I'll be on my feet again. Then I can stop econo-
mizing, and enjoy myself. But no more races ;
never, never again."

He was delighted with this idea of economiz-
ing. He liked the idea of self-punishment that it
involved, and as he had never denied himself any-
thing in his life, the novelty of the idea charmed
him. He rolled over to sleep, feeling very much
happier in his mind than he had been before his
determination was taken, and quite eager to begin
on the morrow. He arose very early, about ten
o'clock, and recalled his idea of economy for a
month, as a saving clause to his having lost a
month's spending money.

He was in the habit of taking his coffee and
rolls and a parsley omelette, at Delmonico's every
morning. He decided that he would start out on
his road of economy by omitting the omelette and
ordering only a pot of coffee. By some rare in-
tuition he guessed that there were places up-town
where things were cheaper than at his usual
haunt, only he did not know where they were.
He stumbled into a restaurant on a side street
finally, and ordered a cup of coffee and some rolls.

The waiter seemed to think that was a very
poor sort of breakfast, and suggested some nice
chops or a bit of steak or "ham and eggs, sah,"
all of which made Van Bibber shudder. The
waiter finally concluded that Van Bibber was



AN EXPERIMENT IN ECONOMY 69

poor and couldn't afford any more, which, as it
happened to be more or less true, worried that
young gentleman ; so much so, indeed, that when
the waiter brought him a check for fifteen cents,
Van Bibber handed him a half-dollar and told
him to " keep the change."

The satisfaction he felt in this wore off very
soon when he appreciated that, while he had econ-
omized in his breakfast, his vanity had been very
extravagantly pampered, and he felt how absurd
it was when he remembered he would not have
spent more if he had gone to Delmonico's in the
first place. He wanted one of those large black
Regalias very much, but they cost entirely too
much. He went carefully through his pockets
to see if he had one with him, but he had not,
and he determined to get a pipe. Pipes are al-
ways cheap.

" What sort of a pipe, sir ?" said the man be-
hind the counter.

" A cheap pipe," said Van Bibber.

" But what sort ?" persisted the man.

Van Bibber thought a brier pipe, with an am-
ber mouth-piece and a silver band, would about
suit his fancy. The man had just such a pipe,
with trade-marks on the brier and hall-marks
and "Sterling" on the silver band. It lay in a
very pretty silk box, and there was another mouth-
piece you could screw in, and a cleaner and top
piece with which to press the tobacco down. It
was most complete, and only five dollars. "Isn't



70 AN EXPERIMENT IN ECONOMY

that a good deal for a pipe ?" asked Van Bibber.
The man said, being entirely unprejudiced, that
he thought not. It was cheaper, he said, to get
a good thing at the start. It lasted longer. And
cheap pipes bite your tongue. This seemed to
Van Bibber most excellent reasoning. Some Ox-
ford-Cambridge mixture attracted Van Bibber on
account of its name. This cost one dollar more.
As he left the shop he saw a lot of pipes, brier
and corn-cob and Sallie Michaels, in the window
marked, "Any of these for a quarter." This
made him feel badly, and he was conscious he was
not making a success of his economy. He started
back to the club, but it was so hot that he thought
he would faint before he got there; so he called a
hansom, on the principle that it was cheaper to ride
and keep well than to walk and have a sunstroke.

He saw some people that he knew going by in a
cab with a pile of trunks on the top of it, and
that reminded him that they had asked him to
come down and see them off when the steamer
left that afternoon. So he waved his hand when
they passed, and bowed to them, and cried, " See
you later," before he counted the consequences.
He did not wish to arrive empty-handed, so he
stopped in at a florist's and got a big basket of
flowers and another of fruit, and piled them into
the hansom.

When he came to pay the driver he found the
trip from Thirty-fifth Street to the foot of Lib-
erty was two dollars and a half, and the fruit and



AN EXPERIMENT IN ECONOMY 71

flowers came to twenty-two dollars. He was
greatly distressed over this, and could not see how
it had happened. He rode back in the elevated
for five cents and felt much better. Then some
men just back from a yachting trip joined him at
the club and ordered a great many things to drink,
and of course he had to do the same, and seven dol-
lars were added to his economy fund. He argued
that this did not matter, because he signed a check
for it, and that he would not have to pay for it un-
til the end of the month, when the necessity of
economizing would be over.

