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Little Speck in Garnered Fruit

Short Stories

"Fox-in-the-Morning"

A Bird of Bagdad

A Blackjack Bargainer

A Call Loan

A Chaparral Christmas Gift

A Chaparral Prince

A Comedy in Rubber

A Cosmopolite in a Cafe

A Departmental Case

A Dinner at--------*

A Double-Dyed Deceiver

A Fog in Santone

A Harlem Tragedy

A Lickpenny Lover

A Little Local Colour

A Little Talk about Mobs

A Madison Square Arabian Night

A Matter of Mean Elevation

A Midsummer Knight's Dream

A Midsummer Masquerade

A Municipal Report

A Newspaper Story

A Night in New Arabia

A Philistine in Bohemia

A Poor Rule

A Ramble in Aphasia

A Retrieved Reformation

A Ruler of Men

A Sacrifice Hit

A Service of Love

A Snapshot at the President

A Strange Story

A Technical Error

A Tempered Wind

According to Their Lights

After Twenty Years

An Adjustment of Nature

An Afternoon Miracle

An Apology

An Unfinished Christmas Story

An Unfinished Story

Aristocracy Versus Hash

Art and the Bronco

At Arms With Morpheus

Babes in the Jungle

Best-Seller

Between Rounds

Bexar Scrip No. 2692

Blind Man's Holiday

Brickdust Row

Buried Treasure

By Courier

Calloway's Code

Caught

Cherchez La Femme

Christmas by Injunction

Compliments of the Season

Confessions of a Humorist

Conscience in Art

Cupid a La Carte

Cupid's Exile Number Two

Dickey

Dougherty's Eye-Opener

Elsie in New York

Extradited from Bohemia

Fickle Fortune or How Gladys Hustled

Friends in San Rosario

From Each According to His Ability

From the Cabby's Seat

Georgia's Ruling

Girl

He Also Serves

Hearts and Crosses

Hearts and Hands

Helping the Other Fellow

Holding Up a Train

Hostages to Momus

Hygeia at the Solito

Innocents of Broadway

Jeff Peters as a Personal Magnet

Jimmy Hayes and Muriel

Law and Order

Let Me Feel Your Pulse

Little Speck in Garnered Fruit

Lord Oakhurst's Curse

Lost on Dress Parade

Madame Bo-Peep, of the Ranches

Makes the Whole World Kin

Mammon and the Archer

Man About Town

Masters of Arts

Memoirs of a Yellow Dog

Modern Rural Sports

Money Maze

Nemesis and the Candy Man

New York by Camp Fire Light

Next to Reading Matter

No Story

October and June

On Behalf of the Management

One Dollar's Worth

One Thousand Dollars

Out of Nazareth

Past One at Rooney's

Phoebe

Proof of the Pudding

Psyche and the Pskyscraper

Queries and Answers

Roads of Destiny

Roses, Ruses and Romance

Rouge et Noir

Round the Circle

Rus in Urbe

Schools and Schools

Seats of the Haughty

Shearing the Wolf

Ships

Shoes

Sisters of the Golden Circle

Smith

Sociology in Serge and Straw

Sound and Fury

Springtime a La Carte

Squaring the Circle

Strictly Business

Strictly Business

Suite Homes and Their Romance

Telemachus, Friend

The Admiral

The Adventures of Shamrock Jolnes

The Assessor of Success

The Atavism of John Tom Little Bear

The Badge of Policeman O'Roon

The Brief Debut of Tildy

The Buyer From Cactus City

The Caballero's Way

The Cactus

The Caliph and the Cad

The Caliph, Cupid and the Clock

The Call of the Tame

The Chair of Philanthromathematics

The Champion of the Weather

The Church with an Overshot-Wheel

The City of Dreadful Night

The Clarion Call

The Coming-Out of Maggie

The Complete Life of John Hopkins

The Cop and the Anthem

The Count and the Wedding Guest

The Country of Elusion

The Day Resurgent

The Day We Celebrate

The Defeat of the City

The Detective Detector

The Diamond of Kali

The Discounters of Money

The Dog and the Playlet

The Door of Unrest

The Dream

The Duel

The Duplicity of Hargraves

The Easter of the Soul

The Emancipation of Billy

The Enchanted Kiss

The Enchanted Profile

The Ethics of Pig

The Exact Science of Matrimony

The Ferry of Unfulfilment

The Fifth Wheel

The Flag Paramount

The Fool-Killer

The Foreign Policy of Company 99

The Fourth in Salvador

The Friendly Call

