Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1893-06-29

responded to the name in a sort of dull
fashion, yet with some faint glimmer of
intelligence. What his surname was no
one learned; for the man abandoned
him and disappeared before anyone
had become interested in the question,
and the boy appeared wholly unable, or
sulkily unwilling, to answer any in
quiries about himself. There was no
police or detective force in this little
hamlet, and the one constable who was
expected to solve all dark mysteries and
make all arrests in Ammoniaville never
learned anything about the past his
tory of this child. Owing to some pc
culiarity discovered in his disposition,
the boy was nicknamed ''Sulks;;" and as
''Simeon Sulks'' he was known forever
after.
He was about five years old when he
was brought to Ammoniaville, and he
was plain, dejected-lookipg child, not
particularly bright. Life must have
already become serious to him, for he
shranl1 distrustfully from every body
who approa ched him. He never con-
fded in anyone, nor became attached
to any human creature. No one thought
of adopting him; but he lived on at the
tavern because no one was sufficiently
interested in his presence to drive him
away. He slept somewhere in the
building generally curled up in a
corner Of the kitchen-and he ate such
scraps as the servants chose to give
him. His wardrobe consisted of odd
pieces of clothing which the guests of
the inn CHANGED to give him in payment
for the small services he rendered
them. He was not apt at anything,
but in time he learned boot backing,
and he could hold horse long before
he could hold fork. In course of time
hessAad the oldest collection of old
clos that ever disgraced garnet.
However, when he was twelve years
old he had managed to collect what
answered for suit of boys clothing,
and, clothed in these habiliments, he
drifted into the Ammoniayille district
school,.
Ammoniaville was not a prosperous
place; indeed, it was rich in nothing but
endless, unceasing gossip and nick
names. It had at first been named
Hartshornville, in honor of certain
Mr.. Hartshorn, who had founded the
village and who owned the only factory
it contained; but the townspeople could
not leave the name alone; they changed
it to Ammoniaville, and so it remained.
1t had one school where the sternest
of schoolmasters made life miserable
to his scholars from nine until four
o'clock five days of every week, and
succeeded in making them hate learn
ing as much as they were taught to
hate the scribes and Pharisees. And
it was into this school that Simon Sulks
drifted and enrolled his remarkable
name.
Mr.. Horace Carver was the school
master. He had white, cold face,
pair of appalling spectacles which did
not hide his steel-gray eyes, and a
mouth that closed like a trap. Simeon
shot a glance at him when he entered
the school for the first time, and was
never known to look at him again.
This man and child were natural enc
miles, Mr.. Carver had no patience with
the boys dnllness, and he ridiculed
Simeon's ignorance. A boy of twelve
years only beginning to learn his let
ters, and muttering and stumbling be-.
cause he could not tell d from G. All
this seemed inexcusable to Mr. Carver.
He did not reflect that this wait had
never had chance to learn, and it new
er dawned upon his superior intelli-
gence that this friendless child could
have any pride or any feelings which
he should respect.
Mr.. Horace Carver had little daugh-
ter at nome. Every day she played
school with a dozen dolls of high and
low degree. Some of them were made
of wax. had pointed faces, and curly,
blonde wigs. These were the aristo-
Gratis of the school. Then there were
china dolls, and one gray rubber doll
that was considered the Ounce, and
which received all the punishment that
his severe young schoolmistress could
inf1ict. She hammered the rubber doll
with a ferule, she slapped and pounded
it until she was tired, and occasionally
she hung it to bedpost by its neck.
She was a veritable s.chip of the old
block, !" and was conducting her school
very much as her father managed his.
Simeon Sulks was the rubber doll in
Mr.. Carver's school.
q do not mean that the austere gen
tleman hung his scholar up by the
neck, but he pounded him without
provocation. He went further; he con-
tinually prophesied that the. state
would some day be compelled to hang.