Mr. Curtis

“ Arlingford, run and call a coach, there's a good boy, and I'll tell Mrs. Wildair all about it. Good gracious! if it isn't the funniest thing!"
Mr. Curtis' excitement and delight, as he danced up and down, rubbing his hands and chuckling, were so irresistible that all three, after watching him an instant, burst into an [Pg 361] immoderate fit of laughter, and, beholding his look of dismayed surprise, laughed until the tears stood in their eyes.
"Eh! why, what the—— what are you laughing at? Don't act so, don't; everybody's looking, and they'll think you're crazy," said Mr. Curtis, imploringly. ”

“ There is no evil without some good; your trousers are freshly pressed and handsome as pictures—if I do say it as shouldn't. I'll lay 'em out for you, and your dinner coat as well. But to think of that pudding! Why couldn't Mr. Curtis have invited you the night the beef stew was scorched."
Promptly on the stroke of seven Uncle Bob Cabot presented himself at the University Club, where Uncle Tom Curtis was waiting for him, and the two men grasped hands cordially. How big Uncle Tom Curtis looked and, despite Hannah's remarks, how rosy and how clean! ”

“ Miss Curtis went on. "He's just the kind of young man who ought never to be allowed to enter a girls' school at all. He's—he's unsettling; he's beautiful," she added, as if nothing could be wickeder than that.
"Well, if he owns the school we can't keep him out," said Miss Hayes, growing grave in deference to her friend's obvious distress. "You're sure he really is Mr. Bevans?"
Miss Curtis sighed. "Oh, I'm afraid there's no doubt about that. Mr. Johns, the little princess's grandfather, brought him. And the worst of it is he's going to break up the whole morning's work. ”

“ Curtis sank all his fortune in the endeavor to save the creditors from loss, which he accomplished after six years' struggle. He wrote many essays, sketches and novels, and was successful as a lecturer. He is best known as the editor of Harper's Weekly and editor of the Easy Chair in Harper's Magazine. Mr. Curtis was prominent in politics, acting with the Republican party till 1884, but afterward supporting the bemocrats. ”

“ His aim as a writer should be to obtain a greater depth and variety of manner—more of contrast in his figures. He is rich in natural gifts, and time and study will probably develop in him what is yet wanting of artistic skill and taste.
"Of Mr. Curtis's latest work, entitled 'Lotus-Eating; a Summer Book,' the Literary Gazette says:
"A very cheerful and amusing, but always sensible and intelligent companion is Mr. Curtis. Whether on the Nile or the Hudson, on the Broadway of New York or the Grand Canal of Venice, we have one whose remarks are worth listening to. ”

“ At last the bareheaded man began to laugh, and the others joined in; all but Bill Mains, who looked somewhat ashamed.
“You’ve been a bit too cautious, I reckon, Bill,” said the man who had found Anne. “Mr. Freeman of Boston is known as a loyal man. Did he not tell you who he was?”
“I gave him no chance after I found this little maid looking at the guns I had covered with blankets,” confessed Mains. “I told him I’d gag him if he said one word, and I reckon he thought he had fallen into the hands of a rank Tory. Who are you, little maid?” and he turned kindly toward Anne. ”

“ While Captain Enos read the letter Amos briefly told the story of his adventures to the little group, saving all that Shining Fish had told him to relate to Jimmy Starkweather as soon as opportunity should occur.
“Well, go home to your mother,” said Mr. Cary in a more gentle voice, and Amanda kept close beside her brother as they turned toward home.
“You’ve got to tell Mrs. Stoddard,” said Amos. “Yes, you have,” he went on, almost fiercely, as Amanda began to whimper. “Everybody’s blaming Anne, and it’s not fair; you’ve got to tell.” ”

“ A good-natured negro led her to Mr. Fulton's office, and before her father could say a word Sylvia was in the midst of her story. She told of the blue cockades that the other girls wore, of the palmetto flag, and of her failure to salute it, and handed him Miss Patten's note.
Mr. Fulton looked serious and troubled as he listened to his little girl's story. Then he lifted her to his knee, took off her pretty hat, and said:
"Too bad, dear child! But you did right. A little Yankee girl must be loyal to the Stars and Stripes. I am glad you came and told me." ”

