty when she saw it, according to the 
 teachings of her youth from Aunt Julia. Another 
 vacant space nearby was not occupied until the 
 Governor and the Bishop and General Prairie 
 Fire, looking fierce, and officialdom generally 
 were taking their seats. 
 
 At this dramatic moment came that lean, 
 bronzed Sergeant Smith, of Company B, with his 
 infantryman s stride and veteran swing of the 
 shoulders, solemn as a King s Grenadier, at the 
 head of his marching battalion, all in step and 
 carrying flags. He tried his best to catch the 
 chaplain s eye and failed. Father Tim was study 
 ing the architecture of the cathedral spire in 
 tently and the Governor s smile was beatific, but 
 scarcely an offset for the angry glances of the 
 
386 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 crowd of brown faces in the field of white clothes 
 toward the Bishop. Major Staton, apprehensive 
 of trouble, was watching the troops, who had their 
 instructions. 
 
 If Sergeant Smith were to be the goat he pro 
 posed, in all soldierly spirit, to bear a full pack 
 to the woods. No doubt he did carry the matter 
 too far, clear beyond the intentions of Father 
 Tim, and in defense he was to answer that he 
 " delivered the goods." 
 
 It was his own idea having the flags and putting 
 his recruits in red shirts. In fact, he owned up 
 to everything, including the unpardonable dog 
 gerel. When the Bishop rose to make his prayer, 
 the battalion also rose. Thus they could not fail 
 to attract his attention. Who knows but Sergeant 
 Smith may have had in him the making of a stage 
 manager! The Bishop looked at that battalion 
 and started back a step, staring with mouth open, 
 and the battalion began to sing something about 
 the red, white, and blue, school fashion, and i Our 
 filial love for you," putting their heart into their 
 work. For a minute the Bishop s inverted eyes 
 gazed into twenty pairs of a kindred character, 
 then he picked up his skirts and fled up the 
 Palace steps and out the back way. 
 
 Father Maloney rose and, when he stepped for 
 ward, a cheer came from the crowd, which after 
 ward reverently crossed themselves. No man 
 could ask a higher testimonial for his work than 
 this, as W. W. said. What Sergeant Smith could 
 not understand was how the chaplain could keep 
 
WHY THE BISHOP WENT 387 
 
 his face straight for that prayer. In pleasant 
 banter Father Tim said by closing his eyes and 
 clasping his hands tight ; and then he added, very 
 seriously: " It was easy after that cheer and 
 when I realized what it meant." As for the 
 Bishop, he took the first steamer for Spain. 
 
XXXV 
 
 NEWS FROM TOLL 
 
 THE fiesta was a success, and its most 
 successful feature was the flag drill and 
 singing of the Charming Lady s school, 
 commonplace enough for us at home, but to Bar 
 as important as a Patti s first appearance to 
 America. All who were present had a happy 
 time, including Dr. Cortina. The Governor made 
 more than one new friend, or nucleus, as Don 
 Francisco was fond of calling any convert. 
 
 But even he, with his knowledge of the native 
 mind, was a little disappointed with the result of 
 the Bishop s departure. That underground route 
 of insurrection was ready with its prompt ex 
 planation. The Bishop had not been sent away: 
 He had gone only as the result of a soldier s joke 
 after the Governor had invited him to make the 
 prayer. So it was plain as a ripening mango on 
 a tree that the government sympathized with his 
 private morals. 
 
 All other events presently lose significance, 
 however, in General Prairie Fire s rage over 
 the latest defiance of his military rights. Two 
 companies of native constabulary were being or 
 ganized under the island government, which 
 
 388 
 
NEWS FROM TOLL 389 
 
 meant the Governor. Now the end was clear! 
 It was massacre; yes, by all the strings in a vol 
 ley, massacre! Not content with inciting insur 
 rection by abc s and glad-hand politics, we were 
 to train up soldiers to murder us in our beds ! 
 
 " You don t approve of this, Enrico? " said 
 the General to the faithful one. " Do you think 
 these niggers won t turn the rifles army rifles, 
 by G ! against us? " 
 
 " No, General," was the answer by the book. 
 i It makes me so sad. They will all say they are 
 so loyal and some day they will rise against us 
 in the dark, yes." 
 
 There you have it ! There you have it ! And 
 you know the native mind, too, Enrico! " 
 
 " It is not for me to say," returned Enrico, 
 ever so modestly, " but I do wish His Excellency 
 were not so simple." 
 
 " Simple! He s a cheap politician. We ve got 
 lots of em in the States." 
 
 At this point the General had an idea. He sent 
 for Major Staton, whom he was always suspecting 
 of personal disloyalty. When the Chief of Staff 
 came an eagle eye was fixed on him. 
 
 Major, did you have anything to do with this 
 constabulary business? " he stormed (with which 
 of the strings is not worth mentioning, as he was 
 using Nos. 1, 2, and 3 without discrimination in 
 the heat of conflict this morning). 
 
 " No, General." 
 
 " Well, if you did I d have you up before a 
 court! And let me tell you I see things. You 
 
390 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 are spending too much time on the Governor s 
 porch. It s bad for discipline and I want it 
 stopped! You keep away from the Governor s! " 
 
 The Major was ready to bear a good deal be 
 cause he thought it was his duty to remain in 
 Bar. Now he begged to inform the General, not 
 for the first time, that his transfer back to his 
 regiment was the General s privilege. This sug 
 gestion cooled Prairie Fire. His dependence on 
 the Major was one of the things the General did 
 realize. 
 
 " B-r-r, Major, I m just giving you a friendly 
 hint not to be indiscreet," the General said, with 
 brusque good-humor and No. 5 (the amiable 
 string). " Doesn t do for a soldier to get mixed 
 up with these politicians. If I want you to go, 
 I ll let you know fast enough." 
 
 " It seems to me, holding the views you do, 
 General, you might protest personally to the Gov 
 ernor," remarked Staton. " He will have to 
 listen." 
 
 " You re right, Major, there, though it s no 
 use. It s humiliating myself, but it s duty. I ll 
 do it to clear my conscience! I ll do it just as if 
 he were a reasonable, thinking man whom you 
 could convince." 
 
 The General buttoned his blouse, which bore 
 streaks from his morning meal, and straighten 
 ing his sagging shoulders, set out. He told him 
 self that he would make a firm, dignified repre 
 sentation to the Governor and withdraw. Al 
 though the day was profanely hot, as all days 
 
NEWS FROM TOLL 391 
 
 in Bar were to him, he managed to keep calm 
 during his walk to the Palace, where he was ad 
 mitted to the Governor s office before he had 
 finished wiping his brow. 
 
 " IVe come to present my view in this con 
 stabulary matter/ 7 he began. 
 
 " Yes, General, I should like nothing better. 
 I want both sides, " said the Big Fellow, with his 
 ineffaceable smile of welcome that irritated the 
 General. 
 
 " Sides! " Prairie Fire stormed, his resolution 
 forgotten as he struck the desk. 6 1 Sides ! There 
 is only one side to this question! It s anarchy, 
 treason, assassination! Of all the outrages 
 ever " 
 
 The Governor heard him through, begged to 
 disagree with him, and then said that the con 
 stabulary must be. He hoped for cooperation 
 from the commander of the forces which was 
 forthcoming in a choking, apoplectic " B-r-r! >: 
 as the doors swung to. 
 
 ; I reasoned with him ! I humiliated myself ! : 
 the General told Mrs. Strong. I did my duty. 
 
 At least, he could address the War Department. 
 That poor little right was left out of the wreck 
 of the American army to one who had worn him 
 self out in the service of his country. But he had 
 to ask his , Chief of Staff to compose his violent 
 representation, which the Major, all by the law 
 of the army, had to do in variance with his opin 
 ion. There was another thing that Staton wished 
 to mention again after the letter was signed. 
 
392 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " General, I think it is a mistake to send Com 
 panies D and E to Tabor. I am sure they will 
 find no enemy there. It is a decoy. We would 
 better keep at least E at Toll." 
 
 The attentive Enrico looked up out of the cor 
 ner of his eye from the translation he was so dili 
 gently making. 
 
 " Toll? That place where the Governor s try 
 ing out his love-me, love-you scheme? Why, no! 
 They don t need troops at Toll!" declared 
 Prairie Fire. 
 
 Enrico smiled over his translation. 
 
 " Still, I think they do," urged the Major, wh(v 
 was convinced that if he might organize a proper 
 intelligence bureau he would soon take care of 
 Enrico and his kind. 
 
 " Enrico says there are three hundred insur- 
 rectoes intrenched at Tabor, with Campo himself 
 in command yes, Campo! We ll bag every man 
 jack of em and look here! Are you command 
 ing or am I? " 
 
 Oh! the General s tropical liver was very bad, 
 and he had just seen from the window the new 
 constabulary with Sergeant Smith, detailed by 
 higher orders from one of his own companies to 
 command, marching across the plaza. 
 
 Dr. Cortina saw them, too, with a glitter in his 
 eye. That underground route had explained that 
 the constabulary was only the cloak for the for 
 mation of a band of city cutthroats who would 
 murder their own countrymen in their beds. Now 
 The Thinker wanted a diversion for the landing 
 
NEWS FROM TOLL 393 
 
 of his two thousand rifles. He was planning an 
 action to this end and to kill the confidence in the 
 Governor which had been growing in some 
 quarters. 
 
 The first word of what was in store came from 
 Bakan. The young Lieutenant of that little gar 
 rison of twenty may have been careless to have 
 allowed so many of his men to be playing ball 
 when their rifles were in the barracks. If so, 
 he paid the price when the very lot which Com 
 panies D and E had found missing forty miles 
 away, approaching stealthily, sprang out of the 
 jungle three hundred strong. With clubs, with 
 sticks and stones the twenty fought, falling to 
 the last man face to face with guerrilla trickery 
 and taking a toll of lives double their own 
 number. 
 
 Whenever there was fighting of importance 
 General Prairie Fire was bound to be in it, 
 shouting and swearing at his soldiers. For he 
 was a brave man, whose courage rather than fit 
 ness to command more than a small charging 
 party had won his star. He started with Major 
 Staton for the interior at once by the river, on 
 the Paktowan. 
 
 That evening the Governor had Mrs. Staton 
 and Ellen to dinner. He was silent and preoccu 
 pied. Two or three times he put his hand to his 
 head and seemed to rouse himself with an effort. 
 They asked if he were ill, fearing the fever. He 
 said " nothing but headache," which was the 
 fever sign, although they were persuaded that 
 
394 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 the real cause was heart-sickness over the news 
 from Bakan. 
 
 It was still light when, with their coffee, they 
 were seated on the veranda, and they would have 
 said that the figure which turned the cathedral 
 corner and came toward the Palace must be Don 
 Francisco, but for the energetic stride. Don 
 Francisco it was. His agitation transcended his 
 born politeness as he came up the steps. He 
 barely bowed to the Charming Lady and Mrs. 
 Staton and his glazed eyes seemed to see only the 
 Big Fellow. 
 
 " It is done! I am paid for my believing! I 
 am paid for my folly! " he announced, in sinister 
 abruptness. They have burned Toll my Toll ! 
 Our teacher there is dead! The insurrectoes are 
 shooting my people to punish me ! Your soldiers 
 are shooting them and they are dying in the 
 embers of their homes! " 
 
 "They have burned Toll! Toll! " said the 
 Governor, blankly. " Your Toll! My Toll! " 
 
 He put his hands on the old man s shoulders in 
 his sympathy at the first comprehension of the 
 import of this disaster. 
 
 The old Presidente drew away, with a toss of 
 his head and a dramatic gesture. His features 
 were drawn in the grimness of a man who has 
 seen savage work in his time and faces more. 
 
 " No! "he said. " This is your town meeting! 
 This your abc s! This your constitutional rights 
 of the minority ! I said to them, I bring you edu 
 cation; I bring you peace, in the Governor s 
 
NEWS FROM TOLL 395 
 
 name. Mother of God! They have the peace- 
 yes! I am finished with you. I go back to my 
 people to my people! I may fight you again. 
 I know not but I go ! 
 
 "Wait! Wait a little! See first who is to 
 blame. 
 
 " I know not who is to blame. I care not. I 
 know what is! I go! " 
 
 " But a minute! " and now he put his hand 
 firmly on Don Francisco s shoulder. " Do you 
 start at once? " 
 
 To-night. I go by a trail I know to avoid the 
 beaten track. They may kill me on the way. It 
 is nothing. My own people may kill me why 
 should they not? May it please the Virgin 
 Mother, I go to my people ! " 
 
 " Then I will go with you, Don Francisco," the 
 Governor said, quietly; " if I may? " 
 
 Don Francisco regarded him sharply. His old 
 suspicions were reviving. 
 
 "It is a dangerous trail a hard trail. It is 
 not a trail for you, Excellency." 
 
 The Big Fellow looked down at the old man in 
 a way that said it was exactly for him. 
 
 "I m something of a traveler, myself," he an 
 nounced. " I think I can go where you go and 
 I ll be ready in five minutes." 
 
 " If you will, Excellency; but no guards no 
 one else! " 
 
 " No one! " 
 
 To every word Ellen had listened, intent and 
 sympathetic, understanding to the full the blow 
 
396 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 that had fallen on the Governor. When she heard 
 that they were to go alone she sprang out of her 
 chair and to his side. 
 
 * No ! Not when you are not feeling well 
 don t, Big! " she said. 
 
 " Oh, that headache is gone. Don t mind about 
 that," he answered, carelessly. 
 
 " If the natives know that you are traveling 
 alone there is no telling what might happen! 
 Your place as Governor is here! " she insisted. 
 
 " Kiddy will do very well in my absence. He 
 knows the ropes." 
 
 " No, no! Please don t go! " She was plead 
 ing, tremulous. 
 
 Again, if he had not been too preoccupied to 
 look for that thing he had longed for, he might 
 have seen it in her eyes. But he was only sound 
 ing deeper the meaning of this new disaster, while 
 his anger and impatience grew. 
 
 " I must! " he said, face set and unyielding. 
 11 My place is at Toll with Don Francisco. I am 
 responsible for Toll! I am responsible to him 
 for Toll!" 
 
 She liked him best when he was Olympian, with 
 all his great reserve energy evident in look and 
 word. She had never before seen him so thor 
 oughly aroused and never been near him before in 
 a crisis or when he was going into danger. 
 
 It would be terrible for him if he were really 
 coming down with the fever, wouldn t it? " she 
 said to Mrs. Staton, after the Governor had gone 
 to change his clothes for the journey. 
 
" I must," he said. " My place is at Toll. I am responsible for Toll. 
 
NEWS FROM TOLL 397 
 
 " Yes, but he isn t," Mrs. Staton returned. 
 " He s a big-hearted boy, the Governor is, so far 
 as I can make him out. Sometimes, when he is 
 laughing and yarning, I fancy he is pretty un 
 happy inside. This thing to-night bowled him 
 out. The smile wouldn t work. Then came Toll 
 on top of Bakan and what a man he is! What 
 a task he has ! Oh, that old beast Prairie Fire ! 
 
 " Old beast! " said Ellen. 
 
 This helped them both. 
 
 1 But if he were coming down with the fever ! 
 she persisted. 
 
 " Fever, fire, and flood wouldn t stop him! " 
 said Mrs. Staton. 
 
 Ellen knew this. She recalled, regretfully, how 
 cross she had been with him before she wrote that 
 letter to the Personality which must have been in 
 Washington for many weeks, now. 
 
 The two women went with him and Don Fran 
 cisco as far as the corner of the cathedral. 
 
 " Good-night, Big. Good luck! Keep pro 
 fessionally cheerful, anyway. You will win! It 
 will be all right! " Ellen told him. " I m sorry 
 I called you a fool," she added, with a smile. " I 
 didn t really think you were. It was only poetic 
 license. 
 
 " Perhaps I am. I needed going over," he re 
 turned. " Good-night, Two Braids. Good-night, 
 Mrs. Staton and Kiddy. I ll see you all in a 
 couple of days." 
 
 After the Governor with long steps and the 
 Presidente with quick, short ones had disap- 
 
398 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 peared under the last street light, a small figure 
 came out of the Palace by the back way, in dis 
 obedience of orders, and carefully hugged the 
 shadow as it followed the travelers. 
 
 " I must look after His Great Bigness/ 
 thought Benito, the Guardian. " His Great Big 
 ness is so simple." 
 
XXXVI 
 
 A BECKONING 
 
 THE Governor must save his second disciple ; 
 he must have a reckoning with the General. 
 Purpose endowed Don Francisco s old body 
 with youth, and well he knew his trail. He had 
 fled along it from the Spaniards and crept back 
 along it after the Spaniards. 
 
 Hands and feet he used with equal facility as he 
 crawled over the root ribs of the great trees and 
 let himself down embankments slippery with moss 
 and seepage. He spoke only to mention an ob 
 stacle or a pitfall to his companion, who never 
 fell behind, Benito dogging his footsteps. Stealth 
 ily that first disciple and unquestioning believer 
 had overtaken the Governor and softly he had 
 said: " Great Bigness, do not send me back! " 
 and when he heard the Governor s pleasant laugh 
 and felt a pat on his head he knew that he was 
 forgiven. 
 
 The marchers eyes became accustomed to the 
 darkness; their ears to the rustle of the living 
 things they wakened; their nostrils to the moist, 
 dank odor of the unending life and decay of the 
 tropical hothouse. In half an hour their satu 
 rated clothes clung in soggy folds to their skins 
 
 399 
 
400 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 and that is bad for a man who is coming down 
 with the fever. 
 
 They passed through clearings where banana, 
 hemp, and plantain were grown and the groups 
 of nipa huts were silent, and then back into the 
 jungle, with limbs and vines whipping their faces 
 and the barbs of the bamboo tearing their 
 breeches and flesh; and this was the story of the 
 night, when muscles had no command except to 
 answer the call of Toll. At dawn they saw the 
 light breaking through the wet foliage and the 
 miasma and they came to a swollen river over 
 which the mist hung in a still, incandescent, suf 
 focating plume. 
 
 The ford was flooded. Don Francisco proved 
 an ill swimmer. The Governor saw that he was 
 making little headway. In his stoical mien there 
 was no plea for aid, and when it was given he 
 received it with a vain protest of pride. 
 
 " Keep your hand on the ferryman s shoulder. 
 Keep cool! " said Big, cheerily. 
 
 "As if I did not know how to keep cool, 
 Excellency! " 
 
 The current was swift and bearing against 
 them. Inch by inch the center rush of 88 had 
 to earn his way. His strength was flagging when 
 he put his hand on a root and drew himself and 
 his tow safely to the bank. 
 
 " You saved my life, Excellency," said Don 
 Francisco, as they lay blowing. He spoke in a 
 fatalistic way, almost grudgingly. 
 
 By this time they were near Toll. The old man 
 
A RECKONING 401 
 
 advised a sharp lookout. Usually, lie said, you 
 might count on two or three insurgents in hiding 
 along the path. It occurred to the Governor for 
 the first time, as they again took up the march, 
 that he was unarmed. " Great Bigness, if you 
 please ! and Benito gave his own revolver to Big. 
 The sun was drying their torn clothes, streaked 
 with earth and foliage stains, on their backs and 
 that, too, was a bad thing for a man coming down 
 with the fever. 
 
 Along the wayside they began to see refugees 
 with their househo]d goods and poor treasures. 
 From the cover of trees and bushes hunted, curi 
 ous eyes gazed at them, and Don Francisco whis 
 pered again his warning as they scrutinized the 
 hedges for any sign of hostility. 
 
 " Look out, Great Bigness! " Benito started 
 to cry; but before the words were fairly out they 
 heard two shots, and the Governor dodged at the 
 proximity of two hissing insects. The glint of the 
 barrels in front of the two brown faces on either 
 side of a clump of bamboos he had seen just as 
 they fired. 
 
 He never could explain his action to himself 
 afterward. Any charge of temerity he denied, 
 because it never occurred to him that the two 
 Mausers must have other cartridges in their 
 magazines. Nor was what he did unique. More 
 than once at sight of a big pair of shoulders, with 
 a V of white flesh in the neck of the blue shirt, 
 breaking through the jungle in fierce northern 
 energy, trigger fingers were paralyzed. And the 
 
402 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Governor was exasperated, as he said, and felt 
 ridiculous for having dodged. Possibly that is 
 the best explanation. 
 
 " You confounded little snipers! " he yelled. 
 
 He indulged in some of the profanities, too. 
 Considering that he used them seldom, he used 
 them well. They came out with a lion-like roar 
 as he started for these two little men, shaking his 
 fist. At sight of such a commanding individual, 
 as Willy Sweetser would say, they dropped their 
 rifles and, eyeballs popping, threw up their hands. 
 
 " Viva George Washington! Viva America! 
 Viva President Unity State! Viva Bigness! 
 Viva Goddam! Viva Prairie Fire! Mucho 
 amigo! Mucho amigo! " they cried, in all the 
 English they knew. 
 
 The Governor seized either of them by his shirt 
 back and what he gave them was a fair example 
 of an old-fashioned spanking. Then he swung 
 the rifles by the barrels and smashed them against 
 the trunk of a mango tree. The natives who 
 overlooked the incident sent it along the trail, 
 growing as it traveled until it became a regiment 
 struck powerless with a single strong, foreign 
 oath. 
 
 One spectator, at least, was in nowise surprised. 
 Had not Benito told the Presidente of Toll that 
 His Great Bigness could be the Great Anger? 
 That he could shake down the cathedral if he 
 chose? 
 
