The Argosy — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

212 THE ARGOSY. denial of the charge and a simple assertion of my innocence. I must tell the whole story of my life to carry the conviction of my innocence, and let heaven be my witness, it shall be, as I have just sworn it should be, ‘‘ the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”’ He paused solemnly for a moment with uplifted hand. His was the natural grace of the orator in speech and gesture. ‘“T have nothing in my history to conceal,’’ he resumed. ‘‘I was left an orphan at a very tender age, and an old friend of my father, living in the city of Greenwood, Massachussetts, adopted me and reared me as his own, This man, Archibald Sater by name, had an only son, John Sater, exactly my own age, but entirely my opposite.. He was weak and puny; I was strong and muscular. My foster father hoped I would repay all his kindness by becoming a guardian angel, in a sense, to his boy. And so I did. ‘‘ John Sater and I were inseparable. No real brothers could ever have been more loyal to each other than were we. I shared his sorrows and his joys. I bore the brunt of all his battles. I helped him out of all his troubles when we were lads at school, and when we were boys at college I aided him in all his studies. ‘That he loved me as well as I loved him I have not the slightest doubt; but a strange fatality about our intimacy all through life was the fact that he was continually, without evil intention on his part, the innocent cause of trouble to me. I conld quote many instances of this occur- ring in childhood days, but one will be sufficient to clear the point. Once, in pure boyish mischief, he stole the schoolmaster’s penknife, kept it for several days, and then requested me to carry it up and leave it on the master’s desk. I did so, and received the trouncing which should have been inflicted on. my foster brother, if at all. ‘“After we grew up and entered college there were many such experi- ences. My expenses were usually as much again as his, to the amazement, and often the suspicion, of my foster father, because John borrowed more than half my allowance and left me always poor and heedy. For his sake, for I loved him, I bore it all in patience and in silence. He would bring half a dozen boon companions to my room, and cause me to be reported to the dean for late hours and noisy company. ‘‘ It was not his fault that he was getting me continually into difficulties. I believe in the doctrine of the reincarnation of the soul. I believe that on and on through all the succeeding ages the eternal soul of man repeats its experiment over and over again in the human form. It ismy belief that the everlasting spirit pursues this endless circuit of mankind, passing from one body at the moment of death to another living habitation, thus fulfiling the destiny marked out for it by a wise Creator at the beginning of that soul’s career. I believe that, far above and beyond the horizon of our poor earthly perceptions, the souls enthroned in our minds have hopes and fears, have joys and sorrows, and good and bad intents, in their own lofty planes, similar, though greater, grander, and more mysterious than those which disturb the tranquillity of our puny intellects. | ‘*On no other hypothesis can I account for the strange and disastrous results of my intimacy with John Sater. Try, as I know he always did, to (E(@) Eomichbooks