The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-08-17

and most bewildering smile lit up his defective eyes. he exclaimed "Oh! I tell you what les dol Les me and you git up a show in your stable, and don't let none O the other boys in itl I kin turn a handspring like you and purt' nigh walk on my hands; and you kin p'form on the slack-rope-and spraddle out like the inja-rubber man'-and hold a pitchfork on yer chin-and stand up on a horse ithout din'-and-and-Ohi ever thing!' And as the cross-eyed boy breathlessly concluded this list of at fractions, he had The Boy from zeeny so thoroughly inoculated with the enter prise that he warmly closed with the proposition, and the preparations and the practice for the show were at once inaugurated.
 Three hours later, aN extremely cross eyed boy, with the freckles on his face thrown into vivid relief by an intense pallor, rushed pantingly into the doctor office with the fateful intelligence that The Boy from Zeeny had fell and broke his arm agin." At this time, as it seemed, the hapless boy had surpassed the seriousness of all former fractures this last being of a compound nature and very painful in the setting, and tedi- ous in the recovery; the recovery, too being anything but perfect, since 1t left the movement of the elbow somewhat restricted, and threw the little fellows arm in an unnatural position, with the palm of the hand turned forward as he walked. But for all that, the use of it was, to all appearances, but little im- paired
 Doubtless 1t was through such inter ludes from rough service as these acci- dents afforded that The Boy from Zeeny had acquired the meagre education he fo xrrtfn xrrhn from the first been kind to him, grew to like him very much. Through her gen. tie and considerate interest he was stim- ulated to study by the occasional present of a simple volume. Oftentimes the good woman would devote an hour to his in struction in the mysteries of the book s orthography and rhetoric.
 Nor was The Boy from Zeeny a dull pupil; neither was he an ungrateful one. He was quick to learn, and never proud CT than when a mastered lesson gained | for him the approbation of his patient | instructor.
 | The history of The Boy from zeeny. | such as had been gathered by the doctor and his wife, was corroborative in out line with the brief hint of 1t as communi- | cated to the curious listeners at the rear l window of the doctors office on the me- | morable day of the boys first appearance | in the town. He was without family, save a harsh, unfeeling father, who, from every evidence, must have neglected and abused the child most shamefully, the circumstantial proof of this fact be- | ing evidenced in the boys frank ac- knowledgement that he had repeatedly run away from him, and his still firm | resolve to keep his name a secret, lest | he might thereby be traced to his present security and fall once more into the
 hands of his unnatural parent.
 | Certain it was that the interest of all who knew his story was in hearty sym | pathy with the lad. and when one morn | ing 1t was rumored that The Boy from | Zeeny had mysteriously disappeared, and
 and the rumor rapidly developed into an
 unquestionable fact there was a uni
 versal sense of regret in the little town,
 which in turn resolved itself into posi-
 tive indignation when it was learned
 from the doctor that an explanation, | printed in red keel on the back of a frag-
 mental bit of circus-poster, had been
 found folded and tucked away in the
 buckle-strap of his horses bridle The | somewhat remarkable communication, | in sprawling capitals, ran thus
 "PAPS GOT ME AGIN. HAF TO | GO. DAM HIM. DOC TEL HER TO
 KEEP MY BOOCKS. GOOD BY. I FED l ---~---~>~~~-~~----~-~~-
 (Continued on Pace Seventeenl