My Monks of Vagabondia 10

My Monks of Vagabondia 10

"You think he would take me back?"

 

"Gladly. What are you doing here?"

 

"I am cook for the boys," he said.

 

"You, a cook?" she smiled. "Why, you wouldn't wash a dish at home for

me when we were children. You can't be very much of a cook.... But

never mind. I have found you."

 

"Confound it! I have let those beans burn again." And he excused

himself for a moment.

 

When he returned he said, "I will write you if I can decide to go back

home. It comes a little suddenly you know. I have been a prodigal too

long to turn into a father's white-haired boy on the instant."

 

Then after a moment he asked: "Do you know what Mother used to put into

the beans when she burned them to take out the smoky taste?"

 

"Jim, Mother wasn't that kind of a cook."

 

As the sister was going out to step into the carriage she said,

"Promise me you will not leave here without writing me. I don't want to

lose you again."

 

"I promise," he said.

 

* * * * *

 

That night the boys ate their supper in silence. Each one was deep in

thought.

 

"Too bad the beans are burned," Jim said.

 

"I like them that way," replied one of the boys. "It makes them taste

different."

 

That night after supper no one wrote any letters, which was unusual,

and one of the boys jokingly asked another near him, "Why don't you

write a letter home to your sister?"

 

"I am afraid," replied the lad, "she might answer it in person like

Jim's sister did."

 

Jim has taken a job on a farm and is saving his money. He has nearly

enough to return to his old home; he refuses to accept any aid from his

father or sister.

 

"I will go back as I came away--independently."

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

EDISON'S EVENING STAR

 

 

"Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion: The Lord is his

name."--_Bible._

 

 

 

 

Edison's Evening Star

 

_Hamlet_: "Ay, marry, why was he sent into England?"

 

_First Clown_: "Why, because he was mad: he shall recover his wits

there; or, if he do not, it's no great matter there."

 

_Hamlet_: "Why?"

 

_First Clown_: "'Twill not be seen in him there; there the men are as

mad as he."

 

--_Shakespeare._

 

 

To be dull of wit is sadly unfortunate, but to be dull of wit and be

compelled to live in a Colony made up of more or less reckless young

men is doubly unfortunate.

 

In the group eccentricities are quickly discouraged. The grouch, the

crank, the bully, if he would remain and live in harmony must learn his

lesson in democracy--the individualist is given short shift.

 

Of course the dull of wit should be given immunity at all times, and

in theory he is, but in real practice even the most gentle hearted

man will have his little joke at the expense of the man less alert

mentally. The members of the Colony are no exception to this rule.

 

"Tell us more," the boys asked of the Moon-Struck-One, one evening

after the day's work was done, "about the inhabitants of Mars, which

you see in your trances."

 

And then he--the Moon-Struck-One--would explain in detail the strange

people he had seen in his dreams.

 

"These planets," he told them, "are all being made ready for the coming

race of Man.... After Cycles and Cycles, we move on to newer and better

worlds.... Each of the mystic Seven Planets are at the service of the

human race. Time and time again a new world has borne the burden of the

evolving man's hope and his despair.... The cosmic scheme is worthy of

the Wondrous God, who holds not only the Seven Planets in control, but

rules the Seven Universes with their Seven Suns--you laugh, most men

laugh, the churchmen laugh, they do not know, they have not seen--but I

know and have seen."

 

"How interesting," said one boy, winking slyly to his fellows. "I know

something of astronomy myself; my brother was a Princeton graduate."

 

It was a summer's evening when this conversation took place and the

boys were sitting out on the lawn enjoying the night air, for the day

had been hot and oppressive.

 

"What do any of you know of the Stars?" said the Moon-Struck-Sage.

 

"Very little, but tell us," said one of the boys, "for I believe in

your visions. I dreamed one night myself about a big fire--a bad sign

as you very well know--and the next day I got 'pinched.'"

 

"Yes, you are deeply learned in the Stars," he said with smiling

skepticism, "that is, I suppose you can tell the difference between a

star and a lantern."

 

"Look out," said a boy who had not spoken before, "he is joking you."

 

"No, seriously," said the Witless One, "when I said 'lantern' I had

reference to the light that Edison hangs out each night when the

weather is clear--you have no doubt read of it. He plans to construct a

light that will illuminate this country at night almost as brightly as

the sun lights it by day.... Do you see that light just above the trees

in the East. You can tell it as it is larger than any stars around it.

It has the appearance of a star only much brighter. Do you see it?"

 

"Yes," said the boys who were all attention, although one or two were

skeptical until one of the group remembered that he had read about

Edison's powerful light in the Sunday magazine supplement of a New York

paper.

 

"He is a wonderful man," said another.

 

At last all were convinced and the Moon-Struck-One, satisfied, arose

rather abruptly, and went into the house.

 

A few days later he left the Colony to go to his relatives in a distant

city, and so the boys had no one to play tricks upon, no one who was

not their equal in wit.

 

It was some weeks afterwards that one of the young men said to me as we

were talking out of doors in the evening:

 

"There is that light of Edison's hanging over the trees."

 

"Where?" I asked.

 

"That bright light over there that looks like a big star. The Witless

One told us about it. In some ways he was really wiser than we gave him

credit for."

 

"That's the Evening Star," I said.

 

"It is what?" asked another boy.

 

"It is Venus, the Evening Star."

 

"He told us it was put up there by Edison."

 

"So it really isn't an illuminated balloon?"

 

The boys looked from one to the other, then every one laughed loudly

and long.

 

"Doesn't the Bible say, 'Answer a fool according to his folly?'" asked

a boy.

 

"Yes, and it also says, 'Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest

thou also be like unto him.'"

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

IN THE WORLD OF WANDERLUST

 

 

"To stand in true relations with men in a false age, is worth a fit of

insanity, is it not?"

 

--_Emerson._