The Mermaid of Druid Lake, and Other StoriesBump, Charles Weathers
Science
The Mermaid of Druid Lake, and Other Stories
Bump, Charles Weathers
Fiction; Short stories
Two of the fellows at my boarding-house got me to go to a theatre on
Baltimore street last night. It was a variety show, a mixed programme of
acrobatic feats, singing and girls dancing. I thought it all fine, but
the crowd didn't like every bit of it, for at places they began to yell
"Get the hook!" whatever that means.
I intended to hunt up a Methodist church last Sunday, but one of the
associate professors at the college was a classmate of Uncle Will's, and
he invited me to evening service at a Congregational church, a beautiful
edifice on Maryland avenue, looking more like a costly college building
than a church. I enjoyed myself, for there was some fine singing, and we
sat right behind one of the prettiest girls I have ever seen. At the end
I was introduced to some of the people and they invited me to a social
at the church one evening next week.
Maybe you had better not let Father read this. He might get the idea I
wasn't taking my studies seriously enough.
Yours,
HUGH.
III.
To MR. HUGH IREDELL,
641 North Calvert Street,
Baltimore, Maryland.
Summerfield, N. C., Oct. 6, 1906.
Dear Son:
I am glad you are settled in Baltimore and so well satisfied with your
choice of a dignified and honorable profession. I expect to see you
buckle right down to hard work and study, for I will not support a grown
son in idleness. I am not so well pleased at what your mother tells me
you wrote Grace, that you went to a theatre and that you did not go to a
Methodist church last Sunday, as you promised. You remember what Pastor
told you about the danger to young men of drifting from church to church
in a large city like Baltimore, and not sticking to any.
I got the bill for your college fees today. I was surprised that you did
this, for you told me when I agreed to let you go that you would pay
everything out of $35 a month. I will send a money order for it this
time, but you must settle it yourself next term.
Your father,
JOHN IREDELL.
IV.
To MISS GRACE IREDELL,
Summerfield, N. C.
Baltimore, Oct. 10, 1906.
Dear Little Sis:
What in the world made you blab about what I wrote you last week? Father
sends me a roast about going to a theatre and not going to a Methodist
church. You know a fellow should not be expected to work all the time,
but Father's old-fashioned and can't see it that way. Don't tell him
anything like that again.
I have been to theatres a couple more times. You know it doesn't cost
much if you sit with the "gods" in the cheaper seats. All the fellows
pay Dutch and we have a jolly time. One night we went into a lunchroom
on Fayette street and enjoyed fried oysters. Another night we went to a
German place downtown and had a bottle of beer and a cheese sandwich. It
was lively there; such a nice lot of people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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