Mr. Peters

“ Peters would have devoured eagerly. To be compelled by considerations of health to pass these by was enough to damp the liveliest optimist. Mr. Peters had suffered terribly. Occasions of feasting and revelry like the present were for him so many battlefields, on which greed fought with prudence.
All through dinner he brooded on Ashe's defiance and the horrors which were to result from that defiance. One of Mr. Peters' most painful memories was of a two weeks' visit he had once paid to Mr. Muldoon in his celebrated establishment at White Plains. ”

“ Magee.
"We have come to plead"—began Miss Norton, turning her eyes at their full candle-power on the hermit's bearded face.
"I beg pardon, miss," interrupted Mr. Peters, "but it ain't any use. I've thought it all out—in the night watches, as the poet says. I came up here to be alone. I can't be a hermit and a cook, too. I can't and be true to myself. No, you'll have to accept my resignation, to take effect at once."
He sat down on an uncertain chair and regarded them sorrowfully. His long well-shaped fingers clutched the cord of the purple gown. ”

“ Peters' devotion to scarabs. At first he did his collecting without any love of it, partly because he had to collect something or suffer, but principally because of a remark the specialist made as he was leaving the room.
"How long would it take me to get together that number of the things?" Mr. Peters inquired, when, having looked his fill on the dullest assortment of objects he remembered ever to have seen, he was preparing to take his leave.
The specialist was proud of his collection. "How long? To make a collection as large as mine? Years, Mr. Peters. Oh, many, many years." ”

“ And then they would say to each other, that they supposed he was looking for a perfect boy, and in their opinion, he would look a good while before he found one. Not that there were not plenty of boys—as many as a dozen used sometimes to appear in the course of a morning, trying for the situation. Mr. Peters was said to be rich and boys were very anxious to try to suit him. "All he wants is a fellow to run of errands; it must be easy work and sure pay." This was the way they talked to each other. But Mr. Peters wanted more than a boy to run of errands. ”

“ Peters's invitation! So will you only please to think of it—we are touring with Lee, and to-day we came up through the lovely valley of the Vire to this little town of the same name. It is all too nice for words; Uncle sits on the front seat all the time, and when he gives Mr. Peters advice, Mr. Peters always thanks him and says that he never met any one before with sense enough to have figured that out.
We passed Elfrida and her sister to-day, pedaling along for dear life. ”

“ As he turned, his eye fell on the table in Priscilla's bedroom. "Is that a gas-stove in there?" he demanded.
Patty shrugged her shoulders. "An apology for one—be careful, Mr. Peters! Don't get against that bookcase. It's just painted."
Peters jumped aside, and stood like the Colossus of Rhodes, with one foot on one stepping-stone, and the other on another three feet away. It is hard for even a [19] janitor to be dignified in such a position, and while he was gathering his scattered impressions Patty looked longingly around the room for some one to enjoy the spectacle with her. ”

“ Ah, here's Peters," he added as the hermit entered through the dining-room door at the side of the stairs.
"All finished, gentlemen?" he asked, coming forward. "Now, this is solid comfort, ain't it? I reckon when you get a few days of this, you'll all become hermits, and build yourselves shacks on the mountain. Solid comfort. No woman to make you put on overshoes when you go out, or lecture you about the effects of alcohol on the stomach. Heaven, I call it."
"Peters," said Mr. Magee, "we have been wondering if you will stay on here and cook for us. We need you. ”

“ The female of the species is more deadly than the male. Probably she makes a better purloiner of scarabs. At any rate, there the footprint was, unmistakably feminine.
Inspiration came to him. Aline Peters had a maid! What more likely than that secretly she should be a hireling of Mr. Peters, on whom he had now come to look as a man of the blackest and most sinister character? Mr. Peters was a collector; and when a collector makes up his mind to secure a treasure, he employs, Baxter knew, every possible means to that end. ”

“ And he had a pension. And Mrs Marks congratulated him, and said that he deserved his luck. And finally Peters broke down and wept.
Peters spent most of his days, doing absolutely nothing, stretched on the grass under the plane tree. He had grown rather queer in one or two points. Mrs Marks could not make him believe that the strip of land was to be built over, and that the tree would have to come down. He did not argue about it. He merely said, "They shall not cut that tree down. I shall see about it."
"Now that is silly, Mr Peters. The tree will come down before they begin to build." ”

