The Republican journal., 1898-04-28

" tne roOtS of the elm tree
mnele ne saw them looking at his dis
aa1e, u .g those ten minutes healy
portended evil; SO he tried to draw his
father into discussion of the merits of
the case by Whispering from time 70
ume, well, | guess they asst me to
come, or Piggy said it wouldn't hurt,
lam IN dog days" or 81 wasn't in
M Mhere IL was deep. l was only a-wadin' -
ine ne" ooy, who was seated upon log
near oy with stone in his hand. which
ne naa picked up, fearing the elder Jones
would join the fray, shifted audiblv. He
called to the other boys derisiyeIy' s.Say
any OF you boys got the baby's blocksS'
II dld not lift the mantle of humiliation
t1ae covered Mealy to hear his father re-
ply 10 the new boy, "That will do for
you, SIR While Mealy wept he wiped
away ms tears first with one hand and
,nen with the other, employing the free
nano IN fastening the innumerahle but
tons that held his soiled clothes toeether
1t seemed to him that there was NOT an
other boy in all Willow Creek who had
such thoughtless, cruel parents as he had
At that moment he did not fear the pun
1shment that might be in store for him.
he was thinking of the agony of his next
meeting with Piggy Pennington. Meay
fancled that Ace Carpenter. who was a
quiet, philosophical boy, would not tease
him, but horror seized him when he
thought of Piggy.
AS Mealy fastened the last button. he
1eit his fathers finger under his collar.
and felt his own feet shambling blindlv
over the pebbles, up the path. into the
pushes: he heard the boys in the water
laugh with the new boy-and then-stories
differ. The boys say he howled Justify
"oh, pa, won't do it any more" over
ana over again. Mealy Jones says that it
| didn't hurt bit
This much is certain: that Maste. Har-
old Jones walked through the town that
day few feet ahead of his father, who
tapped the boys legs with a hooked cane
whenever his steps Jagged. At the door
OF the Jones home Mrs. Jones stood to
welcome the martial procession, which
she saw, and then heard approaching
some time before it arrived TO his wife.
whose face pictured anxious grief, Mr.
Jones said, as he turned the captive over
to her, II found this young gentleman in
Notwithstanding and fighting. |
have attended to his wants, believe. |
leave him to YOU
Harold Jones was but a lad-a good lad
whose knowledge of the golden text was
his Sunday school teacher pride, yet he
had collected other scraps of useful infor-
nation as he journeyed through life, and
one OF these Was a perfectly practical
familiarity with the official road map to
his mothers heart. Therefore, when he
crossed the threshold of the Jones home,
Harold began at once to weep dolefully.
Harold Jones, what do you mean by
such conduct" asked his mother.
The boy stood by the window long
enough to see that his father had turned
the corner toward the town. Then he fell
on the floor, and began to bewail his lot,
refusing to answer the first question his
mother asked, but telling instead how
''all the other boys in this town can go
swimmin when they want to-" limiting
that he wouldn't care, if papa had only
just come and brought him home, but
that papa-and this was followed by a
vocal cataract of woe that made the dish
pans ring.
He noted that his mother bent over him
and said, my poor boy" at which sign
little Harold punctured the levees of his
grief again, and said he never was going
to face any of the boys in this town again
he ''just couldn't bear it Mrs Jones
paused in her work at this, put down a
potato which she was peeling and stood
up sttfiy, saying in a freezing tone,
'Harold Jones, you dom mean to tell me
that your father punished you in front of
those other little boys?'
Her son only sobbed and nodded an
affirmative, and gave lusty voice to the
fearful wish that he was dead Mrs
Jones stopped to the floor and took her
child by an arm. lifting him to his feet
She smoothed his hair and took him with
her to the big chair in the dining room
where she raised his seventy pounds to
her lap, saying as she did SO, ''Mama's
boy will soon be too big to hold.' At
} that the spoiled child only renewed his
weeping and clutched her hand tightly
There, little by little, he forgot the mis-
haps of the day. There the anguish lift
1 ed from his heart, and when his mother
asked, Harold, why did you go into the
: water when we told you not too" the,
peated questioning, his answer came:
well, they asked me, mom.'
: ''Who asked you?' persisted Mrs
Jones.
piggy Pennington and Jimmy Sears, :"
returned the lad.
To the query, "Well do you have to do
everything they ask you to, Harold?'
the lads answer was renewal of the
heart breaking sobs. These softened the
mothers heart, as many and many a wo-
l mans heart has been melted through all
the ages. She smoothed the truant child
and petted him, until the cramping in his
throat relaxed sufficiently to admit of the
passage of an astonishingly large slice of
bread and butter and sugar. After it was
disposed of, Harold busted himself by as
sorting his old iron scraps on the back
porch, and his mother smiled as she
} fancied she heard the boy trying to
5 whistle tune.
: Harold had left the porch before his
father came home with the beefsteak for
supper, and Mrs. Jones met her husband
with: 'Pa Jones, what could you be
thinking of-punishing that boy before
the other children? Do you want to break
r what little spirit he has? Why, that child
was nearlyin Mysteries for an hour after
r you leftr'
Mr.. Jones hung up his crooked cane,
7 put stick of wood in the stove, scraped
his pipe with his knife, and blew through
! the stem.
II guess he wasn't hurt much,' replied
, the father Then he added, as he put a
live coal in the pipe: 81 s'pose you went
5 an babied him an spoiled it all.'' There
was putting pause, after which Mr..
Jones added, eff you' d let him 90 more.