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                                   THE

                              SPREAD EAGLE

                            AND OTHER STORIES

                                   BY

                            GOUVERNEUR MORRIS

            AUTHOR OF "THE FOOTPRINT, AND OTHER STORIES," ETC.

                                  1910



_TO ELSIE, PATSIE, AND KATE_

     _I had thought to sit in the ruler's chair,
     But three pretty girls are sitting there--
       Elsie, Patsie, and Kate.
     I had thought to lord it with eyes of gray,
     I had thought to be master, and have_ my _way;
     But six blue eyes vote_: nay, nay, nay!
       _Elsie, Patsie, and Kate.

     Of Petticoats three I am sore afraid,
     (Though Kate's is more like a candle-shade),
       Elsie, Patsie, and Kate.
     And I must confess (with shame) to you
     That time there was when Petticoats two
     Were enough to govern me through and through,
       Elsie, Patsie, and Kate.

     Oh Patsie, third of a bullying crew,
     And Elsie, and Kate, be it known to you--
       To Elsie, Patsie, and Kate,
     That Elsie_ alone _was strong enough
     To smother a motion, or call a bluff,
     Or any small pitiful atom thereof--
       Elsie, Patsie, and Kate.

     So, though I've renounced that ruler's part
     To which I was born (as is writ in my heart),
       Elsie, Patsie, and Kate,
     Though I do what I'm told (yes, you_ know _I do)
     And am made to write stories (and sell them, too).
     Still--I wish to God I had more like you,
     Elsie, Patsie, and Kate_.

BAR HARBOR, _August_, 1910.




AUTHOR'S NOTE

Certain persons have told me (for nothing) that "White Muscats of
Alexandria" resembles a tale in the Arabian Nights. And so it does.
Most damningly. And this is printed in the hope of saving other
persons postage.




CONTENTS

_The Spread Eagle
Targets
The Boot
The Despoiler
One More Martyr
"Ma'am?"
Mr. Holiday
White Muscats of Alexandria
Without a Lawyer
The "Monitor" and the "Merrimac"
The McTavish
The Parrot
On the Spot; or, The Idler's House-Party_




THE SPREAD EAGLE

In his extreme youth the adulation of all with whom he came in contact
was not a cross to Fitzhugh Williams. It was the fear of expatriation
that darkened his soul. From the age of five to the age of fourteen he
was dragged about Europe by the hair of his head. I use his own
subsequent expression. His father wanted him to be a good American; his
mother wanted him to be a polite American, And to be polite, in her
mind, was to be at home in French and German, to speak English (or
American) with the accent of no particular locality, to know famous
pictures when you saw them, and, if little, to be bosom friends with
little dukes and duchesses and counts of the Empire, to play in the
gravel gardens of St. Germain, to know French history, and to have for
exercise the mild English variations of American games--cricket instead
of base-ball; instead of football, Rugby, or, in winter, lugeing above
Montreux. To luge upon a sled you sit like a timid, sheltered girl, and
hold the ropes in your hand as if you were playing horse, and descend
inclines; whereas, as Fitzhugh Williams well knew, in America rich boys
and poor take their hills head first, lying upon the democratic turn.

It wasn't always Switzerland in winter. Now and again it was Nice or
Cannes. And there you were taught by a canny Scot to hit a golf ball
cunningly from a pinch of sand. But you blushed with shame the while,
for in America at that time golf had not yet become a manly game, the
maker young of men as good as dead, the talk of cabinets But there was
lawn tennis also, which you might play without losing caste "at home,"
Fitzhugh Williams never used that term but with the one meaning. He
would say, for instance, to the little Duchess of Popinjay--or one just
as good--having kissed her to make up for having pushed her into