How Deacon Tubman and Parson Whitney Kept New Year's: And Other StoriesMurray, W. H. H. (William Henry Harrison)
General
How Deacon Tubman and Parson Whitney Kept New Year's: And Other Stories
Murray, W. H. H. (William Henry Harrison)
Fiction; Short stories
But the old man did not wait to gather up the offerings of the generous
and sympathetic crowd, but snatching a handful of silver from the
carter's hat pushed his way out of the jam, and, holding the hand in
which he clutched the silver high above his head, hurried on after the
officer, crying at the top of his voice: "Here's the money, here's the
money; oh, good people," for the street was nearly blocked with those
that swarmed thickly in the wake of the officer and he could make but
slow progress through it, "tell him I have the money and am coming;
don't let him go any farther; I shall never catch him; stop him, stop
him, for the love of heaven, stop him; here's the money." And thus
crying aloud and calling, with his thin, tremulous voice, upon the
officer to stop, he ran frantically along the street, as fast as he
could, in pursuit.
But it is certain that the old man would not have caught up with the
officer had the latter been uninterrupted in his progress, for the
street was filled with people and he could not push his way with much
speed because of his feebleness, but fortune, or perhaps I should say
misfortune, favored him, so that he shortly overtook the object of his
pursuit and came up with the officer and the dog. But, alas! his old
heart got little gain thereby, but a grievous loss, rather, for when he
came to the spot both lay stretched senseless on the ground, the man
knocked flat to the earth by the fist of an indignant citizen, and the
dog lying with his skull broken in by a brutal blow from the fellow's
club.
When the old man came to the spot where the dog and the officer lay, he
stopped, and when he saw what had happened, the money he had brought
with which to deliver his dog, fell rattling, unheeded to the ground,
and then he raised his palms toward heaven, as if entreating the
vengeance or the benignity of the skies, and with tears streaming down
his cheeks, he lifted up his voice and wept, saying: "Oh, God, he's
killed my dog!" And then he sank down all in a heap, as if he would die
beside his dying dog, for the dog was not yet dead, but dying.
This his master soon perceived, and heedless of the multitude who
thronged the street from side to side, he lifted the dying dog into his
lap and laid his poor crushed head against his breast and mourned over
him as a mother, deserted by husband and friends, might mourn for an
only babe when, alone in a foreign land, it lay on her bosom dying; and
the multitude, who, by this, had knowledge of the dreadful deed, stood
in silence while he mourned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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