 " Is that the way the constitutional rights of 
 the minority fight? " Don Francisco asked, and 
 
A RECKONING 403 
 
 for the first time on that march there was a trace 
 of pleasantry on his lips, which faded quickly, 
 however, as they started on up the brow of the 
 hill to the plateau where the town of Toll had 
 been. Only the Presidencia, which was of plas 
 ter, and the church were standing. The rest of 
 the buildings were in ashes. 
 
 The General and some of the officers were in 
 the church doorway; soldiers were lying asleep 
 under its shade; other soldiers were coming in 
 small groups from the chase, famished and stag 
 gering, sweat furrows on their cheeks. Men on 
 guard paced up and down with languid stride, 
 rifles under the arm or easily thrown over the 
 shoulder. Their glances at the Governor were 
 far from pleasant. They knew only the trail and 
 they thought that his leniency made them more 
 work. 
 
 For this experience of the last two days was 
 not new in the category of thankless hardship. 
 They had marched forty miles on bacon and hard 
 tack, sopping wet, with no way to boil their coffee. 
 At midnight they had started to surround the in 
 surgents at Tabor, creeping forward in little par- --> 
 ties on their bellies to find that the bird had flown, 
 and to hear, in their weariness, the news of the 
 massacre at Bakan and the taking of Toll. 
 
 You will sneak up on a lot of the boys when 
 they re out playing ball, will you, you vermin! 
 The hope of a fight at Toll gave tired legs new 
 strength. Just bring out all the men and rifles 
 you have in the open and if one company can t 
 
406 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 first log had fallen, in order that he might use 
 it himself. 
 
 That old couple seemed pretty popular in the 
 community. If Tongal shacks burn easily, they 
 rise easily out of the palm leaves and bamboo at 
 hand, without the use of a nail, and soon grand 
 father and grandmother were grinning with their 
 toothless gums from the doorway of a new home. 
 
 The Governor saw an organization of relief 
 begun and the citizens at work under Don Fran 
 cisco s direction before he seated himself on the 
 steps of the Presidencia and wrote out a cable 
 gram to Washington, which did not take him long, 
 for he knew as well what he wanted to say as he 
 had known when he wrote that new law at Willy 
 Sweetser s request. The evidence was garnered; 
 the threshing over; the wheat in the sack. 
 
 His anger had risen steadily all the morning. 
 It flamed up every time he looked at that vista 
 of ashes. Thunder was in his mind as he crossed 
 the street to the church, but the sight of the old 
 General in his incompetency, mopping his brow, 
 his whisky flask empty, softened Olympian rage 
 that was about to break. He recalled to the Gen 
 eral all his protests; he showed how clear the 
 map of that island was in his mind ; he developed 
 the errors of the campaign in a way that made 
 Major Staton, who was listening, think it was 
 pretty good soldier talk. Prairie Fire was inco 
 herent and profane in answer. He did not stop 
 swearing until he was out of breath. Then the 
 Governor told him the contents of that message to 
 
A RECKONING 407 
 
 the Department. The General sprang to his feet, 
 choking and trembling and shaking his fist. 
 
 " You re to blame for this, Staton! " (With 
 String No. 1.) 
 
 " If every officer were as loyal as he " the 
 
 Governor began. 
 
 " Loyal, is it! " (Strings No. 1 and No. 2.) 
 61 Major, you are detached from my staff. Return 
 to Takar! And I ll answer your cable, you poli 
 tician! I ll answer it! " 
 
 But that effort, without any assistance from 
 the Major, was a poor thing to put on record 
 beside a certain exhibit written in a copperplate 
 hand. 
 
 The Governor, in a reaction of kindliness 
 after all, his dominant trail, felt a little cruel 
 as he handed in his cable at the field wire station 
 inside the church. With the closing sentence he 
 stated that Major Staton, by his ability and fa 
 miliarity with the situation, was preeminently 
 fitted to command the forces on the island. 
 
 It happened that the telegrapher, as the Big 
 Fellow approached him, was talking to Private 
 Parker of Company E. When the keeper of all 
 men s secrets batting his eyes as he read the 
 latest one, whose significance he could appreciate 
 turned to his key, Parker took from the table 
 a small packet of papers which he had been show 
 ing to his friend. It occurred to him that the 
 Governor might be interested in them. 
 
 " Governor, here s a bunch of stuff I guess I ll 
 give to my Captain soon s he comes in," he said. 
 
408 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Took it off a gugu officer. Got him myself, 
 the first fair shot I ve had in two months. 
 Wanted to fire at his red cap, but made it army 
 regulations for the body. Eight through the 
 lungs and down he went, monkey red cap and all ! 
 Mebbe he was on Campo s staff. They say 
 Campy s staff all do wear beautiful red caps." 
 
 Private Parker had paid back a tithe of the 
 debt he owed on account of his bunky, How do 
 you suppose he lost his bunky? Why, Jim, who 
 was always a simple, guileless fellow, was doing 
 sentry go when one of your amigo, mealy-mouthed 
 gugus came along and says to Jim, who had his 
 rifle over his shoulder careless, what a big flock 
 of birds that was on the church roof. Yes, just 
 like that. 
 
 Jim looked over at the birds and out comes Mr. 
 Gugu s bolo and one down stroke in the neck and 
 it was all up. Yes, that s the kind of people 
 these are. There s just one way to teach em. 
 When you see a white shirt in front of the line 
 give poor old Jim, who s worth the whole island, 
 the benefit of the doubt. And Private Parker had 
 marched from Tabor without stopping, and after 
 ward hiked five miles into the brush, marsh 
 water shucking in his shoes. 
 
 He was telling something about Jim as the 
 Governor looked over the papers. This time 
 Cortina had compromised himself with a letter in 
 his own hand. It left no doubt as to who was the 
 prime author of the messages sent out by the 
 underground route. 
 
A RECKONING 409 
 
 " You can have em, if you like, Governor, but 
 I m going to keep that red cap to send home to 
 Jim s old dad, just to let him know I scored one 
 for Jim," said Parker. 
 
 " Thank you, Parker. They re just what I ve 
 been looking for." 
 
 Underneath Cortina s letter, among a number 
 of editorial clippings sympathizing with the in 
 surgent cause, was a newspaper portrait of a 
 facile orator, with smooth face and mobile mouth, 
 The Thinker s " great statesman of the opposi 
 tion," who had been exercising the constitu 
 tional rights of the minority in a speech. Other 
 letters were commonplace and domestic. These 
 the Governor passed over quickly to one in which, 
 a week before the march to Tabor began, Prairie 
 Fire s plans were explained in full. The Governor 
 thought he recognized the clerical Spanish chirog- 
 raphy. As he thanked Private Parker again and 
 turned toward the church door he noted, among 
 the group, the only loyal Tongal, dapper, neat, 
 and attentive, standing near the General, and he 
 took the letter to Enrico. 
 
 " Do you know this handwriting? " he asked. 
 
 Enrico bowed low. 
 
 " Excellency " Enrico blanched. " Excel 
 lency it is dark here. Let me take it into the 
 light." 
 
 The faithful one slipped through the circle of 
 officers in the doorway into the sunlight, and then 
 bolted around the corner of the church. 
 
 Prairie Fire, writing on his knee, had not no- 
 
410 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 ticed the incident, though Major Staton had and 
 so had Clancy, who was waiting to take the Gov 
 ernor back to Takar on the Paktowan. Why trou 
 ble the General further when he was struggling 
 over an official communication which must not 
 be profane and Enrico was stealing through the 
 jungle and that chapter ended? the Governor 
 asked himself. 
 
 " I ll be with you, Clancy, in a minute," he 
 said, and then he went to Don Francisco, who was 
 in the center of a group, organizing and giving 
 orders. 
 
 " Don Francisco, when shall I see you in 
 Takar? " he asked. 
 
 " Excellency, you saved my life. I thank you, 
 for I see I can still be of service," was the enig 
 matic answer. 
 
 The little assistance I gave you have repaid by 
 the order you are bringing out of this chaos. 
 You ll be in Takar soon? " 
 
 " Excellency," he replied, with more than his 
 usual politeness, " I don t know as I shall ever 
 be in Takar. Excellency, all the work we have 
 been doing together is over. I know no abc s or 
 constitutional rights of the minority except Toll. 
 I stay with my people." 
 
 " Time! Time! Wait and think, Don Fran 
 cisco. Good luck and good cheer! 
 
 " My mind is made up, Excellency." 
 
 Then the old Presidente turned to the natives 
 around him and called for a viva for the Gov 
 ernor. They were always ready to be polite and 
 
A RECKONING 411 
 
 to cheer. He lifted his hat to them and promised 
 them aid from government funds if they set to 
 with a will to rebuild their town. The native mind 
 was a puzzle, he was thinking for the thousandth 
 time, as he turned away. 
 
 But Oriental indirection had not yet affected 
 the soldiers who were lining up for coffee in the 
 shadow of the church. They knew now that he 
 had walked from Takar over night. His stained 
 clothes and the slash of a bamboo thorn across 
 his cheek were in evidence of the fact. The big 
 Governor was on the job, anyway, and not afraid 
 of spoiling his complexion. They had even heard 
 of how he spanked the two bushwhackers, which 
 was much to their taste. So they gave him a 
 cheer, that was pleasant to hear, as he remarked 
 to Clancy, on the way down to the river bank 
 where the Paktowan was moored. 
 
 He now had a sense of his weariness. His head 
 was throbbing ; his bones were aching. Why, yes, 
 of course. This was because he had had nothing 
 to eat, he thought. A cup of coffee would soon 
 put him right. 
 
 Clancy was infectious as usual. A Governor 
 bathed and a Governor combing his hair in the 
 little cabin of the Paktowan could keep in tune 
 with sailor frivolity, while a meal waited under 
 the Lord High Admiral s postage stamp of an 
 awning. 
 
 " Hello! I thought I missed something! " he 
 called. " It s that big panel picture of that 
 pretty girl ! 
 
412 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Oh, Clem! " said Clancy, as if struck by a 
 memory. " The mildew in the rainy season is 
 bad for photographs. I packed it away." 
 
 " I ll not give the mildew time to spoil that 
 breakfast! " the Governor responded. 
 
 He tried to think that he was very hungry. But 
 pretense of an appetite does not take the place 
 of one for a man coming down with the fever, and 
 he ate meagerly and told himself that what he 
 really needed was sleep. 
 
 So he lay down on Clancy s cot and fitfully nap 
 ping, while the Paktowan sped down stream, 
 thought of what he should do in the case of Cor 
 tina; of the girl in the photograph and of Ellen; 
 of Uncle Theodore; of what answer, if any, the 
 Department would make to his wire if they 
 might not, after all, take Prairie Fire s side; and 
 of a thousand things. Once, wakened from a doze 
 by a shot of pain, he called for ice. 
 
 " There isn t any ice nearer than Fading," 
 said Clancy. " You must have been dreaming." 
 
 " I think I was," said the Governor, unstead 
 ily. " That was a long walk," he explained, 
 " when you haven t been taking much exercise, 
 Clancy." 
 
XXXVII 
 
 THE PEKSONALITY TAKES NOTICE 
 
 OF sensational consequence, that news of the 
 massacre at Bakan flashed under the ocean 
 into the headlines of the newspapers. All 
 the Big Fellow s friends, East and West, resented 
 the stinging editorial paragraphs more than he 
 would. Colonel Walker found a nutty flavor in 
 them. They had Harden going. It was a good 
 idea taking those islands, which could be most 
 useful, after all. 
 
 Madame Mother told Aunt Julia that a public 
 man must expect criticism, and the killing of a 
 teacher, she added, made one realize afresh what 
 a brave thing it was for a girl to go out to that 
 wilderness when she might have married Ned 
 Walker. This was a hint to Julia. Was Ellen 
 really in danger ? Aunt Julia asked ; and she grew 
 nervous and abstracted. 
 
 " Martha," she said, at length, " Ellen s been 
 writing to me regularly, but I ve not written her 
 anything but to say I was well. She s asked me, 
 or as good as asked me, for forgiveness for going 
 away, but she can t forget that word I used." 
 
 " I shouldn t think she could." 
 
 " Martha!" 
 
 413 
 
414 THE BIG FELLOW! 
 
 " Yes, Julia. " 
 
 "Martha, I ve done wrong, " Aunt Julia an 
 nounced, unconditionally. " I am going to write 
 her now, this minute, and say I am sorry. Yes, I 
 am going to eat my humble pie because it is right 
 I should. I never had any reason, never, to say it, 
 and that is why I ve stuck to it like a contrary 
 fool." 
 
 Madame Mother smiled happily, her object ac 
 complished. Then it occurred to her that Mr. 
 Hobber, bringing Mrs. Hobber if he could coax her 
 out, would be bound to call that evening, as he al 
 ways did when there was any news from Jimmy, 
 and she looked about to see if the room was in 
 order. 
 
 This time, however, Hiram broke his rule. He 
 astounded his wife by announcing that he was 
 going to Washington. 
 
 " What for? " she demanded, shrilly, as he 
 stolidly packed his valise. 
 
 " Business, Mrs. Hobber, " said he, " and right 
 on the night train, too," which was a different 
 night train from the one Uncle Theodore took. 
 
 " It s that Harden boy again, that s what it 
 is ! " declared Mrs. Hobber. " You couldn t think 
 more of him if he was your own son. 
 
 " No, ma am, guess I couldn t! " 
 
 i Just as if you could fool yourself that wasting 
 all this money s going to do any good, when no 
 body s asked you to, and just as if folks in Wash 
 ington air going to pay any tention to you ! " 
 
 " I guess they will, Mrs. Hobber, or I ll have a 
 
THE PERSONALITY TAKES NOTICE 415 
 
 certain Congressman by the ears, an his fences 
 ain t in any too good condition in this district, 
 either." 
 
 "Well, Hiram, don t go in with your head 
 down. Talk right up to em! " was her parting 
 word; " an be sure you ain t got the second but 
 ton in the top buttonhole of your vest ! 
 
 Both he and Dexter were afraid that the Per 
 sonality might not see the Big Fellow as they saw 
 him. Not so often as to Uncle Theodore, but once, 
 at least, with the same candor the Governor had 
 written to Hiram Hobber of his problem and his 
 handicaps. The two self-appointed ambassadors 
 did not meet, but saw the Personality at different 
 hours, Uncle Theodore early and Mr. Hobber at 
 the last moment, holding his head high and with 
 all five waistcoat buttons in the right holes. 
 
 " You read that letter an you ll see how pa 
 tient a big man can be with a Jonah on his back, 
 yes, sir! " said Mr. Hobber. 
 
 The Personality thanked him, and thus Mr. 
 Hobber had his say as the Cabinet gathered for 
 its weekly meeting and the cold, legal, Important 
 Member came in from the apprehensive War De 
 partment, where they were asking, from desk to 
 desk, how much longer this thing was going to 
 last. The loss of a private here and there might 
 be accepted as the penalty of policing ; a garrison 
 wiped out in broad daylight and a town taken, 
 though quickly rewon, opened the bitter dispute 
 anew. 
 
 Now, the Red Indian fighters demanded, would 
 
416 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 the Personality see how abc s and town meetings 
 incited the natives to massacre ? And your young 
 Governor of Bar, who was to handshake the bolo 
 fiends into submission, had he acquired the 
 manana habit f Had he fallen a victim to tropical 
 enervation and the Eastern coma which seem to 
 transform the character of an official in six 
 months ! 
 
 The Personality was in the attitude of I want 
 to know, which meant that something was bound 
 to happen in a certain island and soon. On the 
 Cabinet table in front of the Important Member 
 lay all the reports from Bar. The Important 
 Member, getting his case in hand, had read them 
 all through again. When the Governor s message 
 from Toll arrived, the full light of the situation 
 broke on him. 
 
 " You have seen a cabinet-maker planing and 
 sawing and chiseling," he said, as he passed the 
 pile to the Personality, " and studied what the 
 result would be. That cable sets up the cabinet. 
 It puts in the screws. And the General s cable 
 is there, too." 
 
 That prehensile, questioning mind of the Per 
 sonality was in Bar itself, as page by page he 
 tore the heart out of these papers. Over the Gen 
 eral s cable he had a short and knowing laugh. 
 Then he took up the evidence which Hiram Hobber 
 and that scholarly, white-haired old gentleman, 
 with the mellow, pleasant voice, had left. Nor 
 were these two the only men who had spoken for 
 the Governor without call. A half dozen tele- 
 
THE PERSONALITY TAKES NOTICE 417 
 
 grams had arrived. When the Big Fellow won a 
 man that man was one to rise instantly and say : 
 " I ll not listen. I know him. He s my friend." 
 This inside view was more convincing to the Per 
 sonality than any official view. 
 
 It was plain, said the Personality, that Prairie 
 Fire would have to go. Who should take his 
 place was the next question, a question of para 
 mount importance to the Governor. The official 
 suggested was another General, known to his of 
 ficers and men as Fuss and Fury. Of the same 
 species as Prairie Fire, born of thirty years fly- 
 specking in little Western posts, he was of a 
 different breed. In place of erupting he fumed. 
 He would stop a soldier on a jungle trail to tell 
 him that he was not wearing his cap accord 
 ing to regulations; he would occupy the whole 
 staff for a week to account for the loss of a water 
 bottle; and for the honor of the army he could 
 not go out to dinner without an orderly at his 
 heels. 
 
 Yes, but what had he done? demanded that in 
 satiable Personality. Why, by holding his num 
 ber on the list, thanks to his ability to take nour 
 ishment and keep on his legs, he had received his 
 promotion in turn, as he would in a barber shop 
 to the cry of " Next! " At present, he seemed 
 to be a negatively satisfactory commander on a 
 neighboring island which had been peaceful from 
 the first. To send him to Bar, others knew if 
 Washington did not, meant that the Big Fellow 
 would have to begin his fight afresh, while every 
 
418 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 new evil added to the sum of those the island had 
 suffered would further sterilize the soil for 
 the seeds of civil government that were being 
 sown. 
 
 The Personality was becoming familiar with 
 the species and he did not like General Fuss and 
 Fury, except in full uniform to add to the gayety 
 of New York s receptions and in the memory of 
 the hard, realistic fighting against another type 
 of enemy in his youth. Now that cable was read 
 again for the last sentence which had hung in 
 i the Personality s mind. He saw in it more than 
 jpostscriptum importance. Divining the Gov 
 ernor s handicaps, he understood how it was a 
 cry out of official bounds for a commander 
 of Big s choice when the responsibility was Big s. 
 This Major Staton was the man for the place, if 
 only he had the rank. Because he lacked that, the 
 head of a great business institution could not 
 choose an efficient manager for one of the local 
 branches. 
 
 There was one way to give it to him. A list of 
 Brigadiers was going in to the Senate that night. 
 Why not make Staton a Brigadier? the Person 
 ality asked. Knowing glances were exchanged 
 among the Cabinet officers. They knew what had 
 happened. That tenth member of the Cabinet, 
 who stood on the arm of the Personality s chair, 
 had been getting his ear again. Other members 
 warned him of the enormity of any suggestion of 
 going over the heads of a hundred officers to 
 make a Brigadier of an unknown Major, neither 
 
THE PERSONALITY TAKES NOTICE 419 
 
 a hero nor the son of any Great Body, who had 
 never led a picturesque charge or posed for a 
 moving picture machine. 
 
 " Send for his record! " whispered Impulse, 
 and the Personality consented. 
 
 The record was brought from the War Depart 
 ment, where, in brief and stinted phrase, the 
 career of an officer is written. That of dogged 
 Major Staton had needed no herald to his fellow- 
 officers from the day he had left West Point. In 
 times of peace he had worked as hard at his occu 
 pation as a busy business man, doctor, or lawyer. 
 When there was no work he had made work. And, 
 yes, he was something of a hero, too. He had 
 won a medal of honor from Congress in an Indian 
 campaign now forgotten ; he had been wounded in 
 Cuba, and he had made a long, grilling march in 
 the Islands which all the sit-by-the-fires had said 
 would end in starvation or massacre. 
 
 This made the Personality more friendly to Im 
 pulse. Who knew Staton personally! Who had 
 seen him? Had anybody a photograph of him full- 
 length? Yes, full length, the Personality in 
 sisted. Oh, he was a peculiar Personality, no 
 doubt, and most perplexing to that Oldest Cabinet 
 Member. Nothing in dress uniform was forth 
 coming, happily, but two campaign groups were 
 found which included a tall man, with muscle- 
 walled waist and broad shoulders under his khaki 
 blouse, who looked as if he could stand the strain 
 of any climate without cursing Almighty God for 
 having made the sun shine hot enough in somo 
 
l-o 
 
 isot herms |.o grow oranges for our breakfasts and 
 cocoa nu Is lor Irosting our cake . 
 
 " Now, YOU Know von waul to 0*0 it," said Im 
 pulse, \\lio \\.-i . most hope! ul. 
 
 " II :; you Hull is always j vlliug me mlo 
 trouble," the Pen.nnalily answered. He ^IIV(^ 
 hii| iil .1 * nil lo ni.ikc tllC liotluM SOinc llnii", Krc|> 
 (purl for llic iiinr IXMMJ^. II \\<>nl<l ur\ cr do to 
 draw nil Ihr lire \\liicli such nu nppoiul iiirnt 
 would uncover at this time. Near the buy// of 
 indignation as (he old fellows ruin the army 
 av, nm before the bridge game begins! (Consider 
 whnl the Folks out. Plymouth KoeU way would 
 .IN ! Il i i (Mii.i i k.ible how wrong luad(Ml thiy 
 can be on occasion, with the best of intentions. 
 The Personality could hear them declaiming 
 against this outrage of replncinjv n noble old sol 
 dior with a young up.l;ut nud per on.il fnvorito 
 
 thn young upstart being forty !w<> years of age. 
 
