Once Aboard the Lugger-- The History of George and his MaryHutchinson, A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth)
General
Once Aboard the Lugger-- The History of George and his Mary
Hutchinson, A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth)
Fiction; Humorous stories
“Yes, I will. This is the story. When I was a student in Germany we had
a professor called Meyer. He wore a wig because he was quite bald. He
was very sensitive about his baldness and would have no one know--but we
knew. Upon one afternoon there was a great violinist who was coming to
play at our town. All the professors announced that for this occasion
they would postpone the lectures they should then have given, so that
their classes might attend the concert. But this Professor Meyer said
that he would not postpone his lecture. It was a link in a series, you
understand--not to be missed,--so his class, of which I was one; were
very furious. We told him that we were entitled to a holiday this day
since all had it, but he would not hear us. We were very angry, for
this holiday was our right. Now, also, one week before the concert the
burgomaster of our town was to give a great banquet to the celebration
of the centenary of a famous citizen. Here our Professor Meyer was to
make a speech. Well, when he remained adamant, determined to give us
no holiday, we had a great meeting, and thus we arranged to procure
the holiday that was ours by right. Our plot was justified by his
mulishness. He should lose the thing he most cherished--he should lose
his wig two days before his banquet with the burgomaster. One of us
would take his wig, seizing him as by night he walked to his rooms.
Before his distress we should be most sympathetic, offering every aid.
Perchance he would encourage our efforts by offer of the prize we most
desired. The plot worked, with no misadventure, to a brilliant triumph.
We took the wig. We enveloped him in our sympathy. 'Search out and
restore my wig,' said he, 'and you shall have your holiday.' Then we
found his wig and we enjoyed the holiday that was our right. That is the
story,” Professor Wyvern ended.
Mystification clouded George's face. He pushed out a leg, stared at the
toe. He stared at the fire; at the Professor, chuckling and rubbing
his hands, he stared. His brain twisted the story this way and that,
striving to dovetail it into his own circumstances.
In such a process the eyes are the mouth of the machine whence the
completed manufacture sends forth its sparkling. But while the mechanism
twists and turns the fabrics there is no sparkle--the eyes are clouded
in thought, as we say.
The eyes that George turned upon toe, upon fire, and upon Professor
Wyvern, were dull and lack-lustre. The machine worked unproductive;
there was a cog that required adjustment, a lever that wanted a pull.
George sought the foreman machinist; said slowly: “But I don't see how
the story helps me?”
“Well, you must think over it,” Professor Wyvern told him. “I dare
not tell you any more. I must be no party to the inference that can be
drawn. But do you not see that the thing our Professor cherished most
was his wig? Now, Bill has told me that the thing your uncle cherishes
above all price is--”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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