The Furnished Room

The Gift of the Magi

The Girl and the Graft

The Girl and the Habit

The Gold That Glittered

The Greater Coney

The Green Door

The Guardian of the Accolade

The Guilty Party - An East Side Tragedy

The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss

The Hand that Riles the World

The Handbook of Hymen

The Harbinger

The Head-Hunter

The Hiding of Black Bill

The Higher Abdication

The Higher Pragmatism

The Hypotheses of Failure

The Indian Summer of Dry Valley Johnson

The Lady Higher Up

The Last Leaf

The Last of the Troubadours

The Lonesome Road

The Lost Blend

The Lotus And The Bottle

The Love-Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein

The Making of a New Yorker

The Man Higher Up

The Marionettes

The Marquis and Miss Sally

The Marry Month of May

The Memento

The Missing Chord

The Moment of Victory

The Octopus Marooned

The Passing of Black Eagle

The Pendulum

The Phonograph and the Graft

The Pimienta Pancakes

The Plutonian Fire

The Poet and the Peasant

The Pride of the Cities

The Princess and the Puma

The Prisoner of Zembla

The Proem

The Purple Dress

The Ransom of Mack

The Ransom of Red Chief

The Rathskeller and the Rose

The Red Roses of Tonia

The Reformation of Calliope

The Remnants of the Code

The Renaissance at Charleroi

The Roads We Take

The Robe of Peace

The Romance of a Busy Broker

The Rose of Dixie

The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball

The Rubber Plant's Story

The Shamrock and the Palm

The Shocks of Doom

The Skylight Room

The Sleuths

The Snow Man

The Social Triangle

The Song and the Sergeant

The Sparrows in Madison Square

The Sphinx Apple

The Tale of a Tainted Tenner

The Theory and the Hound

The Thing's the Play

The Third Ingredient

The Trimmed Lamp

The Unknown Quantity

The Unprofitable Servant

The Venturers

The Vitagraphoscope

The Voice of the City

The Whirligig of Life

The World and the Door

Thimble, Thimble

Tictocq

To Him Who Waits

Tobin's Palm

Tommy's Burglar

Tracked to Doom

Transformation of Martin Burney

Transients in Arcadia

Two Recalls

Two Renegades

Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen

Ulysses and the Dogman

Vanity and Some Sables

What You Want

While the Auto Waits

Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking

Witches' Loaves







The honeymoon was at its full. There was a flat
with the reddest of new carpets, tasselled portieres
and six steins with pewter lids arranged on a ledge
above the wainscoting of the dining-room. The won-
der of it was yet upon them. Neither of them had
ever seen a yellow primrose by the river's brim; but if
such a sight had met their eyes at that time it would
have seemed like - well, whatever the poet expected
the right kind of people to see in it besides a prim-
rose.

The bride sat in the rocker with her feet resting
upon the world. She was wrapt in rosy dreams and a
kimono of the same hue. She wondered what the peo-
ple in Greenland and Tasmania and Beloochistan
were saying one to another about her marriage to
Kid McGarry. Not that it made any difference.
There was no welter-weight from London to the
Southern Cross that could stand up four hours - no;
four rounds - with her bridegroom. And he had
been hers for three weeks; and the crook of her little
finger could sway him more than the fist of any 142-
pounder in the world.

Love, when it is ours, is the other name for self-
abnegation and sacrifice. When it belongs to people
across the airshaft it means arrogance and self-con-
ceit.

The bride crossed her oxfords and looked thought-
fully at the distemper Cupids on the ceiling.

"Precious," said she, with the air of Cleopatra
asking Antony for Rome done up in tissue paper and
delivered at residence, "I think I would like a peach."

Kid McGarry arose and put on his coat and hat.
He was serious, shaven, sentimental, and spry.