 Hut Impulse was n most persistent suitor. A 
 few people said il was lnd Impulse, while nm-,1 
 people, including Uncle Theodore and Hiram 
 llohher. .said it was (iood Impulse and the best 
 ( nbinet appointllHMlt for time out of mind. This 
 was not the liist time Impulse had been culled. 
 \\ell it knew that nil was grist that came to tin* 
 Pel (>nalil\ s mill and now was whispered the 
 recollection that among tin* papers and letters 
 that Hashed across the Personality s desk, like 
 newspapers off the press, had been one, some 
 \\eeks pre\ ions, from a certain schoolteacher, 
 \\hich was promptlN sent for. 
 
TIIK PERSONALITY TAKES NOTICE 421 
 
 A sober Cabinet enjoyed Ellen s passionate 
 portrayal of conditions in Bar no less than an 
 other Cabinet had enjoyed Willy Sweetser s pro 
 test against Big s appointment. With a gig 
 gle, the Oldest Member suggested that this young 
 woman was in love with the Governor. Then 
 came a remark from the Important Member. 
 Least of all would you have expected him to 
 answer the Oldest Member s frivolity. But he 
 had a wit which was like the winter sunlight on a 
 frosty pane of glass, and that, we know, may be 
 pleasant. 
 
 " If she is," said he, " it is only evidence of her 
 good judgment. I should say he made a mistake 
 not to propose at once." 
 
 Ellen was turning the scales. Impulse was 
 elate. It had an ally in none other than the Im 
 portant Member, who loved efficiency for ef 
 ficiency s sake. 
 
 There was truth, truth in that letter, declared 
 the Personality, tensely. But it would create a 
 row, he admitted. 
 
 " You ve been in a few rows before," said Im 
 pulse, pressing the point. " If you make him a 
 Brigadier all the army can say is, Well, if that 
 sort of thing is to be done you can t choose a bet 
 ter man than Staton." 
 
 Yes, by the Great United States, the Person 
 ality would! Flash! His mind was made up. 
 That old Colonel, incapacitated for field com 
 mand, who wanted a star for the New Year s Day 
 reception and to be called General when so many; 
 
422 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 of the other old fellows were, must wait a little 
 longer on the work unfinished ten thousand 
 miles away. While Bar slept the night after that 
 journey from Takar to Toll, when it was day at 
 home, the thing was done. The Personality 
 crossed out the name of the Colonel and substi 
 tuted that of Major Edward Staton in the list of 
 Brigadiers, lifting a load off a sick Governor s 
 mind and bringing happiness to a Major s wife. 
 
 Mrs. Staton would see that star on her hus 
 band s shoulder at once. She had already pro 
 vided herself with a Lieutenant-Colonel s silver 
 leaf but a star, a Brigadier s star! The most 
 thoughtful of army women could not be expected 
 to keep one in stock and certainly she could not 
 borrow one from Mrs. Prairie Fire. 
 
 " I did not ask for it! " said General Staton, 
 as he kissed her. Then he walked around the 
 room and said, " I didn t ask for it! " and kissed 
 her again. " It s a big thing and, Molly, there ll 
 be some men under me who are older than I am 
 and we must be very nice to them." He was 
 almost talkative, this silent, earnest soldier* 
 " Molly, I can carry out my ideas about cam 
 paigning in the island, now. Think of that!" 
 He kept on walking around the room between out 
 bursts of speech, and no chronicler will attempt to 
 say how many tours he made or how many times 
 he kissed his wife before she exclaimed: 
 
 " Why, Eddy, you re in command this minute, 
 according to the cable! All you have to do is to 
 step across the street! 
 
THE PERSONALITY TAKES NOTICE 423 
 
 " Yes, Molly. I want to make it easy for the 
 old General. But I think I will see the Governor 
 first. " 
 
 They were sure that they owed their good for 
 tune to him. It never occurred to them that Ellen 
 had played any part, and if it had they could not 
 have loved her more than they did. Let any 
 secret between her and the Personality be given 
 out from Washington. She was happy enough 
 over the fact accomplished until the news came 
 about Big. 
 
 The Governor was ill, but still refused to admit 
 it. He managed to leave the Paktowan when she 
 arrived late in the evening and with effort walked 
 to the Palace. He slept from sheer excess of 
 fatigue, but feverishly. When he awoke his will 
 outweighed the band of hot lead that seemed to 
 lie across his forehead. If any suspicion of what 
 was coming crept into his mind, then it was the 
 more reason that he should accomplish the day s 
 work. He sent for Cortina at once; but before 
 the doctor arrived came dispatches from Wash 
 ington telling of Staton s promotion. 
 
 "Kiddy! Kiddy ! " Big called. "Here s news 
 to drive away headache ! Bead that ! 
 
 " Boss," observed Kiddy, solemnly, " it makes 
 me believe that the mills of the gods do get around 
 to everybody s grist after a while." 
 
 " Yes, if it is a good grist," answered the Gov 
 ernor, now having the strength and humor to re 
 ceive Cortina, who, unconscious of why he was 
 sent for, appeared in a most gracious mood. 
 
424 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 i i Excellency, I hear you are a famous walker, 9 
 he said. It was a most remarkable feat, indeed, 
 and it is bound to impress the native mind. I 
 think you scarcely appreciate how important your 
 journey was in reassuring the people. I feared 
 that there would be trouble as soon as I saw the 
 way Don Francisco was using his new position. 
 
 Thus far the Governor allowed him to proceed. 
 Then Cortina, who rarely looked anyone directly 
 in the face, in the course of his shifting glances 
 saw the Governor s eyes. He stopped talking and 
 moistened his lips. 
 
 " You did not fear it, Cortina; you planned it," 
 said Big, shortly. 
 
 The plotter recoiled slightly. He went on play 
 ing with his gold-headed stick. He tried to smile. 
 
 " Excellency, I see I am misunderstood, " he 
 said. " Excellency, your evidence! v 
 
 The Governor handed him a transcript of the 
 letter which Private Parker had found. Cortina, 
 having recovered himself, read it benignly. 
 
 "It is unfortunate," he returned. " Excel 
 lency, what is your pleasure! He was polite 
 and cynical. " Will you send me away or 
 try me? " 
 
 " I could try you, but I shall not." 
 
 " No, Your Excellency is too wise. Your Ex 
 cellency knows too well what scandal it would cre 
 ate in America. I should have statesmen making 
 a hero of me, not to mention the press yes, of 
 me, as an exponent of down-trodden liberty." 
 
 Cortina, who lacked not courage or audacity of 
 
THE PERSONALITY TAKES NOTICE 425 
 
 a type, cracked his green skin in a fleeting 
 grimace. He thought he had struck home. 
 
 I will listen to no such quibbles ! said the 
 Governor. " I will put you under arrest at once. 
 I can try you on a half dozen charges, and so I 
 shall, by the constituted law of this land/ 
 
 The Governor was outwardly serene, although 
 his head was throbbing. He had given Cortina 
 one final glance and he was ringing up the mili 
 tary telephone to call the provost guard. 
 
 A half dozen charges ! What else had that big 
 man in his possession? Cortina r s feelings must 
 have been much like those of John Byng when he 
 was asked, " Did you or did you not? " His eye 
 lashes flickered. He put his slim fingers on the 
 edge of the desk and leaned forward, his head 
 near the Governor s elbow. His bravado was 
 gone. 
 
 " Excellency," he said, appealingly, " I fear I 
 am a natural mischief-maker. It is in this mixed 
 blood of mine. Education and jealousy make me 
 dizzy. Excellency, you are in the right and I am 
 wrong. Will you not give me the privilege of a 
 gentleman and let me take the first steamer to 
 Spain? " 
 
 Cortina by his plotting through Enrico had 
 caused the disaster of Toll, the loss of Don Fran 
 cisco! The Governor thought of these things, 
 with his bones aching from the effects of that 
 night journey. A big man himself, he looked 
 down on this little skinny man, with his ferret 
 eyes, his tricky expression, and generosity pre- 
 
426 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 vailed. He told the officer of the guard not to 
 mind. 
 
 " Excellency, your gracious clemency wins me 
 to your side," said Cortina, rising. Secretly he 
 was contemptuous. What had the Americans but 
 money? How could they win when they were so 
 simple-minded! 
 
 But Cortina would not depart yet. No, he must 
 wish His Excellency good health and warn him, 
 in polite farewell, to care for himself better in 
 the fever season. While he was speaking Kiddy 
 entered, bringing a dispatch. The Governor saw 
 that the signature was Francisco Martinez and 
 laid the dispatch to one side. 
 
 * Thank you, Cortina, he returned, and added, 
 on impulse : i You have a right to your opinion. 
 You have a right to fight for it. If you wish I 
 will not restrain you from joining the insurgents. 
 Take your side against us in the open go ahead ! 
 Then, if captured, you will be a prisoner of 
 war. 
 
 Excellency, I think I like the climate of Spain 
 better," he answered, though he meant, all the 
 time, to join the insurgents. " Excellency, 
 adieu! " 
 
 He offered his hand, but something in the Gov 
 ernor s fever would not let him take it. This was 
 more American politeness, Cortina thought, as he 
 withdrew. He hated the Governor, who chose 
 Don Francisco for a friend, and would not receive 
 his intellectual self into intellectual companion 
 ship. 
 
THE PERSONALITY TAKES NOTICE 427 
 
 " If he had only said, * Yes, that is my side; I 
 will fight ! then I could have admired him, the 
 Big Fellow told himself, as he took up Don Fran 
 cisco s dispatch. 
 
 " I remain with my people," it began, in his 
 characteristic way, i i to protect and help them. If 
 you will send me two hundred rifles I promise to 
 defend Toll myself and never fire a shot at your 
 soldiers, unless you attack the town. You may 
 send your teacher and he. will be safe. I will not 
 send my troops outside the province. I will use 
 them in the province only to punish the brigands. 
 Once I took your word. Will you now take 
 mine! " 
 
 The Governor read this carefully a second time 
 and thought over it before he put it back on the 
 desk to wait on General Staton s coming. Then 
 he turned to other affairs, which he felt, in some 
 uncanny, far-off way, ought to be finished before 
 the day was over. He looked to every last detail ; 
 he made every last necessary signature, as if he 
 were going on a journey. Still he insisted, in 
 league with his will, that he was not ill. He told 
 Kiddy, when Kiddy protested, that his flushed 
 face was the effect of sunburn, and he minded that 
 he must be ready with this excuse to Staton. 
 
 Every paper had been attended to except Don 
 Francisco s message and he had already written 
 to Madame Mother and Uncle Theodore briefly, 
 for his hand was unsteady, in glowing optimism 
 over the turn of affairs and was just finishing a 
 letter to Willy, now in Japan on his way to Bar, 
 
428 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 when Staton came in, and his eyes lighted with 
 such a welcome as no caller had ever yet received 
 in that office except Ellen. 
 
 " Well, General! " he said, with a happy accent 
 on the rank pregnant with meaning, and that was 
 all. It said everything for both; everything 
 that they might have spoken and everything 
 that the limitations of language would have left 
 unspoken had they tried to express themselves. 
 The Big Fellow was in a hurry to clean up affairs 
 before starting on a journey and Staton, fresh 
 in the saddle, was preoccupied with the march to 
 come. 
 
 " The outlook is the worst it ever has been, 
 Staton? " 
 
 " Yes, Governor, it is." 
 
 So they both candidly admitted the truth at the 
 start. 
 
 " I hope we shan t have to repeat Strong s 
 continual call for reinforcements, and with better 
 management we may do the trick with the troops 
 we already have! 
 
 " We shall! " said Staton, firmly. " I wanted 
 to hear you say this before wiring the Depart 
 ment. These Bakan and Toll affairs, making 
 chaos, require that such changes as I intend to 
 make should be initiated at once. In these I wish 
 to carry out the spirit of your policy, so far as 
 military necessity will permit. When it will not 
 I will explain my reasons and I shall be ready to 
 listen to yours." 
 
 " This is strange talk from the commander of 
 
THE PERSONALITY TAKES NOTICE 429 
 
 the forces and very grateful," the Governor said, 
 knowingly. 
 
 " Now, I think I understand your policy, but 
 may I hear anything you have to say? and after 
 ward it will be my turn." 
 
 The Governor leaned his head on his hand, 
 which was unusual in one who always sat erect 
 even when writing, and went over his whole plan 
 with the terseness of a man under a strain. Then 
 Staton spoke and, head on hand, the Governor 
 listened and had little more to say before they 
 fully understood each other, and the Governor 
 took up the one remaining thing, Don Francisco s 
 telegram. 
 
 " I should like to do this," he told Staton. 
 " What do you think? " 
 
 How Prairie Fire would have stormed at the 
 idea ! Staton was plainly doubtful. 
 
 " It s a pretty big risk," he said, " giving two 
 hundred new Krags to insurgents. If Don Fran 
 cisco is beaten the rifles are taken. Do you trust 
 Don Francisco? " 
 
 " Yes. He is a fighter. They ll not get his 
 rifles." 
 
 But the Governor was of a trustful nature, 
 Staton knew. How far did he discriminate in 
 placing responsibility? 
 
 " Governor, I am going to ask you who else in 
 Bar, outside of our own officials, you trust really, 
 trust fully in your heart men of importance? " 
 
 Besides Don Francisco and some other Presi- 
 dentes and natives the Big Fellow had to admit 
 
430 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 that, in his heart, he trusted only Thompson, that 
 young American mining man, and that straight- 
 speaking young Australian, Horswell, Parko- 
 witz s assistant. 
 
 * Very well ! I agree ! said Staton. 
 
 Now the Governor s desk was quite clear. 
 Something seemed to snap in his head. Trying to 
 rise at the same time as Staton, he reeled and put 
 his hands on the arms of his chair to steady him 
 self. The General found them like fire to the 
 touch. Big saw the cracks between the hardwood 
 boards of the floor writhing and the boards them 
 selves tipping as his friend supported him to his 
 room. 
 
 " You know how to keep things steady, Staton," 
 he repeated two or three times on the way, and 
 from his pillow, where he sank, beaten by the 
 enemy he had fought hard, it was good to look at 
 Staton s firm jaw and square shoulders and to 
 think, however hazily, that General Prairie Fire 
 was not in command. And for this he had to 
 thank Impulse, which was then sitting on the 
 corner of the Personality s desk at Washington 
 on the lookout for a fresh opportunity. 
 
XXXVIII 
 
 THE FEVER DEVIL 
 
 BENITO S step was the softest, softer than 
 the doctor s or the nurse s. An automaton, 
 he pulled the punka over the sick bed in 
 noiseless, even swing. 
 
 " His Great Bigness will not die. He is too 
 big for the fever to kill him, he would whisper to 
 himself, in a brave sort of reasoning which was 
 father to the wishes of all. 
 
 When the Admiral said that it would be easy 
 to put the patient aboard the flagship and have 
 him north in a cooler climate before the crisis 
 came, the Big Fellow, in some subtle way, 
 divined, if he did not overhear, the suggestion and 
 rose from his pillow in restless protest. 
 
 "No! no! " he cried. "I m not finished here 
 yet!" 
 
 It was a bad case, the army and navy surgeons 
 agreed. A physique that could withstand that 
 journey to Toll in the first stages of fever and a 
 will that could keep him at a desk until he col 
 lapsed, reeling and delirious, only made it worse. 
 But the will might play a better part, and in this 
 the surgeons also agreed. The Governor him 
 self was determined that he would get well. 
 
 431 
 
432 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Before the crisis a visitor brought him good 
 news. Don Francisco, who came down the river 
 in a native dugout, went straight to the Palace, 
 where he met the General in the hall. 
 
 " Your march from Takar to Toll was in the 
 dry season," he said, proudly, and Staton was 
 glad to grant him all the honor he desired. i He 
 and I walked in the rainy season. He saved my 
 life. He is my friend. As soon as my troops are 
 trained to fight with your rifles and defend Toll I 
 will go on with the work he taught me to do." 
 
 Ellen thought that it might help Big if he could 
 see Don Francisco. 
 
 1 1 Someone has come, she whispered to him. 
 
 The Big Fellow opened his eyes and knew that 
 sturdy figure in the doorway and smiled. 
 
 " It is as it was before, Excellency," said the 
 Presidente of Toll. 
 
 " Don Francisco! As before! This is good 
 good! We ll do much together," he uttered, dis 
 connectedly. " When I am back on my feet we 
 can start right." 
 
 He closed his eyes and Don Francisco padded 
 back into the hall. 
 
 " Will you tell me with your tick-tick wires 
 every day how he is? " the Presidente asked the 
 General. " But His Excellency will get well- 
 yes, he will! The Honorable Lincoln would be 
 too lonesome without him." 
 
 Big liked to hear Kiddy s voice and Staton s. 
 Otherwise, he was restless and kept calling for 
 them, especially Staton, " who is keeping things 
 
THE FEVER DEVIL 433 
 
 steady keeping things steady," he would say. 
 When they appeared he was reassured. Ellen he 
 wanted more frequently. In a lucid moment he 
 would look up at her, surprised and pleased, with 
 a faint: 
 
 " Hello, Two Braids! " 
 
 Hello, Big ! she would answer, as cheerfully 
 as she could. " You re doing finely." 
 
 It was unearthly and terrible to her to see him 
 lying in that darkened room with his face, grown 
 thinner, against the pillow to see him, Big who 
 was never sick before, helpless as an infant. 
 
 " I will do it! I will! " he said, in a moment 
 of delirium, exposing the heart of his policy. 
 " They ve killed twenty of our soldiers ! They ve 
 burned Toll ! But I will do it I will and with 
 mind and character and patience and without kill 
 ing. Yes, with mind and character, and I ll walk 
 across the island unarmed and I ll see all the 
 Tongals happy and peaceful, running their own 
 village affairs, before I go." 
 
 At times only Ellen could quiet him. He 
 seemed to know her touch if she put her hand on 
 his head. 
 
 " All right, Two Braids, all right." 
 
 In his wanderings he never mentioned her ex 
 cept as the Two Braids of the days before she 
 went away to school. He spoke of everyone else; 
 he lived over many scenes. Was there some 
 psychological action that set her apart in his 
 mind? 
 
 Yes, he considered her as a little girl, she told 
 
4,34 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 herself bitterly, not important enough to enter 
 into his life. Then she accused herself of selfish 
 ness for allowing such thoughts to have a place. 
 What did it matter? If they should lose Big- 
 no ! She could not bear to go beyond the hyphen 
 of the unexpressed. 
 
 When he lay so quiet that he no longer spoke 
 or noticed anyone and the doctor said that in a 
 few hours they would know the worst, she left the 
 Palace. She had not the courage to wait for the 
 look on the doctor s face that would tell the story. 
 
 In these trying hours no one had anything to 
 say. The General read reports whose lines lay 
 one over the other; Mrs. Staton tried to sew; 
 Kiddy Witherbee stood motionless, staring out of 
 the window at nothing; Ellen went to her room 
 and threw herself on the bed. Thoughts came too 
 fast for her to be still. She arose and went to the 
 table by the open window and tried solitaire, 
 shuffling frantically and playing rapidly, not 
 noticing that some of the cards had fallen on the 
 floor. Yes, rapidly for a time, then desultorily, 
 then stopped, while her gaze wandered to the 
 plaza. 
 
 The faces of the natives seemed cunning and 
 malicious. Their slow steps had the deadliness of 
 fate. That old cathedral was ghostly, unnatural, 
 and foreign ; its moss patches so many ugly blots. 
 That Palace was a prison; its white walls under 
 the blazing sun oppressed her sight. She looked 
 away from the foreground to the perspective of 
 the green hills, which were a black, shiny, repellent, 
 
THE FEVER DEVIL 435 
 
 unreal, theatrical green, and recalled the odor of 
 the jungle and the march that Big had made. 
 Even the retrospect of her own school-children at 
 their Ked, White, and Blue made a singsong of 
 mockery in her ears. 
 
 She closed her eyes and saw another world: 
 Aunt Julia was chiding her; she heard Madame 
 Mother s gentle voice, Hiram Hobber s nasal 
 drawl, Pam s soft chuckle. She saw the snow on 
 the ground, the trees bare, and heard the sound 
 of sleighbells ; the lawn and the first wild-flowers 
 in spring breaking out of the moist earth; the 
 cherry-trees in bloom and fruiting, and all the 
 green of the oak, the maple, and the beech, fresh, 
 hopeful, in its youth, and again the wondrous 
 tints of October, and heard the singing of the 
 crickets cheerfully welcoming a season s change 
 in the land where the sunlight kisses the frost. 
 
 Beside those things of home, how repugnant all 
 this she saw from the window all this monotony 
 of continuous heat and vegetable life that smoth 
 ered human life! She was personal; she was 
 bitter. She was angry with Miss Destiny. If 
 they should kill Big Big who was worth all the 
 Islands together ! Lips tight set and eyes glazed, 
 she stared at the square and saw General Staton 
 coming from the Palace. He would know. He 
 was coming at a rapid gait, but to her all too 
 slowly and then all too fast. Could she tell the 
 news from his face which so well concealed his 
 thought! Then in a swooning moment things be 
 came splintery and she did not seem to see him 
 
436 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 at all, but came back to herself with the sound of 
 his voice. He was standing under the window and 
 swinging his hat as though he had won the great 
 est charge of history. 
 
