Evening star., 1902-04-19
Forbidden FRUITS

And another thing that my boys miss
that their old dad enjoyed when he was
their age." said the middle-aged man with
the ample waiNband, lis what called the
sneaked swim-the swim in the old crick or
river that fellows folks didn't know any
thing about-until they found out, and then
the things that happened! Now, I let my
boys go down-to the bathing beach-take
EN- down there myself as often as not
Inc youngsters know how to swim. and,
besides. the guards down there at the bath
ing peach know their business, and it's all
risht. Ihey gel their. swims, and enjoy 'em,
ana the swims do 'em good and teach 'em
how to take care of themselves. But there
am any such thing as believing that those
boys OF mine enjoy their cut-and-dried
s~ims as much as us kids used to when We
nao 10 sneak our swims, unbeknownst to
the oid folks. in the old crick or river
tEeIe iSn any believing such a thing as
that. 1t sure is queer how we all. from
Ennunooo up. take sort Of particular de-
light In doing just those things that we
hhow are forbidden and that we hadn't
ousht 70 uo-seemS to me that that fact
shows that there's a whole heap o. cussed-
ness IN human nature that's Just naturally
got TO get worked out Of our systems be-
lore "er inserted In our little six feet of
1as Know Tor fact that when, as a
Kid, l reached the stage where 7 had INV
Iatner ana mothers permission to go in
swimming as often as I wanted to why
60 + ,,1a olun seem half SO good to me.
-, wash nalf so enthusiastic over 1t as
l nad been when 1 was doing it on the
uuiet. tiue When 1t got so that they didn't par
y .neuiarIy MIND my going in swimming I
nf .i,.,a Ieel hke going in moren a couple
es d week. whereas before I'd been
round out I'd hang around the old crick or
river, river, without any duds on, from morning
I'm Sili night. and hated to see the sun going
elona ho hoeuause that meant my having to
siope M honewards for supper
Long about this time of the wear when
- .,le uays uu pe getting long and warmish
was when Ia first begin to take my sneaked
t,s,n is "hen ! was kid. And long about
@ @tlls liIhe Oh the year, too, my mother would
pesln 10 get her eye on me- suspectine INV
motives when I'd tell her that 1 was going
alter a tralilng arbutus, or May apples. and
ths4 60 10 give her other fairy tales like
ma. one knew all about the beginning of
swimming season just as well as did and
seh wheh She see me mixing in with the older
boys that trailed off toward the stream that
800 unueu ~. us way by our little old western
.o"n sne q be right there at the back door
10 nan me- nearly every time But a mother
IN tnose Gays couldn't keep her eve peeled
l, lor 1he movements Of small boy all the
e!Ine; ana l used to get away for those
sheaked sWims with a lot of other young
uns or my own age that were placed lust
the same as 1 was-that is that hadn't
reacned the stage where they were allowed
10 go In swimming. There was only one
that stage. That was to keep right on go
ing IN on the quiet until found out-the
getting nabbed was inevitable-and then.
after being almost clubbed to death in the
Woodshed by your angry dad, have him
take you Gown the crick to see whether Won
were telling the truth or not in saying that
you could swim. When you made good
ana you could always make good. having
PROBABLY been going in on the quiet for a
year or so, and like as not being able to
swim all around him-why, then he'd come
home and say. Nav, the boys all right in
the water and that settled it. Your mother
never could be convinced that you wouldn't
be brought home drowned sooner or later
and she never willingly yielded her consent:
but as matter of fact, as 1 say, a fellow
never cared much for swimming after he
had permission to go in. and SO she didn't
really have to worry much.
1T makes me feel cheap right down to
the present minute to remember some of
the whoppers I used to tell my mother in
those days when 1 was sneaking my swims
1t sure does. Member one time I'd been
sitting on a sand bar all day long until my
back was about the color Of geranum.
and that night in passing by me, my
mother brushed against me. I couldn't re-
frain from letting out a holler, my
broiled back hurt me so and then she made
me take off my jacket and shirt-my dad
wasn't at hone-so's she could see what
allied my back. 1 squirmed and wriggled
and tried to get out of it, but had to do it,
and OF course she saw In second that l
had about as bad a case of blistered back
as there was in four counties.
Son said she to me. regarding me
gTavely how did your back get that way?'
We'll say, l hate to own up to it. but
burned If l didn't have the nerve to tell
that grand, good woman that I'd been eat
ing wild Strawberries in the woods all day,
and that the condition of my back must
be attributable to hives! Say, wouldn't
that make a cigar store Indian blush if
he had to own up to it? She rubbed cold
CT eam-not the stuff that you buy at drug
stores but the real thing right out of the
pan-on my back, and then sat beside my
bed and told me that she wouldn't tell dad
on me if I'd promise her never to go in
any more without permission, which would
be when 1 was older, and she said that
I ought to know that her life and dads
life wouldn't be worth anything to them
if 1 got drowned, and I promised-and. of
course 1 went right in again the next day,
like the whelp that l was in common with
all the rest of the kids OF my day. OF
course, l was only an irresponsible tad
and yet, dye know, even yet, 1 often think
OF the little mother sitting there on the
edge of the bed, in the tiny, quiet room,
with the moonlight streaming in, and some
how or another l often wish that hadn't
broken those promises to her the way 1
did.