DROPPING THE PILOT. DROPPING THE PILOT.
CHINESE METAL VASE. CHINESE METAL VASE.
I asked where Ferry was now. Her eyes refilled--they were red from earlier distresses--and she motioned across the hall: "The captain of the Louisianians, you know, has sent for him!"
"But you don't mind confessing you're an out-and-out rebel sympathizer?"
"All the same, you don't want to be robbed o' what's yours. You don't want to be skinned out o' your money by a gang o' snoozers who're gittin' rich off of green boys like you. Where's this Sarjint Klegg and Corpril Elliott that brung you here?"
"Vale!"
As the year climbed up again into spring, a tender pity for Bessie mingled with Robert's love. It was not the pity which begets love, but the sweeter kind which is begotten of it. Robert forgot all about his own hard life, the monotonous ruthless grind of work, the absence of all softness, homeliness, or sympathy, the denial of all gaiety and sport. He thought only of Bessie's troubles, and would have given the world to lighten[Pg 144] them. He longed to give her some little treat, or a present. But he had no money. For the first time he inwardly rebelled against the system which kept him penniless. None of the boys had any money, except Pete on Fair days—not even Albert, for the Rye Advertiser did not pay its poets. For the first time Robert saw this as unjust.
A theme unsung by other harps is mine—
Then there was an angry scene, stormings and tears, regrets, taunts, and abuse—and another reconciliation.
"Then you come along; I'll take you, and we'll have some fun."
"Lordy! but that wur justabout pr?aper!" cried Pete, bustling up, and sorry that the tramp showed no signs of getting on to his feet.