The Knoxville journal. (Knoxville, Ga.) 1888-18??, March 30, 1888, Image 2
GREATNESS. He may be great who proudly rears For coming years strong pyramids But greater ho who hourly builds A character by noble deeds. Ho may be wise whoso mind is filled With all the wisdom time ha.s give; Who sees and does his duty well Is wiser in tho sight of Heavon. It may be grand to deck the walls With pictures by rare genius wrought; Greater it is to line the soul With tints and gems ot noble thought He may be groat who can indite Songs that shall every bosom thrill; He who knows how to make his life A poem grand is greater still. —Miss F. H. Marr , in Youth's Companion TEOTTY’S JOTJENEY. BY RACHEL CAREW. bard's, Subdued joy pervaded because the Hotel it Lom¬ at blorence, was ru anored abroad , tha- Miss . . Koseieat , s pug 1 rotty was in extremis, tie was not^au attractive animal men.ally or physically, and had endeared hunselt to no one savo his lovely young mistress. Hisligure was ruined through overfeeding; he had lost one eye inn bygone tussel with a butch er’s ea,t, and the other optic glared at the world with a sinister expression .rom out 2 Had j vd he no- V atc mouthed i V?°j- i vf .a * or C0 \v “ mkham DC< r s slipper into an unpleasant pulp, and re tired under Miss ! ilcnerton s bed, tneie to snore and frighten that lady into spasms, l e nad also snatched a biscuit out of the hand of infant lauocence—the niother of said innocencei passing a sleep less ni"ht wonoenng u it were not well to send ; or 1 astiiur, to be quite sure that the bite was no more than biscuit. lor all these misdemeanors, M ss hose leaf apologized with a grace so charming, that the malcontents were seen to stop on the stairs to stroke Tiofty, and tell him he was a dear little fellow, so he was— the same quadruped which they had erst while apostrophized as a hideous, squab leggeil, liowcould ovened. vieious-tempered they do than brute, melt, Lut elso wnii i,ons i.oscleut s sweet ejis caress lpg t.icm fiom under the shade of her big to-sip.g-p.uiiied hat, and the shell pink on her cheeks deepenmg to a warm sunset rose at praise oi her ill-favored l’ ct: “Yes, Dori3 is so foolishly fond of the dog, I’m obliged to .put up with him but he isa great nuisance, to be sure, particularly in traveling. When we start for the Tyrol next week there will be the usual harrowing scene—the rail way people refusing to let Trotty go in the carriage with us, Doris in tears, and at la3t a fee to pay, or a bribe, that really breaks my heart. We cannot af ford such toolisli outlay. I wish some thing animal; would happen lived quite to long the wretched enough.” he has In the above words, Mrs. Roseleaf had been wont to express her chief grievance to a mixed aud cuce for years. Now that destiny, in the shape of cramps and a stiif ueok, seemed close upon the heels of Trotty, Sirs. Roseleaf inwardly re joiced, but maintained a hypocritical at titude of unconcern in the presence of her “f believeit would be well to send for a veterinary doctor ; ho could give poor Trotty some chloroform, or something to end his sufferings,” she said to Doris, and. in an aside to a friend, added: “I grudge such the relief expense, have but the it little would be a to brute surely done for, once and for all.” A few hours la'er, as Mrs. Roseleaf re turned from a walk, Doris met her with a radiant face, crying: “Oil, mamma, Trotty is so much better and 1 Going to than re cover and be better stronger ever before, the doctor says.” ' “What doctor?” “Why, the vet. you said we ought to send for. I had him come while you were away, and he must be a wonder fully clever man—-ho has certainly saved Trotty’s life. He asked fifteen franc3, but I had to give him twenty, as you hail couldn't nothing smaller him in for your five purse, and I ask francs change, Mamma, I don't believe that you are one bit glad that poor Trotty is better 1” and tears welled over in the lovely violet cyes which worked so much havoc in the mother most of all. “Yes—yes, child, I'm very glad,” the mendacious old lady answered, but her looks hcliid her words. “Twenty francs more paid than for before, making and the believed dog’s life surer I he would be dead to-night. Ah, me land that dreadful journey impending!" was the burden of her thoughts. “Mamma,” in said her Doris one morning, breaking