The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-04-07


fact, Perky had never once been known
to 60 into the widows house, nor had
he and the widow ever been seen to so
much as chat together at the gate.
When Perky stopped there it was the
boy Benny who came out to see him,
and talked to him by the hour, and of
ten accompanied him as he went on
over the bluff and down into the river
bottom, where the large trees were, and
the birds and the squirrels, and the queer
sound of the running water. For Perky
and Benny had come to be close COM
panions and friends. The one wac rare
ly seen without the other. The boy had
caught something of the mans beset-
ting spirit of unrest, and the man had
borrowed a bit of the boys gentle
cheeriness, so that they blended very
happily. They spent much of their
time wandering on the breezy sweep of
upland overlooking the river from
the other side. Their falkland
they talked a great deal-was of
the things they had seen and
heard and thought together-of the
flowers, the stars, the psalms, the mir
acles, the pr~inting-ofice,. and the farm
Benny was going to have when he got
to be a man. Sometimes the boys
swift questions went far beyond Perky's
power of answering, and then there
would be a little silence and n change
of the subject. Sometimes, too, Benny
could not understand why his friend
stammered and looked ashamed when
making inquiry of him about his mother.
But there was no distrust between them
and no disagreement, and when, as they
were speaking one day of the boys
father, and Perky said suddenly, as if
he had just thought of it, elbow would
you like to have me for a fatherp" Ben
ny replied, without hesitation and feel
ing, "Oh, that would be splendid"
Then they walked home without saying
another word, and when they parted at
the gate there were tears in Perky's
eyes. Benny lay awake a long time
that night wondering what it could
mean, and fell asleep at last to dream
that his father came to him in the vague
white robe of an angel, with a face that
shone like the sun. And the face was
the face of Perky.
AS the summer wore slowly away,
Perky's gloominess grew upon him day
by day, andhe could not shake it off. 1t
seemed to him, also, that it took very lit
tie eyertiopt to overcome him with fatigue.
lie could hardly walk to the river ford,
and back Al far as the Widow Hahn
lines, without a singular trembling in
his limbs, and a dizzy sensation about
the head; and he would often be
obliged to stop and steady himself
against the catalpa tree by the widows
gate before he could go on, he was so
tired, and there was such a blur just
ahead of him. Once, when he was
standing there, the widow came out of
the house on IN errand to Il neighbours,
and, as he lifted his hat to her, he sank
down eXhaustedly at her feet; but he
pretended that he had merely stopped
to disengage a wanton brier from her
dress-skirt, and when she bowed him
her thanks, he rose and stood again like
an athlete. He had a harassing cough,
too, and slept fitfully, and in his thin,
{, pale cheeks were ugly spots of scarlet.
When they told him he was sick and in
need of a physician, he smiled YEARLY,
and said: "Only a little bilious, that's
!, all" And on the days when he felt SC
| weak that he dared not venture out
| days that came quite frequently in
: that lazy, lethargic September weather
he was always ready with some plaus'
| ible excuse to conceal the real cause OF
his staying indoors. lie consented
, finally to allow another printer to take
. his place in the Clarion oilice-tempo
rarily, and as his ''sub' only, for thu
editor would not like it, he said, if h,
| should give up his cases sincerely be
cause he wanted to loaf a few days ant
get the malaria out of his system" HI
. visited the Office from time to time t.
see how his "sub" got along, and t.
: take a look at the exchanges. The,
y showed him the first number of the new
r paper at Konomo, which was to be tn
Garion'S contestant for the count,
printing, and he curled his lip ut sigh
of its dosble advertiaY ments, and SAT-
e the grave yawneG for pape
that started out by leading its s%electer
t matter. Some days he would reliev