The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 104: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

296 A TRADE DOLLAR TRAGEDY. you see a perfectly suitable match being thwarted by a feud. It harks back to the days of romance. I lamented that Julia would not be in the secret. She has a_ tender heart and would have enjoyed it, Jim was almost reconciled to a week’s separation as he looked at the pic- ture. This was something that he could have hourly. I think that for the first day or two he hunted up the secluded spots where he and Mary had strolled and assured each other of undying affection, gand sat down under a tree and gazed at the face of his sweetheart all day long. His trousers bore that appearance when he came home to dinner, and his ravenous appetite made one wonder as to his lunch. 3 Johnny recovered from his cholera, but two days later Aunt Sarah and Uncle John came for a night and brought two young girls with them. Julia slept in the nursery, and I turned in with Jim. In the middle of the night there was a peremptory ring at the door, and a messenger boy stood there with a telegram for Jim, telling him that his father had been seriously injured by a fall from his horse. There were just twelve minutes in which to catch the train, and we got him off: As I drove out of the gate the next morning, I missed the bright young fellow who usually sat beside me, and made up my mind that I would find a salary for him in my own factory, and keep him until his father relented. There would be hundreds of thousands under his control sooner or later. Just as I passed my gate I saw my young son, aged six, and Cecil Marston, interestedly examining a silver dollar. “It’s a trade dollar,’’ Cecil was saying, ‘‘and ain’t worth so much asa real one, but you can have -the rabbit for it. There ain’t anything mean about me.’’ I felt like stopping Johnny to ask him where he got his dollar, trade or otherwise, and then I remembered that he had one or two trade dollars in his bank. It was against the rules for him to spend his bank money, but his mother attended to the discipline of the family, and I had a sneaking dislike to getting Johnny into a scrape ; besides, there was a directors’ meeting in my office that morning and Betty B. had already carried me far down the shady village street. At the factory I found a telegram from Jim on my table: Left dollar under pillow. Send. Jim. As soon as I could get away irom that meeting I sent Betty speeding home. I couldn’t have Jim’s picture of Mary Marston lying about loose, yet how in the mischief was I going to find it? I had intended going in the back way, where I should usually have en- countered Alice, the maid who arranged the bedrooms, but instead, Julia came out to the porte coch?re to meet me. ‘‘ Dick,’’ she said, ‘‘ there was a man here this morning who says he has a perfect match for Betty B. He saw her somewhere the other day and asked whose horse she was, and he says he’ll buy her, or sell you his horse, if he can arrange it. Now, here’s just the opportunity. You know you told me comicboo