" This might as well have been left unsent, for I tore it up
and assured the waiting pair that no news was good news. They tried
eagerly to believe this aphorism, which has the authority of age, but
which I suspect was coined originally from despair.
The next day's bulletin read "Temperature still up, but making a strong
fight." Stupid it was, when these were but eight words, not to have
added two more, such as, "Very hopeful." I induced our telegraph
operator to rectify this oversight, and felt repaid for my trouble when
I showed the message. That last touch seemed to have been needed. Of
course Little Miss would make a strong fight. Miss Caroline and Clem
both knew that. But they had known other strong fights to be none the
less hopeless, and they were grateful for those last two words of
qualification.
There were four other days when the report seemed to need judicious
editing, and in this I did not prove remiss. As the telegraph company
remained indifferent, I could see that no harm was done. For at last
came a bulletin of seventeen words which left us assured that Little
Miss had conquered. Henceforth we could receive the things without that
stifling dread, that eager fearfulness of the eyes to read all the words
in one glance.
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