The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-08-09
Continued from last week.

by ms distracted rather and an officer
covering behind roll of canvas
wherein fat man sat declaring witt
a breezy nonchalance. that no how a
Tods description was along q, +bi,
ere party And the defiant Tod. wher
brought to light, emphatically asserted
that the fat man was in no wise blanl.
able that he had run away on his owl
hook, and would do it again if he
wanted to. But he broke there with a
heavy sob; and the fat man said.
There! there! Cootsey, go along with
the old 'un. and here's a dollar fol
you. And Tod cried aloud
The good minister had brought a
letter for him, too, and as the boy read
il through his tears he turned home
ward almost eagerly.
Dear Tod it ran: "T have beer
quite sick since you left me. You
must come back, tor / miss YOU. and
I can never get well again without
you. I've got a new kink on a pair Of
stills I've made YOU. but l can't tell
how long TO make them till you come
back. Fanny comes over every Ilav
and talks about YOU so much T halt
believe sometimes she likes Won het-
ter than she does her old sick uncle.
but l can stand that because YOU de-
serve it, and I'm too old for >little girls
TO like very much. Itll soon be the
Fourth, you know, and we must he
getting ready for big time. Come
home at once. for l am waiting
To Stoddard Anderson, from his old
friend and teacher"
Tod went home. He FASTENED to the
teachers darkened room. The dear Cd
face. had grown pale-so very palef
The kindly hand reached out to grasp
the boys was thin and wasted, and
the gentle voice that he had learned
to love was faint and low-so very
low, it sounded like a prayer The
good minister turned silently and left
the two old friends together; and there
were tear drops in his eyes.
And SO the little, staggering life went
on alone. Some old woman gossip.
peering through the eye of a needle or
the institution known as the Ladies'
Benevolent Sewing society," said that
1T 'peared to her like that boy OF
the preachers jest KEEP a-pinin' and
a-pinin' awav like. ever sence they
fetched him back from his runaway
scrape. She'd seen him time and time
again sence then, and although the lit
tie Snipe was innocent-liks to all APP
pearances, she'd be bound that he was
in devilment enought Reckoned ne
was too proud to march in the school
p'cession at the teachers funer'I; and
he didn't go to the meetin' house at
all, but putt off to the graveyard Ev
hisse'f; and when they got there with
the corpse, Tod was a-settin' with his
legs a-hangin' in the grave, and s.
pitchin' clods in. and a-smilin' And
ol4y jest the other evening"" she coz
timed, ''as l was comm past there,
ldndo' in the dusk-like. that boy was
a-settin' astraddle o. the grave, and
jest a-cryin'i And 1 thought it kinde'
strange-like, and stopped and hoIlerec:
What's the matter of We. Tod?' and
he ups and boilers back: 'Stumpt my
toe, durn YET and thinks I, My
youngster, they'll be a, day O. reckon
in fer you'll .
The old world worried on, till July
came at last. and with it that most
glorious day that wrapped the bapy
nation in its swaddling clothes Of
stripes and stars and laid it in the Jap
of Liberty. And what a day that wasi
and how the birds did sing that morn
ing from the green tops of the trees
when the glad sunlight came Siancing
through the jeweled leaves and woke
them! And not more joyous were the
birds, or more riotous their little
throbbing hearts to pipe the trail and
cheep and twitter twenty million
loves" than the merry children that
came futtering to the grove to join
their revelry.
o brighter than dream toward the
boy that swung his hat from the tree
top near the brook swept the procession
Of children from the town. And ne
flushed with some strange ecstacy as
he saw little girl in white, with a
wreath Of evergreen, wave her crimson
sash in answer to him, while the col
umn slowly filed across the open bridge,
where yet again he saw her reappear
in the reflection of the stream below.
Then, after the dull opening of prayer,
and the more tedious exercises follow
ing, how the woods did ring with
laughter; how the boys Wed with one
another in their labors OF arranging
swings and clearing underhrush away
preparatory to a day of unconfined en-
jOyment; and how the girls shrieked to
see the black man coming" and how
coquettishly they struggled when cap
tured and carried off by that dread
being, and yet what eagerness they
displayed in his behalf. And Ring
men and women even joining in the
game, and kissing one another's wives
and husbands like mad. Why, even
the ugly old gentleman, with a car
buncle on the back of his neck. grew
ri0tous with mirth. and when tripped
full length upon the sward by the little
widow in half mourning, hustled MIN
bly, to his feet and kissed her, with
some wicked pun about grass" widows
that made him laugh till his face grew
as red as his carbuncle. That bashful
young man who had struggled off alone,
sitting so uncomfortably upon a log,
killing bugs and spiders, like an ugly
M ,a~fg a1s ElsInrr ha
must have envied the airy freedom Of
those 'old boys and girls!
Then there was a group of older men
talking so long and earnestly about
the weather and the crops that they
had not discovered that the shade OF
the old beech they sat beneath had
stolen silently away and left them sit
ting in the sun, and was even then
performing its refreshing office for
big, sore-eyed dog, who, with painting
Jaws and lolling tongue, was winking
away the lives of a swarm of gnats
With the most stoical Indifference.
and so time wore along till dinner came,
and women with big open baskets, bent
above the snowy cloths spread out upon
ne grass arranging the SuDStantlais
and the dainties Of a feast too varied ana
TOO tOOthsome for anything but equlcu-
Iean memories to describe. And then the
dainty affections-no formality-no Ell
4uette-no anything but the full sway
OF healthful appetites melted by the eA-
Allarant exercises 81 the day lilo Aee
agt rapacity ana relish. a.,
Don't you think it's going TO ram!
asked some one, suddenly. a httie rosy
gillcd gentleman, with the AID. OF chlcheu
leg for a lever, raised his fat face SKY
ward. and after serious contenlpIatl93Ill
Of the clouds wouldn't say for certain
whether it would rain or not, puI Ill IL
formed the unfortunate querist, AFTER
pulling his head into its. usual position |
and laying down the lever to make room oil
fbare'd he long dry SPELL and then ne
snorted A mimic snowstorm OF , oread
crumbs on his vis-a-vis, who lo9 ,si5e
5,o+ts75,. ,iale ~ +hat-air pie down there.
1t wa was looking very much like rain og
The time the dinner things were ciea rr.el
away Anxious mothers ~l ere - TInning
5ere a,9 ~ there with such exclanations 70