have upon brilliant parent's idea perusal for mak- of ‘•She,” “I a ing the journey easy for us all. ‘Miss Willis told me she gave her cat an opium powder once, before taking him on a thirty-six hours’ journey in the train. He dozed all the time in his basket, quiet as a Iamb, and the guard thought ho was luncheon.” “1 opium suppose powder, you mean fear to give guards Trotty an but 1 the can scarcely bo induced to mistake him for luncheon.” “No, they will be otherwise deceived, Trotty is to be given a big powder to keep him quiet, and he is then to be dressed as a baby, laid on a pillow, and with a vail over his face is to cross the frontier. Perk shall carry him.” “Doris, do you think I would ever consent to such a preposterous idea? It isn’t respectable. What would people say and think? Put such nonsense out of your head at once, I beg of you.” “Not a bit of it, mamma dear; the idea is too excellent a one to let slip, y 0 u will be of my opinion quite, wheu you jj^yg a u owe dyourself time to reflect, The Stauntons’ nurso is going to lend me a p re tty pillow with lace and em broidery, and one of their baby’s dresses, an( j a ca p Your chuddah will do to wra p ar0 un(l his body. Tina will dress j,j m and tie him on the pillow in quite orthodox way. It will bo great fua; Perk’s face will be a treat when she hears gke j ias g 0 t to carry Trotty masquerading asa baby.” clouded p 0 orMrs. Roscleafs face was and S ad. gi 10 knew perfectly well that jj or j 3 W ould carry her point—she and al w a yi e i<j ed to the child; what ,j r( , a( ]ful re <ulta might not follow this : ] as t escapade! But in this instance, as j a thousands of others, the weak old lady decided there was nothing to do but to laako rp G 0 f a bad' bargain, and she K took ft u interes( . iQ the preparations j for what sccme( i to be a most novel un dertakiag . “There is another blessed infant to jn ako the ni<*ht hideous for somebody,” so 'iloquized a good-looking young Eng jj s h man , j peeing tthe f or Florence th from the Station. window 0 j a carr a g C a “The train seems very full; I’m afraid we ca n’t have a coupe to ourselves,” said Mrs . Rogel j efi regretfully. “There is on0 compartment with only a young man in it; shall we go there?” “Yes,” said Doris, promptly. odd in “A man will not notice anything the conduct of my baby, and will not wish to kiss it, as some silly woman might.” .“By Jupiter! they are coming in here —I a m an unlucky dog, and no mis take!” exclaimed Mr. Harold Lyman, the young man already mentioned. His dismay was pardonable. He was escorting from Florence to Verona his sister’s baby, the very juvenile Contessa Montefiore, as well as her stolid Abruzzi nurse; the woman to return at once to her mountains so soon as she should have laid her young charge in the arms of her successor at Verona. The baby’s mother was ill of measles at Florence, and to escape infection, the little contessa was hastily under the dispatched to of its its rather grandfather’s brained guidance The scatter uncle. was a sleeping brazen-lunged like young fiend of laced six months; pillow an angel on a at that moment, but anon she would awake and rend the air with her yells. To escape guard this, Mr. Lyman had feed a perfidious for the adjoining behold coup left vacant for him. and now his privacy invaded fumed by another and fretted squalling torment. He in wardly in for a time, and then found some solace watching the movements of Doris, in the light of the half-vailed lamp. She took'thc baby from the grim Abigail, him hugged him white to her breast, kissed through his gauze vail, and hushed him to sleep on her soft arm —the sweetest rest in the world. “Impossible that that girl is the baby’s mother,” mused Mr. Lyman to himself; “and yet, why not? She is very young, but that kind of exquisitely pretty girl generally marries young. Lucky baby— chap, herhusband! It must bo her girls don’t coddle and pet other peo pie’s offspring in that way. The old dame has‘grandmother’plainly and inter written fussy on her countenance manner, and I heard the young lady call the elder one mamma. The vinegar visaged party is their maid, of course.” Thus Mr. Lyman mused on in a way that caused him an anoyance he could not understand. Why should he care whether his pretty traveling companion was married a dozen