Osgood

“ Osgood,—I'm a non-combatant, but I like to see fair play,—why don't you write the Guardian people?—or wire them? I think this is something your friend Wintermuth ought to know."
Mr. Osgood reached toward the button that summoned his stenographer, and then drew back his hand.
"No," he said slowly. "What's the use? If it's decided, I can't stop it. And I fancy the best of my fighting days are over. That's for the younger men to do. I'll talk to Cole about it, and see what he thinks we'd better do." ”

“ Now a fellow like this might through snobbery easily make himself unpopular in a country school, but Osgood’s seeming whole-souled, manly boyishness, combined with an unusual knack at all-round sports and baseball in particular, had overcome the prejudice of many chaps who were inclined at the outset to regard him with disfavor. His staunchest friend, however, was Charley Shultz, with whom he had taken up almost immediately, and who seemed so remarkably different from him in every way that wonderment over their chumminess was justified. ”

“ Maitland, somewhat mystified, but guessing a little of what he felt.
"No," said Mr. Osgood, slowly; "I couldn't have helped it. But if it had to happen in Boston, I'm sorry it didn't wait until I was through."
"Then I hope it would be never!" Helen said, a little incoherently; but the point was plain.
"On the business side there is only one feature that cheers me," continued Mr. Osgood, "and that is the fact that my old friend James Wintermuth and his company, the Guardian of New York, are practically out of it all." ”

“ You spoke of Shultz a moment ago. Do you know he’s not the sort of fellow with whom I can have any real natural bond of sympathy?”
“I’ve always wondered at your chumminess with him,” said Nelson slowly, reseating himself. “He’s so different. You’re a gentleman, while he’s plainly of the most plebeian and common stock.”
“He’s no more plebeian and common than I am,” declared Osgood instantly. ”

“ It wasn’t an entailed title at all, and it stops with this Osgood. Dear me! When I think of it—you might have had to marry just a plain James Osgood, after all!”
“Oh no, I wouldn’t, Ma. I said from the first, that I never would marry anyone I didn’t like. And it would take an American to do that,” declared Dodo.
“What happened when you learned about the title, Maggie?” asked Mr. Alexander, unusually gay over the information.
“Why, I just told Jimmy Osgood that I wouldn’t take him to Paris in my new car, if that was the case. ”

“ She approached him, and his honest face induced her to skirmish lightly with him; but not a word did he utter of the whys and wherefores of his being with Osgood. He would not, at any rate, extend his self-elected office of chorus so far as to include her. He felt a dislike toward her. She was too thin, he thought; there was an air of wear and tear about her which was not pleasant. He felt, too, that she knew more than Osgood; and a woman, in his estimation, should never be the intellectual superior of a man she might make choice of. ”

“ You see the kind of a fellow you’ve been friendly with, Osgood, old man. You can see he’s a rotter—just a plain rotter. Oh, you’ll help me back to town. You’ll do the right thing, because you’re the right sort. But, now that you know what I am, we never could be friends any more, even if this Hooker business hadn’t come up.”
Osgood had permitted him to talk on in this fashion, although again and again Shultz’s words made Ned cringe inwardly. ”

“ As Billy was the only one Osgood had feared, Ned immediately showed his relief and satisfaction.
Hooker, still sitting supinely on the Morris chair, permitted them to readjust his collar and tie. When they lifted him to his feet he stood still while they actually pushed his arms into his heavy, reefer-like coat.
“There you are,” said Osgood, slapping him on the back. “We’re all mighty sorry it happened, Roy, but it was a mistake. As I provided the cards, I must shoulder the blame, if any one. You’ve been a game loser, old chap. Do you need some money? I’ll lend you what you want.” ”

“ It would not perhaps have been pleasant to Agnes Osgood had she known that, as she hummed a song under a she-oak, a mile away from the homestead, a man was watching her from a clump of scrub near by; a man who, however gentlemanly his bearing, had a face where the devil of despair had set his foot, and who carried in his pocket more than one weapon of inhospitable suggestion. But the man intended no harm to her, for, while she sang, something seemed to smooth away the active evil of his countenance, and to dispel a threatening alertness that marked the whole personality. ”

