The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1893-06-30

responded to- the name in 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 a plain, dejected-looking child, not
particularly bright. Life must have
already become serious to him, for he
shrank distrhstfully from everybody
who approa ched him. He never con-
tided 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 Glanced to give him in payment
for the small services he rendered
them. He was not apt at anything,
but in time he learned boot. blacking,
and lie could hold horse long before
he could hold fork. In course of time
he had the oldest collection of old
clothes that ever disgraced garrett
However. when he was twelve years
old he had managed to collect what
answered for q suit of boys clothing.
and, clothed in these habiliments, he
drifted into the Ammoniaville district
school,
Ammoniaville was not a prosperous
place; indeed, it was rich in nothing but
endless, unceasing gossip and nick
names. 1t had at first been. named
Hartshornville,. in honor of a 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 schoolmastcrs 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 a white, cold face, a
pair of appalling spectacles which did
not hide his steel-gray eyes, and a
| mouth that closed like II trap. Simeon
| shot glance at him when he entered
| the school for the first time, and was
| never known to look ut him again.
This man and child were natural enc
| mics. Mr.. Carver had no patience with
the boys dizziness, and he ridiculed
Simeon's ignorance. A boy of twelve
years only beginning to learn his let
tiers, and muttering and stumbling be-
cause he could not tell d from G. All
this seemed inexcusable to Mr.. Carver
He did r..t reflect that this waif had
| never hni u chance to learn, and it new
err 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 home. Every day she played
school with q dozen dolls of high and
low degree. Some of them were made
of wax, had pointed faces, and curly,
blonte 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
infiict- 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 ''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
l do not mean that the austere gem
tlemap hung his scholar up by the
neck, hut he pounded him without
provocation. He went further; he con-
tinualiy prophesied that the state
wosdf eozps day Be compelled to han0
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