 < < It s all right! He ll get well! " he called to 
 Mrs. Staton, who was on the porch. " It s all 
 right, all right, all right, Molly! " 
 
 Ellen ran downstairs, where the three looked 
 at one another through tears. Their unspoken re 
 joicing told each one how deep a hold this big 
 man had on that little community. 
 
 t He is very weak but quite himself, the Gen 
 eral said, " and he asked for you. You do seem 
 to be his favorite nurse." 
 
 He went to the telephone and over all the mili 
 tary wires sent the glad news ticking through the 
 island to the troops, to Don Francisco, and to the 
 natives, while Ellen hastened to the sick-room, 
 where the Big Fellow lay, ghostly white and hag 
 gard on the pillow, scarcely able to turn his head 
 and smile. 
 
 " Hello, Two Braids! " he said. " We did it! 
 We won! " 
 
 " Oh, Big! Everyone is so happy! 
 
 In an impulse, she kissed him on the forehead 
 and flushed for having done so, while a trace of 
 color came to his cheeks and flickered away in 
 his exhaustion, as he closed his eyes and fell 
 asleep. 
 
 Now they had to look forward only to his recov 
 ery, while Staton went among the provinces, or 
 ganizing and planning. 
 
THE FEVER DEVIL 437 
 
 " I m keeping things steady/ the new General 
 told the Governor. " But you are not to worry 
 or think about it. There s no bad news." 
 
 When Big was able to sit up he began to ask 
 questions. 
 
 " Boss," said Kiddy, " the doctor says that to 
 recuperate you ought to go to a cooler climate; 
 but as you won t, he and the General and I have 
 entered into a conspiracy. There s big work 
 coming and we want you ready for it. When you 
 are able to go into harness you re to be put in the 
 know all at once. Let you have a hold and there ll 
 be no keeping you from wanting the whole thing. 
 So you are to get nothing." 
 
 The Big Fellow demurred at first. How was he 
 to keep his mind off his island? After a little 
 thought he said: 
 
 " All right, Kiddy. You and Staton keep it 
 steady till I m ready to ride." 
 
 With his rapidly gaining strength there was 
 nothing for him to do except to sit on the shady 
 side of the porch and receive the short calls of 
 the officers, soldiers, and natives, and the little 
 group of friends in Takar. Father Tim could 
 read Mr. Dooley in a way to bring Archey Road 
 to Bar, while Staton, when present, had as little to 
 say as Mr. Hennessy. W. W. developed another 
 side in his droll, lisping rendition of Huckleberry 
 Finn, a character after his own heart; and Ser 
 geant Smith Captain Smith, we beg his pardon 
 had some most remarkable stories about adapt 
 ing the native mind to the constabulary, which he 
 
438 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 never told until he had supplied them with legs 
 so they could travel well. 
 
 " You re all so good to me," the Governor 
 would say, now and then. " It s a good world, 
 I tell you, W. W." 
 
 " Yes, indeed," said W. W., " and when you 
 consider how bad it was once, why, it s quite en 
 couraging to anybody who is trying to make it 
 still better." 
 
 Law reviews, books, magazines, and news 
 papers, not to mention the letters immediately de 
 voured, had accumulated in a pile under the 
 cozening eye of Kiddy, who was a strange senti 
 mentalist in that he did not want them opened till 
 the Boss was ready. Ellen took off the wrappers 
 and read from them whatever Big chose to hear. 
 Even after he was able to read himself, he pre 
 ferred to depend on her; while Clancy, when in 
 Takar, would sit with his hands clasped over his 
 knees and his back against a porch pillar watch 
 ing Ellen more intently than he listened. 
 
 It was when Clancy was not present that the 
 Big Fellow recurred to a matter that had troubled 
 him. 
 
 " I suppose I talked a lot of foolishness and 
 unreality when I was sick, Two Braids," he said. 
 
 1 No, Big. Just of home and friends and work 
 and made everybody feel that they knew you 
 and liked you better nothing that your old com 
 rade hadn t heard before." 
 
 In this way, working relations, if they had ever 
 been broken, were perfectly reestablished. 
 
XXXIX 
 
 BIG S CAREER AT A CRISIS 
 
 NO Enricos now shared the secrets of the 
 commander of the forces. Through loyal 
 natives and a proper scouting service he 
 was better informed of what the enemy was doing 
 than the enemy of what he was doing. The troops 
 were no longer marched on fruitless errands. 
 When they went on a " hike " they usually 
 bagged the game they sought. 
 
 In a few words Staton rendered an account of 
 his stewardship to the Governor without requir 
 ing even the No. 5 String of profanities to make a 
 situation clear. 
 
 " I have done as you desired/ he said, finally. 
 
 " You have, precisely, " the Governor assured 
 him. 
 
 No schoolhouses had been burned and no teach 
 ers killed and in the garrison towns a better spirit 
 was prevailing. Yet Staton had only held the sit 
 uation steady. His account, although he himself 
 did not make the point, was a revelation of what 
 a disaster had been inevitable if Prairie Fire had 
 remained much longer in command. 
 
 Cortina, in hiding in the jungle, was really mas 
 ter of the native forces through the hand of 
 
 439 
 
440 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Campo, while the brigand Pardo had over five 
 hundred men. In all, Cortina had four thousand 
 Mausers, it was said, which he had brought in 
 before the change of Generals. Each man keep 
 ing his own rifle and ammunition, the insurgent 
 forces drilled by night in the mountains, return 
 ing to their homes by day, while they waited on 
 the word for the grand attack and victory that 
 The Thinker had promised them. 
 
 To offset this bad news came good news from 
 Don Francisco. 
 
 " Good friend who saved my life," he wrote, 
 " Senor and Senora Sanchez send their most 
 beautiful salutations on Your Excellency s benign 
 restoration to health. If you do not remember 
 Senor and Senora Sanchez, I am the one to tell 
 you that they are the old couple that you honored 
 with cutting the first bamboo for their house. 
 
 " All the days when the tick-tick wire so very 
 sad and slow it told us nothing except you were 
 alive, Senor and Senora Sanchez they sit in their 
 door and say: His Bigness is too big for the 
 fever to kill him; he will live. 7 When the tick- 
 tick wire it said so fast and so happy how the sol 
 dier doctor who finds out things so quick say you 
 would get well, Senor and Senora Sanchez were 
 like little children for happiness, and they say: 
 We told you so. Now will you say the old folks 
 have no wisdom in their white pates? We make 
 the great holiday for everybody and the school 
 boys and girls they march around singing the 
 Eed, White, and Blue. I tell them that was the 
 
BIG S CAREER AT A CRISIS 441 
 
 proper respect to show, and my people do as I 
 say. 
 
 " Good friend, I hear you sit on the porch and 
 eat with grand appetite of seven giants to bring 
 back your great strength. I would come to 
 brighten my eyes by looking on your face, but Don 
 Francisco of Toll he is the busy man and he has 
 many friends who wait for him on the trail out 
 side Toll to make of him the corpse. If they can 
 kill Don Francisco it will be a good stroke for all 
 bad men, and Don Francisco he likes that life you 
 saved so well that he make a disappointment to 
 these friends. 
 
 " I am writing a letter to the General, asking 
 him for the Mauser ammunition for our fifty new 
 rifles. Yes, friend, I am a thrifty man. I make the 
 two hundred rifles grow. I now have two hun 
 dred and fifty and Aguillo he work on the new 
 market road I build. 
 
 Aguillo, that boy, I knew him when he was 
 little ! He had the good looks and the smartness 
 which make a fool of him. The cock-fights and 
 the gambling for Aguillo! He never work, but 
 would be a brigand, a grand brigand like the 
 Pardo, and from the brigand he rise to the insur- 
 recto, and he say that old Don Francisco he was 
 what your soldiers call the back number. He dig 
 me the trap. I fall in, he think, and I push him in 
 and he and his brigands they dig now, but not the 
 trap. I was not the back number ; Aguillo, he was. 
 
 " Good friend, it is not, is it, a wrong for the 
 constitutional rights of the minority to make the 
 
442 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 brigand work? Did the Honorable Lincoln think 
 that the people should earn the rice for the brig 
 and who steal and kill, and let the brigand sit in 
 the shade to eat it? 
 
 i I give Aguillo such good advice as the Honor 
 able Lincoln would. I tell him that he has held 
 up many people on the way to market and he 
 ought to be happy to make a good road to market. 
 Oh, yes, and I tell him that if he study the con 
 stitutional rights of the minority and learn how 
 to work I will let him work for himself like an 
 honest man one day. 
 
 " Our new teacher has the windows to his 
 face as big as the Kiddy of His Bigness. He is 
 what you call in the America the baseball crank. 
 When he said he could make a ball curve I greatly 
 disbelieved so strange a travel tale; and he tell 
 me to stand behind a tree and he would prove to 
 me. I stood behind the tree and I get the sore 
 shoulder and also what your soldiers call the 
 laugh. I try to catch the ball and I hold my arms 
 out stiff and my fingers get the great pain. I will 
 not try again. It is not for the old man to make 
 the new tricks or to be foolish before his people. 
 
 " The young boys they learn the baseball fast 
 and they make the great noise which the teacher 
 calls the rootings, and the rootings are greatly 
 important. We have the two teams, a team for 
 the north side and the south side of the street, 
 and they practice the curve instead of the killing 
 and they make many quarrels about the umpire, 
 who is like the Governor. He has all the troubles 
 
BIG S CAREER AT A CRISIS 443 
 
 and is not in the game. I tell the teacher that 
 the baseball bat is better than the bolo and he 
 say : < Don Francisco, you understand the Hon 
 orable Lincoln very well. 
 
 " Good friend, I may get the three hundred 
 rifles and make the new road still longer yet. 
 Good friend, Toll is safe. Don Francisco keeps 
 the faith. I send you my salutations and 
 obeisances." 
 
 66 You were right about Don Francisco," said 
 the General. Giving him the two hundred rifles 
 was the best stroke yet. I wish there were only 
 more of him. But you will find, Governor, that 
 your seed is already bearing some fruit. It is 
 bringing the industrious and peaceful to your 
 side." 
 
 " Good! Good! " cried the Governor. 
 
 " But the lawless are the more bitter, and bit 
 terest against Don Francisco. The wolves form 
 in packs for the fray. We must have harder fight 
 ing than we have seen yet. The soldiers turn is 
 coming." 
 
 " Let us send for Don Francisco," said the 
 Governor, changing the subject. 
 
 The old Presidente refused a guard, though his 
 life was in danger the minute he left his own 
 province. Over night he slipped down the river in 
 a dugout, and in high good humor appeared not 
 long after sun-up at the Palace. 
 
 " I have the great news," he said, " which I 
 heard only a few minutes before my departure 
 from a man I can trust. Excellency, you were too 
 
444 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 simple when you let the Doctor Cortina go. You 
 should have put him in jail." 
 
 1 i I took his word. He lied, answered the Gov 
 ernor. 
 
 i And as an exile he could have returned to the 
 island from Fading," put in the General. 
 
 " Cortina, he has the gift of rousing the 
 natives," continued Don Francisco. " He has the 
 great brain with the hell streak in it, and he 
 would do the great thing. He sees you keep fewer 
 troops in Takar. With the swoop of the eagle, 
 when the dry season begins, he will gather his 
 bands and sweep down on the capital." 
 
 " We shall not be idle in the meantime," said 
 Staton. 
 
 The Governor, as they were talking, had on his 
 lap a new military map of the capital and vicinity, 
 which, as a part of Staton s indefatigability, the 
 staff had been preparing. He was looking at it 
 as he spoke. 
 
 " Now the crops will soon be in such a state," 
 he said to Don Francisco, " that the people will 
 have only to wait on the ripening, and Cortina 
 will probably strike about that time." 
 
 " I should say yes, Excellency." 
 
 " We could bring all the friendly people, who 
 fear the insurgents, into our garrison towns for 
 a time without much trouble and protect them 
 there. Then they could return and harvest their 
 crops." 
 
 Yes, Excellency. Five out of six of the people 
 want only peace. One out of seven was always 
 
BIG S CAREER AT A CRISIS 445 
 
 a brigand. All the fightings make the brigandage 
 good business, as your soldiers say. Two men out 
 of seven with the rifles, and that is what you call 
 the military power of the minority." 
 
 " Then, General, if Cortina wishes to come in 
 with our garrison in his rear we might let him 
 come," the Governor concluded. 
 
 " Governor, you plagiarize my plan of cam 
 paign! " returned Staton, who could see the map 
 with his eyes shut. " I shall be criticised, but I ll 
 do it. And if we should fail well, we ll bear the 
 blame and the scoffing. Therefore we must not 
 fail!" 
 
 Don Francisco was something of a strategist 
 himself, as we know. He caught the drift of the 
 plan in a gesture of enthusiasm. 
 
 " When the garrisons march in behind and it is 
 thus " he interlocked his fingers " I may have 
 the three hundred rifles to help." 
 
 " And possibly we may bag them without much 
 loss of life," the Governor suggested, hopefully. 
 
 Staton shook his head decidedly. 
 
 "No! Our forces are so meager that a hard 
 fight will be necessary," he declared. " And per 
 haps they will smell a rat and we can t draw them 
 in." 
 
 " Yes, Cortina is the ferret for cunning, but his 
 vanity makes him the fool," Don Francisco 
 added. " I think he will come if we encourage 
 him." 
 
 " The toll will be heavy," said Staton. " Fin 
 ally, Governor, shall I go ahead on this plan? Do 
 
416 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 you agree? Shall we try to end it all in one 
 blow? " 
 
 For eighteen months the Big Fellow had been 
 in Bar. Come to establish order, disorder ruled. 
 Come to make laws, he might not yet frame them. 
 What would Washington say to that young civil 
 Governor, backed by a commander of his own 
 choice, when it heard of a battle at the door of 
 the capital? What would the public say? The 
 real crisis of Big s career was near. 
 
 i Go ahead ! he said, stiffening, but still with 
 the hope that he could separate the wolves from 
 the sheep by means of mind and character and 
 without killing. 
 
XL 
 
 WILLY AS A TKAVELER 
 
 THERE was no doubt of it. Anyone familiar 
 with Ms habits would have known by the 
 havoc at the landing-place, without seeing 
 Willy himself, that he had arrived. In his retinue 
 were three Chinese, two Filipinos, a monkey, half 
 a dozen parrots, and a tall Sikh with a mountain 
 ous turban. 
 
 " Don t ask me where I got them! " he said, 
 after he had hugged Big as well as he could, 
 considering Big s size and his own height, and 
 Big had fairly lifted him off his feet. They just 
 came along. They saw I was a good thing. They 
 get in one another s way, but they re like most 
 folks in that they all know when it s pay-day. 
 
 Here, there, you, Ballyhoo, you leave the par 
 rots to Long Sing. Ballyhoo s in disgrace. He 
 let my best par roquet investigate the first elec 
 tric fan he had ever seen. Then Ballyhoo stuck 
 his finger in to see why the parroquet lost his 
 head. Pack along here, Luiz and Jose, and you, 
 Ah Ching, get the things into the carriage and 
 don t try to ride on the wheels. Let s walk, for 
 Heaven s sake, and feel we re alive! I ve heard 
 
 447 
 
448 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 the call of the East, all right calling me home 
 to apple-pie land ! 
 
 Adroitly, in this interval while Willy paused 
 for breath, as they saw the caravan start, Benito 
 in charge, with themselves in the rear on foot, 
 the Governor managed to say a word. He asked 
 about the folks at home. 
 
 1 i Going to tell you soon as I get moving. Say, 
 but it s good to see you, you old deserter, old 
 Olympus, old law and the light! But you re 
 thin that fever, eh? I nearly went wild when 
 I heard of it. I think I abused the Minister and 
 the Consul in Japan because they belonged to the 
 same government that sent you out. 
 
 " And the folks? " Big asked. 
 
 " Uncle Theodore and I dined at Jerry s the 
 last night, and we went up the street singing and 
 he saw me aboard the train. Jerry hasn t 
 changed. He stands there in the same judicial, 
 far-off way, as much as to say, when you ve made 
 up your mind that you re going to have oysters 
 on the half and a steak Jerry style and potatoes 
 Jerry style, when you ve been intending to have 
 them all the time, I ll pass the order to the 
 cook." 
 
 " Don t talk about oysters on the half shell 
 and such things when I ve got such an appetite 
 after the fever!" Big pleaded. The soldiers 
 would desert the garrisons if they thought there 
 were oysters on the half shell in Takar." 
 
 i Just old chicken, year in and year out, steady 
 company chicken down here, isn t it? I know! 
 
WILLY AS A TRAVELER 449 
 
 I ve been on it two weeks. Same linen-legged, 
 tow-breasted chicken! At least, I suppose it s 
 the same. I never could make any marks on it 
 to identify it when it came back the next meal. 
 The mangos are pretty good, though, if you go 
 at them in a free and manly way, with no handi 
 caps, by taking off your clothes and getting into 
 a bathtub." 
 
 " But the folks?" Big pursued. " Madame 
 Mother and Aunt Julia? " 
 
 " Well, I m kind of an adopted son at Bolton, 
 now. I ve been helping to keep the lamp burn 
 ing to welcome the prodigal home. They re well 
 and happy and proud! I ran up a number of 
 times and took them out in the machine. If 
 you will not go too fast, they said, i to start 
 with. I said, How fast? and they consulted 
 and said about three miles an hour. I had Pam 
 along, too, on the front seat with me. * Dis yeah 
 ain flyin , no how, he said, but it shuah beats 
 any ska tin in summer time I evah heard of. 
 They kept saying a little faster and a little faster, 
 these two old ladies, so serene and their eyes so 
 bright, till I had it up to forty, and I said to my 
 self, Look here ! It might be all right if they 
 were my mother and aunt, but I take no risks 
 when they re Big s; and I kept it down after 
 that." 
 
 " Willy, there never was anyone like you! : 
 said the Big Fellow. Now I do know that they 
 are all right. I have their letters, but these, I 
 might be sure, would be cheerful." 
 
450 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " Just as yours are," returned Willy. 
 
 " Yes, just as mine are! And it s been a hard 
 fight! a hard fight! " This he could confess to 
 his closest friend. 
 
 " With the heat to bear at the same time. This 
 heat is like sitting in a hot pressroom watching 
 blank paper roll off the press forever. Every 
 thing grows but men and nothing happens. They 
 talk about the beautiful Pacific. It is, if you like 
 to sail over a mill pond. I nearly went mad. 
 Talk about rest! I never could see any rest sit 
 ting still and looking at water. If it hadn t been 
 for you being out here, I would have gone back 
 from Honolulu. Think of not seeing your own 
 newspaper for a month! But I did the best I 
 could. I bought two barrels of firecrackers at 
 Honolulu, and I used to throw them from the 
 stern of the steamer, just to get some kind of 
 action and break the monotony. I used to go 
 down and sit in the engine-room when it wasn t 
 too hot and imagine it was the pressroom and feel 
 quite at home. Then I started a paper aboard 
 the ship editorials, ads, interviews got up mock 
 trials, games, races, pools, knew everybody from 
 the missionaries and the card-sharpers to an earl, 
 and I did manage to live through that deadly 
 voyage." 
 
 " And others of our friends? " Big asked. 
 
 " Well, John Byng s not our friend exactly, 
 though we have had a good deal to do with him. 
 He s trying the new game of journalism because 
 he thinks it pays. The Courier reminds me of a 
 
WILLY AS A TRAVELER 451 
 
 peroxide blonde, whose hair hasn t been touched 
 up for three months." 
 
 " And Hiram Hobber? " For the Big Fellow 
 had a very warm place in his heart for Hiram. 
 
 " I had him out in the machine, too," said 
 Willy. " He s getting into politics a good deal. 
 I think he ll control the delegates from his dis 
 trict to the next State convention but that s his 
 business and mine." Then Willy grew serious. 
 " How much longer is it going to take you? " he 
 asked; but without waiting for answer he pro 
 ceeded. " Big, this trip has converted me. I 
 used to think that the world was pretty large, but 
 I had to travel only half-way around it to find that 
 it is all taken up and the chances of annexing an 
 other planet are poor at the present lookout. If 
 it s grown so small in the last century, what of 
 the next! Why, we re going to be crowded and 
 glad of anything as big as a city lot. We haven t 
 any selfish interests except to spread our ideas 
 and to keep a coaling station; but if we get too 
 intent at home, maybe one day when we want this 
 harbor, far from Bolton and the home plate, we ll 
 find it is not to be had. And now I know what 
 a great problem you have and that you are the 
 man for it and it was right for you to come but 
 not for you to stay ! No, sir ! 
 
 " Willy! You do bring a message of cheer 
 when I most needed it, and, like a good reporter, 
 you are on hand for the crisis." 
 
 Then the Big Fellow took Willy entirely into 
 his confidence, while Willy, who could be a good 
 
452 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 listener, grasped the situation point by point with 
 the liveliest interest. Something was going to 
 happen, something new to him, and so he had an 
 other reason for being glad that he was present. 
 For the bands unmolested by the garrisons were 
 closing in. Benito had become a scout, tireless, 
 active, sly, clear-eyed, confident in that trick of 
 accurate shooting which he had learned from 
 Staton and Clancy. Scores of other trusted na 
 tives were going and coming through the jungle, 
 bringing word of the enemy s plan and advances, 
 while Staton kept moving in the pins toward 
 Takar on his map. 
 
 " Steel Fingers isn t missing any cards, said 
 Willy, the next day; for it took him only a few 
 hours to know everybody in town. " He s +100 
 soldier, all right. And I d hate to be in Parko- 
 witz s shoes. In fact, I d as soon be Byng as 
 Parkowitz. Steel Fingers has something on that 
 shady gentleman, all right, and Parkowitz is 
 under surveillance and he ll not leave this town 
 till the General says he may go." 
 
