JOHNNYBOY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5056, 15 September 1894, Page 2

JOHNNYBOY.

fBT BEET HASTE.] {Neiv York Sun.) The vast dining room ot the Crustacean Hotel at Greyport was empty and desolate. It was so early in the morning that there was a bedroom deshabille in tho tucking-up skirts and bare legs of the little oval breakfast tables as they had just been left by the dusting servants. The most stirring of travellers was yet abed, the moat enterprising of first-train catchers had not yet comedown; there was a breath of midsummer sleep still in tho air; through the half-opened windows that Beemcd to be yawning, the pinkish blue Atlantic boyond heaved gently and slumberously, and drowsy early bathers crept into it as to bed. Yet as I entered the room I saw that one of the little tables in the corner was in reality occupied by a very small and very extraordinary child. Seated in a high chair, attended by a dreamilyabstracted nurse on one side, an utterly perfunC' tory negro waiter on the other, and an incongruous assortment of disregarded viands before him, lie was taking— or, rather, declining— his solitary breakfast. He appeared to be a pale, frail, but rather pretty boy, with a singularly pathetic combination of infant delicacy of outline, and maturity of expression. His heavily fringed eyes expressed an already weary and discontented intelligence, and his wilful, resolute little mouth was, I fancied, marked With lines of pain at either corner. He struck me' as not being only physically dyspeptic, but 'as morally loathing his attendants and surroundings. My entrance did not disturb the waiter, with whom I had no financial relations; he simply concealed an exaggerated yawn professionally | behind his napkin until my own servitor should appear. The nurse slightly awoko from her abstraction, shoved the child mechanically — as if starting up some clogged machinery — said, " Eat your breakfast, Johnnyboy," nnd subsided into her dream. I think the child had at first some faint hope of me, and when my waiter appeared with my breakfast he betrayed some interest in I my selection, with a view of possible later appropriation, but, as my repast was simple, that hope died out of bis infant mind. Then there was a silsnee, broken at last by the languid voice of tho nurse. " Try some milk then— nice. milt." "JNo! No mik! Mik makes mo sick — Mik doeal " In spite of the hurried infantine accent the protest was so emphatic, and, above all, fraught with •such pent-up reproach and disgust, that I turned about sympathetically. . But Johnnybtrv had already thrown down his spoon, slipped from his high cliair, and was marching out of the room as fast a3 Ms littlo sandals would carry Mm, with indignation bristling in every line of the crisp bows of hia sash. I, however, gathered . from Mr »Johnson, my waiter, that tho unfortunate child owned a fashionable father and mother, one or two blocks of houses in New York, and a villa at Greyport, which he consistently and intelligently despised. I That he had imperiously brought his parents "here on account of his health, and had demanded that lie should breakfast alone in tb.B tig dining room. That, however, he was not happy. "Nnmn peahs to agree with him, sah, but he doan' cry, and he speaks Ms mind, sah; he speaks his s mind." . . Unfortunately, I did not keep Johnnyboy's secret, but related the scene I had witnessed to some of the lighter-hearted Crustaceans of either sex, with tho result thathia alliterative protest became a sort of catchword among them, and that for the next few mornings he had a Jorge audience of early breakfasters, who fondly hoped for a repetition of his performance. I think that Johnnyboy for the time enjoyed this companionship, yet without the least affectation or eelf-conscious-nesa — so long as it was unobtrusive. It so chanced, however, that . the Eev — Belcher, a gentleman with bovine lightness of touch and a singular misunderstanding of childhood, chose to • presume upon Ms paternal functions. Approaching the high chair in which Johnnyboy was dyspeptically reflecting, with a ponderous wink at -the other gue3ts and a fat thumb and forefinger on Johnnyboy'a table, he leaned over him, and with slow, elophantine playfulness