Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1902-02-08
..BILLY"
Copyright. rscs Daily Story Publishing Company.

"a most unnatural child-sullen,
sluggish. sneaking," the rector affirm
ed, punctuating the Indictment with
pauses in his effort to be exact. A
shadow of protest fitted over his wife's
face. First, Billy was motherless.
Secondly. under cover of a garden
hedge one day she had watched Billy
take aim at a crow, and his eyes, eager.
sweet and blue as larkspur, had ap-
pealed to her unforgettably. Decided
ly, Bil1y's eyes when they could be
seen, counted.
1t was said of the rector that he
knew every man, woman and child in
the county; and they, by reason Of his
sweet cordiality of manner. knew and
loved him. The rector owed his popu-
larity more to a single grace than to
the whole big sum of his virtues-a
grace of sympathy SO rare, SO discrim-
mating, so replete with charity as to
make him quite unofficially, of course,
but in very real sense, the confessor
of his people
But with Billy the rector could
make no Roadway. Billy was his
thorn In the flesh, an ever-present ap-
peal to his sympathy, but lodging ev-
cry expression of it with the elusive
ness of a phantom. His kindl1est
overtures glanced the armor of the
child's reserve One day the rector
took him perforce for drive, hoping
to thaw this stolid unresponsiveness.
He told his most thrilling stories; Billy
remained utterly aloof. The rector
was approaching a state of actual dis
comfiture when Billy himself snapped
the tension by dropping adroitly from
the phaeton. He disappeared in the
brush like scared rabbit. The rector
decided to bide his time
1t was in harvest time that Billy's
mother breathed her last. swiftly,
TRANQUILITY, meekly grateful for her re-
lease. Billy's father had bullied her
into a stingless grave Billy's father,
a burly. irascible farmer had long
since tired of his sickly wife; he was
doubtless glad of his release. But he
felt fresh displeasure against her:
she had died in his busiest season
without consulting his convenience.
BIlly's conception of death was very
nebulous. He observed the funeral
preparations with a sort of wonder.
though the unwonted stiffness and
darkness made his heart f1utter. 1t
was not until the rector lsS him to
the bier and tenderly told him to kiss
his mother goodbye, and the tall man
with black gloves screwed on the lid.
that Billy began to apprehend. The
chill of desolation came upon him and
he sobbed softly, unobtrusively lest his
father should hear. He had smarted
too often for the offense to take risks
AT last the casket was lowered and
the rector's voice became more solemn.
Billy sobbed audibly He drew as
near the rector as he dared and in
creased the distance from his father
Presently Billy heard a thud. Ashes
10 ashes, dust to dust" and the rector
had thrown a clump of dirt at his
mother, He moaned aloud in his an
guish. To Billy, who knew nothing of
symbolism, the act savored only of un-
friendliness. He interpreted it in the
light of his own experience, and IN
roadside warfare with his kind. Billy
had learned the value of pebbly sand
as ammunition.
Hence the rectors difficulty with his
young parishioner.
The farmer lost no time in bringing
home a buxom widow whose quarrel
some progeny soon crowded Billy out
A nostalgia for the woods seized him;
he became nomadic in his effort at self
effacement. and his father. who hated
the sight of his understood offspring
sinking around like whipped dog"
was not sorry. No wonder Billy pass
ed as ''sullen, sluggish. sneaking"
Billy exUlted in woodcraft. He knew
the Doggy hCllows where the violets
and blood-root grew: the songs of the
birds were the familiar voices of his
friends. and he studied the habits of
the birds and chipmunks with the
fervor of a naturalist. Billy did not
miss his mothers kisses so poignantly
in the forest
In the course of time a new interest
came into Biily'S life. One day in