Still, his conscience did not seem convinced, and
he grew very desperate. He felt he was not doing
it at all properly, and he determined that he would
spend next to nothing on his dinner. He remem-
bered with a shudder the place he had taken the
tramp to dinner, and he vowed that before he
would economize as rigidly as that he would starve;
but he had heard of the table d'hote places on
Sixth Avenue, so he went there and wandered
along the street until he found one that looked
clean and nice. He began with a heavy soup,
shoved a rich, fat, fried fish over his plate, and
followed it with a queer entree of spaghetti with
a tomato dressing that satisfied his hunger and
killed his appetite as if with the blow of a lead
pipe. But he went through with the rest of it,
for he felt it was the truest economy to get his
money's worth, and the limp salad in bad oil and
the ice-cream of sour milk made him feel that



72 AN EXPERIMENT IN ECONOMY

eating was a positive pain rather than a pleasure;
and in this state of mind and body, drugged and
disgusted, he lighted his pipe and walked slowly
towards the club along Twenty-sixth Street.

He looked in at the cafe at Delmonico's with
envy and disgust, and, going disheartenedly on,
passed the dining-room windows that were wide
open and showed the heavy white linen, the sil-
ver, and the women coolly dressed and everybody
happy.

And then there was a wild waving of arms in-
side, and white hands beckoning him, and he saw
with mingled feelings of regret that the whole
party of the Fourth of July were inside and mo-
tioning to him. They made room for him, and
the captain's daughter helped him to olives, and
the chaperon told how they had come into town
for the day, and had been telegraphing for him
and Edgar and Fred and " dear Bill," and the
rest said they were so glad to see him because
they knew he could appreciate a good dinner if
any one could.

But Van Bibber only groaned, and the awful
memories of the lead-like spaghetti and the bad
oil and the queer cheese made him shudder, and
turned things before him into a Tantalus feast of
rare cruelty. There were Little Neck clams, de-
licious cold consomme, and white fish, and French
chops with a dressing of truffles, and Roman punch
and woodcock to follow, and crisp lettuce and toast-
ed crackers-and-cheese, with a most remarkable



AN EXPERIMENT IN ECONOMY 73

combination of fruits and ices ; and Van Bibber
could eat nothing, and sat unhappily looking at
his plate and shaking his head when the waiter
urged him gently. " Economy !" he said, with
disgusted solemnity. "It's all tommy rot. It
wouldn't have cost me a cent to have eaten this
dinner, and yet I've paid half a dollar to make
myself ill so that I can't. If you know how to
economize, it may be all right ; but if you don't
understand it, you must leave it alone. It's dan-
gerous. I'll economize no more.

And he accordingly broke his vow by taking
the whole party up to see the lady who would
not be photographed in tights, and put them in a
box where they w r ere gagged by the comedian,
and where the soubrette smiled on them and all
went well.



MR. TRAVERS'S FIRST HUNT



MR. TRAVERS'S FIRST HUNT



Travers, who had been engaged to
a girl down on Long Island for the last
three months, only met her father and brother a
few weeks before the day set for the wedding.
The brother is a master of hounds near South-
ampton, and shared the expense of importing a
pack from England with Van Bibber. The father
and son talked horse all day and until one in the
morning ; for they owned fast thoroughbreds, and
entered them at the Sheepshead Bay and other
race-tracks. Old Mr. Paddock, the father of the
girl to whom Travers was engaged, had often
said that when a young man asked him for his
daughter's hand he would ask him in return, not
if he had lived straight, but if he could ride
straight. And on his answering this question in
the affirmative depended his gaining her parent's
consent. Travers had met Miss Paddock and her
mother in Europe, while the men of the family
were at home. He was invited to their place in
the fall when the hunting season opened, and
spent the evening most pleasantly and satisfac-
torily with his fiancee in a corner of the drawing-



78

room. But as soon as the women had gone, young
Paddock joined him and said, "You ride, of
course?" Travers had never ridden; but he had
been prompted how to answer by Miss Paddock,
and so said there was nothing he liked better.
As he expressed it, he would rather ride than
sleep.

"That's good," said Paddock. "I'll give you
a mount on Satan to-morrow morning at the
meet. He is a bit nasty at the start of the sea-
son ; and ever since he killed Wallis, the second
groom, last year, none of us care much to ride
him. But you can manage him, no doubt. He'll
just carry your weight."