said: " And so, . my dear young friend, I understand that 'mik makes you sick — mik does.' " Anything approaching to. the absolute unlikeness of this imitation of Johnnyboy'a accents it is impossible to conceive. Po3sibly Johnnybov felt it. But ho simply lifted his lovely la3hes and said with great distinctness: " Mik don't— you devil ? " After this, closely as it had knitted us together, 1 Johnnyboy'a morning presence was mysteriously withdrawn. It was later pointed out to. us by Mr Belcher upon the verandah that, although wealth had its privileges, it was held in trust for the welfare of mankind, and that the children of .the rich could not too early learn the advantages of self-restraint and the vanity of a mere gratification of the senses. Early and frequent morning ablutions, brisk morning towelling, half of a Graham biscuit in a teacup of milk, exercise with tho dumb-bells, and a littlo rough-and-tumble play in a straw ha.t, check apron, and overalls would eventually improve that stamina necessary for his futui'o position, and repress a dangerous cerebral aotivity and tendency to give way to . He suddenly stopped, coughed, and absolutely looked embarrassedi Johnnyboy, a moving cloud of white pique, silk, and embroidery, had just turned thecorner of the verandah. He did not speak, but os he passed raised his blue-reined lids to the orator. The look of ineffable scorn and superiority in those beautiful eyes surpassed anything I had ever seen. At the next verandah column he paused, and, with his baby thumbs inserted in his silk sash, again regarded him Tinder his half- dropped lashes as if he were some curious animal, and then passed on. But Belcher was silenced for the second time. I think I hare said enough to show that Johnnyboy was hopelessly worshipped by an impressible and illogical sex. I say hopelessly, for he slipped equally from the proudest silken lap and the humblest one of calico, and carried his eyelashes and small aches elsewhere. I think that a secret fear of his alarming frankness, and his steady rejection of the various tempting cakes they offered him had much to do with their | passion. "It won't hurt you dear," said Misß i Circe, "and it's so awful nice. See!" she j continued, putting one of the delicacies in her own pretty mouth with every assumption of delight. " It's so good ! " ' Johnnyboy rested his elbows on her- knees, and watched her with a grieved and commiserating superiority. " Bimeby, you'll have pains in youse tommick, and you'll be tooLt to bed," ho said, sadly, but as it WH3 found necessary here to repress further | details, he escaped other temptation. Two hours later, as Miss Circe was seated in the drawing room with her usual circle of enithusiastic admirers around her, Johnnyboy — who was issued from his room for circulation, two or three time3 a day, as a genteel advertisement of his parents — floated into the apartment in a new dress and a seriou.3 demeanour. Sliding up to I Miss Circe, he laid a phial — evidently his own : pet medicine — on her lap, and said, " For youse i tommickako to-night," and vanished. Yet I have reason to believe that tMs slight evidence of unj usual remembrance on Johnnybov's part rnoro than compensated for its publicity, and for a few days Miss Circe was quite "setup" by it. It was, through some sympathy of this kind that I first gained Johnnyboy's good graces. I had presented him with a small pocket-case of homeopathic medicines, and one day on the beach I took out one of the tiny phials, and, dropping two or three of tho still tiuiei 1 pellets in my hand, swallowed them. To my embarrassment a small hand presently grasped my trouser-leg. I looked down ; it was Johnnyboy, in a new and ravishing smuggler suit, with his questioning eyes'fixed on mine. "Howjer do dat?" "Eh?" "Wnjerdodatfor?" " Thnt ? Oh, that's for medicine. I've got a headeehe." He searched the inmost depths of my soul with hio wonderful eyes. Then, after a pause, he held out. his baby palm. " Yqu kin give Johnny some." • " But you haven't got headache— have you f " " Me allua has." " Not always ?" Ho nodded his head rapidly. Then added slowly, and with great elaboration, "Et mo'nins, et affernoona, et nights, 'nd mo'nins adain. 'N etbecker" (i.e., breakfast).

