The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-09-14
TOD.

l dard Anderson of any boy Of the town lu which he iived-and I myself lived there a handy boy in the dim old days-you doubtless would have been informed that nobody of that name was there Your l juvenile informant. however by way Of gratuitous intelligence, might have gone on to state that two families of the name of Anderson resided there-"Old Do-good" Anderson, the preacher, and his brother John. But had you asked for ..Tod'' Anderson, or simply Tod your boy would have known Tod; your boy, in all likelihood would have had especial reasons for remembering Tod. although his modesty. perhaps, might not allow him to inform you how Tod had "waxed 1t to him more'n onc't''l But he would have told you. as tell you now, that Tod Anderson was the preachers boy and lived at the parsonage. Tod was queer boy.
 Stoddard Anderson was named in honor of some obscure divine his father had Joined church under when a boy It was a peculiar weakness of the father to relate the experience of his early con- viction; and as he never tired of repeat ing 1t, by way of precept and admoni- tion to the wayward lambkins of his flock, Tod mastered it's most intricate and sacred phraseology, together even with the fathers more religious formulas to a degree of perfection that enabled him to preside at mock meetings in the , hayloft. and offer the paptismal service at the "swmmin' hole"
 In point of personal or moral resem- blance, Tod was in nowise like his fla cal hn nicfUra his mother, they who could remember her. for she fell asleep when Tod was 1 three days old, with her mother-arms 1 locked around him so closely that he cried and they had to take him away from her. No-Death had taken her away from him.
 It needs now no chronicle to tell how Tod thrived in spite of his great loss, and how he grew to be a big, fat, two listed baby with a double chin, the pride and constant worry of the dear old grandmother Into whose care he had falS len. It requires no space in historys crowded page to tell how he could stand up by 2 chair when eight months old, and crow and laugh and doddle his lit- fle chubby arms till he quite upset his balance, and pulling the chair down with him. would laugh and crow louder than ever, and kick, and crawl and sprawl, and jabber; and never lift a whimper of distress but when being rocked to sleep. Let a babyhood of usual interest be in ferred-then add a few more years, and you will have the Tod of ten knew.
 moral, saintlixe and consistent Chris tian, what is It in the souls of little children so antagonistic to your own sometimes? What is it in their wayward and impulsive natures that you cannot brook? And what strange tincture of rebellious feeling is 1t that embitters all the tenderness and love you pour out so lavishly upon their stubborn and resent full hearts? Why Is 1t you so covetously cherish the command divine, Children, obey your parents and yet find no warm nook within the breast for that old houseless truth that goes wailing through the world:
 "A boys will is the winds will,
 And the thoughts of youth are long. long
 thoughts?'
 l Tod went to school-the thriftless Todl mot wholly thriftless, either; for all l though he had not that apt way of ] slSimming like swallow down the placid rills of learning, he did possess, in some mysterious strength, most extraordin- ary knack of acquiring just such inform alton as was not taught at school, and had no place within the busy hive of | knowledge.
 Tod was 2 failure in arithmetic Tod | couldn't tell twice ten from twice etern- I ity. Tod knew absolutely nothing of l either Christopher Columbus or the glori- ous country he discovered expressly for the use of industry and learning as the teacher would have had him implicitly believe. Tod couldn't tell you anything of John Smith, even that very noted captain who walks by jowl with the dusky Pocahontas across the illimitablc fancy of the ten-year-old school-boy of our glorious republic. Tod knew all about the famous Captain Kidd, how ever. In fact. Tod could sing his history with more lively interest and real ap- preciation than his fellow-schoolmates sang geography. The simple Tod once joined the geographical chorus with:
 I'd a Bible in my hand,
 As I sailed, as I sailed, And I sunk her in the sand,
 As I sailed"
 And Tod-not Captain Kidd-had a ringing in his ears as he sang, as he sang, and an overflow of tears as he sang. And then he ran away from school that afternoon, and sang Captain Kidd, from A to izzard. in the full hearing of the Industrial Hive" to the very evI- dent amusement of "the workers" and the discontinue of the ruler of ''the swarm"
 The teacher called on the good min ister that evening and after a long talk on the back porch, left late in the dusk wiping his eyes with one hand, and shak- ing the other very warmly with the preacher. And Tod slipped noiselessly along the roof above them, and slid down the other side and watched the teachers departure with a puzzled face
 Tod was at school next morning long before the call of books" in fact, so early, that he availed himself of his isolated situation to chalk the handle of the teachers pointer. to bore a gimlet hole In the water bucket, to slip a chip under one corner of the clock in order to tilt it out of balance and time, and in many more ingenious ways to contribute to the coming troubles of the day. The most audacious act, however. was to climb above the teachers desk and paste a paper scrap over letter 70" in the old motto, Be good" that had offered him it's vain advice for years As one by one these depredations met the teach CTS notice through the day, the cul- prit braced himself for some disastrous issue, but his only punishment was the assured glance the teacher always gave him, and the settled yet forebearing look Tod laughed aloud-a hollow, hungry laugh that had no mirth in it-but as suddenly subsided in a close investiga- tion of a problem in mental arithmetic, when the teacher backed slowly toward his desk and stood covertly awaiting fur ther developments. But he was left again to his own inclinations, after hay ing with a brazen air of innocence solic- fad AL.