Galusha the Magnificent

night in October-in order to emphasize the truth of that statement it may be well, without waiting further, to explain just who Galusha Cabot Bangs was, and who and what his family

whatever portion of it he saved for a rainy day. In the Revolution a certain Galusha Cabot, progenitor of the line of Galusha Cabots, assisted the struggling patriots of Beacon Hill to pay their troops in the Continental army. During the Civil War his grandson, the Honorable Galusha Hancock Cabot, one of Boston's most famous bankers and financiers, was of great assistance to his state and nation in the sale of bonds and the floating

d admired, but he was not the husband for Galusha Hancock Cabot's daughter. She should have married a Kidder or a Higginson or some one high in the world

whatever she did was sure to be exactly the right thing. So, in order to keep up the family tradition and honors-"He has a perfe

a cough which made physicians who heard it look grave. It was before the days of Adirondack Mountain sanitariums. They told John Bangs to go South, to Florida. He went there, leaving his son at school in

s quite probable that he would have been accepted. He did not happen along; in fact, no one happened along until Clarissa was in her thirties and somewhat anxious. Then came Joshua Bute of Chicago, and when wooed she accepted and married him. More than that, she went with hi

al waistcoat and a tremendous deal of money. Later on the kind heart stopped beating and Aunt Clarissa

ung man, was already known as a financier, and looked out for her various investments, saying that she found young Galusha "a nice boy, though rather odd, like his father," and that she thought of taking his rearing

relative more than once. On one occasion a visitor, admiring the Bute library, asked how many volumes it contained. Aunt Clarissa replied that she did not know. "I have added from time to time such books as I desired and have discarded others. I really have no

hat her eyeglasses fell from her aqu

didn't know you were t

six hundred and seventeen books

o you

unted

hem? Mercy

cles gleamed. "F

ll poring over Ancient Nineveh and Its Rem

to read tha

lready and, counting this one,

it was a very remarkable set, quite rare and complete. "We seldom pick one up nowadays, Mrs.

broad page with its diagram of an ancient temple a

d it so interes

her. His eyes were al

they send an expedition and the people in it figure out where the city or the temple or whatever it is ought to be, and t

the digging

g. And when you DO find 'em there are sculptures like this-oh, yards and yards of 'em-and all sort o

shouldn't be permitted to develop. I have set my heart on his becoming a financier like the other Galushas in our line. Of course he will always be a Bangs-more's the pity-but his middle name is Cabot and his first IS Galusha. I think he had best

college, as at school, he plugged away at his studies, and he managed to win sufficiently high marks in mathematics. But his mathematical genius was of a queer twist. In the practical dollars and cents sort of fig

t each year, which is fair enough because they almost always change, that means that at least so many fellows," giving the number, "have occupied this room si

the classmate, "cut it out. What do you waste

he door frames and the-ah-mop boards it would be great stuff to pu

le look like blazes and it is bad enough as

n were busy with baseball or track or tennis, or the hundred and one activities which help to keep young America employed in a great university, Galusha might have been, and was, seen hopping about some grass-grown graveyard, like a bespectacled

spring, a year ago. But there are dozens of 'em all about, in all the old graveyards. Nobody ever saw a skull with wings; it's a-a-ah-convention, of course. But who made the first o

ow. Forget it. You make a

actly. But isn't it great fun to study 'em up, and see the different kinds

sense. You've got pigeons in your loft, Loos

igeons in his loft." However, it was agreed that they were harmless fow

hand of Aunt Clarissa grasped him, so to speak, by the collar and guided him to the portals of the banking house of

smart tweed trousers, tilted from heels to toes of his stylish and very shiny shoes and whistled beneath his tr

a banker, do you,

him sadly throu

s me to be o

ime the junior partner of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot had another inte

on. "You've cost us a thousand dollars more than your salary already by mistakes and forgetfulness and all

ha no

he said

do! Well, tha

t when I

ld be no good

is job

n's sake why di

Aunt Clarissa

stay here, that's

and yours. I realize I have

l, I feel like a beast to chuck you out this way, b

n't k

er go back to Aunt Clarissa," he said. "Possibly she

es

mighty sure of it. Ho

ight and almost pathetic gleam, of hu

aid. And thus ended his connect

urse. She expressed her feelings without reservatio

she declared. "Why did Dorothy marry him? Sh

downcast even t

id. "I realize I am a dreadful disappoint

hn Capen Bangs cough like that. That very afternoon the Bute family physician saw, questioned and examined Galusha. The fo

ly to do them, for his aunt's sake. As a matter of fact, he took little interest in the matter for his own. His was a sensitive spirit, although a quiet, shy and "queer" one, and to find that he was "no good" at any particular employment, even though he had fe

t "cliff dwellers," to find and, if need be, excavate the villages of this strange people and to do research work among them. The expedition was in charge of an eminent scientist. Galusha met and talked with the scientist and liked him at once, a liking which was to grow into adoration as the acqu

