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CHAPTER OVERVIEW

The business environment (climate) is constantly changing, and it is becoming

more and more complex. Organizations, both private and public, are under pressures that
force them to respond quickly to changing conditions and to be innovative in the way
they operate. Such activities require organizations to be agile and to make frequent and
quick strategic, tactical, and operational decisions, some of which are very complex.
Making such decisions may require considerable amounts of relevant data, information,
and knowledge. Processing these, in the framework of the needed decisions, must be
done quickly, frequently in real time, and usually requires some computerized support.
This book is about using business analytics as computerized support for
managerial decision making. It concentrates on the theoretical and conceptual
foundations of decision support, as well as on the commercial tools and techniques that
are available. This book presents the fundamentals of the techniques and the manner in
which these systems are constructed and used. We follow an EEE approach to
introducing these topics: Exposure, Experience, and Explore. The book primarily
provides exposure to various analytics techniques and their applications. The idea is that
a student will be inspired to learn from how other organizations have employed analytics
to make decisions or to gain a competitive edge. We believe that such exposure to what is
being done with analytics and how it can be achieved is the key component of learning
about analytics. In describing the techniques, we also introduce specific software tools
that can be used for developing such applications. The book is not limited to any one
software tool, so the students can experience these techniques using any number of
available software tools. We hope that this exposure and experience enable and motivate
readers to explore the potential of these techniques in their own domain. To facilitate
such exploration, we include exercises that direct the reader to Teradata University
Network (TUN) and other sites that include team-oriented exercises where appropriate.
This introductory chapter provides an introduction to analytics as well as an
overview of the book. The chapter has the following sections:

CHAPTER OUTLINE

1.1 Opening Vignette: Sports Analytics—An Exciting Frontier for Learning and

Understanding Applications of Analytics

1.2 Changing Business Environments and Evolving Needs for Decision Support and

Analytics

1.3 Evolution of Computerized Decision Support to Analytics/Data Science

1.4 A Framework for Business Intelligence

1.5 Analytics Overview

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1.6 Analytics Examples in Selected Domains

1.7 A Brief Introduction to Big Data Analytics

1.8 An Overview of the Analytics Ecosystem

1.9 Plan of the Book

1.10 Resources, Links, and the Teradata University Network Connection

TEACHING TIPS/ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The purpose of any introductory chapter is to motivate students to be interested in the

remainder of the course (and book). The real-life cases, beginning with Magpie Sensing
and continuing with the others, will show students that business intelligence is not just an
academic subject; it is something real companies use that makes a noticeable difference
to their bottom line. So, try to relate the subject matter to these cases. For example,
consider the types of actions managers take to counter pressures, especially the list of
organizational responses. The opening case about Magpie illustrates several of the
options available to health care companies, such as innovation, partnerships with others
in the cold chain, and the use of IT to improve data access. The other cases in the chapter
offer other examples of managerial actions taken in response to pressure. By referring
back to this list when discussing other cases, you demonstrate the unity of the analytics
field.

All this should show students that a new professional who understands how information
systems can support decision making, and can help his or her employer obtain those
benefits, has a bright career path. Since students in this course are typically within a year
of graduation, that will get their attention!

ANSWERS TO END OF SECTION REVIEW QUESTIONS

Section 1.1 Review Questions

1. What are three factors that might be part of a PM for season ticket renewals?

The case provides several examples of data that may be used as a part of this
analysis. Data factors may include survey responses, pricing models, and
customer tweets.

2. What are two techniques that football teams can use to do opponent analysis?

In the example provided, opponent analytics was evaluated using the coach’s
annotated game film to produce an analysis evaluating whether to build a

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 cascaded decision tree model on play prediction, heat maps of passing offenses,
and time series analytics on explosive plays.

3. How can wearables improve player health and safety? What kinds of new
analytics can trainers use?

The case provides several examples of how wearables can be used to improve
player health. Wearables can help to identify levels and variation in core body
strength, mobile devices worn during play can record data on hits to assist in
concussion protocols, and sleeps sensors can identify how rested players are.

4. What other analytics applications can you envision in sports?

Student responses will vary, but many potential examples are possible. Some
include tracking performance over time or location.

Section 1.2 Review Questions

1. What are some of the key system-oriented trends that have fostered IS-supported
decision making to a new level?

Improvements and innovation in systems in many areas have facilitated the

growth of decision-making systems. These areas include:

• Group communication and collaboration software and systems

• Improved data management applications and techniques

• Data warehouses and Big Data for information collection

• Analytical support systems

• Growth in processing and storing formation storage capabilities

• Knowledge management systems

• Support of all of these systems that is always available

2. List some capabilities of information systems that can facilitate managerial

decision making.

Information systems can aid decision making because they have the ability to
perform functions that allow for better communication and information capture,

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 better storage and recall of data, and vastly improved analytical models that can
be more voluminous or more precise.

3. How can a computer help overcome the cognitive limits of humans?

Computer-based systems are not limited in many of the ways people are, and this
lack of limits allows unique abilities to evaluate data. Examples of abilities
include being able to store huge amounts of data, being able to run extensive
numbers of scenarios and analyses, and the ability to spot trends in vast datasets
or models.

Section 1.3 Review Questions

1. List three of the terms that have been predecessors of analytics.

Analytics has evolved from other systems over time including data support
systems (DSS), operations research (OR) models, and expert systems (ES).

2. What was the primary difference between the systems called MIS, DSS, and
Executive Support Systems?

Many systems have been used in the past and present to provide analytics.
Management information systems (MIS) provided reports on various aspects of
business functions using captured information while decision support systems
(DSS) added the ability to use data with models to address unstructured problems.
Executive support systems (ESS) added to these abilities by capturing
understanding from experts and integrating it into systems via if-then-else rules or
heuristics.

3. Did DSS evolve into BI or vice versa?

DSS systems became more advanced in the 2000s with the addition of data
warehousing capabilities and began to be referred to as Business Information (BI)
systems.

