The Damnation of Theron Ware

inscribing in his diary for the day, immediately after breakfa

hat he not only prophesied in the little morocco-bound diary which Alice had given him for Christmas, but

you getting particular about your clothes, there isn'

upon the man that he will deal gently with that first cash payment down. Do you know," he added, watching her tu

tone. He fancied that her face lengthened a little, and he instantly ascribed it to

te to change the subject, "that the hired g

You see, with hot weather coming on, there won't be much cooking. We'll take all our meals out here, and that saves so much work that

comes, you're sure yo

after a happy little caress, he start

nting the existence of "Thurston's," as rival farmers might join to curse a protracted drought. Each had his special flaming grievance. The little dry-goods dealers asked mournfully how they could be expected to compete with an establishment which could buy bankrupt stocks at a hundred different points, and make a profit if only one-third of the articles were sold for more than they would cost from the jo

en the stationery department now showed a profit worth mentioning. When Octavius had contained only five thousand inhabitants, it boasted four book-stores, two of them good ones. Now, with a population more than doubled, only these latter two survived, and they must soon go to the wall. The reason? It was in a nutshell. A book which sold at retail for one dollar and a half cost the bookseller ninety cents. If it was at all a popular book, "Thurston's" advertised it at eighty-nine cents-and in any case at a profit of only two or three cents. Of course it was done to widen the establishment's pat

he subject of the modern idea of admiring the great for crushing the small, and sketched out some notes for it which he thought solved the problem of flaying the local abu

t to "Thurston's," and entered without any show of repugnance the door next to the window wherein, flanked

telligence that he desired a piano, and fascinated by his wish to pay for it only a little at a time. They had special

ad in stock, and heard them played upon. They differed greatly in price, and, so he fancied, almost as much in tone. It discouraged him to note, however, that several of those he thought the

I will have a friend of mine, a skilled musician, step in and make a selection. I have so much

r to undertake this task? He might not meet her again for ages, and to his provincial notions writing would have seemed out of the question. And would it not be disagreeable to have her know that he was buying a piano by p

been to bestow this patronage upon the old bookseller, but these suavely smart people in "Thurston's" had had the effe

asy as he laid his hand upon the spotless bulk, so wooingly did it invite him to begin. He tried a score of pens before the right one came to hand. When a box of these had been laid aside, with ink and pen-holders and a little bronze inkstand, he made a sign that the out

magination that he could not forbear hinting to the man who had shown him the pianos and was now accompanying him to the door that this package under his arm represented potentially the price of the piano he was going to hav

dinner-time. "In such a matter as this, the opinion of an expert is everything. I am going to have

le list of some of the new music. I've got way behind the times, being w

e ought to have been told that this "principal musician" was of her own sex. It would certainly have been better, at the outset, he decided; but to mention it now would be to invest the fact with undue importance. Yes, that was quite clear;

ncient formula of the farm-land had always rather jarred on Theron. It

ernoon," he remarked impressively. "T

eron found the first shadows of a May-day twilight beginning to fall upon that beautiful pile of white paper, still unstained by ink. He saw the book he wanted to write before h

ns which cut most deeply into our consciousness are those we learn from our children. Theron, in this first day's contact with the offspring of his fancy, found revealed to him an unsuspected and sta

elation. He had been merely drifting in fatuous and conceited blindness. Now all at once his eyes were open; he knew what he had to do. Ignorance was a thing to be remedied, and he would forthwith bend all his energies to cultivating his mind till it should blossom like a garden. In this mood, Theron mentally measured himself against the mor

though published elsewhere, had come to him through that giant circulating agency of the General Conference, and wore the stamp of its approval. Perhaps it was the sight of these half-filled shelves which started this day's great revolution in Theron's opinions of himself. He had never thought much before abou

us" volume of Whedon's Commentary, some old numbers of the "Methodist Quarterly Review," and a copy of "Josephus" which had belonged to his grandmother, and had seen him through many a weary Sunday afternoon in boyhood. He glanced casually through thes

e of Isaac, about a dozen other things suggested by the ancient narrative. Somehow this time it all seemed different to him. The people he read about were altered to his vision. Heretofore a poetic light had shone about them, where indeed they had not glowed in a halo of sanctification. Now, by

that there had been Jews from the beginning, or at least, say, from the flood. But, no, Abram was introduced simply as a citizen of the Chaldean town of Ur, and there was no hint of any difference in

performance troubled itself not at all with difficult points, but went swimmingly along through scented summer seas of pretty rhetoric, teaching nothing, it is true, but pleasing a good deal and selling like hot cakes. Now, all at once Theron felt that he hated that sort of book. HIS work should be of a vastly different

magined that he could write learnedly about the Chaldeans, or anything else. But, no, it shouldn't remain a joke! His long mobile face grew serious under the new resolve. He would learn what there was to be learned about the Chaldeans. He rose and walked up and down the room, gathering fresh strength of purpose as this inviting field of research spread out its vistas before him. Perhaps-yes, he woul

not knowing who the Turanians were, at the time. Possibly, if he had probed this matter more deeply, now as he walked and pondered in the little living-room, he might have traced the whole

come on? Have you got t

n, and putting in her head with a pretence of great and

swered Theron, absently. "These bi

then, while the beans

wife, urging him with mock gravity to scold her roundly for daring to usurp Sarah's place, but Theron scarcely heard her, and said next to

reference to the book," he said. "I'll r

ckened. There was still a good deal of daylight outside, and he loitered aimlessly about, walking with bowed head and hands clasped be