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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 1904)
THE OREGON DAIliY, JOURNAL PORTLAND. SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 3, 1901- GOOD STORIES FOR CHILDREN---By Walt McDougall A Lad Who Was Qffice Boy to a Wizard :dnd Learned a Lot.of His Hidden Secrets How He ; Turned His Know ledge to Good Account and Rescued a Beautiful Princess OMMY FRAME was office W to a wizard. J Tie secured the Dosition by a funny acci-- dent lie caught cold and lost his voice so V--. tliattne doctor toia mm noi 10 go 10 suiui for a woek, and while he was playing with a lot of bfiya old Gormley, the wizard, came along, and see ing that he- didn't "shout or yell like the rest of the , bcys.'stoppcd him as he ran past and asked: "Hi, boy; can't you talk r : ; Tommy- shook his head; but, of course, did not reply otherwise. - ,,','. , "Are you deaf, also?" asked the wizard. "No, of course not!" he added. z - s - But-Tommy just for a joke, nodded his head af firmatively, and the surprised wizard paid: ' "But how do you know what I am saying to yo,u if you are deaf i" ' . , . . Tommy, who could hardly keep from laughing, made signs that he knew from the motion of tbor man's mouth just what he was saying, and as Wiz ard Gormley had often heard of that curious prac tice of the deaf and dumb, he immediately concluded, that Tommy was one of that unfortunate claBS and ho went on to say : " '1 need a 6mart boy in my office, and you will just : suit me. ,1 will give you three dollars a week."' Tommy,- to carry the joke farther, although ha had not the slightest intention of accepting , the effer, took out apencil endpaper and wrote t , ' 'r i - "What do I have to do for the three dullarat" ? "Oh, not much. Run errands and open the door for toy customers. 1 am a lawyer, you see, and I am ; very busy man." i , "I will come and sceyou to-morrow after I ask my uncle," Tommy wrote, and then the man handed ; him a card with these words printed upon it: ASMODEUS X. GROMLEY, rSYCHOJURIO COUNSELLOR AND PROTOPLASMIC ADVISER , : 13 Cosmos Terrace, Green Streets - Tommy took the card and ran away; for he could Hot keep his face from betraying him, but when he reached home he no longer felt mirthful, for there he found that the uncle with whom ho lived had just died. The poor boy was now left without a friend in the world, for he had lost his parents some years before, and this uncle had been his only re lation. .; ' : ': ' . ' ,. . ';' What to do he knew not, but after the funeral, when the woman who owned the house in which the two had lived told him that unless he could pay board he must leave, he remembered, the old man's 6Her and to him he went at once, carrying a slate, however, on which to write, for he knew that unlesY he kept up the fiction of being deaf and dumb he could not secure or keep the position. ' 1 Now old Gormley merely pretended to be a law- ycr in order to avert the curiosity of his neighbors and prevent questions being asked. . . ' Many a lawyer has pretended before this to be a ' wizard, but this was doubtless the first time a Teal wizard made believe to be a lawyer, ' and "almost everybody around Cosmos Terrace thought the old man really was what he pretended to be, but hun dreds of people knew him for the greatest and mpst adept of conjurors and magicians, whose magic Fjpclls were marvelous in their potency. r v So many callers came every day that he' really needed a boy, since the little dwarf who used to open -the door had died; and the idea of a deaf and dumb boy, who wouldn't be forever listening at the keyhole, as the dwarf had done, was very pleasant, lie smiled a warm welcome when Tommy appeared and wrote on his slate that he wanted the job. l He showed Tommy his rooms, told him he mut 11 , . 1 1 ' 1 '1 V 1: 1- - 1 A tt 4 snakes and toads that tood or hung all about the imW-liirtitod rnnm with their srreen eves clarinir at hinr, keep 4he books all neatly arranged, bring coal for the grate, fill the lamps, make the beds, wind the clock and tend the door. When people came asking for a lawyer he was to tell thera hat Gormley was far too busy to bother about any mora clients, but when they asked to see the Protoplasmic 'iAdviser, or even, said he, should they happen to ask for the wizard, admit them at once; "You will sleep down here on the sofa," he added, "for many people come to see me long after midn'ght in fact, at all hours and yon must sleep where you will feel them' knocking, as you can't h'ear." h'And remember," he said, 'last of all, but most Important, never tell anybody what you see here in this house, or evil will befall you, evil that will be .far worse than being deaf and dumbl" . Tommy nodded as if nothing was farther from his thoughts, but inwardly he trembled nt the idea of being office boy to a wizard, which, it was .very plain, was the old man's profession. . However, it was a means of his