Section 1.4 Review Questions

1. Define BI.

Business Intelligence (BI) is an umbrella term that combines architectures, tools,

databases, analytical tools, applications, and methodologies. Its major objective is
to enable interactive access (sometimes in real time) to data, enable manipulation
of these data, and provide business managers and analysts the ability to conduct
appropriate analysis.

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2. List and describe the major components of BI.

BI systems have four major components: the data warehouse (with its source
data), business analytics (a collection of tools for manipulating, mining, and
analyzing the data in the data warehouse), business performance management (for
monitoring and analyzing performance), and the user interface (e.g., a dashboard).

3. Define OLTP.
OLTP (online transaction processing) is a type of computer processing where the
computer responds immediately to user requests. Each request is considered to be
a transaction, which is a computerized record of a discrete event, such as the
receipt of inventory or a customer order.

4. Define OLAP.

OLAP (online analytical processing) is processing for end-user ad hoc reports,

queries, and analysis. Separating the OLTP from analysis and decision support
provided by OLAP enables the benefits of BI that were described earlier and
provides for competitive intelligence and advantage as described next.

5. List some of the implementation topics addressed by Gartner’s report.

Gartner’s framework decomposes planning and execution into business,

organization, functionality, and infrastructure components. At the business and
organizational levels, strategic and operational objectives must be defined while
considering the available organizational skills to achieve those objectives. Issues
of organizational culture surrounding BI initiatives and building enthusiasm for
those initiatives and procedures for the intra-organizational sharing of BI best
practices must be considered by upper management—with plans in place to
prepare the organization for change.

6. List some other success factors of BI.

If the company’s strategy is properly aligned with the reasons for DW and BI
initiatives, and if the company’s IS organization is or can be made capable of
playing its role in such a project, and if the requisite user community is in place
and has the proper motivation, it is wise to start BI and establish a BI Competency
Center (BICC) within the company. The center could serve some or all of the
following functions.

• The center can demonstrate how BI is clearly linked to strategy and

execution of strategy.

• A center can serve to encourage interaction between the potential business

user communities and the IS organization.

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 • The center can serve as a repository and disseminator of best BI practices
between and among the different lines of business.

• Standards of excellence in BI practices can be advocated and encouraged

throughout the company.

• The IS organization can learn a great deal through interaction with the user
communities, such as knowledge about the variety of types of analytical
tools that are needed.

• The business user community and IS organization can better understand

why the data warehouse platform must be flexible enough to provide for
changing business requirements.

• It can help important stakeholders like high-level executives see how BI

can play an important role.

Another important success factor of BI is its ability to facilitate a real-time, on-

demand agile environment.

Section 1.5 Review Questions

1. Define analytics.
The term replaces terminology referring to individual components of a decision
support system with one broad word referring to business intelligence. More
precisely, analytics is the process of developing actionable decisions or
recommendations for actions based upon insights generated from historical data.
Students may also refer to the eight levels of analytics and this simpler descriptive
language: “looking at all the data to understand what is happening, what will
happen, and how to make the best of it.”
2. What is descriptive analytics? What are the various tools that are employed in
descriptive analytics?
Descriptive analytics refers to knowing what is happening in the organization and
understanding some underlying trends and causes of such occurrences. Tools used
in descriptive analytics include data warehouses and visualization applications.
3. How is descriptive analytics different from traditional reporting?
Descriptive analytics gathers more data, often automatically. It makes results
available in real time and allows reports to be customized.
4. What is a DW? How can data warehousing technology help to enable analytics?
A data warehouse, introduced in Section 1.7, is the component of a BI system that
contains the source data. As described in this section, developing a data
warehouse usually includes development of the data infrastructure for descriptive

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 analytics—that is, consolidation of data sources and making relevant data
available in a form that enables appropriate reporting and analysis. A data
warehouse serves as the basis for developing appropriate reports, queries, alerts,
and trends.
5. What is predictive analytics? How can organizations employ predictive analytics?
Predictive analytics is the use of statistical techniques and data mining to
determine what is likely to happen in the future. Businesses use predictive
analytics to forecast whether customers are likely to switch to a competitor, what
customers are likely to buy, how likely customers are to respond to a promotion,
and whether a customer is creditworthy. Sports teams have used predictive
analytics to identify the players most likely to contribute to a team’s success.
6. What is prescriptive analytics? What kind of problems can be solved by
prescriptive analytics?
Prescriptive analytics is a set of techniques that use descriptive data and forecasts
to identify the decisions most likely to result in the best performance. Usually, an
organization uses prescriptive analytics to identify the decisions or actions that
will optimize the performance of a system. Organizations have used prescriptive
analytics to set prices, create production plans, and identify the best locations for
facilities such as bank branches.
7. Define modeling from the analytics perspective.
As Application Case 1.6 illustrates, analytics uses descriptive data to create
models of how people, equipment, or other variables operate in the real world.
These models can be used in predictive and prescriptive analytics to develop
forecasts, recommendations, and decisions.
8. Is it a good idea to follow a hierarchy of descriptive and predictive analytics
before applying prescriptive analytics?
As noted in the analysis of Application Case 1.5, it is important in any analytics
project to understand the business domain and current state of the business
problem. This requires analysis of historical data, or descriptive analytics.
Although the chapter does not discuss a hierarchy of analytics, students may
observe that testing a model with predictive analytics could logically improve
prescriptive use of the model.
9. How can analytics aid in objective decision making?
As noted in the analysis of Application Case 1.4, problem solving in organizations
has tended to be subjective, and decision makers tend to rely on familiar
processes. The result is that future decisions are no better than past decisions.
Analytics builds on historical data and takes into account changing conditions to
arrive at fact-based solutions that decision makers might not have considered.