times or not at All ? He would never see her again after that brief journey. What an extraordinary had quiet baby stirred it was! for two hours now it not or lifted up its voice, though it had Lyman. been laid by itself on the seat by Mr. Was it a baby at all? Perhaps sigh only a from doll or a bundle, But a long the somnolent Trotty, and a slight figeting of his cor pulent body, dawning removed the young Englishman's doubts, and caused Miss Roseleaf to redouble her attentions to her disguised pet. Presently a violent jerk of the train threw everybody into everybody cise's arms. Mr. Lyman found himself closely clasping both her of that Miss Roseleaf’s hands, and assuring danger, though he there was not the least knew no more than she did what was the trouble. A guard, crying running the length of the train, out some trifling cause for the sudden stop, soon restored serenity. All through this commotion the re markable infant uttered not a sound nor ,-moved as much as a Anger. Lyman re solved to hazard a remark that would con vince him whether or not his fair com panion cherub. was the mother of this stolid “The—it—your baby is unusually good; does it never cry?” he managed to enunciate. His charming neighbor’s face broke into smiles. Lyman’s face fell—yes, only a mother could look so radiant at praise of her darling. “ Yes, he is very good,” the young lady said, with a blush. Mr. Lyman somehow did not seem to feel a desire to pursue the conversation which the mishap to the train had started, and he soon sank quietly back into his coiner. Doris settled back for a reverie in her corner, with her hand laid caressingly on Trotty’s fat back. What a good-looking, intelligent, liu morous fellow he seemed—her vis-a-vis! How she would like to know him, and lead him back an adoring slave to flaunt before the envious girls at the “Lombar dia 1” One met such men onlv in books and 0Q fleeting journeys, where one lost them again for ever at the first big sta tion. This phase of Jifc was really very hard. * * * * * * * Early dawn at Verona; here the silly boy and girl who had traveled ten hours together took leave of each other for ever, they supposed, and both looked grieved out of all proportion little to the niece oe casion. Mr. Lyman saw his and her nurse' installed by the door of the waiting-room, and then went out on the platform to fume and fret because the Monteliore carriage had not come. “That baby looks about the age of ours,” said Doris to her mother, desig nating the little eontessa, of whose ex istence she had heard nothing from its uncle. “Ecru gauze vails are evidently the proper thing, too. Perk, we will put Trotty on (he bench on the other side of the door,beside that very safe-looking old dame who is half asleep, and then I want you to come with me to the toilet-room to mend the flounce I tore getting out of the train. Mamma will keep an eye on Alas! “mamma’s” eyes saw only the land of dreams while her daughter and maid were absent. The baby contessa becoming parti cularly fretful, the nurse bethought her self of a possible baby pin, or off too tight string, and carried the to Toilet-room No. 2, to investigate. At this juncture the Montefiore car riage drove up in a tremendous hurry, There was not a moment to lose. The Signor Conte had been telegraphed ill, and for to go to his son, who was very it was only by a miracle that they had wrong out the time to come for the con tessiua. The Signor Conte must have the carriage " in twenty minutes, without fail. “Go,” said Mr. I.yman to the foot man, “and take the baby from the nurse; she is waiting at the door. You need have no words withher, as she has been paid and dismissed. Make haste, and don’t wake the child.” To the great disgust of the affectionate uncle, the new nurse had not been able to come in the carriage for the baby, and he must have a tetea-tete drive with it. Fortunately, it was not far. While the man was gone for the baby, he busied himself arranging a bed of shawls in the carriage, big enough for the infant’s grandfather “There, I hope to she repose will comfortably sleep,” he said, on. giving his work a final pat. The footman dashed into the waiting room, cast a and hasty, gathered comprehensive the glance about, then up unconscious Trotty as the only infant in the room, lie quietly withdrew him from