LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2487, 27 March 1882, Page 4

LITERATURE.

HOW JACK FORBES WAS AVENGED.

Everybody agreed that Jack Forbes had not been treated fairly, '1 ha squire, the clergymen, tho cackllug old ladies at the sewing bee, tho baker, tho milkman, the members ot the Chilian Sooio'y—in fact, all the prominent members in Banglehury admitted that the treatment whloh Jack Forbes had received from Jenny Brown was tho roughest that had ever been inflicted upon a clever young man by a good lookiog g’rt. The whole story was os follows : In May Mies Brown had come to Banglebuty, fresh from a winter’s gaiety in the city, where her parents lived. It was whispered abcut thvt she was sent to the village to remain with her uncle, Judgo Bates, m order to separate her from a youth who had made a deep Impression upon her at heme, But this was merely a rumour, which seemed to be denied by the light-hearted-ness and joyous spirit of the fair maiden. At any rate, It did not deter Mr Forbes from falling in love with her, after a very brief acquaintance, and showing h r that devoted attention which is the usual method of ox presume such a tender passion. Miss Jenny received these little demonstrations as if she liked them ; and although Forbes never could get his courage quite up to the point of declaration, he did not entertain a single doubt of her devotion to him. Night after night he took her to concerts and lectures, and singing school, and sociables, dancing and singing with her, and walking homo with her in the moonlight and the starlight, with his heart knocking at her ribs as if it was bent upon fracturing them, and his soul so fu 1 of tender fear that ha could talk of nothing bat the most absurdly commonplace and prosy subjects. Of couree Forbes behaved very foolishly. He could not reasonably expect Miss Brown to parade around tho country with him for ever without having an understanding, particularly when the whole village talked about the matter ; and Forbes, therefore, had no right to complain when Mr Dulcitt, the new singing matter, soon after his arrival in town, began to trespass in Forbes’s bailiwick, and to ergage an unpleasantly large share if Miss Brown’s time and attention.

Mr Dulcitt was a mild young map, with light hair and weak eyes which were protested by spectacles, lao had a room at Mrs Megonegal's, whe-e ho used t > practice upon the flute, until the other boarders would rage and tear up and down the entries, and consign Daloilt and his flute to a place which Dulcitt, we sincerely hope, will never roach, and where a flute under any circumstances. would be entirely useless. But Duloitt’s strong point was vocalism. He could sing with such tremendous power that people wondered how he contrived to get so great a volume out of so small a body. A rumor spread ah nt that his legs were hollow, and constructed like organ pipes, and that he had bellows in lis boots. How over, he was a geod aicg*r— there was no manner of doubt about that; and when he stood up in front of his class in the Town e all, and led them through some spirited chorne, he created so mnoh enthusiasm for himself, that Mr Forbes cowered in the back part cf the room bo angry that he c; uld hardly help along the chorus with that dreadful bass voice of his. But his anger was mere good humor at such time:, to the ferocious rage with which he regarded the mild eyed Dulcitt when he desc-nded from the platform and beamed through his spectacles upon Jenny, as he offered her his arm swept her past poor old Forbes, without even a glance at his rival. To make matters worse, everybody in the class understood the situation, and all eyes were turned upon Jack to see how he would bear it. Fvorybody considered Miss Jenny’s conduct highly improper. The young ladies thought so because Mr Dulcitt h»d neglected them. The young gentlemen entertained the opinion because each man had a private imp ession that such behaviour would have been justifiable only if Jack had been forsaken for him.

