William went to a large water cooler in the corner, drew a brimming glass of ice water, and with a cold and cruel smile curling his lips, handed it to Fergus. Ah, little Kathleen, in thy rose-twined cottage, thy dark eyes have many a tear in waiting. Could love be omnipresent, that sparkling glass of water would be dashed to the floor ere it touched thy lover's lips! Fergus took the glass and gazed with wonder at its transparent contents; then seized with some sudden impulse he drained the glass of water to the last drop. As he drank, William Meeks, with a diabolical look of triumph on his face, rubbed his clammy hands together and exulted. "What is this stuff?" asked Fergus; "this cold, refreshing liquid that with such exquisite freshness thrills through my heated frame? What nectar is this, tasteless, colorless and sweet as the morning air that quenches thirst, and does not excite the senses? Speak, Mr. Meeks, is it to be found elsewhere?" "It is water," said William, softly, "and it can be had in plenty." "I have often sailed on the bayou," said Fergus, "and have washed my hands at the hydrant at home, but I have never before seen any water." Fergus drank glass after glass from the cooler, and finally suffered William to lead him, reluctant, from the hall. They parted at the door, and as Fergus went down the street like one in some happy dream, saying softly to himself at intervals: "Water!" "Water!" William Meeks looked after him with a smile of devilish satisfaction upon his dark face. * * * * * That evening after he closed the store Fergus started home and suddenly felt an imperious thirst come upon him. He was already a slave to this wonderful new liquid that refreshed him so. He entered a little corner saloon, where he had been in the habit of stopping to get a drink. The bartender seized a mug and reached for the bottle under the counter. "Hold on," said Fergus; "don't be so fast. Give me a glass of water, please." "You owe me ein dollar und five cents," he said. "Blease, Mr. Hollihan, bay me now pefore you go py yourself too much grazy to him remember, und I pe mooch obliged." Fergus then threw the money upon the counter and staggered out of the saloon. He did not go to see Kathleen that night--he was feeling too badly. He was wandering about in an agony of thirst, when he saw a piece of ice as large as a coconut fall from an ice wagon. He seized it in both hands, and hiding himself behind a pile of lumber sucked the ice greedily, with bloodshot eyes and trembling hands. After that he kept a jug of water in the store behind some barrels under the counter, and when no one was looking he would stoop down, and holding up the jug, let the cursed stuff that was driving the light from Kathleen's dark eyes trickle down his burning throat. * * * * *