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Section 1.6 Review Questions
1. Why would a health insurance company invest in analytics beyond fraud
detection? Why is it in their best interest to predict the likelihood of falls by
patients?
An insurance company would potentially want to evaluate analytics to both
quantify the risk of a potential incident category (like falls) and to help identify
subgroups of the population that are at-risk for this type of injury. With this type
of information, the company can address clients who might be at-risk, and attempt
to intervene with less expensive preventative measures.
2. What other applications similar to prediction of falls can you envision?
Student responses will vary, but could include a number of other medical
conditions or types of accidents.
3. How would you convince a new health insurance customer to adopt healthier
lifestyles (Humana Example 3)?
Student responses will vary, but may focus on improved customer education that
is targeted at specific risk factors as well as financial or benefit inducements tied
to positive changes in lifestyle.
4. Identify at least three other opportunities for applying analytics in the retail value
chain beyond those covered in this section.
Many potential opportunities exist, and student responses will vary based on their
experiences.
5. Which retail stores that you know of employ some of the analytics applications
identified in this section?
Student responses will vary based on the retail establishments they are familiar
with and the applications used at the time.

Section 1.7 Review Questions

1. What is Big Data analytics?
The term Big Data refers to data that cannot be stored in a single storage unit.
Typically, the data is arriving in many different forms, be they structured,
unstructured, or in a stream. Big Data analytics is analytics on a large enough
scale, with fast enough processing, to handle this kind of data.
2. What are the sources of Big Data?
Major sources include clickstreams from Web sites, postings on social media, and
data from traffic, sensors, and the weather.
3. What are the characteristics of Big Data?
Today Big Data refers to almost any kind of large data that has the characteristics
of volume, velocity, and variety. Examples include data about Web searches, such

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 as the billions of Web pages searched by Google; data about financial trading,
which operates in the order of microseconds; and data about consumer opinions
measured from postings in social media.
4. What processing technique is applied to process Big Data?
One computer, even a powerful one, could not handle the scale of Big Data. The
solution is to push computation to the data, using the MapReduce programming
paradigm.

Section 1.8 Review Questions

1. List the 11 categories of players in the analytics ecosystem.

These categories include:
• Data Generation Infrastructure Providers
• Data Management Infrastructure Providers
• Data Warehouse Providers
• Middleware Providers
• Data Service Providers
• Analytics Focused Software Developers
• Application Developers: Industry Specific or General
• Analytics Industry Analysts and Influencers
• Academic Institutions and Certification Agencies
• Regulators and Policy Makers
• Analytics User Organizations

2. Give examples of companies in each of the 11 types of players.

Examples of companies by area include:

• Data Generation Infrastructure Providers (Sports Sensors, Zepp, Shockbox,

Advantech B+B SmartWorx, Garmin, and Sensys Network, Intel, Microsoft,

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 Google, IBM, Cisco, Smartbin, SIKO Products, Omega Engineering, Apple,
and SAP)
• Data Management Infrastructure Providers (Dell NetApp, IBM, Oracle,
Teradata, Microsoft, Amazon (Amazon Web Services), IBM (Bluemix),
Salesforce.com, Hadoop clusters, MapReduce, NoSQL, Spark, Kafka, Flume)
• Data Warehouse Providers (IBM, Oracle, Teradata, Snowflake, Redshift,
SAS, Tableau)
• Middleware Providers (Microstrategy, Plum, Oracle, SAP, IBM, SAS,
Tableau, and many more)
• Data Service Providers (Nielsen, Experian, Omniture, Comscore, Google,
Equifax, TransUnion, Acxiom, Merkle, Epsilon, Avention, ESRI.org)
• Analytics Focused Software Developers (Microsoft, Tableau, SAS, Gephi,
IBM, KXEN, Dell, Salford Systems, Revolution Analytics, Alteryx,
RapidMiner, KNIME, Rulequest, NeuroDimensions, FICO, AIIMS, AMPL,
Frontline, GAMS, Gurobi, Lindo Systems, Maximal, NGData, Ayata,
Rockwell, Simio, Palisade, Frontline, Exsys, XpertRule, Teradata, Apache,
Tibco, Informatica, SAP, Hitachi)
• Application Developers: Industry Specific or General (IBM, SAS, Teradata,
Nike, Sportsvision, Acxiom, FICO, Experian, YP.com, Towerdata, Qualia,
Simulmedia, Shazam, Soundhound, Musixmatch, Waze, Apple, Google,
Amazon, Uber, Lyft, Curb, Ola, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Unmetric,
Smartbin)
• Analytics Industry Analysts and Influencers (Gartner Group, The Data
Warehousing Institute, Forrester, McKinsey, INFORMS, AIS, Teradata, SAS)
• Academic Institutions and Certification Agencies (IBM, Microsoft,
Microstrategy, Oracle, SAS, Tableau, Teradata, INFORMS
• Regulators and Policy Makers (Federal Communications Commission,
Federal Trade Commission, International Telecommunication Union, National
Institute of Standards and Technology)
• Analytics User Organizations (many topic-specific and local groups)

3. Which companies are dominant in more than one category?

It appears that several larger IT companies have products and services in several
of these areas. Examples include IBM, Microsoft, SAS, Dell, and SAP.
4. Is it better to be the strongest player in one category or be active in multiple
categories?
Student opinions will vary. It can be argued that cross-discipline strength
provides better integration and insight, or that that domination in multiple areas
reduces completion or innovation.

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ANSWERS TO APPLICATION CASE QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

Application Case 1.1: Sabre Helps Its Clients Through Dashboards and Analytics

1. What is traditional reporting? How is it used in the organization?

The traditional reporting process is a manual process of collecting and

aggregating financial and other information. Organizations have used this time-
consuming process as a way to obtain information for making decisions.
However, the resulting presentations may be flat, slow to develop, and difficult to
apply to specific situations.

2. How can analytics be used to transform traditional reporting?

Analytics can enable real-time decision support and deliver information to a user-
friendly dashboard. Users of a dashboard such as the one provided by Sabre’s
Enterprise Travel Data Warehouse can see at a glance a 360-degree view of the
company’s overall health generated from various data sources. Many stakeholders
in the organization can request data needed for particular types of decisions, and
the graphical user interface makes the information easily understandable.