the precipice as barn swallows' nests are plastered beneath eaves. Then the climb and the glorious burrowing into the homes of these long dead folk, the hallelujahs when a bit of broken pottery was found, and the delightfully arduous labor of painstakingly uncovering and cleaning a bit of rude carving. The average man would have tired of it in two days, a week of it would have bored him to distraction. B

ould not help but make an impression. The distinguished savant at the head of

is quite as much for mine. You're worth at least three of the average young fellows who have trained for this sort of thing. There will be

he G

I can't afford to have a sick man along. You stay here fo

ut I A

ll, then, g

und that he was going anyhow. He returned from the expedition higher than ever in favor with his chief. He was

he buried tombs and temples-all those Galusha saw and took, figuratively speaking, for his own. On his return he settled down to the study of Egyptology, its writings, its history, its every detail. He made another trip to the

ie. There was a letter to the latter in the envelope with the will. "He is to have only the income, the income, understand-until he is forty-

wrong, but there was income enough to furnish any mortal of ordinary tastes with the means of gratifying them and still have a substantial residue left. Galusha understood this, in a vague sort of way, but he did not care. Outside of his beloved profession he ha

y you mustn't," he declared, anxiousl

o with the mon

s, that

you need it

ear me

O you l

my s

salary, if you don

figure he named seemed a small one to

mendous. They don't overpay you mummy-dusters, do the

ou're sure yo

want me to keep it and reinv

es, reinvest it

occasionally. If you do you

ou very much. It's quite a wei

p laughing. Then a

k I sent you?" he asked. Gal

d been hoping to fit out an expedition to the Wyoming fossil fields, but it was lamentably short of funds, appropriations-ah-and so on. Hambridge and I were talking of th

been introduced," he observed, with a chuc

fellow, was very much upset at the prospect of abandoning his expedition and I, knowing from experience what such a disappointment me

ker int

emanded, "that you handed that ch

her at a loss

ha no

ridge's expediti

of

-ah-

by Ge

n't. The only thing that troubles me is the fact that, after all, it was money Aunt Clarissa left to

He had known Aunt Cl

wouldn't,"

any more, will you? Ah-

d not then unless I know WHY you

a great favor. As they walked through the outer of

is relative glanced about at the desks where rows of overjoyed clerks

at the door, "but don't you ever dare call me 'Co

dition of his own, but, generally speaking, he was quite content with his modest salary. He unwrapped his mummies and deciphered his moldering papyri, living far more in ancient Egypt than in modern Washington. The Great War and its demands upon the youth of the world left the Institute short-handed and he

had broken, like the enemy's resistance, and the

the doctor; "forget it. You must get

ha was downcast. T

to start for Syria," he said. "I am quite sure I woul

thing. You can't go wandering off to dig in the desert; you might as well sta

le in Syria, a great many of them, a

in trouble with you just now is nerve weariness and lack of strength. Eat, sleep, rest, build up. Eat regular meals at regular times

myself at such places. I am

ow, they have a tendency to become all wrong with very little provocation. I tell you to go away at once,

lusha took off his spectacl

r me!-ah-Oh, dea

ed his stenographer to name a resort where one would be likely to meet-ah-a good many people and find-ah-air

fficient. A crumpled, perspiring wreck, he boarded the train bound for the mountains. The Wh

metery to be visited. But as the fall season drew on the crowds grew greater. People persisted in talking to Galusha when he did not care to be talked to. They ask

not quite sure. The "rest" and "sea air" and "pleasant people" were exactly what the doctor had prescribed for him, but that was not the whole reason for the advertisement's retention. An association of ideas

ade up his mind. His decision was brought to a focus by the help of Mrs. Worth Buckley. Mrs. Buckley's help had not been solicited, but was volunteered, and, as a matter of

ecided manner. She asked him if-he would pardon her for asking, wouldn't he?-but had she, by any chance, the honor of addressing Doctor Bangs, the Egyptologist. Oh, really? How very wonderful! She was quite certain that it was he. She had heard him deliver a series of

road to his favor. He tried to tell this woman so, but it was of no use. In a little while he found it quite as useless to attemp

ave been merely a succession of "I" and "I" and "I" and "Oh, do you really think so, Doctor Bangs?"

pt into the dining room at meal times. Worst of all, she told others, many others, who he was, and he was aware of being stared at, a knowledge which made him acutely self-conscious and correspondi

with the goldfish tank in the hotel lounge. To Galusha Egypt was an enchanted land, a sort of paradise to which fortunate explorers might eventu

essor Bangs"-of the hotel inmates were to picnic somewhere or other the following day. "And you are to come with us, Doctor, and tell us about thos

as in his pocketbook. Then the idea came to him. He would go to the Hall cottage and make a visit of a day or two. If he liked the Cape and Wellmouth he would take lodgings at the Restabit Inn and stay as long as he wished. The suspic

r he took with him. He tiptoed downstairs, ate a hasty breakfast, and took the earliest train for Boston, The following afternoon he s