making a living, he thought; and he made up his mind to remain as deaf as an adder and as dumb 68 an oyster, which at present wss not difficult, for his voice waa still gone. . He sat down in a chair by the door, where he could look out of a narrow side window and see who came on the stoop, . At noon the wizard sent him to a restaurant for luncheon, and Tommy saw that he would get enough to eat and was happy. He admired the old man's' taste, too,' for be ordered two ham sandwiches, five cream puffs, two napoleons and a pie for lunch. Tommy saw that life in that house would Certainly he wotth living besides, he realized that many won derful things might happen there, too, end as he was aware that an office boy generally learns a great deal about the business with which he is connected, he determined to pick up any stray bits of wizardly knowledge that he might get hold of. Many a strange man. and woman came to that house, and, as all considered Tommy deaf and .dumb, they never hesitated to talk before him, although all turnd their backs so that he could not see their lips Vnove, as the wizard bade them, which often caused the boy to almost choke to death as he tried to restrain his grins,. ' v,v , f : ' ; ' , -Wonderful .things he heard ; , awful plots wera hatched there for the undoing of men -and even' kingdoms, for people came id see Wizard Gormley rven from Arabia, Hungary, Mesopotamia,': Thibet, ; Burma and Heligoland. Pundits from the Pnnjaub in India, seers from Persia, magi; from Biam, adept from Atlantic City, clairvoyants from llar lorn and PaterKon and palmists from Palmyra came to him; men of all ranks, .plenipotentiaries, ambas 'tu.-lors, ahkourids, rajahs, rabbis, legatees, regents, j juhaa, .dona, grand CQmma.fcd.crs, SVp& muftis 1 "V 1 1 " rrm old dragon bbcamb so tamb that tub childrbn mirala, effendia and corporals all flocked to see the mysterious man, and they all bowed humbly before Tommy seeking admittance, but that never made him feel proud at all. , . r. He was not like most office boys; ho had sense J The wizard had a library of books, which after a : time he allowed the boy to read; at least he permitted him to select certain volumes, but gradually he be-' came careless and Tommy managed to read many " of his most cherished books ol,mi3, containing . recipes for spells and charm , of the greatest -potency, so the' books said, but nearly all that ho read seemed like the veriest humbug to Tommy. '. rieas' legs, toads' eyelashes, snakes' tears, catj' whiskers,' elephants' hairs, bats' claws, snakes, liz ards' scales, angleworms' blood, bees' tongues and., flies' knee-joints seemed to him to be silly objects . to use in summbning the demons of magic, but such seemed to be the most frequently used. Still, he dili : gently studied all he gained a chance to read of ; these books, thinking it all might come in handy some time. 1 , He used to practice on the cat sometimes when his master was absent, and I nust say some of the dreadful-sounding spells which he used drove her . almost into fits.t But nothing worse or more import- . ant ever happened, and he supposed that he had ' made some mistake or other in pronouncing the words. When you think of it, such words as "Agroll opinaritopious"lor "Dillimazopholi," both of which were in these books, might easily be mispronounced by anybody. . . ." . ' The wizard had many curious little boxes contain ; ing Hindoo machinery that whizzed and buzzed in side, and these Tommy often tried to experiment . with, but never succeeded in getting them to go, and he finally came to the conclusion that they hold bugs or something that only Gormley could start off. Bottles of many-colored fluids were everywhere in the closets, but Tommy, although he often triod, never could induce the cat to take any of the con-, tent of these. The wizard often gave little phials of these fluids' to his visitors, and after a time Tommy arrived at the conclusion that they were poisons, but he how had been so long with the wii ard that he considered it none of his business whom his master poisoned as long as he still bought cream cakes, pie, doughnuts, bolivars and ice cream for every meaL Much can be- forgiven a kind master One winter night, after Tommy had been asleep that was guaranteed to undo any' and all magio .i. iti'j i ji.,i . . . . . with tho cat snuggled close to him for more thau two hours, Jie heard a gentle knock upm the door and opened it to admit a woman whose face was fearsome and awful. . . ' , Mr. Gormley appeared at once and greeted his visitor with great iceremony, calling her "his dear Mrs. Niteskiter" and "most wonderful wizardess." as well as "mighty enchantress" and "deep student of the Occult," whatever that means, and Tommy, saw at once that she' must be somebody very im portant indeed. ' . ' She looked hard at him, but his jnaster whispered to her that he was but "a poor deaf and dumb thing with few wit about bira," and then Tommy knew that something was to be heard. The two went into' Mr. Gormley's private consulting-room and Tommy laid his ear to the door at once. - Mrs. Niteskiter, who was a famous witch from a far-distant country, explained why she had called at such an hour. She said she had in he charge a beautiful girl th daughter of the Emperor of ' , Buchu, who had been carried away by the chief cook - of the palace,' a man who wished her to marry his son and who hoped to thus compel the Emperor's consent; but now, mighty magicians having been employed by the Emperor to seek her, the witch feared that she might at any moment be discovered and taken away, thus depriving her of a large sum i of money every year. .