“ If we had a dollar we could———”
“Hush up!” said Mr. Peters, licking his lips. “We got to get that case note somehow, boys. Ain’t what’s a man’s wife’s his? Leave it to me. I’ll go over to the house and get it. Wait here for me.”
“I’ve seen ’em give up quick, and tell you where it’s hid if you kick ’em in the ribs,” said Kidd.
“No man would kick a woman,” said Peters, virtuously. “A little choking—just a touch on the windpipe—that gets away with ’em—and no marks left. Wait for me. I’ll bring back that dollar, boys.” ”

“ Mr. Peters said once, laughing. "Never was a five dollar gold piece so successful in business as that one of his has been; it is good he found it." Then after a moment of silence he said gravely: "No, he didn't; he found it in his mother's Bible. 'He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.' It is true; Mills the boy was faithful, and Mills the man we trust."
SIGHTSEEING.
DO you know, if I were in Paris one of the sights I should want to see would be the great telescope in the Observatory. ”

“ Peters' connection with the attempt on the scarab was to be merely sympathetic, and that the actual theft was to be accomplished by Ashe. His only course, therefore, was to catch Ashe actually in the museum. Then Mr. Peters need not appear in the matter at all. Mr. Peters' position in those circumstances would be simply that of a man who had happened to employ, through no fault of his own, a valet who happened to be a thief.
He had made a mistake, he perceived, in locking the door of the museum. In future he must leave it open, as a trap is open; and he must stay up nights and keep watch. ”

“ Did anyone tell you to call him Doctor Horace?”
“No, sir—that is, Ned Brent said his name was Horace, sir. I thought it was Webster.”
[94]
“You thought right. Never mind; the mistake was natural.” Mr. James smiled. “What’s your name?”
“John Boland, sir.”
“Boland?” The instructor wrote on a card. “All right. Peters!”
A youth at the back of the room stood up instantly beside his seat.
“Boland, do you see that boy standing up? Well, that is George Peters. Peters is one of our stupidest boys, Boland. I think I might say our stupidest without risking exaggeration. That is so, Peters?” ”

“ McAllister would admit as much. Buck Peters admits more; and one has to be something of a man, you know, to merit that from Peters. He 's the finest man I ever knew, myself, bar none. It is very good of you to hear me so patiently. I 'm coming to the kernel of the difficulty just now:
"Rose LaFrance, the cow-girl you mentioned, is the right sort. She brought word this morning that will save Peters a goodish bit of money; incidentally Mr. McAllister, also. Buck had to be in Wayback at the earliest possible moment and I was fortunate enough to overtake him. ”

“ You can't go about the place charging a man with theft and ask him to go on being willing to have his son marry your daughter, can you? The slightest suggestion that I thought he had stolen this scarab and he would do the Proud Old English Aristocrat and end everything. He's in the strongest position a thief has ever been in. You can't get at him."
"I didn't think of that."
"You don't think at all. That's the trouble with you," said Mr.
Peters.
Years of indigestion had made Mr. Peters' temper, even when in a normal mood, perfectly impossible; in a crisis like this it ran amuck. ”

“ The earliest life of Peters is that by William Yonge, M.D.—England's Shame, or the unmasking of a politic Atheist, being a full and faithful relation of the life and death of that grand impostor Hugh Peters, 12mo, 1663. This is a scurrilous collection of fabrications. The first attempt at an impartial biography was an historical and critical account of Hugh Peters after the manner of Mr. Bayle, published anonymously by Dr. William Harris in 1751, 4to, reprinted, in 1814, in his Historical and Critical Account of the Lives of James I, Charles I, &c., 5 vols, 8vo. ”

“ I guess I was wrong when I told you to come down here."
"Not yet," answered Peters doggedly. "When I go back it'll be in a wooden box."
"Well," replied Mr. Banks, "I'm sorry; but there isn't a thing in the office I can give you." He pondered a minute. "I've got a lot of old judgments against a fellow named Rosenheim—in the cigar business, but he's no good—judgment proof—and they aren't worth the paper they're written on."
"Give them to me!" almost shouted Peters. ”

