Herminie Templeton

“ But hunger is not the worst trouble which can come to a soldier; when rations fail, all he need do is to pull his belt a hole or two tighter, close his teeth hard and well—wait for reinforcements.
One night, as our two heroes were returning, cold and tired, from a late trip, Fate gave the Corporal a particularly cruel jolt. Under the street lamp about a block from the restaurant Tim beheld, and his heart almost suffocated him at the sight—Nellie Dempsey talking familiarly to a well-dressed young man. ”

“ O'Brien," exclaimed the lady. Very pretty, indeed, was Nellie as she perched like a blackbird on the threshhold. A thunderous glower was the best Tim could do by way of answer.
Miss Dempsey saucily tilted her head and smiled through half-shut eyes; the man's evident displeasure pleased her greatly. In the heart of the gentlest woman lurks a touch of innate savagery. ”

“ One might reasonably suppose that Taps and his master were at last settled down to a sedate and respectable existence. But if peace hath her victories, she also has her perils, and an unsuspecting soldier and an unsophisticated horse may find dangers undreamed of in just a pair of gray eyes. And by the same token who had a more dangerous pair of gray eyes than Nellie Dempsey? ”

“ Then the Corporal sent forth such a cry as a man gives only when the sharp steel enters his breast; for the frenzied horse swerved wide from the policeman's saving hand and, plunging sixty feet down into the waiting chasm, disappeared forever. ”

“ Dempsey to hurry home with the news, and Corporal O'Brien to go plodding along in the opposite direction.
But happily, electric cars go ever so much quicker than sorrow-weighted, unwilling feet. And who can fathom the ways of a woman. Thus it happened that when our desolate trumpeter reached the foot of the dark stair leading up to the recruiting office, there stepped out to him from the gloom of the hall a slim familiar figure; and a pair of unfaltering gray eyes fired a volley of reproach into his own. "Where are you going, Mr. O'Brien?" Miss Dempsey spoke with chilling asperity. ”

“ However, Tim had often fronted much sterner situations without flinching. Besides, things might change any day. So each morning, with an assumed indifference, he drove down to Carroll's old stand (which, by the way, was almost in front of Michael Dempsey's popular-priced restaurant) , and pulling up close to the curb, the Corporal sat bolt upright on the narrow seat of his wagon, with arms folded like a cannoneer. ”

“ A dozen times the man reproved himself: "You 're a crazy old fool, Tim O'Brien—you, thirty-seven years ould—to be lettin' that slip of a girl inter yer head—she that 'ud be a credit to a millionaire, or a general, for the matther o' that. Have some sinse, you big Omadhaun! Wake up and take yerself an' Taps and your ould wagon to some other part of the town, an' maybe you 'll quit dhraming nonsinse about her."
But it was no use for the trumpeter to call himself hard names; one quick glance of Nellie Dempsey's welcoming eyes and lo! every wise resolve was scattered to the four winds. ”

“ You can buy the wagon, license, and whole blamed outfit cheap—dirt cheap."
Tim's jaw dropped and he threw a guilty look at his horse; then, instinctively lowering his voice so that Taps might not hear, he said:
"How could I ever have the heart to hitch the loikes of him to a dirty ould express wagon. Besides, the poor fellow has never had a harness op his back in his life."
"Oh, he 'll get used to it; he 'll do fine." The two friends discussed the situation over and over again; Tim must find some kind of work! ”

“ Tim watched the endless, unnoticing procession, as it trudged past him down the street toward the river, and he heard with dull ears the warning, "clang, clang," of the tireless bridge bell, is the great iron structure swung sullenly open to let the ships go by. ”

“ Taps held a public reception in his stall; the survivors of O'Brien's company, under the leadership of First Sergeant Jimmy Wilson, marched in a body down to the stable to say good-bye to him.
And then the good old regiment melted, each man going his own way.
Tim, undecided and troubled as to what he should do, remained helplessly behind in barracks two long weeks after. A fish out of water, and an old campaigner without his gun experience the same general emotions. But Tim could not stay there forever ”

“ Be comparison to meself sure a sneakin' coyote has the bouldness of a lion."
The next day, and for some time after the giving of Mrs. Dempsey's motherly advice, Corporal O'Brien and Taps experienced, to their great surprise, an atmosphere of cold but polite disfavor in the neighborhood of the restaurant. Each in his own way resented the flight. Taps, by quick, indignant glances, and angry stampings and tossings whenever the door opened; the Corporal, by tilting his chin a little higher and folding his arms a bit tighter, whenever he felt a certain pair of gray eyes resting on him. ”

“ Sure, we have no more home, Taps, than a couple of rabbits. I wish we had some other thrade, Taps—some thrade that has a wife and childher in it an' a roof over our heads that is n't a rag fluttherin' in the wind. Hi! Yi! sojerin' makes an ould maid of a man. ”

“ Dempsey," he answered with something suspiciously like a sob, "but the last friend I had, an' all I owned in the worruld lies down there."
"Arrah what nonsinse, man! Dont be an ould woman! Come back with me till we talk it over; we 'll find something for ye to do, niver fear."
Tim shook his head sadly. "I 've thought it all out, standing here alone. These hands are fit for nothing in the worruld but the handling of a gun. I'm goin' straight down to the recruitin' station and thry to begin life all over again. Though," he added with a sigh, "God knows how loath I am to do it." ”