(, , , She had tried all her arts to guard the beautiful v V girl but she was in great fear of losing her by some ( - View and unknown trick. She confessed that all he) tontrittoc(Ja were ju-etty, li aa4 out-date;jmd ' wished Mr. Gormley to put her up to some new dodges. . ' . " At present the girl was guarded ly an old and faithful dragon, hideous enough and terce, too, but his teeth were, nearly all gone and he couldn't spit out enough fire to light the gas, she said. 1 L "You ought to have no fear," said Gormley. "One with your wonderful control of Nature's forces ! For two hundred years you have defied every rival." "Oh, my dear Mr. Gormley! I am only a hundred and forty nine 1" cried Mrs. Niteskiter. - f "Yes, a mere girl!" replied the wizard. "Indeed, . you seem much younger, but now let us see what can be done. You are afraid they may overconio your trusty old dragon, eht Well, well! Last time I saw him he. seemed very lively and fierce. . Nearly gat me, and, indeed, I remember that I- lost the right tail of my coat because I was a trifle Blow in getting out of your front yard." The witch smiled and said : "He always was a playful fellow, but now he is getting rusty in his joints. He guards the girl very .well, but I am afraid of some of these new animals, the rambillicus, the skimolix or the rasmatag, ,that I hear about now and then in the papers " ? ; ' "All inventions, my dear madam, of an impaired imagination. I don't believe in any of them. But we will make safe by placing her beyond danger." Now, don't think that I'll let her out of my hands," cried the witch excitedly. - "I shall nevei part with her." ' "You need not. We will change her into a gold fish in a bowl I That will-make her-sccure enough I think. A fish she shall be; that is, a sh by day but a girl by night, for not even my art can make ber a fish or anything else all the time." . "How is this to be donet" a&ked the witch, and Tommy flattened himself to the door in his eager ness to hear the reply. -"Here is the charm.. You begin by saying " Just then Tommy bumped against the door and both of them heard the slight noise. He sprang awav as he heard the wizard rising, and when Gormley opened the door Tommy was fast asleep, apparently, at the end of the hall, so he shut the door and said : . "Must have been the cat, for the boy is asleep." After that he was constantly on the lookout for the recipe in his master's books, but the nearest be came to it was a spell, short and very silly in sound, changes of the sort; provided, however, that it was uttered in the light of a full moon. When he came upon this is occurred to him that it would be a good spell to learn by heart, as; after all, it might come in handy some time. , Of course he was too young to think of " delib erately seeking out the Emperor's daughter and res cuing her, for he knew that was a deed for a hero, but some time, perhaps; when he grew up, he might . come upon such another poor girl and save her from a witch. So he promptly wrota down the'spell, which ' went r ' ' ' - ." - HORUM KORtJM WEEZER WHAM, INER PINER DICKORA GAMM; EENY PEENY TINTRY KLOO, ! C. Of D. 0. K I. 0. U. , r . He went about repeating this to himself nntii it became a habit, and several times, as he muttered it almost audibly, the wizard shouted at him and asked him jf he was trying to talk, but fortunately old Gormley was himself growing very deaf and so : he never overheard his office boy, else there would have been trouble, then and there. , . , One day a magnificent carriage stopped at the door and a man attired in furs entered. lie was the Prime Minister of the Emperor of Buchu, and he :' had come to, ask for Wizard Gormley's help in find- , ing the lost, Princess. Gormley; was til smiles, and assurediim that he certainly would assist him in every way possible, but that it would take some time? . to learn where she was secreted. ' ? ; j Tommy new heard the name of the Princess which was jEditha' Celina' Alberta Flora, A,delina Yiolct Avgusta. It sounded to bira Uke 6ne of tho played with him acrostics they give prizes for in the papers, but still it gave him some idea of what an important person a, princess is. lie also wrote all the names down on the