The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-07-09
PETERSON'S BOBBY.

ne people or LOWerton were more
or less given to talking among them
selves about the boy. And in talking
about him they always evinced deep
pity for the parents, because they had
born to them one who was of weak and
foolish intellect. But Notwithstanding
the fact that this boy had been denied
for some mysterious reason that gift
which makes every possessor of it a
king, and his parents the proud refec-
ton that their offspring was unlike
other children in the world, Glenn
Peterson and his wife could not help
loving, and tenderly, the one who now
and henceforth was to claim uncon-
sciously that greater consideration at
their hands which was only his due
He was now boy of dozen sum-
mers, and far from attractive in out
ward appearance, being singularly
grotesque of form, and in his move
ments, awkward in the highes degree,
His features were more or less dstort-
ed, his hair was of saffron hue, and
his eyes the color of grass. His voice
was thin and nasal, and in speaking he
uttered his words in a drawing man
ner. Yet, notwithstanding all this
lack OF comeliness and grace, there was
that element in his character which
drew toward him the favorable regard
of nearly all who knew him, and this
was his truly aff'ectionate disposition.
Moreover, unlike most individuals born
to his lot, nothing ever appeared to
rufie his equanimity of temper, since,
on such occasions he was the same
gentle being. In infancy his parents
gave him the name of Tomrly. and by
this name he was known in the place,
though few disraspectful and unfeel-
ing among his companions had bestow-
ed on him the nchristian appellative
--tB00bY."
He went to the village school, and on
all occasions conducted himself with a
decornm which ought TO k2ve put to
shame many of his schoolmatcs. 1T is
open to grave doubt, however. if he
ever required knowledge of the
alphabet, since, Notwithstanding the
fact that his teacher sought most as
siduously to instill into his mind an
acquaintance with at least the simplest
rudiments of the mother tongue, she
failed most signally in her efforts to
elevate the intellectual condition of one
who had been far less endowed in this
respect than his fellows And failing
as a scholar, Tommy also failed to do
his part in the games and pastimes
which obtain with most boys, and SO in
time it grew to be a common saying
with the uncharitable and unsympathet-
ic among his comrades, that, 'Booby
isn't good for anything. =
The years went by, and Tommy was
now nearing his sixteenth summer. He
no longer attended school, possibly for
the reason that he had grown tired of
the neyer-ending monotony of study
which fell TO his lot.
His mother had passed to her grave
leaving her husband to alone watch
over and care for the one whose exis-
tence. it must be confessed, had brought
to her life the pain of grievous disap-
pointment In the foundry near his
home Glenn Peterson toiled day after
day for the support necessary to HIM
self and the dependent upon him, while
Tommy-an idle nobody-wandered
here and there about the village as
curiosity prompted him. the sport of
the small boys, and the butt of the
large ones. At heart the father was
lonely, sad man. and the burden he
was bearing rested heavily upon him.
The lightest of his cares was to have
f1r<I al. fr,.. calf a,,1 <.btlI
and had mere labor been the one con-
sideration of his mind his life in the
main had been an easy one. But that
which, day after day, and week after
week, preyed upon his soul only to
haunt him with misery that would
not go away, was the reflection that
he was not as other fathers in the
world, and why he--he would query to
himself over and again-''Why was
this curse visited upon me?''
'Don't take it so hard, Glenn" said
Hank Ruben, fellow-workman, one
day, as the latter observed his friend to
be in an unusually sober mood. 1T
amt nothing yo'se to blame fori Bear
up, bear UP. old fellow! That are boy
amt always goin to live"
mot bit of itf' exclaimed Mike
Burns. another workman. .But don't
We forgit. before Tom peters he'll be
after doin' somethin' none of yell be
'shamed of him for! Now mind what
I'm atillin Of ye!"
OF course it was wholly impossible
for the latter individual to have spoken
knowingly. am led to think his re-
mark proceeded entirely from e sincere
desise on his part to buoy up the heart
Of the father to belief that in his