The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1894-07-13
THE HEART OF A BOY.
1t Was a Brave One But Gould
Not Stand the Strain.

Not Stand the Strain.
''It 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, it
does not seem possible really To reach
the heart of boy"
His maiden sister, Miss Simplex.
shifted, half scornfully, from behind
the coffee urn.
Il am not certain" she said severe
ly, that | am prepared To believe in
the existence of such Il thing as a BOYS
heart. / dare say the little animals
have some sort of a 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 that word.
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,
delicate young mother had gathered
the three-year-old toddier to her heart.
kissed him for the last time on earth,
and charged him with her dying breath
To be a good boy and do as Aunt Sarah
bad. him.
Just now Jared was home from school
IN hopeless disgrace. 1t seems i'm
possible to make any impression upon
him, the principal wrote, and perhaps
ii will be as well To leave him to his
own desires for awhile"
Ills particular offense this time had
been cutting up the leather covers of
his grammar and making therefrom an
elaborate penwiper holder, soaking
and emOossing the leather very clever
ly with the aid of his pcnknife and a
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
The inside's just as good he said,
an l don't want the old thing. any
way" This was but one of Jareds
many Offenses. He 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
clarcd, as his anxious father noted,
and the principal regretted was that
he seemed incapable of loving anyone.
Silent. almost morose, he seemed en-
tircly to lack the usual impulse of
childhood to please. He seems to
care more for common dog than for
his own kind" was one of his aunt's
worried indictments him,
fearful lest SO unnatural a tendency
should be fostered. his father had r.
quired Jared to part with the broken
tailed mongrel cur that for nearly a
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 un-
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. seiZing his
hat as he ran, and rushed for refuge
to a favorite haunt of his beside 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, auntie's de-
votion and grandma 5 loving oversight,
rarely has 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
II. sfN~-
arranged. finished article. while her
brother is being knocked about in a
complexIty of circumstances, getting
licked into shape by the efficient and
ready tongue of Life as He Finds 1t "
But the licking process is hard, and
the boy suffers under it Who can tell
the tormenting thoughts teeming un-
der the shoclSy hair-thc doubts and
wondcrments of the bewildered boy
soul. and the wild rebellion of the
tough little heart under the shabby
Jacket? He fights his mental and spir-
itual battles alone for the most part,
for few understand the little animal
they're only boys, you know, anu do
not need the fostering care the little
girls must have Only the mother usu-
alIy gets down to the little. warm, low
ing. yearning. wondering heart, and
she often, all too soon, lets IL 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 a hardened sinner. as Aunt Sarah
sand? He was sure he loved the 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 a rattle
snake change his skin. but he had told
Tommy he was sorry, and had even
given To him, as peace offering, the
skin that he had picked up and treas
ured. Surely God wasn't laying that
up against him
A little red squirrel hoped across
the open and sat on his hind legs mo-
ment. studying Jared, then suddenly
whisked around and disappeared in a
hole. The little chap wondered
vaguely if his sins troubled him. Then
he put his head down on his arms and
groaned. Il suppose I'm bound to be
lost he moaned- Il must b. awful