“ Osgood had reserved a room here, and he's not shown up; I'll have to have an explanation—I may as well tell you frankly that he suspected that lady with you of——"
"Go easy," warned Quentin, and at the icy flame in his eyes the clerk drew back. "Where Osgood is isn't my business or yours, either. As for that lady, she's a patient in my charge, and if you know Doctor Burlington, of Long Beach, you'll find him at breakfast with us now, and he can identify me. You've made a mistake, young man, and you'd better back water pretty hard, and do it quick." ”

“ His first movement after the shock had been to work in his loom; and he went on with this unremittingly, never asking himself why, now he was come to Raveloe, he worked far on into the night to finish the tale of Mrs Osgood's table-linen sooner than she expected—without contemplating beforehand the money she would put into his hand for the work. He seemed to weave, like the spider, from pure impulse, without reflection. Every man's work, pursued steadily, tends in this way to become an end in itself, and so to bridge over the loveless chasms of his life. ”

“ Fully aware that the fellow would refuse to step aside with him, Piper made the request of Osgood.
“Well, you’ve had time,” said Billy, as they paused beneath one of the trees near the academy. “What have you done? What are you going to do?”
“It will be all right,” assured Osgood suavely, “only just don’t push the thing too hard; for if you do, Shultz may balk, and that would put us all in a hole. You’ve got to think of some one besides yourself, Piper.”
“I am; I’m thinking of Hooker.”
“I tell you it will be all right,” reiterated Ned. “Just give us a little more time. ”

“ Mr. Osgood at the Cobourg Court house, where he delivered a short discourse to the prisoners, and requested me to exhort after him — some appeared affected. As Mr. 0. was on his way to York, we travelled in company. Rode to Port Hope where he had an appointment. Met with about a hundred of the Mud Lake Indians who had been waiting for me at this place. ”

“ A man was running down the middle of the street as Osgood dashed from the house, slamming the door behind him. He called to the man, but received no answer. Then he took to the street and followed.
The bell in the Methodist steeple hammered and banged as he raced past the church. Lights were shining everywhere from the windows of houses. Men and boys came running from side streets, questioning one another excitedly without getting satisfactory answers. ”

“ Osgood acquiring an enviable reputation as an artist, and Mrs. Osgood as a writer. After their return to the United States, they resided chiefly in New York, although Mr. Osgood has been occasionally absent on professional tours to different parts of the country. In 1841, Mrs. Osgood edited an Annual, “The Flowers of Poetry, and the Poetry of Flowers,” and in 1847, “The Floral Offering.” She published a collection of her poems in 1846, and in 1850 a complete collection of her poetical works in one large octavo volume. ”

“ This was the impression he gave, to, John Osgood on the day when the young squatter introduced himself to Rahway, where he had come on a mission to its one official. The young man’s father had a taste for many things; astronomy was his latest, and he had bought from the Government a telescope which, excellent in its day, had been superseded by others of later official purchase. ”

“ I guess you’re true American in your ideas, Osgood. For all of your family, you’ve always sort of pooh-poohed ancestry; and you with a perfect right to use a crest!”
Shultz was startled by the short, contemptuous laugh that burst from his companion’s lips.
“The world is full of faking and fraud,” said Ned. “It seems that half the people in it, at least, are trying to make other people believe they’re something which they are not. Does the ankle hurt bad, old chap?” ”

“ The waiter thought that it was not too late to see her in her own parlor, and lingered, with his hand on his chin and his eyes on the valise.
“Jem,” said Osgood, “I have left some boots in the closet, and some shirts in the drawers, which are at your service.”
The alacrity with which Jem changed his attitude [Pg 176] and expression struck Osgood with a sense of pain. “How horribly selfish servants are!” he thought, taking his way down stairs. Mrs. Semmes hoped there was no trouble, and asked him to be seated. He looked at her earnestly; she was the only one to say farewell to. ”