same paper witn nis.tavorite .speu. The Minister . went away, having secured many fine promises front- Gormley, none of which, : as -Tommy -knew," would be performed, forhe was really in league with Witch Niteskiter. r 1' at night the wizard was taken sick suddenly, and, as morning dawned eold and pale, he told Tom my that unless he could get some medicine from Mrs. Niteskiter before the next day he would be ' dead. Tommy said that he would go after it at once, or, rather, he wrote to that effect on his slate, and the wizard, after thinking awhile, told him to get ready.. It took Tommy only five minutes, and then, after receiving the directions for the journey, hur ried away. It took the train four hours to reach tho''town in which she' dwelt, and he hastened ft once to her house, which he knew by its tall stoop cf brass, for of this the wizard had told him. He rang the bell half expecting to see the dragon waiting on the door, but the witch opened it herself. Tom my wrote out his message and waited in the hall while she went for the medicine. He peeped into the parlpr, but saw no goldfish anywhere. He lia tened, hoping to hear the dragon snort, but beyond scenting a sort of burnt smell, he discovered no clue as to where the dread creature was kept. , He went away with the medicine, filled with, a deep regret at not seeing the dragon, but, of course, ba dared not ask the witch anything about it; yet he "Was overjoyed thai at last, Jhe ''knew where the Em peror's daughter with the full list of names was confined. When he returned to his home he found old Gormley at his last gasp, but he eagerly grabbed the witch's medicine and gulped it down , .. It finished him in a twinkling, for it was deadly poison that she had sent him purposing to destroy him, because he shared her Secret. He turned green as grass in a minute, and Tommy knew that he was done for, so he ran for a real doctor; It was of no use. He was stone dead. . .." j . And Tommy was out of a jjob. But after a few days he discovered that the wis ard had no relations at all, and he determined to continue the business himself. Therefore he hal some cards printed as follows : - TOMMY FRAME, , ' Successor to Wizard Gormley. OCCULT PROPHET & MYSTIC SEER. FORTUNES TOLD AND SPELLS SOLD. Come Early and Avoid the Rush I ; : 13 Cosmos Terrace. 1 And the same he put in all the papers, as well. -. Somehow, in spite of his enticing cards and hi newspaper advertising, Tommy did very little busi ness, because all the customers whocame looked at him once and then went away muttering: "Too young!" He soon realized that a -wizard without wrinkles and a long white beard could do littlo with such people, and pretty soon he had used up all the 1 money that Gormley had left in his desk, so 'he felt obliged to give up trying to wiz. ' After a day of starvation, for he did not like to run into debt at the cake-shop, he decided to apply to the old witch Niteskiter for a. position as office" boy, private, secretary or night watchman, any of which would suit him, and he fait qualified for all oftheni. :; ' r' ' Vk', t v U ' 1 'l''; ' :Wv As he had spent all his money he had to walk to Timbaltown, where she lived, and he arrived there footsore and hungry but confident.' " J She looked at him in pretended surprise when Le appeared at her door and wrote on' his slate that his master was dead and buried, but she could not avoid showing her joyful relief. After he had tfsked her for a position she reflected for a time, and final ly said that he might attend to her furnace for the resVof the. winter, but in the spring, she. said,vsho was going to Atlantic City, where the people believe in bitches ftni ooks wcxe moiiey ia pjeoty, j lit her employ Tommy found that life was not all roses, nor was pie a. frequent visitor to that house. -t He'now regretted the death of Gormley more than ever. As I have said, Mrs. Niteskiter had a brass .stoop, brass every bit of it, steps, rails and all and Tommy was ordered to polish it and keep it pol ished, although it was ab green as grass when he nr- ;frived.;;V;;v'V .v"V;V.,t'-"'vv ,'V:V;-C-'j:.ir-:v;--r; It was not long before Tommy became acquainted , with the mangy old dragon, although he never saw the goldfish -until he had obtained admission into the dragon house,' which was in the rear, where the animal remained neatly coiled up all the time. . It came about in this way : The dragon had com-' plained of being awfully bothered by fleas, and dra gon-fleas, as you may perhaps know, are far bigger and bite harder than ordinary fleas, and Tommy had advised the use of insect-powder;. When the dragon begged him to get some Tommy took Borne of his' own money and bought ten bottles. He scattered the yellow dust well over the dragon, who almost sneezed his head off in the cloud that was formed, but it killed every flea in a twinkling. ' You may be sure the dragon had none but the kindest feeling for Tommy after