 " I didn t know this," said the Governor, 
 thoughtfully. 
 
 Willy was setting the house afire again. 
 
 11 Now, hold on! You don t know it! " he in 
 sisted. " You aren t going to begin to talk evi 
 dence and personal rights and trial. Parkowitz 
 is the General s business. The trouble with you, 
 Big, is you re too soft-hearted. You ve got a 
 big, armor-steel backbone, but you let people prod 
 around behind your back in the dark with knives 
 
WILLY AS A TRAVELER 453 
 
 before they find it. For a job of this kind you 
 ought to throw out a buttress to it or put up a 
 sign of warning : Don t jab ! If you hit my back 
 bone you ll find it s a third rail! " 
 
 " Well, Staton hasn t told me and he is usu 
 ally very frank, the Governor admitted ; t and in 
 a time like this I ll not bother him with details." 
 
 61 Now, that constabulary," pursued the repor- 
 torial mind. " Isn t it pretty ticklish having two 
 hundred armed natives who have only had a few 
 months drill right in the heart of this town, 
 when the garrison is so small and the enemy is 
 getting all around us! " 
 
 " It s an experiment. To disarm them, as some 
 timid ones say we ought, is to fly in the face of 
 our policy. I ll not do that! " explained the Gov 
 ernor, decidedly; for this prod had reached his 
 backbone. 
 
 11 Here, Big, this is your busy day. I m only 
 a tourist. The wonder is you don t throw me 
 out." And Willy went to see the officers of the 
 constabulary, for he had an idea that some of 
 the forthcoming explosions would come from this 
 quarter. 
 
 But no guest was ever more welcome to a pre 
 occupied host than Willy, and from Willy in an 
 unexpected way he had another warning, which 
 he needed, he assured himself, to re-inter an old 
 hope reborn which he had been nourishing. It 
 happened that he and Willy were looking out of 
 the office at Clancy and Ellen, who had just de 
 parted after tiffin at the Palace. 
 
454 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " There s a pair! " said Willy. " A pair of 
 an age, of a spirit alike! Anybody can see that 
 he is completely gone. 
 
 They watched a pantomime in which Clancy 
 was evidently asking to carry her parasol, while 
 she was refusing. 
 
 "He wins! " said Willy. 
 
 She gave Clancy the parasol, whereon he began 
 to walk backwards springily on his tiptoes, with 
 the graces and genuflections of a spellbound 
 minion of royalty. 
 
 " Now she ll make him stop that. I wonder 
 how! " Willy was all interest, of course. 
 
 Ellen took hold of the handle. Argument en 
 sued. A compromise was effected and they walked 
 on together, with Clancy behaving himself. 
 
 " It will be a match, and so it ought," said 
 Willy. " Funny neither of us ever fell in love, 
 Big. But this romance business isn t for us. I ve 
 been too busy with the paper and you with the 
 law and the light, and we re too old for it, now. 
 We re bachelors for good, and when we arrive at 
 our allotted threescore and ten may we be as 
 mellow as Uncle Theodore and find solace in 
 Araminta s Hope. But we don t need to be 
 that old not to want any young hearts broken, 
 especially such glad hearts as Ellen s and 
 Clancy s." 
 
 i What a talker you are, Willy, bless you ! Yes, 
 we are meant for bachelors, no donbt," said the 
 Big Fellow; and seated himself for the afternoon 
 grind. 
 
WILLY AS A TRAVELER 455 
 
 It was the next evening, unusually hot and sul 
 try, with the bands closing in and the news not of 
 the best, that word came of a little combat up 
 the river between the Paktowan and the insur 
 gents. So near was it that the rattle of the Colt s 
 had been audible at the Palace. 
 
 This was the one thing the Governor did not 
 want to happen and against which he had re 
 peatedly cautioned the Lord High Admiral. Yes, 
 Clancy was a trifle too quick, as he and the Gen 
 eral agreed at dinner, and accordingly they sent 
 for him. 
 
 Mrs. Staton and Ellen were sitting on the steps, 
 while the General and the Governor were going 
 over some reports, the General insistent that he 
 must have a free hand to strike hard at the right 
 moment, without any delay for diplomacy, when 
 Clancy came, with his light step, his face aglow, 
 pleased with the way his men had borne them 
 selves in that brief exchange of shots which put 
 forty insurgents to flight. 
 
 " Hello, Ellen !" He spoke to her first. "Good- 
 evening, Mrs. Staton. Good-evening, Governor. 
 General, you ought to have seen em skedaddle! 
 Governor, you sent for me? " 
 
 It was exasperating to the Governor that 
 Clancy was triumphant, as if he had done some 
 thing creditable rather than something plainly 
 in disobedience of orders; and the Governor was 
 pretty tired that evening. The drag of the cli 
 mate would not allow him to recover his strength. 
 Such errors as this of the Lord High Admiral s 
 
456 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 were dashing his hopes of a peaceful outcome of 
 the crisis. 
 
 " Clancy/ he said, rather impatiently, "I m 
 afraid if you are going to make mischief of this 
 kind you will not be of much assistance in this 
 crisis." 
 
 The Lord High Admiral turned white with 
 anger, which he must suppress, for in the navy 
 you may not talk back to your superiors. 
 
 " Yes, sir," he said. 
 
 He saluted the General, and said good-night to 
 Mrs. Staton and " Good-night, Ellen," lingering 
 a little on the last word, and started away, still 
 with the light step and head high, thinking that he 
 was repudiated, that he would miss the coming 
 fight and that he might lose his beloved Paktowan 
 and be sent to do watch duty on some third-rate 
 cruiser. Yes, he would report back to the Admiral 
 immediately, he told himself, in his rage. But, in 
 that event, as he suddenly realized, he might not 
 see Bar or Ellen again. So he took the barracks 
 side of the square in going. He would say his 
 farewells to the officers and wait on the Statons 
 porch until Ellen returned home. 
 
 She had looked after him and then up at the 
 Governor uncomprehendingly, in the silence that 
 followed his departure. 
 
 " Big! " she said. " You, of all men, to sen 
 tence Clancy without trial, without listening, as if 
 you were some old martinet of a colonel ! 
 
 He knew that he was convicted. 
 
 " This was the time you played Portia, Two 
 
WILLY AS A TRAVELER 457 
 
 Braids/ he returned. " I am ashamed of my 
 self. " And he sent a servant to ask Clancy to 
 return. 
 
 " After all he has done so cheerfully, day and 
 night/ she continued, "to send him away when 
 the big fight is coming! Didn t you know that 
 they fired on him? Didn t you know he had been 
 wounded? " 
 
 "No! Was he? Well, I am a brute ! And he 
 rescued you, Two Braids. I even forgot that. I 
 must be losing all sense of gratitude." 
 
 He rose and ran down the steps to meet Clancy, 
 who came back light of step and head high, ready 
 for anything. 
 
 " Governors get tired and peevish like other 
 people," Big said. " Which arm is it? " 
 
 But he could see for himself. Though Clancy 
 had put on a fresh blouse, a small red spot 
 showed through his left sleeve from the soaked 
 bandage. 
 
 " Tired, but not peevish never! " rejoined the 
 Lord High Admiral. "I m used to worse than 
 that from the sundowners we suffer in the navy; 
 but it did hurt from you, uncommonly. I ve tried 
 to be so careful, too, knowing what a tempfation 
 a Colt s is. I only went after some information, 
 and when we got a blast I did return fire." 
 
 " Always do that," said the Governor. " What 
 is the navy for? It isn t a traveling target. 
 We re going to keep you and the Pakky with us 
 to eiijoy the blessings of peace." 
 
 Clancy made one of the group and merrily 
 
458 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 described the " terrible conflict of Mango Bend," 
 as he laughingly called it. 
 
 " But now I m not going to do what we did 
 the other night, " Ellen told him, as they started 
 to go. " You saw me home and then you said, 
 Let s walk back to the Pdktowan, 9 and then you 
 had to see me home again and there d be no end 
 to it! Good-night, Big! You ll win. We ll bag 
 them all yet, without any killing." 
 
 She did have that last kindly word for him, 
 the Big Fellow thought. 
 
XLI 
 
 THE FIGHT 
 
 PAEDO was the worst of the insurgent lead 
 ers, combining in a strong type all the 
 fiercest and most cunning traits of the 
 Tongals. A brigand, of brigands born, and young, 
 this Robin Hood without a Robin Hood s chiv 
 alry would have in his band no one who had 
 known the softening life of industry. His choice 
 of principles was a choice of villages to plunder ; 
 his choice of occupation a career of magic prow 
 ess. The natives told stories of bullets fired point- 
 blank at him that failed to kill. He boasted of a 
 charmed life and of a priest s finger for a talis 
 man. Bravery and will, besides, he had and dis 
 cipline over his men. 
 
 Although Campo, the insurgent commander-in- 
 chief, had never been able to control Pardo, 
 Cortina won his cooperation by promising him the 
 loot of the capital. On a momentous afternoon in 
 this chronicle his band drove Staton s outpost off 
 the round hill on the shore to the east of Takar, 
 scarcely more than two miles from the outskirts of 
 the town. Staton had meant to evacuate this hill 
 as part of a plan to give the bands confidence and 
 draw them in; but he was not pleased to find so 
 
 459 
 
460 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 ardent an enemy as Pardo in occupation in such 
 numbers. 
 
 There would be hot work on the morrow, as 
 everybody knew; and yet no one had any doubt 
 of the safety of the capital. The measure of suc 
 cess and the amount of life it would cost were 
 the only questions, unless the constabulary should 
 prove disloyal. No one of their officers thought 
 they would, least of all their Captain ; yet, no one 
 was certain. Stubbornly the Big Fellow believed 
 in his constabs; stubbornly he held to his hope 
 that the crisis could be settled by diplomacy. 
 
 " When you are ready to strike, " he had kept 
 telling the General, " we will send a white flag 
 and I will talk to Cortina and Campo and all the 
 leaders. " 
 
 The General nodded and said they must wait on 
 events. He had no idea that the interview would 
 ever be possible. 
 
 " There is your chance," said the Governor, 
 in an impulse of great elation as soon as he heard 
 that it was Pardo s men who had occupied Bound 
 Hill. " Take the hill with the constabulary! " 
 
 " You mean this in all seriousness! " Staton 
 asked. 
 
 " I do! " he answered, thinking of his policy 
 as he always was. " No native troops could have 
 a fairer test. They are not asked to go against 
 natives who fight for patriotism or independence, 
 as they understand it. We send them to the work 
 for which they are intended as the future police of 
 the country. There is not a man among them 
 
THE FIGHT 461 
 
 whose family or whose relatives, as I know, at 
 some time or other have not felt the hand of 
 Pardo." 
 
 " Yes, but to put them in a charge when they 
 have never had their baptism of fire, when they 
 believe Pardo invulnerable! That s no way to 
 do with green troops, Governor," the General 
 demurred. 
 
 1 i The best way with these ! Let them win and 
 they win for their own people, for law and order 
 and the protection of property. The natives them 
 selves with their own arms will have beaten the 
 thief and murderer with the charmed life. They 
 will have smashed the fetich. " 
 
 " It does separate the wolves from the sheep, 
 Governor, you are right. I begin to think you 
 have more nerve than I. You would send them 
 with no white troops for stiffening? " 
 
 " Yes, only their officers." 
 
 And Staton, surveying the immovable, tower 
 ing Big Fellow, thought that he had not really 
 understood him until that moment. 
 
 " This is in my department, you know," he 
 reminded the Governor, with a straightening of 
 the shoulders and drawing in of his brows, as 
 if he had caught himself being borne to the wall 
 by a stronger man. 
 
 " I know it is," was the rejoinder. " I make 
 a suggestion and give my reasons, which I think 
 are good." 
 
 Staton thought that the Governor was sitting 
 closer to him, though he had not moved, and all 
 
462 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 the time they had been looking into each other s 
 eyes unflinchingly. 
 
 " I will do this on one condition," he concluded. 
 6 But, first, do you realize that Smith and his men 
 will go against superior numbers intrenched? 
 
 " Yes. All right. So much the better if they 
 win." 
 
 " On one condition: If they do not get the hill 
 with the first charge at daylight, you are not to 
 expect any palaver business, for then I cannot 
 afford to lose a single minute. If the constabs 
 win, we ll try the white flag." 
 
 " Very good. I ll take the risk, Staton," 
 the Governor answered, pleasantly. " That s a 
 bargain." 
 
 It was great news, this, for the quick Clancy. 
 He was going with the Paktowan, under cover of 
 the darkness, to a bayou which he had sounded 
 and surveyed long ago in his foreseeing way, 
 " for you can never tell when there might be a 
 i scrap and then there wouldn t be any time 
 to explore, " as he said. It was great news to the 
 late Sergeant Smith, who said his " brown boys 
 would go to it like chickens after corn." Ellen, 
 who knew a little of the native language, went 
 among the men and encouraged them. 
 
 " You ll show the world that Pardo does not 
 lead a charmed life," was the cheering word of 
 the Charming Lady. 
 
 That was the burden of W. W. s talk, the chap 
 lain s, and Willy Sweetser s; of the Governor s 
 and the General s when, at midnight, the con- 
 
THE FIGHT 463 
 
 stabulary were drawn up in front of their bar 
 racks before they marched out with the career 
 of big Jim Harden of 88 in their keeping and 
 with the words of His Bigness and the impression 
 of his strength in their minds. 
 
 " Yes, I ll let you have a rifle, Mr. Sweetser, 
 but don t you fire until the others fire. If you 
 
 should if you should " Captain Smith did 
 
 not say what he would do to the owner of The 
 Sentinel building, but from his aspect he must 
 have had something pretty savage in mind. 
 
 " No, sir, I ll not! " said Willy, boyishly, salut 
 ing with mock gravity. 
 
 " And no talking and no noise," Smith cau 
 tioned. " The chaplain and W. W. there know 
 how to do this jungle-creep act and can look out 
 for themselves, for, of course, both were along, 
 " but I ll keep you near me." 
 
 " Yes, sir, I want to be perfectly correct," 
 Willy affirmed, " and I ll do just what you do, 
 even to falling over a log, stubbing my toe, swear 
 ing, or getting drowned." 
 
 66 You ll pass, I guess," Smith concluded, " and, 
 between you and me, if we pull this off I ll be the 
 happiest doughboy that ever kneaded the mud. 
 They re mine, the brown faces, and it s me that s 
 drilled and coaxed and damned em and sat up 
 nights with em and blistered my nose by day for 
 em, swelling my liver and sweating off my flesh, 
 and now I m to see whether they re mush or 
 men. 
 
 Doubt existed even in Smith s mind, though 
 
464 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 he bore himself with a josslike confidence that 
 would have made him a good manager of a politi 
 cal campaign. It was a gamble in psychology, a 
 cry to Fate, taking these two hundred untried 
 Tongals through the underbrush, where each man 
 had to find his own way, with only their white 
 officers to steady them and the chaplain and W. 
 W., who counted for much, and Willy, burning 
 with curiosity to know how it would feel to be 
 shot at. That young American mining engineer, 
 Thompson, and the young Australian, Horswell, 
 of course were along. You could no more have 
 kept them out of it than you could Willy. But 
 Parkowitz was not coming. He had an engage 
 ment with a sentry who sat outside his door. 
 
 There is something else that ought to be told 
 before the tale proceeds any further. After the 
 Governor and the General had watched the con- 
 stabs march away, the Governor said, in that 
 quiet manner in which men of the northern races 
 may speak on a life-and-death occasion: 
 
 " I don t think I can keep out." 
 
 " Nor I," was the answer. "I ll call at the 
 Palace about three. Shall I! " 
 
 " Very good." 
 
 That was all for the present. 
 
 At two o clock Willy, who had been crawling 
 along a mucky stream-bed, was up on the bank 
 beside Smith, and in the faint moonlight they 
 could see the hill s outline. They were wet to 
 
THE FIGHT 465 
 
 the skin, with hands and faces cut by the thorns. 
 But Willy is the one to tell this story. It was his 
 first experience under fire, and no battle in after 
 years ever equals a man s first skirmish. 
 
 " This glory business is like most other busi 
 nesses," he said. " The fellows who work win. 
 I used to think you marched out and deployed and 
 the band played and you cheered and everybody on 
 both sides struck an attitude, had their pictures 
 taken, cheered and then charged, waving the flag, 
 and then cheered some more. I was about as 
 much onto the game as a spring poet is onto run 
 ning a newspaper. 
 
 l Why, we went at it like a lot of house-break 
 ers and second-story climbers. We knew they 
 kept the bulldog in the kitchen and the man of 
 the family was in the second floor back over the 
 dining-room, where the silver was, and he was a 
 light sleeper. There wasn t any moving-picture 
 heroics in doing a mile or more on your belly 
 among thorns, snakes, and lizards and taking care 
 not to make the snakes hurry away too fast for 
 fear of waking the dog. And Smith was playing 
 in this underhand way Smith who would not 
 play a foul to beat a man at any game ! But war 
 isn t a sport. 
 
 " You couldn t hold any conversation or swear 
 when thorns cut. Wet? You try working your 
 way through dewy grass. It s the first time I 
 ever knew you could keep on getting wet through 
 after you were wet through. 
 
 4 When we got up on that bank and Smith 
 
4C6 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 stopped and I stopped, we couldn t see more than 
 four or five men around us. How d we know 
 whether anybody else was along? I wanted to 
 ask a million questions, more or less, and couldn t 
 ask one. My whole business in life was to keep 
 still. Lie on a cold sponge for a while on a hot 
 day and you ll know how I felt on that moist 
 ground. Can the tropics be cold? There s noth 
 ing mean the tropics can t be. 
 
 " For the first time in years I wanted cigar 
 ettes by the box. Now I know why soldiers would 
 rather go hungry than without tobacco. I did 
 have a cigar and I was about to light it when 
 it occurred to me that Smith would kill me if I 
 struck a light and the matches were wet, anyway. 
 
 " This is a pretty poor country for a low- 
 geared French machine, I thought, to be cheer 
 ful, and found I d said it aloud and Smith 
 punched me. 
 
 I wondered what I would do when the bullets 
 began coming. Would I run? Would I yell? 
 What about these manikins of the constab? 
 Were they as hungry as I was? Were they as 
 shivery? It s all right charging when the band 
 is playing and you feel gay; but with their legs 
 stiff from cold, would they just rush up that hill 
 on empty stomachs for the pleasure of being 
 shot at? 
 
 i Then I remember and you can tell only what 
 you remember Smith said, aloud, Now we 
 shan t be long! They say that s been said thou 
 sands of times on such mornings. Now we shan t 
 
THE FIGHT 467 
 
 be long till we know which of us is to be killed ! 
 Some men say it with a laugh, some solemnly, 
 some cynically, and I could see for myself that 
 we shouldn t be so very long. The equator had 
 pulled up the curtain of night as if the spring 
 roller had flown out of hand. That tropical sun 
 rises like the clang of cymbals. 
 
 " My recollection of the first thing I saw was 
 the dewdrops frosting my rifle barrel which lay 
 beside me. Then I noticed that all the hemp 
 in the clearing had been cut. Pardo had done 
 that in the early evening so as to have a free field 
 of fire at us when we charged. It was pretty 
 clever of him, but I didn t admire that kind of 
 cleverness much at the time. 
 
 1 i Then, boom ! a three-pounder came from over 
 to the left, followed by a sound like tearing can 
 vas the Colt s automatic with its spatter of bul 
 lets! Yes, there she was, the Paktowan! What 
 do you think that quick Clancy had done? He d 
 pushed her in overnight through the bushes right 
 up to within fifty yards of Pardo s trench! As 
 he swung that rapid-fire gun back and forth, the 
 way he was spraying the heads of the peonies on 
 top of that trench was beautiful. Never anything 
 looked so good to me as she did. 
 
 " Next I knew I had troubles of my own. Zip 
 something went by ! Zip something else went 
 by! And what did I do? Oh, I must have been 
 funny! I put up my hands to stop them, as 
 though they were hornets. Bullets, I thought, 
 of course! like recalling in a flash the name to 
 
468 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 go with the face of a man I had passed in the 
 street. 
 
 " There was Smith right alongside me, lean as 
 a hound, with his thin, peaked, tanned face and 
 high cheekbones and sharp nose. But he was 
 standing and all the other officers were, and look 
 ing at that hill like they had photographers rods 
 down their backs to hold them in position. 
 
 " I got up on my knee, though I didn t particu 
 larly want to, but I was an American and I wasn t 
 going to be out of style, anyway. Then we began 
 firing. I looked along the line and there they were 
 all the constabs in position just on the edge of 
 the hemp field. How d they ever got there? I 
 tell you I admired Smith and Staton for that. 
 They had mapped and scouted and mapped and 
 scouted, and Smith had been putting that bunch 
 through every bit of jungle in the neighborhood 
 at night to get them bush-wise. Talk about your 
 glory business it s work that counts ! 
 
 i Suddenly I realized I had a rifle and I wanted 
 to fire, and I dropped down and it s funny how 
 cool I was. I just kept plugging away at heads 
 on the top of the trench, like an honest man try 
 ing to make a good score, till the bugle sounded 
 Cease! Then I got back on the job as a 
 reporter. 
 
 " I looked along the line again and saw Big 
 and Staton were with us, both standing like the 
 officers, making altogether a line of ribs of white 
 men back of the constabs. The Governor ought 
 not to have been there. The General oughtn t. 
 