3. How can interactive reporting assist organizations in decision making?

When a system incorporates interactive drill-down capabilities, users can select

the data they need for evaluating a specific kind of performance and making
decisions in a particular function or situation. For example, the airlines using the
Sabre system can focus on data about sales performance (ticketing, seats sold,
etc.) and operational performance (flight movement, inventory, etc.). This
flexibility encourages decision makers to use data in support of their decisions.

Application Case 1.2: Silvaris Increases Business with Visual Analysis and Real-
Time Reporting Capabilities

1. What was the challenge faced by Silvaris?

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 Because of the fast-paced nature of the industry, it was necessary to create a
system that provided real-time information that was coupled with its existing
systems.

2. How did Silvaris solve its problem using data visualization with Tableau?

The use of Tableau allowed them to create real-time visualizations of data without
creating a separate reporting system.

Application Case 1.3: Siemens Reduces Cost with the Use of Data Visualization

1. What challenges were faced by Siemens’ visual analytics group?

The group was tasked with creating comprehensive reporting systems that were to
be used across multiple internal groups and systems.

2. How did the data visualization tool Dundas BI help Siemens in reducing cost?

The solution allowed Siemens to use multiple data dashboards that could assist
users in identifying issues early, so they could be quickly addressed.

Application Case 1.4: Analyzing Athletic Injuries

1. What types of analytics are applied in the injury analysis?

The analytics used data about the type of injury, action taken, healing start and
end dates, players’ position, activity, onset, and game location. The data were
used to classify healing time into five periods and to associate healing time with
players’ positions, severity of injury, and treatment offered. That provided
information for creating neural network models using player and injury data to
predict healing time in terms of the five categories.

2. How do visualizations aid in understanding the data and delivering insights into
the data?

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 Visualizations provide a great tool for gaining the initial insights into data, which
can be further refined based on expert opinions. Visualizations also aid in
generating ideas for obscured business problems, which can be pursued in
building predictive models.

3. What is a classification problem?

Classification is a technique used in developing predictive analytical applications.

In this example, various kinds of data, such as severity of injury and healing time,
were classified for purposes of making decisions about how to handle injuries and
which players might be available to play in the future.

4. What can be derived by performing sequence analysis?

Drawing sequence rules can predict the relationship among types of data—in this
case, the relationship among the injuries and the various body parts afflicted with
injuries.

Application Case 1.5: A Specialty Steel Bar Company Uses Analytics to Determine
Available-to-Promise Dates

1. Why would reallocation of inventory from one customer to another be a major

issue for discussion?

This would be an important consideration because of promised delivery times,

and potential penalties if deliveries were missed for existing/previous customers.

2. How could a DSS help make these decisions?

A DSS would have the ability to examine all current stocks of goods (as well as
incoming stocks) and perform cost-benefit analysis on potential changes to
existing delivery promises.

Application Case 1.6: CenterPoint Energy Uses Real-Time Big Data Analytics to
Improve Customer Service

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1. How can electric companies predict possible outage at a location?

By tracking the status of hardware, it may be possible to identify issues or clusters

of issues that statistically may predict outages.

2. What is customer sentiment analysis?

Customer sentiment analysis categorizes and evaluates customer opinion by types

of emotion.

3. How does customer sentiment analysis help companies provide a personalized

service to their customers?
By understanding customer sentiment, the company is able to customize
communications to customers.

ANSWERS TO END OF CHAPTER QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Survey the literature from the past six months to find one application each of DSS,
BI, and analytics. Summarize the applications on one page and submit it with the
exact sources.

There is no single correct answer to this question. Answers will depend on when the
question is posed and on the student’s online or library search strategy. The
correctness of an answer can be evaluated by examining the sources cited in it or
submitted with it.

2. Distinguish BI from DSS.

• BI uses a data warehouse, whereas DSS can use any data source (including a
data warehouse).
• Most DSS are built to support decision making directly, whereas most BI
systems are built to provide information which it is believed will lead to
improved decision making.
• BI has a strategy/executive orientation whereas DSS are usually oriented
toward analysts.
• BI systems tend to be developed with commercially available tools, whereas
DSS tend to use more custom programming to deal with problems that may
be unstructured.

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 • DSS methodologies and tools originated largely in academia, whereas BI
arose largely from the software industry. Many BI tools, such as data mining
and predictive analysis, have come to be considered DSS tools as well.

3. Compare and contrast predictive analytics with predictive and descriptive analytics.
Use examples.

Predictive analytics is the use of statistical techniques and data mining to determine
what is likely to happen in the future. For example, an airline might use predictive
analytics to forecast the impact on sales and profits if it raises baggage fees by $10. It
applies information from descriptive analytics, applying historical or real-time data to
know what is happening in the organization and understand some underlying trends
and causes of such occurrences. In the airline example, descriptive analytics would
include data about ticket prices, baggage fees, ticket sales, baggage volume, and so
on, applied to find relationships among these variables. Predictive analytics may be
applied to prescriptive analytics, which is a set of techniques that use descriptive data
and forecasts to identify the decisions most likely to result in the best performance.
For example, predictive analytics could forecast the impact on profits of different
baggage fees. It might show, for example, that raising baggage fees by $5 will lead to
the greatest profits after the airline takes into account fee revenues, ticket sales, the
amount of baggage carried, and the cost to transport the baggage. (Students may use
different examples, as long as they illustrate the definitions.)

4. Discuss the major issues in implementing BI.

Major issues in implementing BI are:

• Properly appreciating the different classes of potential users of the BI

applications.

• Properly aligning BI with the business strategy.

• Developing BI applications that meet users’ needs for real-time, on-

demand capabilities.

• Determining whether to develop or acquire BI systems, and how to do so.

• Justifying the BI investment using cost-benefit analysis.

