Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1902-12-04

hom ~ ohe LoS angeles nlRn
school was distinctly uncomfortable,
and the other days of the week were
no less unpleasant to the boy. Tim
othy's father and his family had re-
Gently arrived from the east" which
in southern California means from
some portion of the United States
east of Denver; in Timothy's case
1T referred to southern Kansas,
where the waters of the shallow
streams grow warm early in the
summer and stay warm till late in
the fall.
Timothy found the western boys
of his own age no more than his
equals in school work, and hoped
to gain standing and to make friends
among them as he had done among
schoolmates in the "east."
In the middle of the morning ses-
sion of the first day Timothy saw
on his desk an envelope addressed to
him. He opened it and drew forth
the enclosure. Something flew out
as the folded cardboard Enclosed,
and Timothy struck at it, uttering a
shrek worthy of the most nervous
girl in the room.
Then he discovered it was a "kiss-
ing-bug;" that is to say, a hairpin
and a piece of rubber so twisted to-
gether as to unwind with a buzz
when taken from the envelope. Tim
othy had been startled even more
than the maker of the kissing-bug
had hoped, and there was smothered
laughter among the boys and gig
Cling among the girls.
AS the teacher in charge turned
toward Timothy, William Peters
rose.
ct put a kissing-bug on Mr.. Farm
hams seat" he said. ct thought
he would open the envelope before
the class was called to order, and
really, / didn't know that Timothy
was so timid." And the force of the
teachers reproof was lessened by the
smile he could not hide.
If the matter had ended there it
would have been forgotten very
soon. But at noon Will, who was a
leader of the boys inclined to ath-
letic sports, declined to allow Tim
othy a place in the lineup for a
practice football game, and Timothy
made such remarks as wit and i'll
nature suggested, the result being
that two boys who might have been
good friends were in a fair way to
become bitter enemies. To Timothy
even this seemed less to be regretted
than the fact that the other boys
of the class were inclined to follow
Wills lead.
Three of his friends, Aft johnson
and Joe and George Brown, were
especially ingenious and persistent
in inventing a~lliterative variations
of ''Timothy, the Timid' and "Tim-
orous Jimmy" which the other boys
took up and repeated till it seemed
that Timothy's name was never men
toned without an adjective implying
cowardice. AS the days passed, even
the little fellows in the classes be-
low joined in the sport, greatly to
Timothy's discomfort. Thinking
over the matter, he sensibly con-
cluded to do nothing until some
thing seemed certainly the right
thing to do; and he made no answer
to calling remarks.
Schoolboys as a rule 500 tire of
any game steadily pursued, and Tim
othy's plan of non-resistance would
in time have secured immunity from
persecution at worst only half i'll
natured. But his patience was not
put to test.
On Saturday Will and his three
friends rode down to the beach on
their bicycles, reaching the seashore
at eight o'clock in the morning. Tim
othy also decided to go swimming.
So, taking the electric car for Santa
Monica, he entered the bath house
from the shore side as the clock
struck ten. He undressed, donned
a bathing suit and went out on the
beach.
Many people set on the benches,
and more on the sand, but there were
no bathers in the water. The sea
was like a vast mirror. Five or six
hundred feet from the land the shin
ing water rose slowly, green and
graceful, as a heavy ground swell
swept shoreward. Half way in fecks
of white foam appeared on the crest
of the little mountain of water; all
the top grew white as the wave be-
came perpendicular; then the mass
toppled upon the sand with a tre-
mendous slap that woke the echoes
lin the bluffs till all other sound was
drowned in the roar of surf as the
wave broke on the beach.
With both the sights and the
sounds Timothy was familiar, hav-
ing spent a month along the sea be-
fore school began. Tumbling walls
of water six feet high more than
tempt the bather to stay ashore.
Timothy sat down on the sand, just
out of the reach of the waves, lis
tening to people who spoke low when
the kissing water receded, or who
shouted in vain attempts to make
their voices heard as the waves
broke.
Generally four or five waves could
be seen, that nearest the shore a
roaring of foam, the next
growing white along the crest as the
front assumed the perpendicular,
while those farther seward were
hills of green, lower as the distance
increased, seeming smooth as if cut
from solid glass. No two waves were
ever alike, no mt wave kept its form
for a second, but distances between
them seemed not to vary by a hands
breadth as the surges, miles in
length, swept toward the shore.
A quarter of a mile from the beach,
well outside the breakers and little