"All right," said he, as coolly as though be were
only agreeing to sign articles to fight the champion
of England. "I'll step down and cop one out for you
see?"

"Don't be long," said the bride. "I'll be lonesome
without my naughty boy. Get a nice, ripe one."
After a series of farewells that would have befitted
an imminent voyage to foreign parts, the Kid went
down to the street.

Here he not unreasonably hesitated, for the season
was yet early spring, and there seemed small chance
of wresting anywhere from those chill streets and
stores the coveted luscious guerdon of summer's
golden prime.

At the Italian's fruit-stand on the corner be
stopped and cast a contemptuous eye over the dis-
play of papered oranges, highly polished apples and
wan, sun-hungry bananas.

"Gotta da peach?" asked the Kid in the tongue of
Dante, the lover of lovers.

"Ah, no, - " sighed the vender. "Not for one mont
com-a da peach. Too soon. Gotta da nice-a orange.
Like-a da orange?"

Scornful, the Kid pursued his quest. He entered
the all-night chop-house, cafe, and bowling-alley of
his friend and admirer, Justus O'Callahan. The
O'Callahan was about in his institution, looking for
leaks.

"I want it straight," said the Kid to him. "The
old woman has got a hunch that she wants a peach.
Now, if you've got a peach, Cal, get it out quick. I
want it and others like it if you've got 'em in plural
quantities."

"The house is yours," said O'Callahan. "But
there's no peach in it. It's too soon. I don't sup-
pose you could even find 'em at one of the Broadway
joints. That's too bad. When a lady fixes her
mouth for a certain kind of fruit nothing else won't
do. It's too late now to find any of the first-class
fruiterers open. But if you think the missis would
like some nice oranges I've just got a box of fine ones
in that she might."

"Much obliged, Cal. It's a peach proposition
right from the ring of the gong. I'll try further."

The time was nearly midnight as the Kid walked
down the West-Side avenue. Few stores were open
and such as were practically hooted at the idea of a
peach.

But in her moated flat the bride confidently awaited
her Persian fruit. A champion welter-weight not find
a peach? - not stride triumphantly over the seasons
and the zodiac and the almanac to fetch an Amsden's
June or a Georgia cling to his owny-own?

The Kid's eye caught sight of a window that was
lighted and gorgeous with nature's most entrancing
colors. The light suddenly went out. The Kid
sprinted and caught the fruiterer locking his door.

"Peaches?" said he, with extreme deliberation.

"Well, no, Sir. Not for three or four weeks yet.
I haven't any idea where you might find some. There
may be a few in town from under the glass, but they'd
be bard to locate. Maybe at one of the more expen-
sive hotels - some place where there's plenty of
money to waste. I've got some very fine oranges,
though - from a shipload that came in to-day."

The Kid lingered on the corner for a moment,
and then set out briskly toward a pair of green lights
that flanked the steps of a building down a dark
side street.

"Captain around anywhere?" he asked of the desk
sergeant of the police station.

At that moment the captain came briskly forward
from the rear. He was in plain clothes and had a
busy air.

"Hello, Kid," he said to the pugilist. "Thought
you were bridal-touring?

"Got back yesterday. I'm a solid citizen now.
Think I'll take an interest in municipal doings. How
would it suit you to get into Denver Dick's place to-
night, Cap?

"Past performances," said the captain, twisting his
moustache. "Denver was closed up two months ago."

"Correct," said the Kid. "Rafferty chased him
out of the Forty-third. He's running in your pre-
cinct now, and his game's bigger than ever. I'm
down on this gambling business. I can put you
against his game."

"In my precinct?" growled the captain. "Are
you sure, Kid? I'll take it as a favor. Have you
got the entree? How is it to be done?"

"Hammers," said the Kid. "They haven't got
any steel on the doors yet. You'll need ten men.
No, they won't let me in the place. Denver has been
trying to do me. He thought I tipped him off for the
other raid. I didn't, though. You want to hurry.
I've got to get back home. The house is only three
blocks from here."

Before ten minutes had sped the captain with a
dozen men stole with their guide into the hallway of
a dark and virtuous-looking building in which many
businesses were conducted by day.