• Insuring the security and privacy protection

• Integrating BI applications with organizational systems, databases, and e-

commerce.

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TIGER LILY, AND

OTHER STORIES ***
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 TIGER LILY
AND OTHER STORIES

BY
JULIA SCHAYER

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1883
 Copyright, 1883, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.

Trow's
Printing and Bookbinding Company
201-213 East Twelfth Street
NEW YORK
 CONTENTS.

PAGE
Tiger Lily, 1
Thirza, 89
Molly, 127
A Summer's Diversion, 159
My Friend Mrs. Angel, 195
 TIGER-LILY.
The shrill treble of a girl's voice, raised to its highest pitch in anger
and remonstrance, broke in upon the scholarly meditations of the
teacher of the Ridgemont grammar school. He raised his head from
his book to listen. It came again, mingled with boyish cries and
jeers, and the sound of blows and scuffling. The teacher, a small,
fagged-looking man of middle age, rose hastily, and went out of the
school-house.
Both grammar and high school had just been dismissed, and the
bare-trodden play-ground was filled with the departing scholars. In
the centre of the ground a group of boys had collected, and from
this group the discordant sounds still proceeded.
"What is the meaning of this disturbance?" the master asked,
coming near.
At the sound of his voice the group fell apart, disclosing, as a central
point, the figure of a girl of thirteen or fourteen years. She was thin
and straight, and her face, now ablaze with anger and excitement,
was a singular one, full of contradictions, yet not inharmonious as a
whole. It was fair, but not as blondes are fair, and its creamy surface
was flecked upon the cheeks with dark, velvety freckles. Her
features were symmetrical, yet a trifle heavy, particularly the lips,
and certain dusky tints were noticeable about the large gray eyes
and delicate temples, as well as a peculiar crisp ripple in the mass of
vivid red hair which fell from under her torn straw hat.
Clinging to her scant skirts was a small hunch-backed boy, crying
dismally, and making the most of his tears by rubbing them into his
sickly face with a pair of grimy fists.
The teacher looked about him with disapproval in his glance. The
group contained, no doubt, its fair proportion of future legislators
and presidents, but the raw material was neither encouraging nor
pleasant to look upon. The culprits returned his wavering gaze,
some looking a little conscience-smitten, others boldly impertinent,
others still (and those the worst in the lot) with a charming air of
innocence and candor.
"What is it?" the master repeated. "What is the matter?"
"They were plaguing Bobby, here," the girl broke in, breathlessly,
—"taking his marbles away, and making him cry—the mean, cruel
things!"
"Hush!" said the teacher, with a feeble gesture of authority. "Is that
so, boys?"
The boys grinned at each other furtively, but made no answer.
"Boys," he remarked, solemnly, "I—I'm ashamed of you!"
The delinquents not appearing crushed by this announcement, he
turned again to the girl.
"Girls should not quarrel and fight, my dear. It isn't proper, you
know."
A mocking smile sprang to the girl's lips, and a sharp glance shot
from under her black, up-curling lashes, but she did not speak.
"She's allers a-fightin'," ventured one of the urchins, emboldened by
the teacher's reproof; at which the girl turned upon him so fiercely
that he shrank hastily out of sight behind his nearest companion.
"You are not one of my scholars?" the master asked, keeping his
mild eyes upon the scornful face and defiant little figure.
"No!" the girl answered. "I go to the high school!"
"You are small to be in the high school," he said, smiling upon her
kindly.
"It don't go by sizes!" said the child promptly.
"No; certainly not, certainly not," said the teacher, a little staggered.
"What is your name, child?"
"Lilly, sir; Lilly O'Connell," she answered, indifferently.
"Lilly!" the teacher repeated abstractedly, looking into the dusky
face, with its flashing eyes and fallen ruddy tresses,—"Lilly!"
"It ought to have been Tiger-Lily!" said a pert voice. "It would suit
her, I'm sure, more ways than one!" and the speaker, a pretty,
handsomely-dressed blonde girl of about her own age, laughed, and
looked about for appreciation of her cleverness.
"So it would!" cried a boyish voice. "Her red hair, and freckles, and
temper! Tiger-Lily! That's a good one!"
A shout of laughter, and loud cries of "Tiger-Lily!" immediately arose,
mingled with another epithet more galling still, in the midst of which
the master's deprecating words were utterly lost.
A dark red surged into the girl's face. She turned one eloquent look
of wrath upon her tormentors, another, intensified, upon the pretty
child who had spoken, and walked away from the place, leading the
cripple by the hand.
"Oh, come now, Flossie," said a handsome boy, who stood near the
blonde girl, "I wouldn't tease her. She can't help it, you know."
"Pity she couldn't know who is taking up for her!" she retorted,
tossing the yellow braid which hung below her waist, and sauntering
away homeward.
"Oh, pshaw!" the boy said, coloring to the roots of his hair; "that's
the way with you girls. You know what I mean. She can't help it that
her mother was a—a mulatto, or something, and her hair red. It's
mean to tease her."
"She can help quarrelling and fighting with the boys, though," said
Miss Flossie, looking unutterable scorn.
"She wouldn't do it, I guess, if they'd let her alone," the young
fellow answered, stoutly. "It's enough to make anybody feel savage
to be badgered, and called names, and laughed at all the time. It
makes me mad to see it. Besides, it isn't always for herself she
quarrels. It's often enough for some little fellow like Bobby, that the
