SHORT STORY

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 301, 6 December 1922, Page 11

SHORT STORY

iNKuA-Ti-mra- 1 ' . ImMf/ii.IIUPIi. - Sir Josiah Stubbs-had achieved success. His East-End fart'-ry had grown from a. rauicbackle, topfloor affair ro-'a alley to one of the , most • agg'rc««u.ve 6i London's aesthetic monstrosities. During the war an avalanche o£ fcliaki contracts had caused his heart and bank-balance lo expand with equally patriotic emotion. Finally, the demand for a special honour t 0 distinguish' hard-faced patriots resulted in his receiving a K.B.E. When the war ended and "homes for heroes" became the cry, there only remained to him to transfer his business to a limited company and buy the largest country house that happened to be in the market. * * * # Many men would have been content to have rested, on the laurels of so meritorious a career. But Sir" Josiah was at hear: inveterate philanthropist. Often in his East-End fac-, tory ai'Ler a West-End lunch, he had watched the long and ragged procession issuing. from his gates, bend'ng beneath the bulk of bags, filled, not with bullion, but with coats for buttonholing, vests for, felling, and trousers for seaming. And a rich, post-prandial wave of satisfaction bad swept over him as he reflected: how oil these men and women lived (or tried to live) on what he paid them — lived on him, in fact. He. only wished thai .he could make them realise.it. But broadcast-rag had not then been invented, and: he did not happen to own a newspaper. * " # x- «• However, once provided «rith a country mansion, conscious of what he h-ad done in the Great War and what tbe Great . Wor had done. for. him, he started a cadet corp among the village -youth, But such was .fire slump in rural patriotsm, due, no doubt, fo the insidious precepts of Bolshevism, that, the corps soon resolved itself into the three -sons of his only married gardener, who -were anally distended Owing to their constitutional, But none the less exasperating, inability ( 0 form-fours. Nor was -Lady Slubbs more successful in'her efforts to inculcate into the village girls tho h ; gh moral principle and national duty of entering domestic service, although, a n angel of the house, she had penetrated each cottage at all times of tbe day, especially during meals and when the children were being put to bed. But such was the unaccountable dls tag to' for a life of honourable servility, due, no doubt, to the pernicious influence of the local kinema, that the village maidens acquired the habit of leaving by. the back door when Lady Stubbs entered by the front. * * •sf *t But at last Sir Josiah ' saw chance oirtak'ng- an effective part in ;he lives of those over whom I'rovideuce had placed him. The. schoolmaster, who had represented the village on the rural district council,, died, and .a cobbler, to whom- Sir JosiUh would not even entrust bts shooting boots, hp.d the..impudence to offer h'rnseif as a can delate for thevacant seal. • _ However, Sir Josiah intimated . his intention of asserting his undoubted manorial rights, and offered himself to the suffrage of three score, of free British voters:, who, as he remarked in his election address might be relied upon to stand true to King and Country, seeing C?s he thought it hardly necessary to menljon in his address) that they all happened to - be his tenants. As tho result, of counting the promises received after a personal canvass, he discovered that his opponent would be. left with just one vote —his'own. Moreover, the fellow hadn't even taken the trouble to issue an -election address — probably d'dn't-icnow such things existed—and went on - cobbling'insicad of canvassing. : 'Owing to the municipal offices is. two-roomed cottage) being at ;■■ vitiligo three mil-OS away, the votes were counted there. But shortly - after' |! eight, Sir Jos "ah. who had tho only ; telephone in his village, rang-up. '■ He then wrotcr a telegram "and .went ; out to the post office, knowing that. ) the p'osini'istress, though it was after l hours, would be only too glad to oblige him by sending it. . ( Outside the village inn, a Utile ? group of villagers were talking. Sir t Joseph turned to an old countryman, s "I'm glad to see you kept your promise, Giles, and voted for nic," he said. .' "Zure, sir," replied the ancient, "an" 1 glad I"be to do so.zir.'' His gnarled hand miglu have been extended to I feel for rain, It also nvght not. 1 "And you, Williams, too," said Sir ■ Josiah, to the landlord <&t the inn. 1