The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-14

sight of the landing when TuthlIs load
of berries drew up to the empty wharf
house.
Step lively, now" yelled the man.
But Ted was staring at his kite.
Two at a clip, you dummy" roared
three crates at time in his generous
grasp. Ted made a few brave efforts to
get busy, and then he stopped, shouting:
''Oh lord. There she goes!' His kite
had broken looseand was Haunting away
with wagging head and dropping tail.
There were tears in the boys eyes, but
his fathers voice recalled him to the
business at hand. The van was unload
ed The deckhands carried the crates
aboard the boat as fast as they were
unloaded from the wagon. Hiram Tut
hill and his helper hoped back onto the
seat and started hOmeward, leaving
Ted. worthless, idle. sneaking Ted, to
gather up the remnants of Irvine that
reached down from the bluff and trailed
away with the swiftly running current.
He sat a while in the deepening shad-
OWs watching the little steamboat swim
away Then he reached out across the
waters margin and caught the end of
his broken kite string. He pulled it taut
and looked alOft. He remembered the
end fastened to the pine tree almost
above his head. He was late for sup
per that night, and his father sent him
to bed with piece of bread and butter.
The next day. instead of waiting till the
father and the help. Then he took his
place in the line of berry-picIers. His
father stared and wondered. He worked
steadily. silently, rapidly BY dusk he
had picked three crates, and his father,
edited and delighted, gave him 50 cents.
He took it and mounted the wagon. That
night he helped unload the van and when
it drove away he found the taut string of
his lost kite and stayed to play. But
thereafter. day after day he went into
no wit nip<prc
day his father gave him the half of
dollar After week. one dry. bright
morning. he quit He lay abed while the
men breakfasted. Then he stole some
biscuits and sneaked off alone.
That evening, late again. when the
wrothy farmer drove past the lone pine
trees, Ted was sitting there He had
line in his hand, but it led downward
over the bluff.
Drop that gosh dinsed line" roared his
father. land git up herer'
This amt no 'gosh-dinged' kite string.
dad" said the boy; this here is berry
trolley
Berry hellr. quoth the man. reaching
for his whip. You git up here and come
unload berriesr
Unload EN- right here. dad smrked
the worthless one. ''See. like this.
He grabbed a crate of berries. slipped it
/ into the loop of a rope that he held in
/ his hand and sent it over the bluff as
swift and mistaken as a bird See, dad.
/ he grinncd, as he let the fifty-pound box
/ of fruit slip softly into the sand below.
/ 1T goes down n wire trolley"
] He had rugged a stout telegraph wire
from the pine tree to a stake by the boat
landing. and proffered tramway instead
of twO-mile drive with double team
over two miles of rough roadway
TN go down and unload en- he said.
! You slip EN- to me-" And the boy slip
ped over the rim of the bluff and in a few
minutes was down by the wharf
He must be an inventive genius med
/ itated the man that night he drove
homeward- I've seen them things in big
Chicago dry goods stores. but 1 never
thot Hiram TuthiUd ever be a-deliverins
of his berries by trolley