Mr. Travers dreamed that night of taking
large, desperate leaps into space on a wild horse
that snorted forth flames, and that rose at solid
stone walls as though they were hayricks.

He was tempted to say he was ill in the morn-
ing which was, considering his state of mind,
more or less true but concluded that, as he would
have to ride sooner or later during his visit,
and that if he did break his neck it would be
in a good cause, he determined to do his best.
He did not want to ride at all, for two excellent
reasons first, because he wanted to live for Miss
Paddock's sake, and, second, because he wanted
to live for his own.

The next morning was a most forbidding and
doleful-looking morning, and young Travers had
great hopes that the meet would be declared off ;



ME. TEAVEES'S FIEST HUNT 79

but, just as he lay in doubt, the servant knocked
at his door with his riding things and his hot
water.

He came down - stairs looking very miserable
indeed. Satan had been taken to the place where
they were to meet, and Travers viewed him on
his arrival there with a sickening sense of fear as
he saw him pulling three grooms off their feet.

Travers decided that he would stay with his
feet on solid earth just as long as he could, and
when the hounds were thrown off and the rest
had started at a gallop he waited, under the pre-
tence of adjusting his gaiters, until they were all
well away. Then he clenched his teeth, crammed
his hat down over his ears, and scrambled up on
to the saddle. His feet fell quite by accident into
the stirrups, and the next instant he was off after
the others, with an indistinct feeling that he was
on a locomotive that was jumping the ties. Satan
was in among and had passed the other horses in
less than five minutes, and was so close on the
hounds that the whippers-in gave a cry of warn-
ing. But Travers could as soon have pulled a
boat back from going over the Niagara Falls as
Satan, and it wa.s only because the hounds Avere
well ahead that saved them from having Satan
ride them down. Travers had taken hold of the
saddle with his left hand to keep himself down,
and sawed and swayed on the reins with his right.
He shut his eyes whenever Satan jumped, and
never knew how he happened to stick on ; but he



80

did stick on, and was so far ahead that no one
could see in the misty morning just how badly he
rode. As it was, for daring and speed he led the
field, and not even young Paddock was near him
from the start. There was a broad stream in
front of him, and a hill just on its other side.
No one had ever tried to take this at a jump. It
was considered more of a swim than anything
else, and the hunters always crossed it by the
bridge, towards the left. Travers saw the bridge
and tried to jerk Satan's head in that direction ;
but Satan kept right on as straight as an express
train over the prairie. Fences and trees and fur-
rows passed by and under Travers like a panora-
ma run by electricity, and he only breathed by
accident. They went on at the stream and the
hill beyond as though they were riding at a
stretch of turf, and, though the whole field set up
a shout of warning and dismay, Travers could
only gasp and shut his eyes. He remembered the
fate of the second groom and shivered. Then the
horse rose like a rocket, lifting Travers so high
in the air that he thought Satan would never
come down again ; but he did come down, with his
feet bunched, on the opposite side of the stream.
The next instant he was up and over the hill, and
had stopped panting in the very centre of the
pack that were snarling and snapping around the
fox. And then Travers showed that he was a
thoroughbred, even though he could not ride, for
he hastily fumbled for his cigar-case, and when



81

the field came pounding up over the bridge and
around the hill, they saw him seated nonchalantly
on his saddle, puffing critically at a cigar and giv-
ing Satan patronizing pats on the head.

"My dear girl," said old Mr. Paddock to his
daughter as they rode back, "if you love that,
young man of yours and want to keep him, make
him. promise to give up riding. A more reckless
and more brilliant horseman I have never seen.
He took that double jump at the gate and that
stream like a centaur. But he will break his
neck sooner or later, and he ought to be stopped."
Young Paddock was so delighted with his pros-
pective brother-in-law's great riding that that
night in the smoking-room he made him a present
of Satan before all the men.

"No," said Travers, gloomily, "I can't take
him. Your sister has asked me to give up what
is dearer to me than anything next to herself,
and that is my riding. You see, she is absurdly
anxious for my safety, and she has asked me to
promise never to ride again, and I have given my
word."

A chorus of sympathetic remonstrance rose from
the men.

