Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1894-09-20
THE HEART OF A BOY.
It Was q Brave One But Gould
Not Stand the Strain.

Not Stand the Strain.
ut does not really seem possible"
sighed Mr.. Simplex, as he folded his
napkin, adjusted it accurately under
the rim Of his plate, and pushed back
his chair from the breakfast table.
However earnestly one may try, 1t
does not seem possible really to reach
the heart of boy"
His maiden sister, Miss Simplex,
shifted, half scornfully, from behind
the coffee urn.
II am not certain" she said severe
ly, that am prepared to believe in
the existence Of such thing as boys
heart. dare say the little animals
have some sort Of muscular organ
that pumps blood through their bodies.
| know that they have stomachs, and
Jared certainly has brains, such as
they are, but ! am pretty sure boys do
not possess hearts in any spiritual
sense OF tnat WOrO.
Miss Simplex was collecting the
glass and china, which always received
her personal attention, meditating
meantime in no hopeful frame Of mind
on the probable future Of her young
nephew, who had been her particular
charge and trial ever since the time,
eight years before, when his pretty,
delicate young mother had gathered
the three-year-old toddler to her heart,
kissed him for the last time on earth,
and charged him with her dying breath
TO be good boy and do as Aunt Sarah
babe him.
Just now Jared was home from school
in hopeless disgrace. at seems i'm
possible to make any impression upon
him" the principal wrote, 'and perhaps
it will be as well to leave him to his
own desires for awhile"
His particular offense this time had
been cutting up the leather covers Of
his grammar and making therefrom an
elaborate penwiper holder, soaking
and enclosing the leather very clever
ly with the aid of his penknife and
key. When punished he had taken the
chastisement sullenly, and wholly re-
fused to admit that he was sorry for
his wanton destruction of the book.
1.-THE inside's just as good" he said,
IAN don't want the old thing, any
way" This was but one Of Jared's
many otfenses. lie had no sense Of
order or niceness Of arrangements"
Miss Simplex said. He would destroy
anything for the sake Of making some
preposterous, ugly thing thereof.
But the most repulsive feature OF
Jared's character, as Miss Simplex de.
clared, as his anxious father noted,
and the principal regretted, was that
he seemed incapable of loving anyone.
Silent, almost morosc, he seemed en-
tircly to lack the usual impulse OF
childhood to please. "lle seems to
care more for common dog than for
his own kind" vas one Of his aunt's
worried indictments against him, and,
fearful lest so unnatural o tendency
should be fostered, his father had re-
CURED Jared to part with the broken
tailed mongrel cur that for nearly q
year had been his most constant com
panion wandering with him in his
long, solitary wood tramps, and lying
beside him for hours on the hillsides
in the sun, where he loved to spend his
time, dreaming the long, long thoughts
Of youth.
Poor little jared He had an UNI
happy time at the morning meal un-
til at last, overcome with the sense Of
disapproval with which the two
'grownups' regarded him, he had
flown from the room, selling his
hat as he ran, and rushed for refuge
to q favorite haunt Of his beside a little
stream up in the hills.
There Is no more pitiful sight in this
whole pitiful universe than boy In
trouble. Your little girl, thanks to
mammals careful training, aunties de-
votion and grandma loving oversight,
rarely hasa chance to get into trouble.
Her little life Is carefully mapped out,
her little footsteps sedulously guided
into easy, correct and conventional
ways, and she grows up into nice lit
tie parrot, or o clever, correctly
arranged, finished article, while her
brother Is being knocked about in
complexity Of circumstances, getting
licked into shape by the efficient and
ready tongue Of Life as He Finds It"
But the licking process is hard, and
the boy suffers under 1t. Who can tell
the tormenting thoughts teeming I'M
der the shocky hair-the doubts and
wonderments Of the bewildered boy
soul and the wild rebellion Of the
tough little heart under the shabby
Jacket? lie fights his mental and spir-
itual battles alone for the most part,
for few understand the little animal
they're only boys, you know, and do
not need the fostering care the little
girls must have Only the mother usu'
ally gets down to the little, warm, low
ing, yearning, wondering heart, and
she often, all too soon, lets 1t go out
alone to seek and slay its giants or be
slain by them.
Down in the damp grass, under
tangle Of swamp willow, Jared lay and
thought. Was it really true that he
was q hardened sinner, as Aunt Sarah
said? He was sure he loved tho God
who had made the blue sky and the
green earth; at all events he loved the
earth and the sky. What had he done
that he should repent Of and call him
self lost? He had knocked Tommy
Gray down last term for calling him
liar, when he had only told him the
truth about his having seen rattle
snake change his skin, but he had told
Tommy he was sorry, and had even