"Third floor, rear," said the Kid, softly. "I'll
lead the way."

Two axemen faced the door that he pointed out to
them.

"It seems all quiet," said the captain, doubtfully.

"Are you sure your tip is straight?"

"Cut away!" said the Kid. "It's on me if it
ain't."

The axes crashed through the as yet unprotected
door. A blaze of light from within poured through
the smashed panels. The door fell, and the raiders
rang into the room with their guns handy.

The big room was furnished with the gaudy mag-
nificence dear to Denver Dick's western ideas. Vari-
ous well-patronized games were in progress. About
fifty men who were in the room rushed upon the police
in a grand break for personal liberty. The plain-
clothes men had to do a little club-swinging. More
than half the patrons escaped.

Denver Dick had graced his game with his own
presence that night. He led the rush that was in-
tended to sweep away the smaller body of raiders,
But when be saw the Kid his manner became personal.
Being in the heavyweight class be cast himself joy-
fully upon his slighter enemy, and they rolled down
a flight of stairs in each others arms. On the land-
ing they separated and arose, and then the Kid was
able to use some of his professional tactics, which had
been useless to him while in the excited clutch of a
200-pound sporting gentleman who was about to lose
$20,000 worth of paraphernalia.

After vanquishing his adversary the Kid hurried
upstairs and through the gambling-room into a
smaller apartment connecting by an arched doorway.

Here was a long table set with choicest chinaware
and silver, and lavishly furnished with food of that
expensive and spectacular sort of which the devotees
of sport are supposed to be fond. Here again was to
be perceived the liberal and florid taste of the gen-
tleman with the urban cognomenal prefix.

A No. 10 patent leather shoe protruded a few of
its inches outside the tablecloth along the floor. The
Kid seized this and plucked forth a black man in a
white tie and the garb of a servitor.

"Get up!" commanded the Kid. "Are you in
charge of this free lunch?"

"Yes, sah, I was. Has they done pinched us ag'in,
boss?"

"Looks that way. Listen to me. Are there any
peaches in this layout? If there ain't I'll have to
throw up the sponge."

"There was three dozen, sah, when the game
opened this evenin'; but I reckon the gentlemen done
eat 'em all up. If you'd like to eat a fust-rate
orange, sah, I kin find you some."

"Get busy," ordered the Kid, sternly, and move
whatever peach crop you've got quick or there'll be
trouble. If anybody oranges me again to-night, I'll
knock his face off."

The raid on Denver Dick's high-priced and prodi-
gal luncheon revealed one lone, last peach that had
escaped the epicurean jaws of the followers of
chance. Into the Kid's pocket it went, and that in-
defatigable forager departed immediately with his
prize. With scarcely a glance at the scene on the
sidewalk below, where the officers were loading their
prisoners into the patrol wagons, be moved homeward
with long, swift strides.

His heart was light as be went. So rode the
knights back to Camelot after perils and high deeds
done for their ladies fair. The Kid's lady had com-
manded him and be had obeyed. True, it was but a
peach that she had craved; but it had been no small
deed to glean a peach at midnight from that wintry
city where yet the February snows lay like iron.
She had asked for a peach; she was his bride; in his
pocket the peach was warming in his band that held it
for fear that it might fall out and be lost.

On the way the Kid turned in at an all-night drug
store and said to the spectacled clerk:

"Say, sport, I wish you'd size up this rib of mine
and see if it's broke. I was in a little scrap and
bumped down a flight or two of stairs."

The druggist made an examination.
"It isn't broken," was his diagnosis, "but you have
a bruise there that looks like you'd fallen off the
Flatiron twice."

"That's all right," said the Kid. "Let's have
your clothesbrush, please."

The bride waited in the rosy glow of the pink lamp
shade. The miracles were not all passed away. By
breathing a desire for some slight thing - a flower,
a pomegranate, a - oh, yes, a peach - she could
send forth her man into the night, into the world
which could not withstand him, and he would do her
bidding.

And now be stood by her chair and laid the peach
in her band.

"Naughty boy!" she said, fondly. "Did I say a
peach? I think I would much rather have had an
orange."

Blest be the bride.




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