“ Though it was expressly ordered, when the committee rendered their decision, that "the inhabitants are to rest silent and sett down satysfyed," who can still the tongue of an envious woman or an insulted man? Though they were Puritans, they were first of all men and women, and complaints and revolts were frequent. Judge Sewall records that one indignant dame "treated Captain Osgood very roughly on account of seating the meeting-house." ”

“ Osgood wrote to his Aunt Formica that night, assuring her that he already felt much better, and that he was about to enter into a new business, of which she should hear more. He also wrote Lily Tree a minute, lengthy epistle. He described his situation with Peter and Maria; told her how much board he paid—two dollars and fifty cents a week—and how well he had learned to do chores. He fed the pigs every day ”

“ When the Angel of Death gave him the accolade of nobility by touching his brow in the form of a Mauser bullet, Win Osgood simply welcomed his friend by gently breathing 'Well,' a word typical of the man, and even in death, it is reported, continued to sit erect upon his horse. ”

“ Joe pictured it in the most gorgeous style, and made Mrs. Osgood an actual fairy godmother. Mrs. Van Wyck, who still held a little grudge against her, insisted that it was not half as grand as the Kenneths represented it.
"Now, Mr. Howard," she said at one of the parsonage gatherings, "is it really true? Did this woman adopt that flyaway Kenneth girl, or only take her as a sort of servant? And is she so very rich?"
"Mrs. Osgood is a lady of means and position, and is connected with some of the most reliable people in New York. ”

“ The elder daughter is a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary, and the younger daughter is in the Portland High School. Although Mrs. Osgood has had many calls upon her time hi organizations and in her professional and business career, she has been a devoted wife and mother. She has a wide circle of friends. ”

“ Osgood enjoys, as one of the most amiable, true-hearted, and brilliant ladies in American society, will add to the good fortune of a book, the intrinsic excellence and beauty of which will secure for it a place among the standard creations of female genius."—Home Journal. ”

“ I’m going to tell them just where I stand and what I think. I’m going to do my best to induce them, one and all, to put it up to Shultz just as I have put it up to him. Then, if he isn’t man enough to shoulder the blame, I’ll suggest that we all walk up in a body and tell the whole thing.”
“You see! you see!” panted Shultz. “That’s his game! He’s a squealer! He’s bound to make me the goat.”
“Give me a chance to talk to him,” urged Osgood. “I’m sure Billy will listen to reason.”
“I’m ready to listen to reason,” said Piper; “but argument on false premises won’t have the slightest effect on me. ”

“ How do you know, Ned? You may be mistaken.”
Compelling Shultz to listen, Osgood finally succeeded in convincing him. “Let us hope with all our hearts,” he concluded, “that they find Roy and get him safely home, and that he recovers. Let us hope, regardless of what it may mean to us, that, restored to his right mind, he’ll soon be able to tell everything.”
“Oh, I don’t care if he does now,” asserted Shultz. “If we’d only told in the first place, it would have been better. Piper was right; I should have owned up like a man. ”

“ Osgood's prose.
Her character is daguerreotyped in her works — reading the one we know the other. She is ardent, sensitive, impulsive ; the very soul of truth and honor; a worshipper of the beautiful, with a heart so radically artless as to seem abundant in art — universally respected, admired and beloved. In person she is about the medium height, slender even to fragility, graceful whether in action or repose ”

“ Duncan muttered to himself; then he slowly walked to the door, put on his coat, took his hat, turned up his collar, opened the door, and descended the steps. "That woman," he thought, "is a sportsman to the bone, but it will do her good to leave her for a while. She's a thoroughbred, though, and I wish I didn't love her."
Mrs. Osgood listened quietly until the door had shut and the sound of his steps had died away. "So he expected me to act like a school-girl," she said, half aloud. "Some women are fools, I suppose. I am glad he did not bluster any more. I hate a man who loses his temper. ”