The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1900-01-18

ms hands folded under his coattails.
looked up when he appeared and ac-
costed him.
You've been rather long time up
there, my lad" he said as the boy de-
scended with a tremulous haste, most
unlike his ordinary slow movements.
"You didn't hear me calling, I sup
pose?'
Bonaparte whisked the tails of his
coat up and down as he looked at him.
He (Bonaparte Blenkins) had eyes
Thich were very farseeing. He looked
mt the pot. 1t was rather a small pot
to have taken three-quarters Of an
hour in the filing. He looked at the
face 1t was flushed. And yet Tant
Sannie kept no wine. He had not
been drinking. His eyes were wide
open and bright. He had not been
sleeping. There was no girl up there
He had not been making love. Bo-
naparte looked at him sagaciously.
What would account for the marvellous
change in the boy coming down the
ladder from the boy going up the lad
der? One thing there was. Did not
Tant Sannie keep in the loft ''bul-
tongs" and nice smoked sausages?
There must be something nice to eat
up there. Aha! That was It!
Bonaparte was so interested In car
rying out this chain Of inductive rea-
soning that he quite forgot to have his
boots BACKED.
He watched the boy shuttle off with
the salt pot under his arm. Then he
stood in his doorway and raised his
eyes IT, the quiet blue sky and audibly
propounded this riddle to himself:
What is the connection between the
naked back of a certain boy with
greatcOat on and salt pot under his
arm and the tip of a horsewhip? An
swer: No connection at present, but
there will be SOON
Bonaparte was so pleased with this
sally of his wit that he chuckled lit
tie and went to lie down on his bed.
There was bread baking that after
noon. and there was a fire lighted in
the brick oven behind the house, and
Tant' Sannie had left the great wood
en- elbowed chair in which she passed
her life and waddled out to look at it.
Not far off was Waldo, who, having
thrown a pail of food into the pigsty,
now leaned over the sod wall looking
at the pigs. Half of the sly was dry,
but the lower half was pool of mud,
on the edge Of which the mother sow
lay with closed eyes. her ten little ones
sucking. The father pig, knee deep in
the mud, stood running his snout into
a rotten pumpkin and wriggling his
curled tail.
Waldo wondered dreamily as he
stared why they were pleasant to look
at. Taken singly, they were not beau
tiful; taken together, they were. Was
it not because there was a certain har
mony about them? The old SOW vas
suited to the little pigs and the little
pigs to their mother. the old boar to
the rotten pumpkin and all to the mud.
They suggested the thought of nothing
that should be added. of nothing that
should be taken away. And, he won
dered on vaguely, was not that the
secret of all beauty, that you who look
on So he stood dreaming and leaned
farther and farther over the sod wall
and looked at the pigs.
All ILLS lille Ic DlcuhlnS " C-S
sloping down from the house in an
aimless sort of way, but he kept one
eye fixed on the pigsty, and each gyra-
ton brought him nearer to it. Waldo
stood like a thing asleep when Bona
parte came close up to him.
In old days, when a small boy play
ing in an Irish street gutter, he Bona
parte) had been Familiarity known
among his comrades under the title of
Tripping Ben, this from the rare ease
and dexterity with which, by merely
projecting his foot, he could precipitate
any unfortunate companion on to the
crown of his head. Years had elapsed,
and Tripping Ben had become Bona
parte, but the old gift was in him still.
He came close to the pigsty. All the
defunct memories of his boyhood re-
turned on him in a food as with an
adroft movement he inserted his leg
between Waldo and the wall and sent
him over the pigsty.
The little pigs were startled at the
strange intruder and ran behind their
mother, who shifted at him. Tant'
Sannie smote her hands together and
laughed, but Bonaparte was far from
joining her. Lost in reverie, he gazed
at the distant horizon.
The sudden reversal Of head and feet
had thrown out the volume that Waldo
carried in his breast. Bonaparte pick
ed it up and began to inspect it as the
boy climbed slowly over the wall He
would have walked off sullenly, but he
wanted his book and waited till it
should be given him.
''Ha" said Bonaparte, raising his
eyes from the leaves of the book which
he was examining. Il hope your coat
has not been injured. 1t is of an ele-
CANT cut. An heirloom, 1 presume,
from your paternal grandfather? 1t
looks nice now"
20 Lord, o Lord" cried Tant' San
ME, laughing and holding her sides,
'how the child looks-as though he
thought the mud would never wash
off! o Lord, shall die! You, Bona
parte, are the funniest man 1 ever
saw"
Bonaparte Blenkins was now careful
ly inspecting the volume he had picked