“ In a few moments they were fully dressed for their tramp through the forest. Very cautiously they made their way down the stairs. The house was silent. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Weston heard the faintest sound to disturb their slumbers.
On the piece of smooth birch-bark that Rebby had made ready on the previous day, with a bit of charcoal from the fireplace she wrote:
“Dear Mother and dear Father: Anna and I are going to Chandler’s River to bring home powder and shot for Machias men to use to save the settlement. We will be home to-morrow. Your loving Rebby and Danna.” ”

“ Rebecca followed her friend to the door, and they walked down the path together, while Anna and Luretta questioned Mr. Weston eagerly as to Paul’s success in capturing a rabbit, and were made happy with the news that he had secured two young rabbits, and that they were safe in the canoe which Paul was now paddling down the river, towing the liberty tree behind him.
Rebecca and Lucia had gone but a few steps when Lucia whispered: “We mustn’t let them put up the liberty tree. Oh, Rebby, why didn’t you try to stop your father going after it?” ”

“ The master of the house was evidently just down. He wore a dirty morning-gown, and slippers down at the heel, displaying his dirty stockings. He came in yawning and squeezing his eves together.
“Why the h—— don’t that slut of a waiter have my coffee ready?” he said to his wife, who paid no more attention to him than to the lamp on the mantle, but, on the contrary, appeared to Hope to be a little more indifferent than before.
“I say, why the h——” Mr. Dinks began again, and had advanced so far when he suddenly saw his cousin. ”

“ Hugh had made a “quiver,” a little case to hold the arrows, such as the Indians use, of birch bark, and little Philip had a dish filled with molasses candy, which he had helped to make.
It was a beautiful morning for Faith, and the broiled chicken and hot corn cake gave the breakfast an added sense of festivity.
Soon after breakfast Mr. Scott, Donald and Faith were ready to start for the lake. Donald took his sled along. “So we can draw Cousin Faith home, if she gets tired,” he explained, with quite an air of being older and stronger than his cousin. ”

“ George William Curtis was during my first winter in New York away on one of the long lecturing rounds to which he gave so many of his winters, and I did not see him till seven years afterwards, at Mr. Norton’s in Cambridge. He then characteristically spent most of the evening in discussing an obscure point in Browning’s poem of ‘My Last Duchess’. I have long forgotten what the point was, but not the charm of Curtis’s personality, his fine presence, his benign politeness, his almost deferential tolerance of difference in opinion. ”

“ A man can’t expect to have every thing precisely as he wants it,” replied the boy.
“My young friend, you are of opinion that a half loaf is better than no bread. True—so am I. But never make the mistake of supposing a half to be the whole. Content is a good thing. When the man sent for cake, and said, ‘John, if you can’t get cake, get smelts,’ he did wisely. But smelts are not cake for all that. What’s your name?” asked Mr. Newt, abruptly.
“Gabriel Bennet,” replied the boy.
“Bennet—Bennet—what Bennet?”
“I don’t know, Sir.”
Lawrence Newt was apparently satisfied with this answer. ”

“ No speaker ever achieved a more brilliant immediate triumph than young Curtis. It was touching to see old Mr. Giddings as he went up to Curtis, and throwing his arms around his neck, exclaimed: "God bless you, my boy. You have saved the republican party. God bless you." Curtis certainly did save the party from a great blunder, if from nothing worse.
On the first day of the convention the friends of Lincoln discovered that there was an organized body of New Yorkers and others in the "Wigwam," who cheered vociferously whenever Seward's name was mentioned, or any allusion was made to him. ”

“ Curtis, and started down the valley to where the snow was light, and where there was considerable underbrush, so that our famished animals could browse, they not having eaten anything for several days."
"After packing Mr. Curtis' horse for him the next morning, we started; in a short time, Mr. and Mrs. Curtis proceeded ahead, leaving the pack-horse behind for us to drive, instead of his leading him; we having our hands full in driving the loose ones, they scattering in all directions. The pack turned on the horse. Mr. ”