One cold night In December the Oecilian Society met to practice some music for a concert which was to be given during the holidays. Dulcitt and all the members of his singing school were present. After the rehearsal Dulcitt and Miss Brown went away arm-in-arm, as usnal. Forbes decided to bring matters to a crisis that very night. He resolved to watch the house of Judgs Bates until Dulcitt and Miss Brown should part at the front door, and then to plunge in and propose to his fair deluder at once. He lived next door to the judge ; and so putting his hit firmly on his bead he left the hall and darted quickly around through a back street so that he might roach home before Dulcitt and Jenny arrived. As be entered the gate of his front yard and sat down in the darkness of the porch, ho saw them coming slowly down the street. His dog ran up to him and began to osper shout and bark ; but Jack forced him to lie down beside him and keep quiet, while his rival approached with his enslaver. They came very deliberately and passed by, conversing in such soft tones that the wretched listener onuld not understand a word. She reached the judge’s door. Dulcitt stood and talked for a while, Forbes meantime shivering with cold and impatient for his departure. But after a little pari- y Dulcitt actually went into the house. Jack Forbes groaned aloud; and then, after giving his dog a kick that sect him howling away behind the house, .lack cleared the fence at a bound and was in Judge Bates’s garden. The judge had his library room upon the second floor, and Mr Forbes had jnst got beneath the window when the lamp was lighted and Miss Jenny appeared in the act of removing her bonnet. It was a moan thing to do —a mean thing even for h desperate lover —but Forbes decided to clamber into the tree that stood by the window, so that ho might look with his own eyes upon the perfidy of the woman to whom he bad given his love. After a series of difficult gymnastics, during which he tore his coat and knocked the skin off his hands, he reached a place from which he could peer into the room. Yes there was Jenny, sitting In front of the fire, and Dulcitt by her side, with his arm ou the back of the chair, with his glasses turned full upon her, and his faded eyes gazing at her, just as Jack nsed to gaze Korbes felt bis heart sink within him at this spectacle, but he determined to sit on that limb all night if it was necessary, in order to see all that happened and to ascertain precisely how matters stood. Hardly had he formed the resolution, when J-jnny came to the window and palled down the curtain,

•It’s of no use,’ said Jack, in despair; and he began to descend the tree, when the doer of the honaa opened and somebody oamoont. It was so dark that Jack coaid only disFngafih a figure which he thought resembled that of the judge. The jodge walked towards the stable, whistling, meanwhile, to a large dog that accompanied him. Jack had heard the judge express his deter mination to procure a dog to protect that very stab’e. Doubtless that was (he animal. ‘But the best thing for me to dowillbeto keep quiet until the judge goes In,’ said Jack. To his horror, however, he saw dimly the figure of the dog coining towards the tree and a moment later the animal stood beneath him barking loudly. Jack thought then he should surely be discovered. But no, strange to say, the judge walked slowly back to the house and closed the door, leaving his dog under the tree. A fter barking a few moments more, the brute lay down, and seemed determined to make a night of it Mr Forbes from his cool and fifty peioh, regarded the indistinct black figure beneath him with anguish. * Good gracious,’ he said, ' suppose the confounded brute should stay there all night I’ Then he thought he would wait until the dog got to sleep, and creep gently down without waking him. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes passed, with Jack blowing the fingers of one hand, while with the other he balanced himself on the limb, fie began to descend. But at the very first motion the dog leaped up and began barking again He tried the experiment a second time, and, just as the ferocious brute stretched himself upon the ground, after another demonstration, Jack canght sight of two shadows kissing each other upon the curtain. Then the light was turned out, and presently he heard the front door open, and saw Duloltt dance along beneath the street lamp, as if be were practising a fandango. It occurred to the unfortunate Mr Forbes to call him, ‘ But no!' ejaculated Forbes; ‘I will freeze into solid Ice first; hang me if I don’t 1’ and he stamped on the limb so violently that it roused the dog, who barked violently. * Let ns try what kindness will do,’ said Mr Forbes, making that peculiar noise which

resemble? the sound of kissing—a noise which is supposed to soothe a dog, but which cannot be writt»n. ‘ Poor follow! poor old dog ! come here, poor fellow!’ (K'siing noise again ; then a whistle ) But the dog barked more vociferously than over, and pranced round the tree as if the only boon he wanted in this life was a chance to bite a chop from Mr Forbes’ leg. * Hero, Pont! hero, old fellow ! (kissing noise again)—come hero old dog ! here, poor fellow ! here, Jack !’ ‘ Mora violent demoustraiiocs cf bloodthirstiness on the part of tha now frantic animal.