THE FIGHT 469 
 
 They knew they oughtn t, and they were ashamed 
 of themselves for their dereliction of duty after 
 ward. What if they should be killed? Who was 
 going to run things then! I was crazy mad and 
 started toward old Big, calling to him to lie down, 
 and then I heard him speak, just as the Colt s 
 stopped its music in a way that made you think 
 someone at the gun had been struck. 
 
 " Get in! Big said. They re putting all 
 their fire on to Clancy ! 
 
 * Get in ! said the General, and his sandstone 
 face was fine. It was smiling just smiling. So 
 was Big s. That pair had a look that would make 
 a rainbow think it could pierce armor. 
 
 " < Get in! said Smith. 
 
 " They all had the same thought at once. The 
 bugle sounded the charge. It was then I found 
 out that up to that minute I had been a slow 
 old, two-mile-an-hour thinker. I became an ex 
 press. Maybe I would be killed! Would I ever 
 dine at Jerry s again? And if I was killed, what 
 would my old father in his country pastorate do 
 with The Sentinel? Circulation wouldn t boom 
 much, I knew. 
 
 " Yes, I gave the three-hundredth part of a 
 second to that, but it was as clear as if I had been 
 doping it out for a week on a typewriter. I 
 moved, too, while I thought. I didn t propose to 
 be left behind. Now don t think I m brave. 
 Twasn t that. It was like boys scrambling for 
 a nickel. But if I d been told Smith s plan be 
 fore, I d have gone all of a shiver. 
 
470 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " He wasn t going to urge the natives in. He 
 was going to lead them. He and his officers had 
 stood up to show the constabs that there was no 
 reason in being afraid of Pardo. Now they were 
 going to show the constabs how easy it was to 
 lick him. It was their talisman against Pardo s 
 talisman. Do you see that? 
 
 " Wei], we sprang ahead of the line. And what 
 if the constabs didn t follow? Big, Staton, the 
 chaplain, W. W., Thompson, Horswell, Smith and 
 his six officers, and yours truly were going into 
 that trench alone. As we rose I heard the men 
 calling, For the Governor ! For Bar ! That 
 was the only thing that was like the war I d been 
 brought up on in the story-books. It was so un 
 real I felt like blue-penciling it. And what gave 
 us all heart just as we started was the Paktowan s 
 hose breaking loose again to keep some of the 
 bullets off us. Clancy was at the Colt s himself 
 that time as we learned afterward. 
 
 " Henceforth, I ll believe every man that says 
 he was the first up San Juan Hill. Let the So 
 ciety of the First flourish, say I. They re all 
 entitled to membership. I was the first up Round 
 Hill. So were all the others. How could I help 
 being? Wasn t I running five times as fast as 
 I ever ran before and arriving with my head and 
 eyes before my feet did? Why, skidding down 
 an incline toward a river embankment when the 
 brakes don t work is just a dash of cologne water 
 from the atomizer to this high dive of doing two 
 hundred yards over slippery hemp leaves to get 
 
THE FIGHT 471 
 
 after that fellow in the trench who s trying to kill 
 you and I guess they would have killed most of 
 us if it hadn t been for the Paktowan. 
 
 " But you did glance away from the front to 
 the right and left to see if anybody was beating 
 you into that trench and you glanced back, with 
 your heart palpitating somewhere near the top 
 of your head, to see if the constabs had stopped, 
 knowing you had to go on, anyway, and you could 
 not retreat, and your heart settled back into place 
 a-singing as you saw that they were coming. They 
 couldn t do it quite right, of course. They were 
 bunching around the Governor and the General, 
 and I guess that was a good thing, because it was 
 just like old Big to come out without any revolver 
 and to have to snatch a rifle from one of the 
 gugus before he had anything to fight with. 
 
 " Father Tim was bareheaded, with the sun 
 on his white forehead, and looking like he was 
 saying: * The water s fine! Come on in! And 
 W. W. well, he s in the Society of the First up 
 Eound Hill if anyone is. His legs were making 
 wonderful time, for they hadn t so much to carry, 
 and his lips were moving and his eyes bright, and 
 I guess he was singing a hymn of praise about the 
 valiant soldiers of the Word, or something like 
 that. 
 
 " I had them in a lightning flash, the kind of 
 flash that chisels out little details that you always 
 remember, and the last impression out of the cor 
 ner of my eye, as I turned my head, was that W. 
 "W. threw up his hands at the same time that some- 
 
472 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 thing went by my ear so close it whistled. That 
 little man with the rifle in the trench right in front 
 of me was going to be mine or I his in a second. 
 That s the way you feel. There s no courage 
 in it. It s just self-preservation. He probably 
 would have hit me if Clancy s spray of death 
 hadn t made him so nervous. 
 
 " I could see the Colt s bullets cutting the earth 
 around him and then I did have a jolt. It was 
 as if a man who had saved your life was about 
 to take it. Would Clancy be killing his own folks ? 
 No! The hose was turned off at the right mo 
 ment, and there I was on top of that brown devil 
 in the trench. He wasn t the only one. I was as 
 busy as a man throwing non-breakables out of a 
 burning house, till suddenly I looked into Smith s 
 face, which was grinning. 
 
 " * They went to it like chickens after corn! he 
 said." 
 
 The ruck of killing was over; the victory was 
 won. A dark-skinned little man in red breeches 
 with a General s straps lay among a pile of the 
 bodies of his band, many torn by the three- 
 pounder s shells, his red cap at his side and his 
 horrible talisman still hanging by a string to his 
 neck. It was a cruel face, and the faces around it 
 were cruel. Already a company of regulars was 
 marching around the inner edge of the hill to play 
 their part in Staton s plan. Father Tim was pat 
 ting the constabs on the shoulders. In their ela 
 tion and wonder at what they had done, they were 
 
THE FIGHT 473 
 
 staring at that magical brigand for whose invul 
 nerability a single bullet had sufficed. 
 
 What price their leaders had paid to teach them 
 the lesson of confidence and courage which they 
 would not forget, Smith, in the midst of the re 
 joicing, was the first to see. He touched Father 
 Tim s arm and, unable to speak, pointed to a 
 small figure in civilian khaki only a few yards 
 from the trench. Some of the tracts had fallen 
 out of W. W. s bag by his side and his face, gentle, 
 wistful, as it had been on the trail when he asked 
 if he didn t do the boys a little good, was up 
 turned toward them. His message had come 
 mercifully quick. He lay quite still where he 
 had fallen. 
 
 " No old knight of the cross ever fought a bet 
 ter or happier fight than he," said Father Tim, 
 his blue eyes hazy with tears as he bent over W. 
 W. in the common sympathy of the Word by 
 whomsoever taught. 
 
 Those who had won now thought of what other 
 sacrifices had been made that day in Miss Des 
 tiny s service and scanned the forms on the hill 
 side. Two officers of the constabulary had fallen 
 and a score of privates. No young officer, no 
 sailors had rushed up from the Paktowan to see 
 the effect of the shells or to rejoice with the 
 victors. 
 
 With fires banked and the men poling the little 
 gunboat had been driven under cover of the 
 bushes into the shallow water, where she was 
 left grounded by the outflowing tide. The honor, 
 
474 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 of the navy in that engagement was in our Lord 
 High Admiral s keeping, and well placed. As 
 they lashed ship to ship in the old days, so he had 
 lashed the Paktowan, which could not retreat, 
 alongside that trench, with his ten rifles and his 
 three-pounders and his Colt s. 
 
 That quick eye of Willy s caught a message of 
 melancholy from the movement of the figures 
 aboard before he saw one of them put the flag 
 at half-mast. He gave up all idea of overtaking 
 Big for the palaver with the enemy, which he now 
 knew must follow the fight, and started toward 
 the Paktowan to hear the news that he had in 
 stinctively guessed, while the Governor and the 
 General, who had hurried to their horses at the 
 foot of the hill, were riding back to town. 
 
XLII 
 
 WITHOUT KILLING 
 
 BUT the real victory was yet to be won. If 
 the fight had to go on, then the Big Fellow 
 was beaten. His hopes went with the white 
 flag which a mounted orderly carried by the main 
 road into the interior toward the insurgent lines, 
 while he and Staton waited on the outskirts of the 
 town. 
 
 " The news of the annihilation of Pardo and 
 his gang will travel fast. That ought to be con 
 vincing," said Staton. 
 
 Directly, having a soldier for company, Parko- 
 witz appeared, his head down, tugging at his 
 moustache and answering their nods with a nod; 
 and this led the Big Fellow to look at Staton ques- 
 tioningly. 
 
 " I think Parkowitz may also be convincing," 
 the General told him. 
 
 " Yes, I may be of a little service, Governor," 
 Parkowitz explained, glumly, with an effort to 
 ingratiate himself. 
 
 " We will welcome anything anything to get 
 peace without any more killing, the Governor as 
 sured him. 
 
 The orderly, who had disappeared around a 
 
 475 
 
476 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 bend in the road, returned shortly with a young 
 Tongal officer in bright red trousers and bearing 
 himself with a pronouncedly military air. 
 
 " General Cortina and General Campo send 
 word that if the garrison will surrender at once," 
 he said, saluting most stiffly in Spanish style, i it 
 will not be held as prisoners of war; and they 
 say they will be very glad to talk over details with 
 you." 
 
 " Very good! " said the Governor, smiling. 
 
 The young officer and the orderly led the way 
 and Staton and the Governor rode together, with 
 Parkowitz following. As they saw Cortina and 
 Campo approaching, Staton said: 
 
 " You ll do all the talking, Governor, I take it, 
 and call on me for any information, if there is 
 any you haven t and I doubt if there is." 
 
 * Yes, I will do the talking, by all means, the 
 Governor answered. 
 
 Cortina himself was in red trousers, with a 
 Lieutenant-General s stars; for promotion was 
 easy in the Tongal army. He had grown more 
 emaciated; his lips seemed to be drawn tighter 
 across his protruding teeth ; his skin was yellower 
 than when he had bidden his lying adieu to the 
 Governor. 
 
 " Your health is quite restored, Excellency," 
 he said. l And I understand, Excellency, you 
 seek our terms," he proceeded boldly, almost pat 
 ronizingly. 
 
 " Yes," said Campo, following the lead of The 
 Thinker. 
 
WITHOUT KILLING 477 
 
 Campo was a full-blooded, rather youthful-look 
 ing Tongal, who, like Pardo, had the reputation 
 of being invulnerable. His success in massacring 
 the twenty men at Bakan had left him undisputed 
 head of the insurgents. Though gifted in playing 
 on the superstitions of the people, he was igno 
 rant and intellectually a tool in Cortina s hands. 
 
 " Yes, we will have a little talk together, doc 
 tor," said the Governor. 
 
 " You are quite at our mercy," Cortina pur 
 sued. 
 
 " Yes, "added Campo. 
 
 Their manner aggravated Staton, who was glad 
 that he was not to do the talking. He feared that 
 he would have lost his temper. But the Big Fellow 
 was in the best of humor. 
 
 With Parkowitz and his guard hovering in the 
 background, the party seated themselves under 
 the shade of a mango-tree. 
 
 " Why do you think that you have us at your 
 mercy! " the Governor asked. 
 
 66 We have you completely surrounded. We 
 have six thousand rifles and you have only six 
 hundred men," said Cortina, softly. 
 
 " You are right; we have only six hundred," 
 answered the Governor. 
 
 The candor with which he stated the true num 
 ber made Campo, at least, suspicious. He had 
 seen a cruiser arrive in the harbor that morning. 
 Had it brought reinforcements ? 
 
 " Do you include Pardo in your six thousand? " 
 Big asked. 
 
478 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 " He was nothing," said Cortina. " A brigand. 
 We sent him out as a pawn, Excellency. We 
 fooled you a little there." 
 
 * And fooled Pardo, too, but not our native con 
 stabulary. Smith s two hundred makes us eight 
 hundred. They were equal to five hundred of 
 Pardo s men." Then the Governor, who knew 
 that Campo also carried a dead man s finger as a 
 talisman, looked steadily at him and added: 
 1 Pardo was not invulnerable, at all, our constabs 
 found." 
 
 " Pardo is nothing," said Campo, but looking 
 at the ground. 
 
 " Now, Staton," continued the Governor, and 
 Staton passed him a couple of maps. " These 
 make it quite clear, doctor." 
 
 On the first which he spread out the movement 
 of every one of the bands was traced from its 
 starting-point, day by day, in a series of arrow- 
 headed lines converging toward Takar. 
 
 " Aw! " exclaimed Campo, in Oriental stolid 
 ity, none the less amazed that such accurate in 
 formation should be in Staton s hands. 
 
 " General Staton draws beautifully," said Cor 
 tina, satirically. 
 
 " Yes, the General is a true artist at his work," 
 said the Governor, unfolding the second map. 
 
 Here the converging lines with arrow-heads 
 were the garrisons which, with swift marches, had 
 swung in behind the insurgents. 
 
 " Aw! " breathed Campo. But he gave Cor 
 tina a look of hate. Campo was not altogether 
 
WITHOUT KILLING 479 
 
 a dreamer. He had some of the inherent mili 
 tary sense of any natural leader. 
 
 "Beautiful!" said Cortina, with an amused 
 laugh. " Is that all, Excellency? " he asked, and 
 at heart he wished for a mint to calm his nerves, 
 for he could see for himself that it was not all. 
 
 A company of marines had come down the 
 gangway of the cruiser at dawn just after it 
 dropped anchor. Campo already knew the met 
 tle of these soldiers of the ship. Marching out 
 with the regulars, they formed on the right of 
 the force of Don Francisco of Toll, that proud 
 old Presidente, who now had three hundred rifles 
 and a largely increased gang of road-workers. And 
 thus, with all the exterior garrisons locking arms 
 the insurgent half-circle lay between an outer 
 half-circle and the force in the capital. 
 
 66 Do you see? " asked the Governor, quietly, 
 after the explanation. 
 
 " I see! " said Cortina, savagely. " I see, Ex 
 cellency, but we have our rifles. We can fight and 
 we will send a bill for killing home to America 
 that will horrify your countrymen." 
 
 " Yes," added Campo. " We will kill many. 
 We will slip through the brush under your sol 
 diers noses. Haven t we done it many times? 
 Have we lost our cunning? We will return to the 
 hills and fight you in the old way." 
 
 " No," answered the Governor. " Do you 
 notice that all the natives have left their homes 
 in the zone where your forces are? We have 
 them in town. The name of everyone has been 
 
480 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 taken and everyone has his passport. So, observe, 
 that, whether he has hidden his rifle or not, every 
 adult between our two lines without a passport 
 is an enemy and so known. " 
 
 " Very clear! My compliments, General Steel 
 Fingers! " said Cortina to Staton. 
 
 " Aw! " added Campo, but more thoughtfully 
 than stolidly. 
 
 " Now, every trail is commanded by our rifles, " 
 continued the Governor, pursuing his fatal logic, 
 as he sought the eyes of either man in vain. 
 " Whichever way you go you cannot dodge. You 
 will have to go against American soldiers face to 
 fade/ 1 
 
 " Face to face! " repeated Campo. This was 
 not a thing his men would ever do, and as he 
 tugged at the white gloves at his sword hilt, still 
 trying to preserve his stolidity, the Governor 
 saw that the problem was now only a matter of 
 talk and time ; but the General, to clinch the argu 
 ment, called Parkowitz, who came forward. 
 
 " Cortina/ said Parkowitz, with a grizzly ef 
 fort to smile, as if he would make a joke of it, 
 " the steel in that lot of two thousand rifles from 
 Hongkong will not stand ten rounds and all the 
 ammunition in the bottom layers had sawdust for 
 powder. It was a cheap job." 
 
 Cortina thought that he understood this game. 
 It was an intellectual pleasure to his type of mind 
 to expose it. 
 
 " You speak the piece you are taught well, my 
 old friend," he said. 
 
WITHOUT KILLING 481 
 
 " Well, you will see," Parkowitz returned, with 
 a sneer, " when you try them." 
 
 The insurgents had not yet tried them, target 
 practice not being their custom and ammunition 
 too v costly. 
 
 " That is all," the General told Parkowitz, with 
 a nod. " It may be a little brutal, Governor, but 
 when a foreigner who enjoys our protection sells 
 arms to fight us I don t think so and he s had his 
 punishment. 
 
 " I may take the first steamer, now? " Parko 
 witz asked. 
 
 " Yes, oh, yes," answered Staton, casually. 
 
 " Good-day, Governor," Parkowitz said, and 
 started down the road. Yes, he certainly had had 
 his punishment. 
 
 " Face to face! " It was Campo who fairly 
 shouted this, his features livid as he thought of 
 trying to charge through that line of regulars. 
 " No, Excellency, no! " he cried. 
 
 " Campo, you are nervous," said Cortina, 
 soothingly. " But I do agree with you that we 
 find the sport better with General Prairie Fire 
 than with General Steel Fingers. Excellency," 
 he added to the Governor, with a half smile, l i will 
 you grant us amnesty? " 
 
 " What do you think from what you know of 
 our policy? " was the question in answer. 
 
 " Oh, that you will! " 
 
 Yes, Cortina knew this well enough, this Amer 
 ican weakness, or he could not have kept up his 
 chipperness. He had no wish to risk his life. 
 
482 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 From the moment that he had seen the maps and 
 looked from them to the unyielding faces of the 
 Governor and the General, his mind was quite 
 made up to use the money he had in the bank at 
 Barcelona in enjoying the sunny places of Spain 
 and Morocco for the rest of his days. 
 
 " We haven t six thousand rifles! " confessed 
 Campo. 
 
 " Between three and four thousand. We shall 
 get all you have," said the General, whose task 
 it was now to arrange the details of the surrender 
 with the commanders of the insurgents. 
 
 " You will excuse me, Campo, " Cortina said, 
 " but you are the military man. I cannot help 
 you in this, so I ll not wait. I am very thirsty for 
 a mint and homesick for my veranda." 
 
 4 i You are a snake ! Campo told him, fiercely. 
 
 How foolish to call names ! answered The 
 Thinker. 
 
 Cortina, trying to renew his old associations 
 with a gracious phrase or two, would even ride 
 back to town at the Governor s side. But the 
 Governor s horse was faster than his. 
 
 Big had not been as happy since that day in 
 court when Willy won his suit against John Byng. 
 To-morrow he would begin a new order of things ! 
 To-morrow Washington should have word of 
 nearly four thousand rifles taken and the skeptics 
 among the kill-alls would hear how Smith s con- 
 stabs had stood their baptism of fire! He had 
 won and won without killing ! 
 
 Such were his thoughts before in the plaza he 
 
WITHOUT KILLING 483 
 
 heard the news of how one of the small circle of 
 workers in Bar had fallen unbeknown to him, 
 though only a few feet from his side, and his joy 
 became ashes. W. W. s body had been brought 
 in from the hill, and the chaplain on one side and 
 the Governor on the other side of the litter, 
 which was set on the marble floor of the cathedral, 
 found themselves silent. After a time, Father 
 Tim, who knew the thousand books even as W. W. 
 knew them, said in the fulness of a great, human, 
 Christian moment : 
 
 The work goes on, Governor, nevertheless ! 
 
 " The work goes on, Father Tim. For that he 
 lived and for that he died, said the Big Fellow. 
 
 In coming out of the cathedral he met Ellen, 
 her head bare, regardless of the sun. Although 
 she had heard that he was safe, the sight of him 
 drove a dread out of her mind. She came quite 
 near him, filling her eyes with the wealth of his 
 height and strength. 
 
 " They didn t hit you, did they, Big? " she 
 asked. " I was frantic when I heard what you 
 had done." 
 
 They were our constabs ; we had to encourage 
 them," he answered. 
 
 " Oh, is it worth the price! " she demanded, 
 earnestly, looking in at the door, where the chap 
 lain, a huddled figure with grey lines for lips and 
 all the merriment out of his blue eyes, still sat be 
 side the litter. 
 
 i I sometimes ask myself that, he said ; l but 
 W. W. never did." 
 
484 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Then they saw coming around a street corner 
 into the plaza four young sailors of the Paktoivan, 
 with a ripped sleeve flapping about a bandaged 
 arm, bearing another litter. Willy Sweetser, 
 an outsider who would not question that the right 
 was theirs to carry their commander, walked be 
 side them. 
 
 " It s Clancy! " Ellen said, with a cry. 
 
 One need make no conventional inquiry; one 
 knew the truth without experience of battles by 
 the look of that still figure. The message had 
 come to Clancy as it had to W. W., mercifully 
 quick, making a tiny hole in his forehead; that 
 was all. The face was smiling as if enjoying 
 victory. 
 
 " After two men were down and he took the 
 Colt s himself as we charged, and had just 
 stopped firing as he saw that we were reaching 
 the trench not a shot too many or too few the 
 last bullet from the trench got him! " said Willy, 
 in a broken, angry voice. 
 
 After the sailors bore the litter into the tinted 
 light of the cool nave, Ellen, the Governor and 
 Willy, standing in the doorway, saw the chaplain 
 spring forward and clasp Clancy s hands in his 
 and hold them as if he would, by some miracle, 
 bring him back to life. 
 
 " Ellen," said Willy, impulsively, and he re 
 gretted his impulse too late, " this was in his 
 pocket. 
 
 It was her own photograph that he gave her. 
 She took it from him mechanically. Then she 
 
WITHOUT KILLING 485 
 
 looked up at Big with a glazed appeal in her eyes 
 and uttered a stifled moan. 
 