big fellows are abusing. She is good-hearted, anyhow."
They had reached by this time the gate opening upon the lawn
which surrounded the residence of Flossie's mother, the widow
Fairfield. It was a small, but ornate dwelling, expressive, at every
point, of gentility and modern improvements. The lawn itself was
well kept, and adorned with flower-beds and a tiny fountain. Mrs.
Fairfield, a youthful matron in rich mourning of the second stage, sat
in a wicker chair upon the veranda reading, and fanning herself with
an air of elegant leisure.
Miss Flossie paused. She did not want to quarrel with her boyish
admirer, and, with the true instinct of coquetry, instantly appeared to
have forgotten her previous irritation.
"Won't you come in, Roger?" she said, sweetly. "Our strawberries are
ripe."
The boy smiled at the tempting suggestion, but shook his head.
"Can't," he answered, briefly. "I've got a lot of Latin to do. Good-by."
He nodded pleasantly and went his way. It lay through the village
and along the fields and gardens beyond. Just as he came in sight of
his home,—a square, elm-shaded mansion of red brick, standing on
a gentle rise a little farther on,—he paused at a place where a
shallow brook came creeping through the lush grass of the meadow
which bounded his father's possessions. He listened a moment to its
low gurgling, so suggestive of wood rambles and speckled trout,
then tossed his strap of books into the meadow, leaped after it, and
followed the brook's course for a little distance, stooping and peering
with his keen brown eyes into each dusky pool.
All at once, as he looked and listened, another sound than the
brook's plashing came to his ears, and he started up and turned his
head. A stump fence, black and bristling, divided the meadow from
the adjoining field, its uncouth projections draped in tender, clinging
vines, and he stepped softly toward it and looked across. It was a
rocky field, where a thin crop of grass was trying to hold its own
against a vast growth of weeds, and was getting the worst of it,—a
barren, shiftless field, fitly matching the big shiftless barn and small
shiftless house to which it appertained.
Lying prone among the daisies was Lilly O'Connell, her face buried in
her apron, the red rippling mane falling about her, her slender form
shaking with deep and unrestrained sobs.
Roger looked on a moment and then leaped the fence. The girl rose
instantly to a sitting position, and glared defiance at him from a pair
of tear-stained eyes.
"What are you crying about?" he asked, with awkward kindness.
Her face softened, and a fresh sob shook her.
"Oh, come!" said Roger; "don't mind what a lot of sneaks say."
The girl looked up quickly into the honest dark eyes.
"It was Florence Fairfield that said it," she returned, speaking very
rapidly.
Roger gave an uneasy laugh.
"Oh! you mean that about the 'Tiger-Lily'?"
"Yes," she answered, "and it's true. It's true as can be. See!" And for
the first time the boy noticed that her gingham apron was filled with
the fiery blossoms of the tiger-lily.
"See!" she said again, with an unchildish laugh, holding the flowers
against her face.
Roger was not an imaginative boy, but he could not help feeling the
subtle likeness between the fervid blossoms, strange, tropical
outgrowth of arid New England soil, and this passionate child of
mingled races, with her ruddy hair, and glowing eyes and lips. For a
moment he did not know what to say, but at last, in his simple,
boyish way he said:
"Well, what of it? I think they're splendid."
The girl looked up incredulously.
"I wouldn't mind the—the hair!" he stammered. "I've got a cousin up
to Boston, and she's a great belle—a beauty, you know. All the
artists are crazy to paint her picture, and her hair is just the color of
yours."
Lilly laid the flowers down. Her eyes fell.
"You don't understand," she said, slowly. "Other girls have red hair.
It isn't that."
Roger's eyes faltered in their reassuring gaze.
"I—I wouldn't mind—the other thing, either, if I were you," he
stammered.
"You don't know what you'd do if you were me!" the girl cried,
passionately. "You don't know what you'd do if you were hated, and
despised, and laughed at, every day of your life! And how would you
like the feeling that it could never be any different, no matter where
you went, or how hard you tried to be good, or how much you
learned? Never, never any different! Ah, it makes me hate myself,
and everybody! I could tear them to pieces, like this, and this!"
She had risen, and was tearing the scarlet petals of the lilies into
pieces, her teeth set, her eyes flashing.
"Look at them!" she cried wildly. "How like me they are, all red blood
like yours, except those few black drops which never can be washed
out! Never! Never!"
And again the child threw herself upon the ground, face downward,
and broke into wild, convulsive sobbing.
Young Roger was in an agony of pity. He found his position as
consoler a trying one. An older person might well have quailed
before this outburst of unchild-like passion. He knew that what she
said was true—terribly, bitterly true, and this kept him dumb. He
only stood and looked down upon the quivering little figure in
embarrassed silence.
Suddenly the girl raised her head, with a flash of her eyes.
"What does God mean," she cried, fiercely, "by making such a
difference in people?"
Roger's face became graver still.
"I can't tell you that, Lilly," he answered, soberly. "You'll have to ask
the minister. But I've often thought of it myself. I suppose there is a
reason, if we only knew. I guess all we can do is to begin where God
has put us, and do what we can."
Lilly slowly gathered her disordered hair into one hand and pushed it
behind her shoulders, her tear-stained eyes fixed sadly on the boy's
troubled face.
The tea-bell, sounding from the distance, brought a welcome
interruption, and Roger turned to go. He looked back when half