that, and he al lowed him to enter his house at any time, so that he - soori saw the beautiful goldfish slowly swimming about in a big bowl. He never said anything about the girl, although, he knew that at night she took : her own shape, for the dragon never allowed him to enter after dark. Of course he of ten thought of the "Horum korum" spell, but as it was useless except at full moon he never dreamed of saying it - - One day the witch was at home and happened to pick up one of Tommy's business cards. "Why, that's a neat card," she cried, Who got it up1" 1 "I did," replied, the boy; forgetting himself for ft moment. v . . r, ; . "Why, you can talk t" she cried. - - - v- "Yes; somehow my voice came to me this morn ing, after eating raw onions," replied Tommy. "There must be some magic in onions," she cried. "I'll look into it. But, say, you seem to be pretty ' smart; perhaps you can devise a scheme to make business pick up a little. I am running behind dreadfully lately." "You ought to advertise," said Tommy. "Get your " picture in the papers and have people talk about you."- ' ". "I never had my picture taken," she said thought fully. . ' "I have Gormley's camera upstairs," said Tommy. , "I'll take it I have an idea Why not have a picture of yourself standing by the dragon! Yes, and bet ter still, right in the dragon's open. mouth t That will make people talk. All tha papers i will ibe glad to prihtit, I ain sure!'r'T'5-: rf!?-' So that night, the witch having hidden the Prin cess in the cellar, they went out to ihe dragon-house and she climbed up and stood in his open mouth trying to look as pleasant as possible" - . Tommy .arranged his camera, fixed the focus, drew aside the slide and then lighted the flashlight tthich lay piled up in a tin plate on the table. It went off with a dazzling, blinding sizz, and so great, o sud den was the flash that the frightened dragon gulped in terror, and before he could catch hia breath he swallowed Mrs. Niteskiter! ' For a moment he choked and gasped, trying hard to cough her up again, but the' effort was useless. She was down for good and all! The dragon looked guiltily at Thomas, but the boy said: i M - "It's all right, Poppikins !" (That was the dragon's name.) "She's gone, and good riddance to her. Don't try any more to get her up or you may injure your . aesophagus. eep cool and try to digest her." "How about tnat girl! asttea tne oragon sud denly. "She's in the cellar." ' - . t "Call her up," said Tommy, and when the Princess came up, in fear and trembling, Bhe was amazed to see a handsome-boy instead of the dread witch. Tommy told her what had happened and she wept ' for joy. "' " rr7 - .' ' ' "Now I can go home, I hope!" she said. The dragon looked at Tommy, who at once, said:' "Sure! You go home just as soon as I can make the spell work to change you into a girl all the time," '' - : "And you are a wizard, too!" cried the dragon. "The best ever," returned Tommy, "and the great - est changer you ever saw. I could turn you into an old hay-wagon right now if I wanted, to." ; ' The dragon trembled so that his iron -scales tat- tied, but he could not speak. Tommy led the Prin cess into the house and told her she was to be its " mistress until he could manage to fix, things, but : they sat up talking until the sun rose, and suddenly she changed into a goldfish, to suddenly that he had to hurry to get her into the bowl before she died. Then he happened to look out of the window, and lo ! there was the full moon shining pale and ' white in the western sky.' Instantly he said : . ' HORUM KORUM WEEZE'R WHAM. ' INER PINER DICKORA GAMM; EENY PEENY TINTRY KLOO, C. O. D. 0. K. I. O. U. ' . The bowl fell to the floor with a crash, and there stood the Princess Editha lovelier than ever! They shook hands, and just then Hhe dragon stuck his head in, saying: ' " '" ' ' "Good morning! I've thought over your plan and it's all right! fe will start a circus !" -So that's what they did, traveling at last all the way to Buchu, where Editha as restored to her father, who made Tommy a General and a Grand Duke as ,welL and they built a gorgeous gilded house for the dragon, as those creatures were once . worshiped in that land and are still much respected. x The; dragon used -to sit out on the steps of tho house and all the children used to,play ,with him, ; for he was very-good-natured and amiable. . They climbed all over him and made a' toboggan slide -of his smooth, shining tail down the steps, crawled into his great mouth and even-stuck .their fingers in his eyes without making him complain; .for he dearly loved children. Afterward, when Tom . my grew up and married fcditfaa, ha came to hye with them, ana, jor an x kw ub iuj ue wnp mem till. Tommy is nbw the Emperor of Buchu, and all of bis peoplo adore him because he drove out all the wizards and witches from the land and taught the children that they were all humbugs and im postots. TO McDOUGALL .