j There was no doubt it was the truth. Those : eyes did not seem to bo in the habit of lying. After aIJ, the medicine could not hurt him. Hia nurae was at a little distance, gazing absently at the sea. I sat down on a bench, and dropped a ! few of tho pellets into his palm. Ho ate them seriously, and then turned around and backed after the well-known appealing fashion of child- , hood — against my knees. I understood the j movement, although it was unlike my idea of I Johnnyboy. However, I raised him to my lac — with tho sensation of lifting a dozen laceedged handkerchiefs, and with very little more effort — where he sat silently for a moment, with his sandals crossed pensively before him. " Wouldn't you like to go end play with thoso children ? " I asked, pointing to a group of noisy sand levellers not far away. ",Ifo!" After a pause. "You wouldn't neither." "Why?""Hediks." " But," I said, " perhaps if you went and played with them and ran up and down os they do you wouldn't have headache." Johnnyboy did not answer for a moment : then there-was a perceptible gentle movement of his small frame. I confesslfelt brutally like Belcher. He was getting down. Once down ho faced me, lifted ' eyes, said, "Do way and play den," smoothed down his smuggler frock, and rejoined his nurse. But although Johnnyboy afterward forgave my moral defection, he did not seem to have forgotten my practical medical ministration, and our brief interview had a surprising result From that moment ho confounded his parents and doctors by resolutely and positively refusing to take any more of their pills, tonics, or drops. Whether from a sense of loyalty to me, or whether he was not yet convinced of the efficacy of homceopathy he did not suggest a substitute, declare his preferences, or even give his reasons, but firmly and peremptorily declined his present treatment. And to everybody's astonishment, he did not seem a bit the worse for it. Still he was not strong, and his continual aversion to childish sports and youthful exercise provoked the easy criticism of that large part of humanity who are ready to confound cause and effect, and such brief moments aa the Sluysdaels could spare him from their fashionable duties were made miserable to them by gratuitous suggestions and plans for their child's improvement. It wa3 noticeable, however, that few of them were ever offered to Johnnjboy personally. He had a singularly direct was of dealing with them, and a precision of statement that was embarrassing. One afternoon Jack Bracy drove up to the yeranda of the Crustacean with n smart buggy and a spirited thoroughbred for Miss Circe's especial' driving, and his own saddle-horse on which he was to accompany her. Jack had dismounted, a groom held his saddle-horse until the young lady should appear, and lie himself stood at the head of the- thoroughbred. As Johnnyboy, leaning against the railing, was regarding tho turnout with ill-concealed disdain, Jack, in the pride of his triumph over his rivals, goodbumouredly offered to put Mm in the buggy and allow him to take the reins. Johnnyboy did not reply. "Come along," continued Jack, "it will do you a heap of good ! It's better than lazing thera like a girl ! Rouse up, old man ! " "Me don't like that geegeo," said Johnnyboy, calmly. " He's a silly fool." ."You're afraid," said Jack. Johnnyboy lifted his proud lashes and toddled to the steps, Jack received him in his arms, swung him into the seat, and placed the Blim yellow reins in his baby hands. " Now you feel like a man and not like a girl ! " said Jack. " Eh, what? Oh, I beg your pardoa." For Miss Circe has appeared — had absolutely been obliged to wait a whole half minute unobserved — and now stood thero a dazzling but pouting apparition. In eagerly turning to receive her, Jack's foot slipped on the step, and he fell. The thoroughbred started, gave a sickening plunge forward, and was off! But so, too, was Jack, tbe next moment, on his own horse, and before Miss Circe's screams had died away. For two bjocks on Ocean Avenue passers-by that afternoon saw a strange vision — a galloping horsa careeringbefore a light buggy iu which a small child, seated upright, was grasping the tightened reins. But so erect and composed was the little face and figure — albeit as white as its own frock — that for an instant thoy did not grasp its awful story in the drnwn face and blazing eyes of Jack Bracy, as ho at laat swung into tho avenue. For Jnck had the brains as well as the nerve of your true hero, and knowing the dangerous stimulus of a stern chase to a frightened horse, had kept a side road until it branched into the avenue. So furious had be&n his pace, and so correct Jus calculation, that he ranged alongside of the runaway even as it passed, grasped the reins, and in half a block pulled up on oven wheels. " I never saw such pluck in a mite like that," he whispered afterward to his anxious auditory. "He never dropped those ribbon^ by G , until I got alongside, and then he just hopped down and said, as short and cool as you pleaee, ' Dank you!' " "Mo didn't," uttered a small voice, reproachfully. " Didn't you, dear ! What did you say, then, darling?" exclaimed a sympathising chorus. "Me said, D you! Me don't like silly fool geegecs. Silly fool geegee3 make me 9ick — Billy fool geogees !" Nevertheless, in spite of this incident, tho attempts at Johnnyboy'a physical reformation still went on. More than that, it was urged by somo complacent casuists lliafc the pluck displayed by the child was the