across the meadow, and saw the little figure standing in relief upon
a rocky hillock, the sun kindling her red locks into gold.
A few years previously, O'Connell had made his appearance in
Ridgemont with wife and child, and had procured a lease of the run-
down farm and buildings which had been their home ever since. It
was understood that they had come from one of the Middle States,
but beyond this nothing of their history was known.
The wife, a beautiful quadroon, sank beneath the severity of the
climate, and lived but a short time. After her death, O'Connell,
always a surly, hot-headed fellow, grew surlier still, and fell into evil
ways. The child, with a curious sort of dignity and independence,
took upon her small shoulders the burden her mother had laid aside,
and carried on the forlorn household in her own way, without
assistance or interference.
That she was not like other children, that she was set apart from
them by some strange circumstance, she had early learned to feel.
In time she began to comprehend in what the difference lay, and the
knowledge roused within her a burning sense of wrong, a fierce
spirit of resistance.
With the creamy skin, the full, soft features, the mellow voice, and
impassioned nature of her quadroon mother, Lilly had inherited the
fiery Celtic hair, gray-green eyes, and quick intelligence of her father.
She contrived to go to school, where her cleverness placed her
ahead of other girls of her age, but did not raise her above the
unreasoning aversion of her school-mates; and the consciousness of
this rankled in the child's soul, giving to her face a pathetic, hunted
look, and to her tongue a sharpness which few cared to encounter.
Those who knew her best—her teachers, and a few who would not
let their inborn and unconquerable prejudice of race stand in the
way of their judgment—knew that, with all her faults of temper, the
girl was brave, and truthful, and warm-hearted. They pitied the
child, born under a shadow which could never be lifted, and gave
her freely the kind words for which her heart secretly longed.
There was little else they could do, for every attempt at other
kindness was repelled with a proud indifference which forbade
further overtures. So she had gone her way, walking in the shadow
which darkened and deepened as she grew older, until at last she
stood upon the threshold of womanhood.
It was at this period of her life that the incidents we have related
occurred. Small as they were, they proved a crisis in the girl's life.
Too much a child to be capable of forming a definite resolve, or
rather, perhaps, of putting it into form and deliberately setting about
its fulfilment, still the sensitive nature had received an impression,
which became a most puissant influence in shaping her life.
A change came over her, so great as to have escaped no interested
eyes; but interested eyes were few.
Her teachers, more than any others, marked the change. There was
more care of her person and dress, and the raillery of her school-
mates was met by an indifference which, however hard its
assumption may have been, at once disarmed and puzzled them.
Now and then, the low and unprovoked taunts of her boyish
tormentors roused her to an outburst of the old spirit, but for the
most part they were met only with a flash of the steel-gray eyes,
and a curl of the full red lips.
One Sunday, too, to the amazement of pupils and the
embarrassment of teachers, Lilly O'Connell, neatly attired and quite
self-possessed, walked into the Sunday-school, from which she had
angrily departed, stung by some childish slight, two years before.
The minister went to her, welcomed her pleasantly, and gave her a
seat in a class of girls of her own age, who, awed by the mingled
dignity and determination of his manner, swallowed their indignation,
and moved along—a trifle more than was necessary—to give her
room.
The little tremor of excitement soon subsided, and Lilly's quickness
and attentiveness won for her an outward show, at least, of
consideration and kindness, which extended outside of school limits,
and gradually, all demonstrations of an unpleasant nature ceased.
When she was about sixteen her father died. This event, which left
her a homeless orphan, was turned by the practical kindness of
Parson Townsend—the good old minister who had stood between
her and a thousand annoyances and wrongs—into the most
fortunate event of her life. He, not without some previous domestic
controversy, took the girl into his own family, and there, under kind
and Christian influences, she lived for a number of years.
At eighteen her school-life terminated, and, by the advice of Parson
Townsend, she applied for a position as teacher of the primary
school.
The spirit with which her application was met was a revelation and a
shock to her. The outward kindness and tolerance which of late
years had been manifested toward her, had led her into a fictitious
state of content and confidence.
"I was foolish enough," she said to herself, with bitterness, "to think
that because the boys do not hoot after me in the street, people had
forgotten, or did not care."
The feeling of ostracism stung, but could not degrade, a nature like
hers. She withdrew more and more into herself, turned her hands to
such work as she could find to do, and went her way again, stifling
as best she might the anguished cry which sometimes would rise to
her lips:
"What does God mean by it?"
Few saw the beauty of those deep, clear eyes and pathetic lips, or
the splendor of her burnished hair, or the fine curves of her tall,
upright figure. She was only odd, and "queer looking"—only Lilly
O'Connell; very pleasant of speech, and quick at her needle, and
useful at picnics and church fairs, and in case of sickness or
emergencies of any kind,—but Lilly O'Connell still,—or "Tiger-Lily,"
for the old name had never been altogether laid aside.

