Sprague

“ The girl dug her hand vigorously into the sand, which pressed a gold bangle farther and farther up her arm.
“I think you're a beast!” she reiterated, with added conviction. “And I'm very, very sorry for—her. She deserves the stained-glass window.”
“How about poor little me?” Sprague suggested humbly.
The curl of her lip was good to see.
“We don't do things like that in Australia Any man worth his salt would get out and work with his hands before he'd do that.”
“That's the trouble,” Sprague admitted resignedly. ”

“ Sprague admitted airily.
“You see, father owns the land, and I own the raft.”
“How awfully nice!” he added enthusiastically.
“So that strangers are really trespassing.”
“Of course. Poor strangers!”
Her lips pouted faintly.
“Oh, they don't need to be pitied. There are lots of good coves farther round the cliff, and there's Manly, with a beach a mile long, if they only care to go there.”
“Yes, I suppose they could,” admitted Sprague judicially; “but all the same—poor strangers! Poor, poor strangers!” ”

“ Sprague and this man”—pointing to the pedestrian—“struggling in the grasp of something I could not see. Before I could reach them, the two men fell to the pavement. Dr. Sprague died almost instantly; this other man, as you see, is recovering. He has just informed me that he was attacked by an invisible monster.”
Strange’s bellicose features twisted into a grin.
“An invisible monster, eh? Well, it had better stay invisible if it’s still sticking around.” He whirled about, and to the patrolman: “I want all available men here on the jump, Bill. Call the coroner at the same time. ”

“ Sprague’s prostrate form, he bent over and peered in the physician’s face. One look at the horribly distorted features and the glassy eyes that stared into his own told him that the man was dead.
Turning now from the dead to the living, Peret jumped to his feet and ran to help the pedestrian who, with the help of the terrified little druggist, was in the act of staggering to his feet. Although the druggist’s teeth were chattering with fear, his first thought seemed to be for the sufferer, and he helped Peret support the man, too weak to stand unaided, when he reeled back against the fence. ”

“ Make use of him as you can, only don’t take his word for the gentleness of the horse you’re going to ride. He is an absolutely truthful man on any other subject, but he never misses a chance to play a bucking bronc’ against a tenderfoot.”
[Pg 141]
Sprague foregathered at once with the clean-cut, rather shabbily clothed young mine owner whose principal affectations were his worn khaki suit, a cowboy Stetson tilted carelessly to the back of his head, and a vocabulary of cow-camp slang which happened to be no measure of his knowledge of grammatical English. ”

“ Suddenly we heard a rustling of wings, and then a mournful cry like the wail of a lost kitten.
"Now, Bob, look sharp," I exclaimed; "there's a cat-bird's nest in here, and Fred Sprague asked me to get an egg for him the first time I came across any."
The old bird was fluttering from bush to bush, continually "mewing," and seeming to be in great distress. "There's the nest, Jack," cried Bob, pointing to a mass of twigs on the top of a tall bush. "You stand underneath and hold your hat to catch the eggs if they fall, and I'll bend down the branch." ”

“ If anybody’s fool enough to let the cat out o’ the bag, we’ll get the cat. Tarbell’s on that part of the job.”
Sprague went to the wardrobe at the other end of the room and got out his hat and a light top-coat.
“Yes, we’ll get the cat, Billy. The only thing I’m afraid of is that we may get the kitten, too. If that should happen, your Uncle Calvin might [Pg 381] fly the track. Let’s go. I have an appointment to meet Judge Walsh, of the United States District Court, at half-past three, and I’m going to ask you to borrow Maxwell’s car and drive me out to the judge’s house.” ”

“ It's all a gamble, and the author who has placed his stake—perhaps a year's work on the play, and five in getting produced—on the wheel of public favor stands to lose all or win all at a single turn.”
Sprague stopped abruptly, and looked out through the veranda doors. The bathers had gone, and the brief Australian dusk was settling down on sea and beach and cliff. ”

“ Adams.”
“He's harmless,” came the rejoinder; “I have it on the best authority——”
Sprague's eye was shamelessly glued to the wall. The girl was sitting on the counter, beating a tattoo with bare feet on the boarding below her, and laughing with the whole-heartedness of youth and well-being. She could hardly be more than seventeen, he decided, although he still found it difficult to tell age in a country where girls are women at thirteen. ”