actual result of this somewhat heroic method of taking exercise, and not an inherent manliness distinct from his physical tastes. So he was made to run when ho didn't want to, to danco when ho frankly loathed his partners, to play at games that he despised. His books and pictures were taken away ; he was hurried past hoardings and theatrical posters thai engaged his fancy; tho public was warned against telling him fairy tales, except those constructed on strictly hygienic principles. His fastidious cleanliness was rebuked, and his best frocks taken away — albeit at a terrible sacrifice of his parents' vanity — to suit the theories of his critics. How long this might have continued is not known, for the theory and practice were suddenly arreßted by another sensation. One morning a children's picnic party was given on a rocky point only accessible at certain states of the tide, whither they were taken in a small boat under tbe charge of a few hotel servants; and, possibly as part of his heroic treatment, Johnnjboy, who was included in the party, was not allowed to be attended by his regular nurse. Whether this circumstance added to his general disgust of the whole affair, and hi3 unwillingness to go, I cannot say, but it is to be regretted, since the omission deprived Johnnyboy of any impartial witness to what subsequently occurred. That he was somewhat roughly han'dled by several of tho larger childron appeared to be beyond doubt, although there was conflicting evidence as to tbe sequel. Enough that at noon screams were heard in the direction of certain detached rocks on the point, and tho wholo party proceeding thilher found three of the larger boys on tho rocks, alone and cut off by the tide, having been left there, as they alleged, by Johnnyboy, who had run away j with tho boat. They subsequently admitted that i they had at first taken the. boat and brought j Johnuyboy with, them, "just to frighten him," i but they ndhered to tho rest. And, certainly, Johnnyboy and the boat wore nowhere to be found. The shore was communicated with, tho alarm was giveu, tbe telegraph, up and down tho coast, trilled with excitement, <>ther boats were ! manned — consternation prevailed, I But that afternoon the captain of the Saucy Jane, mackerel .fisher, lying of the point, perceived a dferelict Whitehall boat drifting lazily I toward the Gulf Stream. On boarding it be wa3 j chagrined to find the expected flotsam already in i the possession of a very small child, who received ! him with a scornful reticence as regarded himI self and his intentions, and sbmo objurgation of ! a person or persons unknown. It was Johnnyi boy. But whether he bad attempted the degtruction of the. three other boys by '' marooning" them upon the rocks— as their porents firmly . believed— or whether be had himself withdrawn 1 from their company simply because he did not

like them was never known. Any further attempt to improve his education by the rough-in-j gregarious process was, however, abandoned. Tue very critics who had counselled it now cluinoured for restraint and perfect isolation. I* was ably pointed out by the Bev — Belcher that the autocratic habits begotten by wealth and pampering should be restricted and all intorcourso with their possessor promptly withheld. Bat the season presently passed with much of this and other criticism, and tho Sluysdaels passed, too, carrying Johnnyboy and his small aches ana long eyelashes beyond theso Crustacean voices, where it was to be hoped there was peace. I did not hear of him again for fire years, and then, oddly enough, frcm tho lips of Mr Belcher on the deck of a transatlantic steamer, as ho was being wafted to Europe for his recreation by the orayers and purses of a grateful and enduring flock. " Master t John Jacob Astor Sluysdael," said Mr Belcher, speaking slowly, with great precision of retrospect, "was taken from his private governc-sa — I may Bay by my advice — and sent to an admirable school in New York, fashioned upon the English system of Eton and Borrow, and conducted by EnglisKxaestersfronx Oxford and Cambridge. Here— l may also say at my suggestion — he was subjected to tbe wholesome discipline cf his schoolmates and ' bis masters ; in fact, sir, 'as you are probably aware, the most perfect democracy that we Lave yet known, in which tbo mere accidents of ■wealth, luxury, position, effeminacy, physical degeneration, and over-civilised stimulation are not recognised. He was put into compulsory cricket, football, and rounders. " As an undersized boy he was subjocted to that ingenious prepamtioa for future mastership by the pupillary stato of servitude known, I think, as 'faffging.' His physical inertia was stimulated and quickened, and his intellectual precocity repressed from time to time, by the exuberant playfulness of. his fellow students, which occasionally took tbe form of forced ablutions and corporal discomfort, and was called, lam told, 'hazing.' It is but fair to state that our young friend had some singular mental endowment;, which, however, were' promptly checked to repress the vanity and presumption that would follow." The Kov — Belcler paused, closed his eyes resignedly, and added, " Of course you know tbo rest." " Indeed I do not," I said anxiously. "A moat deplorable affair— indeed a most shocking incident ! It was hushed tip, I believe, on tcoount of the position of his parents." He glanced furtively around, and in a lower and more impressive voice said: "I am not mysdf a believer in heredity, and I am