" Yes, I know," said Travers to her brother, "it
is rough, but it just shows what sacrifices a man
will make for the woman he loves."
6



LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG



LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG



YOUNG Van Bibber had been staying with
some people at Southampton, L. I., where,
the fall before, his friend Travers made his reputa-
tion as a cross-country rider. He did this, it may
be remembered, by shutting his eyes and holding
on by the horse's mane and letting the horse go as
it pleased. His recklessness and courage are still
spoken of with awe ; and the place where he
cleared the water jump that every one else avoid-
ed is pointed out as Travers's Leap to visiting
horsemen, who look at it gloomily and shake their
heads. Miss Arnett, whose mother was giving
the house-party, was an attractive young woman,
with an admiring retinue of youths who gave
attention without intention, and for none of whom
Miss Arnett showed particular preference. Her
whole interest, indeed, was centred in a dog, a
Scotch collie called Duncan. She allowed this
dog every liberty, and made a decided nuisance
of him for every one around her. He always
went with her when she walked, or trotted beside
her horse when she rode. He stretched himself
Jbefore the fire in the dining-room, and startled



86 LOVE ME, LOVE MY DCKJ

people at table by placing Lis cold nose against
their bands or putting bis paws on their gowns.
He was generally voted a most annoying adjunct
to the Amett household ; but no one dared hint so
to Miss Arnctt, as she only loved those who loved
the dog, or pretended to do it. On the morning
of the afternoon on which Van Bibber and his bag
arrived, the dog disappeared and could not be
recovered. Van Bibber found the household in
a state of much excitement in consequence, and
his welcome was necessarily brief. The arriving
guest was not to be considered at all with the de-
parted dog. The men told Van Bibber, in confi-
dence, that the general relief among the guests
was something ecstatic, but this was marred later
by the gloom of Miss Arnett and her inability to
think of anything else but the finding of the lost
collie. Things became so feverish that for the
sake of rest and peace the house-party proposed
to contribute to a joint purse for the return of
the dog, as even, nuisance as it was, it was not so
bad as having their visit spoiled by Miss Arnett's
abandonment to grief and crossness.

"I think," said the young woman, after luncheon,
" that some of you men might be civil enough to
offer to look for him. I'm sure he can't have
gone far, or, if he has been stolen, the men who
took him couldn't have gone very far away either.
Now which of you will volunteer? I'm sure
you'll do it to please me. Mr. Van Bibber, now :
you say you're so clever. We're all the time



LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG 87

hearing of your adventures. Why don't you
show how full of expedients you are and rise to
the occasion?" The suggestion of scorn in this
speech nettled Van Bibber.

"I'm sure I never posed as being clever," he
said, " and finding a lost dog with all Long Island
to pick and choose from isn't a particularly easy
thing to pull off successfully, I should think."

"I didn't suppose you'd take a dare like that,
Van Bibber," said one of the men. " Why, it's
just the sort of thing you do so well,"

" Yes," said another, " I'll back you to find him
if you try."

"Thanks," said Van Bibber, dryly. "There
seems to be a disposition on the part of the young
men present to turn me into a dog-catcher. I doubt
whether this is altogether unselfish. I do not say
that they would rather remain indoors and teach
the girls how to play billiards, but I quite appre-
ciate their reasons for not wishing to roam about
in the snow and whistle for a dog. However, to
oblige the despondent mistress of this valuable
member of the household, I will risk pneumonia,
and I will, at the same time, in- order to make the
event interesting to all concerned, back myself to
bring that dog back by eight o'clock. Now,
then, if any of you unselfish youths have any
sporting blood, you will just name the sum."

They named one hundred dollars, and arranged
that Van Bibber was to have the dog back by
eight o'clock, or just in time for dinner ; for Van



88 LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG

Bibber said he wouldn't miss his dinner for all the
dogs in the two hemispheres, unless the dogs hap-
pened to be his own.

Van Bibber put on his great-coat and told the
man to bring around the dog-cart ; then he filled
his pockets with cigars and placed a flask of bran-
dy under the seat, and wrapped the robes around
his knees.

"I feel just like a relief expedition to the North
Pole. I think I ought to have some lieutenants,"
he suggested.

" Well," cried one of the men, " suppose we
make a pool and each chip in fifty dollars, and the
man who brings the dog back in time gets the
whole of it ?"

" That bet of mine stands, doesn't it ?" asked
Van Bibber.