‘Here, Jack! Hero! Rats! rats! katch 'em Jack !’ exclaimed Mr Forbes with the ingenuity of despair. Rats were not the game wanted at this moment, apparently by “Jack.” Meditation upon the succulency of Mr Forbes’ calf seemed to have filled him with frenzy, for ho capered and howled, and howled and capered wor.e than ever. ‘Lie down, air!’ said Jack, trying a now plan ; 1 lie down, sir I keep quiet! go home ! go home, T tell you !’ and he descended two or three feet from the tree. This seemed to make the animal mere courageous, for now he leaped up the trunk, and tried his very best to get a nip at Mr Forbes’ boots, barking all the time as If he had wound up his vocal apparatus was kept going with a spring. Ho Jaok climbed back to the most comfortable place he could find, reluctantly convinced that he should have to stay In the tree until morning. Ho seated himself astride a limb, with his brok against the trunk, and put his hands in hia pockets to keep them warm, Presont’y the dog became quiet, and Jaok sat there looking up at the stars, which seemed to wink at him through the frosty air, as if to say, * Got you now, old fellow ; nice fix you’re in, Isn’t it ? ’ Then he beg»n to think about trees in general. He thought of William Penn’s treaty tree, and of the picture that ho had seen of the prescribed royalist hid In a hollow tree, with a pretty girl giving him food. And ho wished Jenny would only could down-stairs and hand him something warm and comfortable. He re. membered that cheerful anecdote which relates how the coon, which was treed by Captain Scott, of Kentucky, promised to come down if the captain would not shoot, and Mr Forbes thought was a lucky ’ooon it was to be atls to come down when it choose. And there was the < Id story about Charles the Second hiding in an oak, with the soldiers beneath looking for h’m Jack thought ho would rather have a whole hostile army encamped under that tree of his. at the present moment, than that infernal dog. which lay there as calm and quiet as if nothing was the matter.

'! heu the stars began to dance about in the sky, and to multiply, and Jack caught himself nodding and dreaming so that he nearly once lost his balance and fell. He had always heard that sleepiness was a symptom of freezing to death, so he jumped up and began clambering np and down the branches to keep himself warm. This set the dog to hark agein, and it made such a fearful rocket that at last Judge Bates flung up his window and threw a misrule of some kind at the animal, accompanied with an angry word or two. Jack could stand it no longer, bo he cried out :

‘ Judge ! Judge Bates ! ’ ‘ Holloa! Who’s there ? ’ cried the judge, nervously. 1 I; Jack Forbes ; lam up this tree, and I can’t get down because of this confounded dog of yours.’ ‘Of mice ? I have no dog,’ said the judge. ‘ Wo'l, at any rata there’s a ferocious dog here, and I can’t gst down ; I am freezing,’ said Jack, pathetically. * Wait a moment till I get dressed,’ said the judge, closing the window. In five minutes or ten, the judge came to tha door with a lantern la his hand, while Mrs Bates and Jenny Brown, nnd the three servant girls, stood at their respective windows, wrapped in shawls, surveying the scene with eager and excited Interest. The judge came forward cauttoat-ly, and e p oke to the dog. It leaped towards him instantly. The judge laughed. ‘ Why, Jack, this is your own dog,’ he said. ‘No I ’t can’t be, ’ replied Jack. ‘ But it is though,’ said the judge, convulsed with laughter, and holding the lantern close to the brate. It was too true. Forbes, In his nervous, ness acd fear, had mistaken the f-ieudly capers and yelps cf the dog for manifestations of ferocity on the part of some other animal. (To he continued )