“ And the two men went up the dark stairway, Sprague remaining behind with the reporter.
"None so blind as those that won't see," said the latter, sententiously.
At the same time he placed his hand upon one of the shelves and gave it a lateral push. It responded slightly, and the entire shelving, with the door which it concealed, opened outward.
"I thought so," continued the reporter; "this looks as if it might lead somewhere. Will you come, Sprague?"
"How did you find the combination so quickly?" asked the artist, preparing to follow his friend. ”

“ Amurricans know how to treat women, you bet! If only she could get back—if only—— And to think that a bit of paper would do the stunt! She had the rest saved by working overtime on a typewriter—— Here she saw for the first time what Sprague had noticed a few seconds before; Stone was sitting as one petrified—a man dead save for his eyes, which were fixed in an uncanny stare on a table in the opposite corner. ”

“ We’ll try to think of a better way, or at least a more effective way. Good-night; and don’t omit to throw the gaff into Smith, good and hard.”
On the morning following Sprague’s visit to The Tribune editorial rooms, the newspaper-reading public of Brewster had a small sensation served, in Starbuck’s phrase, “hot from the skillet.” A good portion of the front page of The Tribune was given to a news story of the work which was under way in the Mesquite Valley, and pictures were printed of the camp, the dam, and the growing lake. ”

“ Before he left the newly established laboratory in the Kinzie Building, Starbuck had engaged to go with the expert on a soil-collecting trip through the Park, the trip to begin early in the morning of the following day, and to continue indefinitely; or until the chief soil-hunter should be sufficiently saddle-sore to wish to cut it short.
“I like that brother-in-law of yours a whole heap, Dick,” was Sprague’s verdict when he met the superintendent at dinner in the Topaz café that evening. “He is a man with a history, isn’t he?” ”

“ Sprague was killed almost instantly, and our friend the artist, after a desperate struggle, was fortunate enough to overcome, or at least to throw off the Thing that had him in its grasp. Deweese, the druggist and Peret declare that they did not see the Thing—that, in short, it was invisible; but both of the former gentlemen testify to the fact that they heard it whisper, and Deweese informs us further that he felt it breathing in his face. ”

“ The only new point which he had developed during his stay in the underworld was that some one named Sprague, presumably an American, was the brains of the opium ring and had perfected the entire plan. But who Sprague was or where he might be found were matters which were kept in very watchful secrecy.
"I give it up," muttered the operative, shrugging his arms into a threadbare coat and shambling out of the disreputable rooming house which passed for home. "Work doesn't seem to get me anywhere. ”

“ Who was so very pure within,
She burst the outer shell of sin,
And hatched herself a cherubim.
[Pg 28]
✠
There is an epitaph of an eccentric character that may be seen on a tombstone at the burying-grounds near Hoosick Falls, New York. It reads:
Ruth Sprague, Daughter of Gibson and Elizabeth Sprague. ”

“ Sprague was about to vote the entertainment tame, when things took quite an unexpected turn. Once in the tank, the etiquette of Neptune's court allows the victim to fend for himself, and of this largess the American proceeded to take full advantage. ”

“ He engaged in mercantile business when quite young, leaving school for that purpose. In 1825, he was elected cashier of the Globe Bank of Boston, which position he held until 1864. Mr. Sprague has not been a prolific writer; but his poems, though few in number, are deservedly classed among the best productions of American poets. His chief poem is entitled "Curiosity."
1. Gay, guiltless pair,
What seek ye from the fields of heaven?
Ye have no need of prayer,
Ye have no sins to be forgiven.
272 ECLECTIC SERIES. 2. Why perch ye here,
Where mortals to their Maker bend? ”

“ And have found our rest but broken "in the bivouac of life."
We are standing by the river, over on the other shore
We shall meet when taps have sounded all our comrades gone before;
And we've gathered now as pilgrims from the breadth of all the land,
Just to see old comrades' faces and to graps them by the hand,
By the flashing torch of memory smouldering campfires to relight,
Bid the fifty years to vanish and be boys again to-night.
Go revisit some old earthwork in the peaceful Southern land
Where the demon of destruction once let loose his iron hand ”