the partially overhanging draperies of the snoring old woman at his side, whom he took for the nurse. “Madonna mia! what a fright the old girl will have when she finds the baby gone! It serve-; her right, though; she ought not to go to sleep at her post, and I have no time for explanations.” Mrs. Roseleaf, on the bench opposite, continued to sleep the sleep of the just, and Trotty was borne away, her “Asleep, down gingerly, Carlino? That is lucky. Put shawls. my boy, til” on these All right. , Avan and the Count's carriage dashed forward, Before the rattle 1 of its wheels died away the waiting-room there bfljpin an Verona. animated scene in toilet at Doris, her where adjusted, sought but the cozy nest she hail left her pet, but toiler horror the bird was ilown. Then arose tears and lamentations which would have melted granite. Where was he, her darling, if her beauty? She did not cave the whole world knew he was a dog— should only let some one return him, and he have any reward he asked for. Somebody testified to having seen afoot man, in livery, come in and take away the baby, or dog, or whatever it was. “A case of abduction, then, and more hopeless imperturbable than ever!” wailed Doris. with The Abruzzi nurse, her baby sleeping sweetly as an angel, blinked stupidly at the excited people around nothing her, understanding their evident or distress. caring about She only wondered vaguely why the Signor Conte's carr.iige was so slow in Presently Harold Lyman, with a face as white as carried a ghost,-dashed handkerchief. into the room. He a lace in his hand, and went straight up to the weeping Doris, saying: believe "Madam, it js I this your ticed property? the I is, for no the same train.” name on your portmau teau in “Yes, it is mine. It was round my darling Trotty’s don’t neck. tell Is he he still dead!” alive? Pray, pray me is “Very much alive, my dear young lady, and I am here to heg you to much conic and claim him. He is quite too lor any of us to manage.” Then turning to the nurse and a baby on whom his eyes had rested for a moment with in tense relief as he entered the room, he said to the woman, with flashing eyes* “How dared you disobey me and the- go wandering off and losing yourself dour stupid- at most ity important moment! death all. has nearly been the of us The other nurse has gore into fits, and if she dies, her blood will be on your soul!” “It was unmoved, a pin, Fceellcnz,” the wo mam replied, Roseleaf, Five minutes later, Mrs. Dorris, Mr. Lyman and the real baby were packed into a carriage and which were spinningaloug to the Palazzo to Trotty Never had in been all her conveyed, life will Doris forget the aspect of things as she was ushered ' n t° the presence of her lost darling. It was a large, airy room, recovered like a from nursery, his Trotty, considerably stood theflooriu cpium drowsiness, on extreme at a dozen or more frightened people, any one of whom would rather grasp hot coals than touch him. His cap was rakishly careened to one side, he had torn his lace dress fore and aft, and his shawl trailed sideways cn the carpet, “Trotty, dear Trottyl” cried Doris, rushing forward. Benignity and.pk'.asuro softened Trot ty’s sinister eye; slowly his tattered draperies swayed to and fro with the beatific wagging of his tail. He started toward his mistress, but tripped ignobly in his petticoat and rolled over, “You darling, you shall not be a baby any more 1” and she tore off the garments sir much the worse for wear, and allowed Trotty to appear in the dignity of his own coat. This interview, very painful for alt persons concerned, save one, was ended as soon as possible, anil the Roseleaf* were driven back-to the station, there to begin their usual pleading with the guards to allow their dog to accompany them. Before bidding them adieu, Mr. Lyman fin^ managed with considerable and jinesse daughter to out where Mrs. Roseleaf her were going to spend the next six weeks, by chance Oddly enough, he,appeared, quite of course, at the same place a fortnight later, and somehow found it necessary and expedient to go to the re sort next selected by them, It so turned out that when Doris re turned in the autumn to the “Lorn bardia ” she did have a handsome ad mirer to flaunt in the faces of the other girls. is wonderfully devoted. Wheu “ He is the wedding to be?”