 61 I I didn t know this! " she exclaimed to him 
 blankly. 
 
 For a second she seemed to see nothing except 
 the blaze of light and the sky, and the photograph 
 fell from her fingers. As Big picked it up ab 
 stractedly, he was groping for some word to ease 
 her grief. To him the steps of Mrs. Staton, who 
 was approaching, seemed leaden. He welcomed 
 her coming to ease a situation in which he was 
 helpless, and with the great load of the debt he 
 owed Clancy on his heart, he went to the Palace 
 to send that cable which was to have been one of 
 triumph. 
 
 No one of those present will ever try to repeat 
 the few words he said in the afternoon over the 
 two graves on the hillside. They say it is impos 
 sible. They say he simply poured out his heart. 
 But the two men, so different of schooling and of 
 thought, whom Bar had lost would have been the 
 last to approve of any bitterness. 
 
 Had W. W. been told the night before the fight 
 what would happen he would have said : * Why, 
 I am ready. How could I preach the Word if I 
 weren t? " 
 
 Had Clancy been told, he would have said, smil 
 ing: " Why, that s in my game, but it s not in 
 yours, W. W. Mind you keep under cover till the 
 firing is over." 
 
 If he could look down from " up there " 
 wherever it is W. W. might see the thoughtful 
 
486 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 faces of hundreds of soldiers who were better men 
 for having known him and he might hear of some 
 halting priest of the Word who had found 
 strength and fortitude in this example of how the 
 sneers of some cynic or unbeliever like Parkowitz 
 were stilled. 
 
 If the Lord High Admiral of the Paktowan 
 could look down, he might see on white ships in 
 many seas where they toast the navy the quick 
 navy young officers thinking quietly that they 
 must live up to the standard set by the quick 
 Clancy, sunny traveler, making love to many girls 
 innocently, without guile; and he might see sun 
 downers, after they had blinked and cleared their 
 throats, warming to kinder words and more gen 
 erous views, and hear old Admirals, in their cor 
 ners of retirement, saying: " Lashed her to the 
 trench, did he! " and quoting what the Person 
 ality said when he heard of the incident. 
 
 That scene in the little American cemetery was 
 one of many of its kind which are cut fine, clear, 
 and terrible in the memory. " The honors of 
 a military funeral is the expression of the press 
 dispatches. With the splendor of the sun s set 
 ting bronzing the foliage and bathing his fore 
 head, Father Tim read the service. Then crash 
 spoke the volley of the Krags, the soldiers swung 
 into line with veteran stride, and a fighting-man s 
 last tribute to the fighting dead was over. 
 
 The Governor and Ellen led the way for the 
 silent company. Not until they were in the streets 
 of the town did either speak. 
 
WITHOUT KILLING 487 
 
 " Oh, Big, I keep thinking what if you, too, 
 had been " and she did not finish the sentence. 
 
 He looked at her, startled, and she looked at 
 the ground. 
 
 " It s the chance and one keeps right on, not 
 thinking of that," he rejoined. 
 
 " Though I m so bitter at what it cost, I m 
 very proud, Big, of the way you ve done it and 
 you saw ahead and you were right! " she said. 
 " Oh, I don t believe in killing any more than 
 you do." 
 
 The return for the price that had been paid one 
 might witness in the plaza. Big and Ellen joined 
 the General, who stood watching the insurgent 
 bands stack their rifles and file past. With their 
 ammunition belts some had thrown down those 
 talismans which, in their superstition, they had 
 hoped would make them invulnerable. Among 
 these was a newspaper photograph of a facile 
 orator with a mobile mouth, which had been 
 pasted on a piece of cardboard. 
 
 " We might send that over to Cortina," said 
 Smith, of the constabulary. 
 
XLIII 
 
 HAKVEST 
 
 WHEN Ellen and Big parted at Staton s 
 door lie gave her the photograph that 
 had been found in Clancy s pocket. Af 
 ter she reached her room she looked at it again, 
 and a peeling edge discovered to her the fact that 
 underneath was another photograph. Her own 
 had been stripped off its board and pasted on 
 that of Clem, and over Clem s face was a news 
 paper notice of the recent marriage of Miss Clem 
 entine Underhill to one Mr. George Boyson. 
 
 One who knew Clancy well, the quick Clancy, 
 sailor and sentimentalist, could guess his mood 
 when he wrote underneath the notice in his round, 
 boyish hand: " I know a truer girl than you; 
 and covered the untrue with the true. But he had 
 never mentioned his love to Ellen. How could 
 he, he may have thought, when his comradeship 
 with her had been begun on a basis of loyalty to 
 Clem! 
 
 As she put both photographs away together, 
 without knowing why she did so or what she 
 would ever do with them, she recalled in vivid de 
 tail how Clancy had secured her portrait. Con 
 fessing himself a robber bold, he had seized it 
 
 488 
 
HARVEST 489 
 
 from Mrs. Staton s drawing-room table and fled 
 in triumph, to return later with irresistibly good- 
 humored prayers for pardon. 
 
 The scene out of the window, where the General 
 stood a stiff, sober profile in the evening light, 
 watching the insurgents file by, reminded her that 
 the first great chapter in Bar was closed. Did she 
 care to begin a new one when her term of service 
 was up and it was her privilege to return to the 
 States on a vacation or for good, as she chose? 
 The island could not be the same to her again. 
 Her old circle of friendships was broken. Her 
 relations with Big seemed to have changed be 
 yond the possibility of any working arrangement. 
 
 "I ll go home by the first steamer, " she de 
 cided. 
 
 As she started to make preparations to occupy 
 her mind by looking over this thing and that be 
 fore packing, she picked up her account book, to 
 which she had been faithful even if she did not 
 know " math." She had saved a sum almost 
 equal to her debt. Suddenly she thought that she 
 would not pay him back. It would hurt Big. It 
 would be unfair and cruel. No, she would spend 
 her money on something for the old house in 
 Bolton to please Aunt Julia and Madame 
 Mother. 
 
 All her foreign and native friends, including 
 Don Francisco, a field marshal of polite phrases, 
 were at the landing to wish the Charming Lady a 
 happy voyage, while the children of Exhibit A, 
 who now could spell such whoppers as f ran- 
 
490 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 chise " and " electoral," sang the Eed, White, 
 and Blue, with a verse composed in haste espe 
 cially for the occasion by Kiddy Witherbee. It 
 was " Good-bye, Two Braids! " and " Good-bye, 
 Big! " between her and the Governor. This re 
 mained their working arrangement, if any were 
 needed when they were to be apart. She was to 
 take Madame Mother the story of how mind and 
 character were winning. 
 
 Willy Sweetser departed soon afterward. 
 Company after company of regulars merrily took 
 the transports to the land of brown the wheats 
 and oysters on the half shell. " Smith and his 
 constabs can have the job; the United States is 
 good enough for us," was the burden of their 
 refrain. 
 
 Peace having been won, the building of the 
 structure which must have peace as its base could 
 begin. All the captured insurgents were sent back 
 to their homes. The fangs of the lawless were 
 largely drawn; the industrious returned to in 
 dustry. Ever traveling, the Governor met the 
 folks of the towns and villages. He sat with them 
 at their feasts and in their councils. He was 
 patient with their complaints and elemental in his 
 expositions. They tried the municipal elections 
 and sometimes stumbled sadly; but he helped 
 them up again and started them afresh. The 
 schools flourished, native teachers were being 
 trained to assist the white teachers, while a grow 
 ing fever for baseball spread through the island. 
 
 " I think baseball is the truest friend of the 
 
HARVEST 491 
 
 propaganda," said the old Presidente of Toll. 
 " If the players learn not to use the bat on the 
 umpire, is it not proven that they have the 
 true instinct of the constitutional rights of the 
 minority? " 
 
 Although Don Francisco, " that original Har 
 den man, did say that the Big Fellow was pretty 
 young to be sponsor of so large a family, the peo 
 ple were beginning to call him " The Father of 
 the Tongals," which he liked better than His 
 Bigness or His Excellency. To those who were 
 going too fast, who would run before they could 
 walk, he had to speak in warning as well as in 
 struction. They had first to creep, first to learn 
 the rudiments of self-government, as he kept 
 explaining. 
 
 An old white-haired bishop from America sur 
 prised the parishes with the good tidings that 
 there were more of the same kind of men in the 
 land that produced young Father Tim. Pros 
 perity was also promised with peace. Horswell 
 was doing well as Parkowitz s successor and 
 Thompson would soon begin shipping coal from 
 his mine. 
 
 With details of the great change that had come 
 to this people one might go on indefinitely. The 
 Big Fellow had won his greatest fight; unarmed 
 he might ride across his island. Was it only his 
 personality that had wrought success with the 
 abc idea at which the clerk from Tooting had 
 scoffed? Or had he implanted a principle that 
 would grow in the native mind! It was the man 
 
492 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 and the idea together; for good ideas need good 
 men to make them come true. 
 
 And now in the spring of the year following the 
 autumn in which Ellen had gone, he himself was 
 to have his vacation, and to see his own country 
 for which his eyes were hungry. A Governor 
 from a neighboring island could carry on the 
 work in the Big Fellow s absence; and he was 
 making his preparations for departure when he 
 received a message from Bolton, twelve months 
 old, which concerns our story more intimately 
 than Bar, at this stage. 
 
 Our postal service played strange tricks in 
 those early days. The humid heat of the rainy 
 season made the ink run and melted the gum that 
 held envelopes together. This letter, signed only 
 " Mother," had been twice across the Pacific and 
 finally to the Dead Letter office, where " Har 
 den " and " Bar " were deciphered. 
 
 I have been meaning to write you of this ever 
 since I heard that Ellen was going," she said, 
 " and I have delayed, thinking that being thrown 
 together on the island you would both find your 
 selves if there were anything to find. Besides, I 
 knew that when I was young like Ellen and had 
 some of her spirit, I hope, I should not have liked 
 to have any man s mother tell him that I was in 
 love with him. 
 
 " I must be getting pretty old and out of the 
 way of understanding girls, or I would have 
 thought before of what occurs to me now. If such 
 a thing, some little, ungovernable thing, in the 
 
HARVEST 493 
 
 back of her head, which we call love, did send 
 Ellen to Bar, then once she had arrived she would 
 be most careful to conceal it. 
 
 " Long before the President asked you to go I 
 half guessed that Ellen loved you. Frequently I 
 was certain of it. Again, she was so young, so im 
 pressionable, that I doubted her fixity. That night 
 when Julia admonished her, and too severely, 
 I must say, after her ride with Ned Walker, it 
 came over me in a flash, as I saw how you took 
 her side and the way you looked at her yes, it 
 came over me then, as the cumulative result of 
 other observations, probably, that you loved her. 
 
 " I saw that you loved a woman for the first 
 time with all the strength and faults of your big, 
 boyish nature, and I saw it as I was about to tell 
 Julia, that she had gone far enough and demand 
 she retract what she had said. 
 
 i Then I reasoned quickly, as women do. I said, 
 my son s happiness is at stake. I concluded that 
 love for such natures as yours and Ellen s must 
 be a love that would endure. If it were of that 
 kind, her going away that night would not destroy 
 it and it would only grow the stronger. This 
 separation could not keep you apart. Yes, I con 
 cluded that it would be a test for you both, and I 
 did not interfere with Julia. I let Ellen go. You 
 see, I did what I thought was best and that is all 
 one can do. Now I think it is time for you to 
 know. 
 
 i i Another thing which, perhaps, partly excuses 
 me. I thought that in one of your great, winning 
 
4<94 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 impulses you might not let Ellen leave the house 
 unless she went with you, or that you would follow 
 her and refuse to take no for an answer. But I 
 fear you had the faint heart that never won fair 
 lady, as the poet says, and such frailty I never 
 expected of you, Jimmy." 
 
 " Mine has endured! Mine has! " said Big, 
 and his head went forward on his desk. 
 
 Had Ellen s endured? Was it ever there to 
 endure? He saw Clancy s face through a mist and 
 he saw hers as she stood under the cathedral arch 
 when Willy gave her the photograph. But all 
 would be settled in a short time. He would reach 
 home as soon as the post; and that thing which 
 the working arrangement had never allowed to 
 have root in Bar he set aside as some waiting 
 treasure in a box which he was to open. 
 
 The natives made the day of his departure a 
 holiday in which to wish him a happy voyage and 
 pray for his return. They had a fiesta and speech- 
 making, and sent out a boat-load of flowers and a 
 deputation headed by Don Francisco to the trans 
 port to make more speeches. 
 
 " Father of the Tongals and my good friend, 
 you have been the rising sun to our Bar," said 
 Don Francisco, magniloquently ; " and though 
 you go, unlike the sun when it sets your light still 
 remains." 
 
 If Miss Destiny overheard this, as most likely 
 she did, she must have given a backward glance 
 of " Now, what have you to say about it? " to the 
 folks out Plymouth Kock way. 
 
HARVEST 495 
 
 Their answer would be ready, of course. 
 
 " Isn t he ours? " For they claim everything 
 of which they approve. 
 
 " And mind, young woman, don t you make any 
 more flying leaps till you consult us," we hear 
 them warning her. 
 
 " I would never have crossed the Mississippi," 
 we hear her tartly replying, " if I d waited to 
 talk it over with you ! 
 
<*. 
 
 XLIV 
 
 THE HOME LAND 
 
 NOW the Governor and Kiddy knew the sweet 
 ness of sleep under blankets; they knew 
 the glory of sunrises that wake you gently 
 and of sunsets that say good-night gently in a 
 season of twilight; and they knew the meaning 
 of home to men who have loyally done the service 
 they were sent to do in a strange land. A cere 
 monial day was that when they doffed their duck 
 suits and out of their trunks came the temperate 
 zone chrysalis. 
 
 " Boss, think of wearing a vest again! " said 
 Kiddy. i Think of having a vest with four pock 
 ets! Let s see there was one for a pencil, one 
 for a watch, one for an address book, and one for 
 a dollar bill when I had a dollar bill. I guess I ll 
 learn to use them again, all right." 
 
 The Golden Gate was all gold to them. They 
 were entering the outpost port of the Occident to 
 see their own world for the first time through a 
 traveler s eye, and through Benito s, as far as 
 they could draw the first disciple. For Benito 
 was with them. Far Eastern destiny had at 
 tached him to the person of the Big Fellow for 
 life. 
 
 496 
 
THE HOME LAND 497 
 
 "It is His Great Bigness country, where all 
 things are big," said the Guardian, with Oriental 
 stoicism, as he stared at the immense buildings. 
 " I see no men among all these tall men taller 
 than he." 
 
 The pleasure of outfitting him in European 
 clothes they had anticipated all the way across 
 the Pacific. He chose a sailor blue suit, a bright 
 red tie, a pancake hat, and patent-leather shoes. 
 After the first day in woolen underwear his unac 
 customed skin protested. 
 
 " It makes me itch like the smallpox," he told 
 the Governor. " Yet, I will wear it and the new 
 shoes, which are so beautiful, for I see in your 
 country, Great Bigness, everyone wears the 
 shoes." 
 
 The cooler air put an edge to their appetites. 
 They craved the substantiate which were bringing 
 the color back to their cheeks with the rush of fresh 
 red blood in happy arteries, which sent out mes 
 sages of cheer and plenty to every part of their 
 systems. 
 
 1 i Oh, it is home, home, home ! Kiddy kept re 
 iterating. " I used to think home was just my 
 own town, and now I think it is anywhere in the 
 United States. And I don t know whether I like 
 the oysters or the strawberries or the plums or 
 the ripe olives best, after the steaks and the 
 chops. I can feel the steaks giving me strength as 
 I eat them : and Kiddy s chin was pretty peaked. 
 * l Think of getting these things all at once and be 
 ing equal to all! It s a good world, I tell you, 
 
498 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 Boss. But I notice we aren t much on the rice and 
 chicken and I shy every time I see the glint of a 
 piece of tin. No more solder in my peas for the 
 present, thank you, and we can eat all we want 
 all the way on the train, can t we, Boss! " 
 
 Big took Kiddy s point of view that the best 
 of voyages was that across their own continent, 
 when local color flies by in landscapes hung be 
 tween telegraph poles for a changing panorama 
 of two thousand miles, without the interruption of 
 a custom house. 
 
 Through California and the olive orchards, 
 where all the coloring is rich with harmony, and 
 up the slopes of the Sierras; across the desert 
 glistening with the frost of the alkali; over the 
 Eockies to the ranges where the cattle graze 
 on the river bottoms; across the rolling levels 
 bearded a fresher green with young wheat than 
 the tropics know, where the farmhouses standing 
 stark against the sky a few years before are now 
 set among trees and the hand of man has made 
 laughter of the desolation of the prairies which 
 are one day to be as fair to the eye as the plains 
 of Lombardy or the Lahn; across the Mississippi 
 and on into the Middle West, with its parks of 
 farmlands, with the fruit trees in blossom and the 
 roof of more than one farmhouse covered with the 
 petals of a favorite apple or pear tree, they trav 
 eled in May, in the wonder of scenes grown more 
 familiar in their absence, in the joy of eyes dwell 
 ing on the oak and the maple again. Out of the 
 windows they saw the wealth of the soil yielding 
 
THE HOME LAND 499 
 
 its abundance; in the cities they saw the wealth 
 that energy had created in new buildings in 
 progress and in the fresh earth turned for sidings 
 and branch lines the promise of care for growing 
 populations. 
 
 They scanned the faces at the stations, keen, 
 eager, like the young nation they typified, in which 
 ambition of the individual still runs high to do 
 for himself, without relying on the government 
 to do all for him; while in two or three places 
 they had glimpses of red faces between black 
 braids of hair, which, as Kiddy informed Benito, 
 belonged to the first American families. 
 
 " Great Bigness, you are so very kind," quoth 
 the Guardian, " to come from such a big country, 
 where they shoot you out of big gun to big gun >: 
 meaning the tunnels and the covered stations, 
 " and yet you do not come to the end, only to 
 the big river ! You are so very kind to be so pa 
 tient with the Cortina and listen all day to the 
 troubles of the barefoots of my countrymen." 
 
 There was some truth in that. The traffic on 
 the trails of Benito s island was pretty insignifi 
 cant beside that of the far-stretching steel rails. 
 A Governor of Bar might be mighty in Takar, 
 but he was a vague unit in this great army of un 
 ceasing workers, each trying to conquer an indi 
 vidual world in the United States. Two years 
 was a long time to have lost touch. Could he get 
 back in step again! If he gave up his Bar, what, 
 then, was he to do? 
 
 He laughed when he found that Kiddy had 
 
500 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 saved a good portion of his salary, while he him 
 self, spending so liberally in keeping open house 
 for all the Presidentes, returned with less than 
 he had when he left home, a trifling sum if we 
 exclude his books. But money never had bothered 
 him much. It meant only bed and food. 
 
 " I ll borrow from you, Kiddy, " he said. 
 
 " Boss, I ll lend you every cent IVe got! " 
 Kiddy returned, honestly. 
 
 il I wonder whether we could earn our livings 
 if we were to get off the train at the next station 
 without any money in our pockets or any friends 
 to fall back on," Big suggested. 
 
 " You bet we could! "was Kiddy s view. 
 
 " Yes, we could! " Big declared, confidently. 
 He felt still young and strong enough to take his 
 place as a two-dollar-a-day man, at least, in the 
 mixed gang, and this was a source of more per 
 sonal pride than his work in Bar. 
 
 Big was a true democrat and a born palaverer, 
 no doubt. Everyone with whom he talked brought 
 him some message, as we know. He was renew 
 ing his acquaintance with his own country through 
 all the people he met on the train. Farmer, busi 
 ness man, professional man, miner, workman 
 with whom he spoke saw a big, smiling fellow who 
 seemed to enjoy the sight of every town and every 
 glance out of the car window and who was set 
 tling back into home ways as easily as Kiddy into 
 the use of his waistcoat pockets. 
 
 To them he did not have to talk the abc s of 
 that great thing which he had tried to implant in 
 
THE HOME LAND 501 
 
 the mind of a strange people in their behalf. All 
 the elementals which had taxed his patience in 
 their exposition were here a part of blood and 
 instinct and made that common tie which held 
 all together in a bond that distance or difference 
 of climate or of occupation could not break. Yes, 
 it was home, home, home; and he knew its value 
 and all it stood for better than he ever had before. 
 
 When the train s flight at daybreak revealed the 
 rolling country which was that part of the land 
 that was his by birth and youthful associations, 
 he saw this, too, with new eyes, as part of the 
 great whole; and Kiddy, keen-eyed for it, made 
 him slightly jealous by pointing out the tower 
 of the new Sentinel building, which, you may be 
 sure, was highly conspicuous over the roof tops; 
 for wasn t The Sentinel Willy s paper? 
 
 As they came out on the car steps at the Union 
 Station and Kiddy Witherbee sprang into the 
 arms of a mother from the tenements, who had 
 brought him up to " mind his business and his 
 manners and keep on the job," the Big Fellow saw 
 that he had not been forgotten. There were the 
 faces of his friends looking into his with friend 
 ship s true welcome. 
 
 " H lo, Big! " called Willy Sweetser. 
 
 6 1 Ye divil, ye ! from Pete Maloney. 
 
 " You did pretty well," from Uncle Theodore, 
 whose smile spoke more praise than his words. 
 
 " Took more n a heathen job or a wood-pile to 
 floor you! " from Hiram Hobber, who had come 
 to the city especially for the occasion. 
 
502 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 The Big Fellow had one arm around Uncle 
 Theodore and the other all but around the lean 
 Hiram and the lean Pete, when he noticed on the 
 edge of the circle a little lady who claimed his 
 attention instantly. 
 