“ Ordered, That the Committee of Arrangements for the celebration of this day be, and they are hereby, directed to present the thanks of the City Council to Charles Sprague, Esquire, for the elegant, interesting and instructive Poem, this day pronounced by him, and respectfully request a copy thereof for the press. ”

“ And smoke and fume around,
And then, like thee, to ashes turn,
And mingle with the ground.
Life's but a leaf adroitly roll'd,
And time's the wasting breath,
That late or early, we behold,
Gives all to dusty death. ”

“ Dr. Lyle Stone, Chairman of the Nutrition, Embryology and Radiology Department, relished the power of his position as fervently as he detested the acronym, NERD, that had been irreparably attached to it. He passed a small pile of forms across his desk to Diana. "Obviously you wanted to cause harm to the two other instructors in the course," he replied smugly. His expression and demeanor suggested a small boy torturing a bug and extracting the utmost enjoyment out of it.
"Harm them?" Dr. Trenchant laughed scornfully and sat back in her chair scanning the evaluation forms. ”

“ Thus it was that Molly Barber
And her spouse, the Honest Chaugham,
Were the first of all the settlers,
In the town of fair Barkhamsted,
Where her father couldn't find them,
Hidden in the gloomy forest,
Where the Tunxis River wanders
Through the dark and gloomy forest,
With the woodcock ever tapping,
Tapping on the mighty oak trees,
O'er the pine trees ever screaming,
Circling high above the mountain,
And the sea-gulls, fishing, screeching,
Dipping low above the water,
And the great, blue herons wading,
Wading, fishing in the river,
Calling, calling through the twilight. ”

“ What shall be the monument o'er gallant Ellsworth's grave?
How shall we commemorate the life he freely gave,
Resolved that o'er our country no disloyal flag shall wave
As his soul goes marching on? ”

“ Now that it is finished the men who walk about its feet forget how deep into the ground it reaches. But they can never forget how high into the blue it soars. Their necks ache when they throw back their heads to see to the top. For, of all the buildings in the world, this sky scraper is the highest. ”

“ We raise no shout, no trumpet sound,
No banner to the breeze we spread;
Children of clay! bend humbly round;
We plant a City to the Dead.
For man a garden rose in bloom,
When you glad sun began to burn ”

“ Scripsit, who has digested his paltry rasher in moody silence, shall touch the hearts of men with new-born words of flame; and the poor epic, which once had served a clownish huckster's vulgar need, shall travel far and wide, in blue and gold, and lie on tables weighed with words familiar in all mouths. ”

“ As waits to crown that feeble hour?
There into life an infant empire springs!
There falls the iron from the soul;
There liberty’s young accents roll,
Up to the King of kings!
To fair creation’s farthest bound,
That thrilling summons yet shall sound;
The dreaming nations shall awake,
And to their centre earth’s old kingdoms shake.
Pontiff and prince, your sway
Must crumble from that day;
Before the loftier throne of Heaven,
The hand is raised, the pledge is given—
One monarch to obey, one creed to own,
That monarch, God, that creed, His word alone. ”

“ Henry Tarbuck consulting his notes then stated that the dean had accused Diana Trenchant of creating and submitting fictitious student feedback forms.
"Responding to the dean's charge, this committee was formed and I will now introduce them. On the end is Mr. Frank Anuse, director of the Informational Studies Unit."
The Vee looked fondly at Frank who nodded his bald head in acknowledgement. A tall gangling bean-pole of a man. His head, devoid of any sort of demarcation between face and pate, appeared to float above his body like some sort of alien spacecraft. ”

“ There are the bones of the eleven thousand virgins,—the remains of ancient virtue, and loveliness, and faith. Though, if all the stories of travelled anatomists be true, there must have been some virgin heifers among them; for many of them are certainly of bovine, and not human, origin. ”

“ High in air the starry symbol of our loved but troubled land,
Just received, with consecration from a loyal woman's hand;
While a vow had been recorded by the whole ten hundred men:
"Never shall that flag be lowered till we bring it back again,
And we'll keep it from dishonor, by the help of God. Amen."
So the Forty-fourth departed as the heroes of the hour,
But their deeds were only promist, ‘twas the bud but now the flower.
All the records of the ages they were ready to surpass
Like the self-sufficient students of the graduating class. ”