Ten years passed by. The good people of Ridgemont were fond of
alluding to the remarkable progress and development made by their
picturesque little town during the past decade, but in reality the
change was not so great. A few new dwellings, built in the modern
efflorescent style, had sprung up, to the discomfiture of the prim,
square houses, with dingy white paint and dingier green blinds,
which belonged to another epoch; a brick block, of almost
metropolitan splendor, cast its shadow across the crooked village
street, and a soldiers' monument, an object of special pride and
reverence, adorned the centre of the small common, opposite the
Hide and Leather Bank and the post-office.
Beside these, a circulating library, a teacher of china-painting and a
colored barber were casually mentioned to strangers, as proofs of
the slightness of difference in the importance of Ridgemont and
some other towns of much more pretension.
Over the old Horton homestead hardly a shadow of change had
passed. It presented the same appearance of prosperous middle
age. The great elms about it looked not a day older; the hydrangeas
on the door-step flowered as exuberantly; the old-fashioned roses
bloomed as red, and white, and yellow, against the mossy brick
walls; the flower-plots were as trim, and the rustic baskets of
moneywort flourished as green, as in the days when Mrs. Horton
walked among them, and tended them with her own hands. She had
lain with her busy hands folded these five years, in the shadow of
the Horton monument, between the grave of Dr. Jared Horton and a
row of lessening mounds which had been filled many, many years—
the graves of the children who were born—and had died—before
Roger's birth.
A great quiet had hung about the place for several years. The blinds
upon the front side had seldom been seen to open, except for
weekly airings or semi-annual cleanings.
But one day in mid-summer the parlor windows are seen wide open,
the front door swung back, and several trunks, covered with labels
of all colors, and in several languages, are standing in the large hall.
An unwonted stir about the kitchen and stable, a lively rattling of
silver and china in the dining room, attest to some unusual cause for
excitement. The cause is at once manifest as the door at the end of
the hall opens, and Roger Horton appears, against a background
composed of mahogany side-board and the erect and vigilant figure
of Nancy Swift, the faithful old housekeeper of his mother's time.
The handsome, manly lad had fulfilled the promise of his boyhood.
He was tall and full-chested; a trifle thin, perhaps, and his fine face,
now bronzed with travel, grave and thoughtful for his years, but
capable of breaking into a smile like a sudden transition from a
minor to a major key in music.
He looked more than thoughtful at this moment. He had hardly
tasted the food prepared by Nancy with a keen eye to his youthful
predilections, and in the firm conviction that he must have suffered
terrible deprivations during his foreign travels.
Truly, this coming home was not like the comings-home of other
days, when two dear faces, one gray-bearded and genial, the other
pale and gentle-eyed, had smiled upon him across the comfortable
board. The sense of loss was almost more than he could bear; the
sound of his own footsteps in the cool, empty hall smote heavily
upon his heart.
The door of the parlor stood ajar, and he pushed it open and
stepped into the room. Everything was as it had always been ever
since he could remember—furniture, carpets, curtains, everything.
Just opposite the door hung the portraits of his parents, invested by
the dim half-light with a life-like air which the unknown artist had
vainly tried to impart.
Roger had not entered the room since his mother's funeral, which
followed close upon that of his father, and just before the close of
his collegiate course.
Something in the room brought those scenes of bitter grief too
vividly before him. It might have been the closeness of the air, or,
more probably, the odor rising from a basket of flowers which stood
upon the centre-table. He remembered now that Nancy had
mentioned its arrival while he was going through the ceremony of
taking tea, and he went up to the table and bent over it. Upon a
snowy oval of choicest flowers, surrounded by a scarlet border, the
word "Welcome" was wrought in purple violets.
The young man smiled as he read the name upon the card attached.
He took up one of the white carnations and began fastening it to the
lapel of his coat, but put it back at length, and with a glance at the
painted faces, whose eyes seemed following his every motion, he
took his hat and went out of the house.
His progress through the streets of his native village took the form of
an ovation. Nearly every one he met was an old acquaintance or
friend. It warmed his heart, and took away the sting of loneliness
which he had felt before, to see how cordial were the greetings.
Strong, manly grips, kind, womanly hand-pressures, and shy,
blushing greetings from full-fledged village beauties, whom he
vaguely remembered as lank, sun-burned little girls, met him at
every step.
He noticed, and was duly impressed by, the ornate new dwellings,
the soldiers' monument, and the tonsorial establishment of Professor
Commeraw. But beyond these boasted improvements, it might have
been yesterday, instead of four years ago, that he passed along the
same street on his way to the station. Even Deacon White's sorrel
mare was hitched before the leading grocery-store in precisely the
same spot, and blinking dejectedly at precisely the same post, he
could have taken his oath, where she had stood and blinked on that
morning.
Before the tumble-down structure where, in connection with the sale
of petrified candy, withered oranges, fly-specked literature, and
gingerpop, the post-office was carried on, sat that genial old
reprobate, the post-master, relating for the hundredth time to a
sleepy and indifferent audience, his personal exploits in the late war;
pausing, however, long enough to bestow upon Horton a greeting
worthy of the occasion.
"Welcome home!" said Mr. Doolittle, with an oratorical flourish, as
became a politician and a post-master; "welcome back to the land of
the free and the home of the brave!"
Whereupon he carefully seated himself on the precarious chair which
served him as rostrum, and resumed his gory narrative.
A little further on, another village worthy, Fred Hanniford, cobbler,
vocalist, and wit, sat pegging away in the door of his shop, making
the welkin ring with the inspiring strains of "The Sword of Bunker
Hill," just as in the old days. True, the brilliancy of his tones was
somewhat marred by the presence of an ounce or so of shoe-pegs in
his left cheek, but this fact had no dampening effect upon the
enthusiasm of a select, peanut-consuming audience of small boys on
the steps.
He, too, suspended work and song to nod familiarly to his somewhat
foreignized young townsman, and watched him turn the corner,
fixing curious and jealous eyes upon the receding feet.
"Who made your boots?" he remarked sotto voce, as their firm rap
upon the plank sidewalk grew indistinct, which profound sarcasm
having extracted the expected meed of laughter from his juvenile
audience, Mr. Hanniford resumed his hammer, and burst forth with a
high G of astounding volume.
As young Horton came in sight of Mrs. Fairfield's residence, he
involuntarily quickened his steps. As a matter of course, he had met
in his wanderings many pretty and agreeable girls, and, being an
attractive young man, it is safe to say that eyes of every hue had
looked upon him with more or less favor. It would be imprudent to
venture the assertion that the young man had remained quite
indifferent to all this, but Horton's nature was more tender than
passionate; early associations held him very closely, and his boyish
fancy for the widow's pretty daughter had never quite faded. A
rather fitful correspondence had been kept up, and photographs
exchanged, and he felt himself justified in believing that the
welcome the purple violets had spoken would speak to him still more
eloquently from a pair of violet eyes.
He scanned the pretty lawn with a pleased, expectant glance.
Flowers were massed in red, white and purple against the vivid
green; the fountain was scattering its spray; hammocks were slung
in tempting nooks, and fanciful wicker chairs, interwoven with blue
and scarlet ribbons, stood about the vine-draped piazza. He half
expected a girlish figure to run down the walk to meet him, in the
old childish way, and as a fold of white muslin swept out of the open
window his heart leaped; but it was only the curtain after all, and
just as he saw this with a little pang of disappointment, a girl's figure
did appear, and came down the walk toward him. It was a tall figure,
in a simple dark dress. As it came nearer, he saw a colorless, oval
face, with downcast eyes, and a mass of ruddy hair, burnished like
gold, gathered in a coil under the small black hat. There was
something proud, yet shrinking, in the face and in the carriage of the
whole figure. As the latch fell from his hand the girl looked up, and
encountered his eyes, pleased, friendly and a trifle astonished, fixed
full upon her.
She stopped, and a beautiful color swept into her cheeks, a sudden
unleaping flame filled the luminous eyes, and her lips parted.
"Why, it is Lilly O'Connell!" the young man said, cordially, extending
his hand.
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