The men said it did, and went off to put on
their riding things, and four horses were saddled
and brought around from the stable. Each of the
four explorers was furnished with a long rope to
tie to Duncan's collar, and with which he was to be
led back if they found him. They were cheered
ironically by the maidens they had deserted on
compulsion, and were smiled upon severally by
Miss Arnett. Then they separated and took dif-
ferent roads. It was snowing gently, and was
very cold. Van Bibber drove aimlessly ahead,
looking to the right and left and scanning each
back yard and side street. Every now and then
he hailed some passing farm wagon and asked the



LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG 89

driver if he had seen a stray collie dog, but the
answer was invariably in the negative. He soon
left the village in the rear, and plunged out over
the downs. The wind was bitter cold, and swept
from the water with a chill that cut through his
clothes.

" Oh, this is great," said Van Bibber to the pa-
tient horse in front of him ; " this is sport, this is.
The next time I come to this part of the world
I'll be dragged here with a rope. Nice, hospita-
ble people those Arnetts, aren't they ? Ask you
to make yourself at home chasing dogs over an
ice fjord. Don't know when I've enjoyed myself
so much." Every now and then he stood up and
looked all over the hills and valleys to see if he
could not distinguish a black object running over
the white surface of the snow, but he saw nothing
like a dog, not even the track of one.

Twice he came across one of the other men,
shivering and swearing from his saddle, and with
teeth chattering.

"Well," said one of them, shuddering, "you
haven't found that dog yet, I see."

" No," said Van Bibber. " Oh, no. I've given
up looking for the dog. I'm just driving around
enjoying myself. The air's so invigorating, and
I like to feel the snow settling between my collar
and the back of my neck."

At four o'clock Van Bibber was about as nearly
frozen as a man could be after he had swallowed
half a bottle of brandy. It was so cold that the



90 LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG

ice formed on his cigar when he took it from his
lips, and his feet and the dashboard seemed to
have become stuck together.

" I think I'll give it up," he said, finally, as he
turned the horse's head towards Southampton. "I
hate to lose three hundred and fifty dollars as much
as any man ; but I love my fair young life, and
I'm not going to turn into an equestrian statue in
ice for anybody's collie dog."

He drove the cart to the stable and unharnessed
the horse himself, as all the grooms were out scour-
ing the country, and then went upstairs unobserved
and locked himself in his room, for he did not care to
have the others know that he had given out so early
in the chase. There was a big open fire in his room,
and he put on his warm things and stretched out
before it in a great easy-chair, and smoked and
sipped the brandy and chuckled with delight as
he thought of the four other men racing around
in the snow.

" They may have more nerve than I," he solilo-
quized, " and I don't say they have not ; but they
can have all the credit and rewards they want, and
I'll be satisfied to stay just where I am."

At seven he saw the four riders coming back de-
jectedly, and without the dog. As they passed
his room he heard one of the men ask if Van Bib-
ber had got back yet, and another say yes, he had,
as he had left the cart in the stable, but that one
of the servants had said that he had started out
again on foot.



LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG 91

" He has, has he ?" said the voice. " Well, he's
got sporting blood, and he'll need to keep it at
fever heat if he expects to live. I'm frozen so
that I can't bend ray fingers."

Van Bibber smiled, and moved comfortably in
the big chair ; he had dozed a little, and was feel-
ing very contented. At half-past seven he began
to dress, and at five minutes to eight he was ready
for dinner and stood looking out of the window at
the moonlight on the white lawn below. The
snow had stopped falling, and everything lay
quiet and still as though it were cut in marble.
And then suddenly, across the lawn, came a black,
bedraggled object on four legs, limping painfully,
and lifting its feet as though there were lead on
them.

" Great heavens !" cried Van Bibber, " it's the
dog !" He was out of the room in a moment and
down into the hall. He heard the murmur of
voices in the drawing-room, and the sympathetic
tones of the women who were pitying the men.
Van Bibber pulled on his overshoes and a great-
coat that covered him from his ears to his ankles,
and dashed out into the snow. The dog had just
enough spirit left to try and dodge him, and with
a leap to one side went off again across the lawn.
It was, as Van Bibber knew, but three minutes to
eight o'clock, and have the dog he must and would.
The collie sprang first to one side and then to the
other, and snarled and snapped ; but Van Bibber
was keen with the excitement of the chase, so he



92 LOVE ME, LOVE MY DOG