“ Freeman surrounded by the four men who had brought Anne back to the house.
Rose’s father was as ready to pardon the mistake as Bill Mains was eager to have him.
“It’s worth a little trouble to find we have such good men ready to defend our cause,” he declared, “but I am afraid my girls here are pretty tired, and if you can give them a room without cannon and powder, I’m sure they will sleep well,” as indeed they did in a neat little chamber into which Mr. Mains conducted them, bringing in the little trunk which had been strapped on the back of the chaise. ”

“ Austin never confided to Miss Curtis how the furnace-man explained his bad habits, as the geranium-colored car bore him toward the priest's house. "It's this working for women gets me," he said. "It's always so polite they are, and yet always after you."
The first academic problem to present itself was the case of the course in Sacred Literature. Miss Curtis simply couldn't understand it.
"The strangest thing, Mr. Bevans," she said. "All fifteen of the seniors elected it this term—a thing that never happened even when your dear aunt was giving it. ”

“ Weston took the basket and hurried into the house, followed by the girls.
“Mother, what is a ‘liberty pole’?” questioned Anna, kneeling on the hearth to help her mother start the fire with the pine chips.
“What dost thou mean, child? Surely the men are not talking of such matters as liberty poles?” responded her mother anxiously.
Anna nodded her head. “Yes, Mother. There is to be a ‘liberty pole’ set up so it can be well seen from the harbor, for so I heard Mr. O’Brien say; and Father is to go to the woods to-morrow to find it. ”

“ You also said that he did sell his wagon, for six months afterwards you saw the wagon in the possession of a Portuguese trader, who told you that he had bought it at Inyati from a white man whose name he had forgotten, and that he believed the white man with the native servant had started off for the interior on a shooting trip."
"Yes."
Then came a pause.
"Mr. Quatermain," said Sir Henry suddenly, "I suppose you know or can guess nothing more of the reasons of my—of Mr. Neville's journey to the northward, or as to what point that journey was directed?" ”

“ Curtis. We must be off at once.... Mr. Devar, have you an automobile? Can you get hold of it now? Well, 'phone your chauffeur to be at Centre-street headquarters in as much under half-an-hour as he can manage. Taxi-drivers gossip among themselves, so a private car is better.... Excuse the rush, Lady Hermione, and you, too, Mrs. Curtis. I haven't another minute to spare."
Luckily, Curtis found his overcoat awaiting him in the cloak room, or he might have been in a difficulty, for New York in November is not a city which encourages midnight journeys in evening dress. ”

“ Of John Curtis, the regular pastor of the flock, I do not remember so [186] much as I do of Mr. Farely. He was a man unaffectedly pious, rather than eloquent, and was deservedly and warmly beloved. He adorned his discourses with that melodious tone which some call the Cameronian drawl, and which the pious Cowper complained of in the Conventicles. Each sentence has a kind of starting note; and I can discover remains of this old puritanical fashion in the eloquence of Wilberforce and also Lord Milton. ”

“ He appears to have acquired his taste for botany from an ostler, who had studied some of the popular herbals of that day. At the age of twenty, Curtis removed to London in order to finish his medical education. He associated himself after a short period with a Mr. Talwin, licentiate of the Apothecaries' Company, to whose practice he at length succeeded. Curtis soon made himself known as a botanist, and became a demonstrator of practical botany at the medical schools ”

“ Bodley having resigned—that a new candidate is to be selected who shall—who shall, in fact, serve his country from our point of view, who ought the man to be?”
“Precisely; who ought the man to be?” replied Mr. Ele.
The two gentlemen looked gravely into the grate. General Belch squirted reflectively. The Honorable Mr. Ele raised his hand and shaded his eyes, and gazed steadfastly, as if he expected to see the candidate emerge from the chimney. While they still sat thoughtfully a knock was heard at the door. The General started and brought down his chair with a crash. Mr. ”

“ They’re always at it. They’re always sending boys, and ministers in the milk, by Jove! and women that talk in a way to turn the milk sour in the cellar, Sir, and who have already turned themselves sour in the face, Sir, and whom a man can’t turn out of doors, Sir, to swindle money out of innocent people! I tell you, young man, ‘twon’t work! I’ll, be whipped if I give you a solitary red cent!” And Christopher Burt, in a fine wrath, seated himself by the table, and wiped his forehead.
Abel stood patiently and meekly under this gust of fury, and when it was ended, and Mr. ”