“ As old Cap'en Peters fit in the Mexican War, both boys feel as if they had somethin' in common in his grave."
"Oh, we know all about that," sniffed Mr. Huff, displeased that the Pigeon Ridge man should succeed in shifting the conversation, "an' we've all seen Clab marchin' about four hundred feet behind the precession, ridin' a farm-hoss, as if he was defyin' the whole United States governingment. That ain't nothin' new. But now ye've ben sot on discussin' it, I'll say fer one he didn't ought ter be allowed ter wear his old gray uniform on that day. ”

“ Peters."
"Mr. Cassidy and Mr. Booth went after that Dave brute."
"Where was Buck?"
"He was wounded, Mrs. Cassidy. Not badly, they say. Dave shot him from ambush. We found him lying in the road."
"Oh! I ought to go to him," and Mary started from her seat.
"Certainly not," declared Mrs. Blake. "It is quite evident that you do not appreciate the comforts of inertia. Besides, from what Margaret tells me, he is well taken care of."
"Oh! and I forgot the medicine chest," exclaimed Margaret. "Yes, he has an attentive nurse, Mrs. Cassidy. We took him to the LaFrance place. ”

“ Mr. Peterson. No.
Mr. Specter. Did you talk to him?
Mr. Peterson. I think I did. Yes; I did talk to him. That is why I remember. I’m trying to think.
Mr. Specter. To the best of your recollection tell me specifically what you said to him and what he said to you?
Mr. Peterson. Well, just wanted to know—let me see. Was it there or was it at the hotel? They wanted a—Time, I think it was Time, or Life, because the man in Life is located in Dallas. He just wanted to know if we had any pictures with Jack Ruby or anything we had done for a story. I told him we did not have anything. ”

“ Bob Peters was a thieving abolitionist, unworthy the toleration of any true daughter of the South. After this overpowering revelation, it was the first thought of Eve Adams to at once inform the festive Peters of the utter detestation in which she held him, and a favorable opportunity soon offered. At a social gathering at the Ordeth's, she had withdrawn for a moment to an ante-room, for the purpose of drawing from her bosom an elegant silver snuff-box, dipping therein a small brush, and subsequently applying the same to her pearly teeth, when Mr. ”

“ Skillins and his contingent panted into view they beheld the twice-conquered veteran riding between two lines of men in blue, while as many rows of gnarled hands were stiffly raised in deep respect.
The spectators also saw the marchers fall in behind as Clab reached the entrance and then follow him to his father's grave; and the salute for the first time was fired from the same side of the mound. And when the line returned the two flags were carried side by side, with Mr. Skillins leading a sleepy farm-horse in the middle distance. ”

“ News ter me."
"Wal, he has; jest as he has fer years," defied Truman, thrusting forward his strong jaw. "What of it?"
"Oh. nothin'," shivered Mr. Skillins.
But Mr. Huff had not served through four years of fighting to retreat at the first gun, and although not hungering for any words with his questioner, slowly averred: "Why, there ain't nothin' of it. Only, when a man breaks out like Clab does, year after year, an' names as a price fer knucklin' under that he be allowed ter carry his derned old flag in our precession, I say he's got a lot of brass—that's all." ”

“ An' in th' meantime, might I inquire, without offence, if Cheyenne has a habit of complainin' of too many cards?"
They had lined up before the bar and all glasses were filled before Buck answered. Slick stood directly before him and every face, showing nothing beyond polite interest, was turned his way. But Buck well knew that on his reply depended his position in the community and the gravity of the occasion was in his voice when he spoke.
"Gentlemen, Mr. Slick has called. There's two ways of playin'. When I plays with any gentleman here, I plays one way. Dave Owens played th' other way. ”

“ I cannot, in justice to myself, or to those implicated through my indiscretion, remain longer silent, and quietly witness this second attempt at imposition, without an effort to counteract its wicked and mischievous tendency, by what I declare on my honor, and what is known to eight or nine other persons concerned with me, to be a true, faithful, and ungarnished statement of every thing taht occurred, relating to that hasty and inconsiderate act. ”