 " You were always so big and simple, I don t 
 see how you ever got away from them savages 
 alive! " said Mrs. Billings, using her handker 
 chief freely. 
 
 " He s not so damned simple! No, not so very 
 damned simple! " added Colonel Walker. For 
 the Colonel also was present and as chipper as 
 ever. 
 
 And what was this of which all were talking? 
 
 11 We re going to make you a real Governor of 
 a real State of these United States, with no Ex 
 cellency business in it! " declared Willy. 
 
 " Yes, and I know one Congressional district 
 that s going to send a solid delegation," said 
 Hiram. " If you ll only hustle for it a little, it s 
 yours, easy ! 
 
 " He s always been too busy doing his best 
 on the job he had," added Uncle Theodore, 
 "to be looking for another till he was asked to 
 take it." 
 
 " You don t need to hustle," asserted Willy. 
 "It s all right! " We fear that Willy was be 
 coming a boss, though he denied the allegation as 
 earnestly as any boss ever had. 
 
 " And I m not pulling back," said Colonel 
 Walker, who always knew the winning band 
 wagon, and immediately he was mounted, acted as 
 
THE HOME LAND 503 
 
 if he were driver and owner. In fact, he insisted 
 that he was the original Harden man. 
 
 From his heart the Big Fellow thanked them. 
 But he would not decide yet. He was going to 
 take the first train to Bolton. 
 
 If I go in I ll fight to win! " he announced, 
 finally. " But I make no promises. I ll lay no 
 plans till I have been home. There is someone 
 I wish to consult " and the someone in question 
 was not Madame Mother. 
 
XLV 
 
 BACK TO BOLTON 
 
 OF a strictly polite and circumspect nature 
 was that meeting between Epaminanidad 
 and Benito at the Bolton station. Benito 
 resolutely refused to give up the dress- suit case, 
 which was well, as Pam was seized with such a 
 fit of snickering that he must have dropped it 
 when they approached the gate. 
 
 " Same old trick! Same old trick! Tee-hee! 
 Tee-hee ! he cried, for he could hold in no longer 
 after Big started up the path. 
 
 This time the cherry-tree was not in fruit, but 
 in bloom, and a shower of blossoms descended on 
 the head and shoulders of our Governor of Bar. 
 Through the flowers he saw an oval face with long 
 lashes shading the eyes that challenged any storm 
 ing party to do its worst. 
 
 " Two Braids! I m coming up! " he called, 
 dropping the over-burdened overcoat from his 
 arm, while out of the pockets fell a magazine and 
 a book. 
 
 "Who s afraid?" she answered. "You 
 couldn t possibly climb it! " 
 
 " Can t I? You watch me!" 
 
 He flattered himself he made the ascent with 
 
 504 
 
BACK TO BOLTON 505 
 
 some agility ; and there lie was, standing on a limb 
 on one side of the trunk and she on a limb on the 
 other side. 
 
 " How now? " he asked. 
 
 " Yes, how now? You seem to have climbed 
 up, Excellency, " she observed, " just as I was 
 about to climb down! " Laughing, she sprang 
 to the ground, leaving him with nothing to do but 
 follow her. 
 
 " Do you notice anything different about the 
 house? " she asked, a little hurt that he had not 
 seen it already, although she had not given him 
 a fair chance to look. 
 
 " Yes, I do. I see a conservatory filled with 
 flowers/ he returned, with a glance of appre 
 ciation which cured the hurt instantly and made 
 her wildly happy that she had never offered to pay 
 him that debt, " which will gladden the hearts 
 of those we love in the long winter months. I 
 know who did it. I know where some of the salary 
 of the Charming Lady of Exhibit A has gone." 
 
 The two old ladies were on the porch, of course, 
 waiting with due dignity and pride, which could 
 not keep the tears out of their eyes. 
 
 " Madame Mother! Aunt Julia! " he cried. 
 * I can see you are well ! I know you are happy, 
 for here are your children home ! home ! home ! : 
 
 He threw his hat in the air and the old steps 
 creaked under his spring. 
 
 " Jimmy! My son! my son! Jimmy, you are 
 disarranging my hair ! My ! Is this the custom 
 in Bar? " quoth Madame Mother. " Julia, see 
 
506 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 that he treats you respectfully and touches your 
 forehead with his lips, as a great man of state 
 should do when he returns after his success 
 abroad." 
 
 " Oh! If that is it! " He planted a kiss on 
 Madame Mother s forehead and then took her 
 thin, almost transparent hands in his and touched 
 his lips to them. 
 
 " Oh, you did it gently, I will say that you 
 weren t rough only it was so impetuous," ad 
 mitted Madame Mother, who was not really 
 displeased. 
 
 " Now, Aunt Julia, strictly according to rule," 
 said Big, turning to her. " Fold your arms- 
 no, put them at your side, soldier fashion, and 
 stand perfectly still, lest I might press your fore 
 head too hard." 
 
 " I won t do anything of the kind, you great, 
 ridiculous boy! " she protested. " You may kiss 
 me on the mouth. There ! That is proper. And 
 now, though I m only your aunt, you will kiss my 
 hands! " which he did, as became the great man 
 of state. 
 
 " I think we ought to measure him! I believe 
 Mister Ninety in Calculus has been growing, said 
 Ellen. 
 
 " I haven t! " he answered, earnestly. Why 
 was she always touching him on his sorest 
 point? 
 
 "Let s see!" 
 
 She cleared away the vines from the old mark. 
 An obedient vassal, he complied with orders from 
 
BACK TO BOLTON 507 
 
 on high and the line of that sturdy back was still 
 as straight as the post. 
 
 "No! He s not! " Ellen admitted. " And if 
 he s not, why, what does that prove? I appeal to 
 the court, what does that prove? If he s not 
 grown in Bar, where everything grows so fast, 
 why "~ 
 
 " He s stopped growing, positively! " declared 
 Big. 
 
 " But we treat the potentate illy," she went 
 on, snatching down some of the honeysuckle vine 
 ruthlessly. " Here s one for your buttonhole, 
 O Excellency, and one for the second buttonhole 
 and the third, and one sticking out of the back 
 of your collar adds an Oriental effect. And he 
 should be crowned. We ll crown him, Aunt 
 Julia." 
 
 She twisted a lock of hair till it stood erect on 
 the top of his head and to this she tied still another 
 honeysuckle branch, while he submitted to the 
 nonsense happily. 
 
 " You are perfectly foolish! " said Aunt Julia. 
 
 " Perfectly! " said Madame Mother, beaming. 
 
 < Wait ! cried Ellen. < Pam must see him ! 
 
 She called that partisan of the Spartans, who 
 came with his stately shuffle and on the lookout. 
 She wasn t to get any joke on him, no, indeedy! 
 
 " Behold the potentate and what a fine word 
 behold is for a potentate! behold the high 
 and mighty potentate of Bar, Epaminanidad ! 
 See him in floral grandeur! See his topknot! 
 Is it not fierce? With that very topknot he 
 
508 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 charmed an whole populace into peace and 
 plenty. " 
 
 " Jes de same girl. Cain change her with 
 any foreign voyages," Pam concluded. " If dat s 
 all de fun yose to make I ll be movin on;" and 
 he turned to go. 
 
 But there was more coming. Big had been 
 thinking how to get even. Without removing the 
 topknot, he bent over a pile of freshly mown 
 lawn-rakings by the steps. 
 
 " Oh, the odor of this is good! " he said, seri 
 ously. " There s nothing so fresh and sweet in 
 Bar." 
 
 11 No, that s true, Big," she returned, stepping 
 toward him, and over her head descended a cloud 
 of green, while she spluttered. 
 
 " Miss Ellen," said Pam, as she was picking 
 the ticklish green spears out of her hair and ears, 
 " did yo evah heah dat air oP saw bout dem 
 dat laughs las ? Tee-hee! " and he went as fast 
 as his legs would take him around the corner of 
 the house. 
 
 " You re perfectly foolish! " said Aunt Julia. 
 
 " Perfectly! " agreed Madame Mother. 
 
 Who wouldn t be after two years in the tropics, 
 on a sunny afternoon in May on the home 
 porch? 
 
 " Ellen, I think it is time for tea," Aunt Julia 
 added. 
 
 While she went to fetch it, Big settled down on 
 the steps, as he had when he returned from Wash 
 ington, while Mother Mother, who was in the 
 
BACK TO BOLTON 509 
 
 same armchair she occupied then, became busi 
 nesslike at once. 
 
 " Jimmy, Mr. Sweetser has been very busy in 
 your behalf, and Mr. Hobber has, too." 
 
 " How happy I have been in my friends! " he 
 rejoined. " They do everything for me." 
 
 Well, they say you have only to say the word 
 to be nominated for Governor. The party is 
 looking for a man without a string to him in order 
 to win. Now " 
 
 "I m going to think that over and talk it over 
 with Ellen and with you, in due time," he said, 
 patting her hand affectionately. 
 
 Ellen appearing in the doorway overheard him. 
 She became very quiet. Little was said as, hap 
 pily, they went through that regular afternoon 
 function, and the silence enabled them to over 
 hear a conversation between the East and the 
 West (via Africa) at the corner of the house, 
 which seems worth repeating. 
 
 " I spect fo he came way dey was all wearin 
 close," said Pam. 
 
 " The people in the backwoods not yet," an 
 swered Benito. " They wear the clothes when 
 they go to the market and to the church." 
 
 " Jes keep one cotton shirt fo Sunday best, 
 eh? Close is de great civilizer. Some kind er 
 close is necessary to staht with jes a pillow-case 
 with holes in it fo de arms if it s hot. An de 
 mo civilization dey is de mo kinds o close 
 some fo ks has, an, de mo patches some fo ks 
 
510 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 has but dey has to has de close er dey ain t civil 
 ized nohow. Yis, indeedy." 
 
 The silent Benito only looked at his patent- 
 leather shoes in rapture. 
 
 " I spect dat aftah yo Oryental grandeur an 
 him bein an Excellency dis yeah house don seem 
 much to yo ? " 
 
 "It is the home of His Bigness," returned 
 Benito. That was enough for him. A person 
 ality, not a principle, had impressed itself on his 
 Oriental mind. Nor would he consider " Father 
 of the Tongals " or any other name in place of 
 that which he had given his patron. 
 
 " Lemme tell yo , an Ise an oP man an has 
 had sperience," Pam continued, " dat all de big 
 men in dis country comes from de li l houses jes 
 like dis yeah. Yis, indeedy. An dey has moth 
 ers dat, when dey wants to do dis an dat, says 
 yo cain t, kase it ain good fo yo karocter. An 
 aftah de closes an aftah Miss Ellen an de abc s 
 how did Mistah Big win out in dis yeah job? 
 
 " With these;" and Benito pointed to his fore 
 head, his eyes, and his heart. "He go to the 
 people when they get the wrong idea and he talk 
 to them till they get the right idea, and he never 
 change never! " 
 
 i Dat air jes like him. He was allus makin up 
 de quarrels tween de boys when he was a li l 
 fellow an all de boys used to be roun our gate. 
 But twan so easy as all dat out in dat Ian . 
 Didn he evah have to use de spankin machine! " 
 
 " I do not know what that English means." 
 
BACK TO BOLTON 511 
 
 Pam explained arduously. 
 
 " He can fight, yes, he can fight like the thirty 
 cents " (this slang of the day Benito had heard 
 on the train) " and then it is better for to take 
 the steamer to Spain." 
 
 " Yes, same ol Mistah Big. I membah how he 
 had two er free breshes when he was a li l shaver 
 an dey wan no count breshes neither when 
 he got to gwine. Yo spec to stay with him all 
 de time? " 
 
 t All my life ! which is not such a long time in 
 that old East lately discovered by the young West. 
 
 " Yo seem purty confident o yo se f," Pam 
 returned. " How yo know yo is? 
 
 " The kindness of the great heart of His Big 
 ness would not let him send me away," Benito 
 answered. 
 
 " Yo shuah is a bright boy an ain lettin yo 
 slices drop buttah side down," Pam concluded. 
 
 The two old ladies smiled, while Big, blushing a 
 little over being the subject of such candid analy 
 sis, looked away at the hills and thought of Ellen. 
 Both were calling him. Tea over, he turned to her. 
 
 " Shall it be a tramp? " he asked. 
 
 " As far as you like," she answered. 
 
 " Your hair is too high," he remarked, as she 
 took down her hat from the rack. 
 
 " Not for walking," she answered, softly. 
 
 Now the winning impulse was strong in him as 
 they started toward the big tree when there was 
 not the slightest sign of a storm. Of all his ses- 
 
512 THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 sions of talk-it-over-together, this was the great 
 est of his life; and the speaking part was his, 
 the listening part hers. She heard such eloquence 
 as no one else was ever to hear from him in all 
 his career. 
 
 Is it our affair what he said! Let it suffice 
 that, as the two old ladies saw them returning, 
 Aunt Julia declared that he was none too good 
 for Ellen, to which Madame Mother responded 
 that she only hoped he was good enough. They 
 knew what had happened from the subjective ela 
 tion of the pair as they entered; for in an open 
 country you can see that roads are coming to a 
 head before you reach their meeting-place. 
 
 " It s all right, Jimmy! " asked Madame 
 Mother, after Ellen had gone upstairs. 
 
 " It s " but, the dictionary carried nothing 
 
 in its stock equal to the occasion. He would not 
 try for a word, and Madame Mother saw that 
 none was needed. 
 
 " You look it, well enough, Jimmy, she re 
 marked, knowingly. 
 
 1 Perfectly foolish ! said Aunt Julia, half hys 
 terically. 
 
 When Ellen reappeared she wore her hair in 
 two braids, " just this once, in honor of Mister 
 Ninety in Calculus," as she told him, with a touch 
 of shyness. 
 
 " Oh, Ellen, it doesn t seem as if I deserve all 
 
 this happiness. I and there he was, man of 
 
 the law, still unable to express himself. But he 
 found speech at the table, in buoyancy and in boy- 
 
BACK TO BOLTON 518 
 
 ishness, while Benito, slipping in at the door, 
 helped Pam to wear out the silver by overpolish- 
 ing it. 
 
 " Exhibit A was a wonderful school, wasn t 
 it! " he said, looking into Ellen s eyes, as, in 
 truth, he was most of the time. " Oh, we who 
 have been in Bar have something we would not 
 lose, would we! 
 
 It was a quiet evening, brimming with the 
 happiness of promise fulfilled for all, without 
 as yet any direct mention of this great thing come 
 true, as Madame Mother and Aunt Julia sat on 
 the porch watching the twilight pass and the fire 
 flies come and Big and Ellen walked up and down 
 the path making their plans. Again, is it our af 
 fair what they said! A new and permanent part 
 nership they had formed. Together, through life, 
 they would look out along the straight line s way, 
 which may be hard traveling at first, but is the 
 pleasanter the farther you go. 
 
 THE END 
 
GOOD FICTION 
 
 FREDERICK PALMER S THE BIG FELLOW 
 
 A big American novel with a big American for its hero, one of the 
 fine, simple, magnetic big stories that everybody reads and that 
 live for years. Illustrated. $1.50. 
 
 PH1LLPOTTS and BENNETT S THE STATUE 
 
 Scene, England. Period, to-day. A fine specimen of the diplomatic 
 novel, big in conception, powerful in plot and action, vigorously 
 drawn. Illustrated. $1.50. 
 
 TYLER de SAIX S 
 
 THE MAN WITHOUT A HEAD 
 
 One of the most exciting detective stories since "Sherlock Holmes." 
 Scene is London, hero a new Scotland Yard man who has to 
 " make good," and does it. $1.50. 
 
 E.J.RATITS THE SIXTH SPFED 
 
 " Just an amazing yarn, set forth with so much vim and in so confi 
 dent a vein that, though not really plausible, it is richly amusing." 
 New York Times. $1.50. 
 
 JAMES LOCKE S 
 
 THE STEM of the CRIMSON DAHLIA 
 
 " One doesn t put it down after beginning it even though you know 
 you must get up early to-morrow and it is now two o clock." 
 New York Times Saturday Review. Illustrated. $1.50. 
 
 UPTON SINCLAIR S THE METROPOLIS 
 
 H. G. Wells writes of it : " The Metropolis is great. The author 
 
 has all Zola s power over massed detail." 
 11 It stands in a class by itself. It is a searchlight. "-San Francisco 
 
 Examiner. 
 
GOOD FICTION 
 
 EDWARD PEPLE S THE SPITFIRE 
 
 A story of vim and dash. Romantic, exciting to a high degree. 
 Color frontispiece by Howard Chandler Christy. Other draw 
 ings by J. V. McFall. xamo, $1.50. 
 
 SEMIRAMIS 
 
 "At once a majestic and an animated tale. It has imagination. It 
 has imagination and rhetoric, It has much. It will stir the 
 reader." New York Sun. i2mo. $1.50. 
 
 CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY S 
 
 The ADVENTURES of LADY SUSAN 
 
 One of Dr. Brady s liveliest and most adventurous tales. Period, 
 War of i8ia ; scene, England ; heroine, American. Illustrated. 
 $1.50. 
 
 The BLUE OCEAN S DAUGHTER 
 
 "Told in gallant fashion with the fresh air blowing through it."- 
 Chicago Evening Post. Illustrated. $1.50. 
 
 BRADY and PEPLE S 
 
 RICHARD THE BRAZEN 
 
 " Sparkles with the audacity of youth." Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 " Fat with the material of which thrills are made, and warranted to 
 
 be finished at one sitting." St. Paul Pioneer Press. Illustrated. 
 
 $1.50. 
 
 WILLIAM FREDERIC DIX S 
 
 THE LOST PRINCESS 
 
 This fine novel of adventure fairly overflows with romance, but its 
 atmosphere nevertheless is intensely modern. Illustrated in 
 colors. $1.50. 
 
 KAUFMAN and FISK S 
 
 THE STOLEN THRONE 
 
 Has enough dash, action, and high-spirited romance to furnish forth 
 half a dozen " season s successes." Brilliantly written. Illus 
 trated. $1.50. 
 
GOOD FICTION 
 
 EDEN PHILLPOTTS S 
 
 THE VIRGIN IN JUDGMENT 
 
 Mr. Phillpotts never wrote a finer, sounder novel of Dartmoor than 
 this. It has characters that will live long. iamo. $1.50. 
 
 J. C. SNAITH S 
 
 WILLIAM JORDAN, JUNIOR 
 
 "The most moving and fascinating piece of work the author of 
 Broke of Covenden has yet given us." Contemporary Review 
 (London). $1.50. 
 
 JOHN TREVENA-S FURZE THE CRUEL 
 
 " It is always difficult to define what constitutes greatness in any 
 form of art, but when greatness exists it is easy to discern. 
 This is a great book almost a masterpiece." London Academy. 
 $1.50. 
 
 ELIZABETH ROBINS S 
 
 THE MILLS OF THE GODS 
 
 One of Miss Robins s most finished and brilliant stories. Its flavor 
 is almost medieval in quality, though the period is to-day. A 
 superbly artistic story of Continental life. i2ino. $1.00. 
 
 ANNULET ANDREWS S 
 
 THE WIFE OF NARCISSUS 
 
 " A stroke of genius." Hartford Courant. 
 
 " Instinct with spring-like romance." Chicago Record-Herald. 
 nmo. $1.50. 
 
 ELEANOR TALBOT KINKEAD S 
 
 THE INVISIBLE BOND 
 
 " Rises to fine heights and is inspired by fine ideals." New York 
 Tribune, 
 
 " A gripping, brainy story, revealing an artist in literature of de 
 cided promise." Boston Herald, Illustrated. $1.50. 
 
 The COURAGE of BLACKBURN BLAIR 
 
 "The characterization is markedly good, various men and women 
 standing out like clear portraits. Best of all, perhaps, the whole 
 exhales a subtle aroma of delicate romance and passion." 
 Chicago Record-Herald, iamo. $1.50. 
 
GOOD FICTION 
 
 ANONYMOUS SAPPHO IN BOSTON 
 
 A dainty and brilliant novel by a writer of long experience. Scene, 
 Boston and England. Period, to-day. Illustrated. $1.50. 
 
 JOHN LUTHER LONG S FELICE 
 
 Mr. Long has never written a more charming story than this tale of 
 Italian life in Philadelphia. Illustrated in colors. $i.co. 
 
 THOMAS L. MASSON S 
 
 THE YON BLUMERS 
 
 A sparkling picture of American life in the suburbs of New York, 
 full of insight and penetrating, unostentatious humor. Illus 
 trated by Bayard Jones. $1.50. 
 
 ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER S 
 
 WHERE SPEECH ENDS 
 
 A novel of the orchestra which takes the reader into complete 
 comradeship with the men who interpret the world s greatest 
 music in the world s greatest way. $1.50. 
 
 CONSTANCE SMEDLEY S THE DAUGHTER 
 
 A vigorous, likable novel of the modern suffrage movement in 
 England. Has an extremely interesting plot, and moves rapidly 
 from the start. lamo. $1.50. 
 
 CONFLICT 
 
 An unusually strong and fascinating story of English life in some 
 of its most up-to-date phases. Depicts a modern business 
 woman in a modern environment. $1.50. 
 
 ALICE McALILLY S 
 
 THE LARKINS WEDDING 
 
 "An apotheosis of good humor and neighborly kindness." The 
 Outlook. 24 illustrations. $1.00. 
 
 MOFFAT, YARD C& COMPANY 
 NEW YORK 
 
TINT" 
 
 - -_ ^ 7.070 / 
 
392237 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 DMAS. W CLARK CO. 
 
!i>!