not personally aware tbat there wa9 a murderer among the Sluysdael ancestry, but it seems that fhia monstrous child\ iu some clandestine way possessed himself of a huge bowie kuifo, Btr, and on one of tho3e occasions actually rushed furiously at the larger boys — his innocent playfellows — and absolutely forced them to Jlee in fear of their lives. More than that, sir, a loaded revolver was found in his desk, and he boldly and shamelessly avowed his intention to eviscerate, or — to use hi3 own revolting language — • to cut the heart out ' of the first one who again ' laid a finger on him.' " He paused again, and, joining his two hands together, with the fingers pointing to the deck, breathed hard and said : " His instantaneous withdrawal from tho school was a matter of public necessity. He was afterward taken, in the charge of a private tutor, to Europe, where, I trust, we buhll not meet." I could not resist saying cheerfully that at least Johnnyboy had for a short time made it lively for tbo big boys. Tie Eev — Belcher ro9e slowly, but painfully, and Baid, with a deeply grieved expression, " I don't think tbat I entirely follow you," and moved gently away. The changes of youth, are apt to be more bewildering than those of age, and a decade scarcely perceptible in an old civilisation often means utter revolution to the new. It did not seem strange to me therefore, on meeting Jack Bracy twelve yedvs after, to find that he had forgotten Miss Circe, or that she had married and was living unhappily with a middle-aged adventurer by the name of Jason, who was reputed to have had domestic relation elsewhere. But although subjugated and exorcised, she at least was reminiscent. To my inquiries about the Sluyadaels, she answered, with a slight return of her old vivacitj : "Ah, yes, dear fellow, he was one of my greatest admirers." • " He was about four yoars old when you knew him, wasn't he?" suggested Jason, meanly. "Yes, they usually were young, but so kind of you to recollect them. Young Sluysdoel," he continued, turning tome, "is — but of course you know that disgraceful story." I felt that I could stand this no longer. " Yes," I said indignantly, " I Iraow all about the school, and I don't call his conduct disgraceful, oither." Jason stared. " I don't know what you mean about the school," he returned. "lam speaking of his stepfather." " His stepfather ! " " Yes ; his fathor, Van Buron Sluysdael, died, you know, a year after they left Greyport. Tho widow was left; all the money in trust for Johnnie, except about 2600d0l a year which he was in receipt of as a separate income, even os a boy. Well, a glib-tongued parson, a fellow by the name of Belcher, got round tho widow — she was a desperate fool — and, by Jove! made her marry him. He made ducks and drakes of not only her money, but Johnnie's too, and had to skip to Spain to avoid the trustees. And Johnnie — for tho Sluysdaels are all fools or lunatics — made over his whole separate income to that wretched, fashionable fool of a mother, and vrenfc into a stockbroker's office as a clerk." "And walks to business before eight every morning, and, they say, even takes down the shutters and sweeps out," broke in Circe, impnlsively. " Works like a slave all day, wears out his old clothes, has given up his clubs and amusements, and shuns society." "But how about his health?" I aslted. "Ig he better nnd stronger?" " I don't know," said Circe, "but he looks as beautiful as Ecdymion." * $ # * # At his bauk in Wall Street. Bracey that aftsrnoon confirmed all that Jason had told me of young Sluyadael. " But his temper ?" I asked. "You remember his temper — surely." "He's as sweet as a lamb, never quarrel?, never whines, never alludes to his lost fortune, nnd is never put out. For a youngster — he's tbe most popular man in the street. Shall we nip round and see him ?" "By all means." " Come. It isn't far." A few steps down tbe crowded street we dived into a den of plato glass windows, of scraps of paper, of rattling, ticking machinee, more volublo and excited than the careworn abstracted men who leaned over them. But "Johnnjboy" — I started at the familiar name again — was not there. He was at luncheon. "Let us join him," I said, as we gamed the street again and turned mechanically into Delmonico's. " Not there," said Bracy, with a laugh. " You forget ! That's not Jobnnyboy's gait just now. Come here." He was deecending a few steps j that led to a humble cake shop. As we entered I noticed a young fellow standing before a plain •wooden counter with a cako of gingerbread in one hand and a glass of milk in the other. His I profile was before roe : I at once recognised the long lashes. But the happy, boyish, careless laugh that greeted Bracy, as he presented me, was a revelation. Yot he was pleased to remember me. And then — it may have been embarrassment that led me to such tactlessness, but as I glanced at him and tho j glass of milk he was holding, I could not help j reminding him of the first words I had ever heard ' him utter. He tossed off tho glass, coloured slightly as I thought, and said, with a light laugh : "I suppose I have changed a good deal since then, sir." I looked at his demure and resolute mouth, and wondered if he had. W. Stbanok and Co. are now showing enoKmoua stocks of carpets, floorcloths, I aiad liooleuinfl, »u<l invite inspection. j Automatic watchea, Which ohow tho time \ by changes in figures e»ch minute instead lot by the ordinary bauds and Eoman \ numerals, are becoming quite fa&hiouable.