Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1903-07-22
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3 Career of His Father S Son.
laee~Saasoea Sa,eNeSeNeAss
BY /. pdRRY TRUScoTT.

known as lone and lOrn, LOT neT nus
Aband, OF whom she had plainly stood II
considerable awe, before dying hac
considerably <bequeathed to her nj:
&living inage""-ina slightly more man
Sageable form. Lii ke most women, Mrs
Hayes was prone to concentration, es-
DeGially In matters of the heart; ano
tw3sso exactly alike might have proved
an embarras de richesse. But left WITH
aoniy one, and that sm;ll one, she re-
aestablisheds herself in her native VII;
alage and contentedly applied herself tc
8the washtub and the ironing board foI
the maintenance of herself and ths
alttlef Johnnie until he should be OF an
age to realize her great expectations OF
Eshim and prove himself the man his
Efather was.
SE "Just about a clever scholard, too,
ySexplained Mrs. Hayes to any one who
cared to listen. )
IS None of her friends and relations
chad seen this wonderful man of hsrs
: I'M the flesh; sho had met him in Lon
don while in the service there, and had
I only returned to the country at MS
death. But, they were not allowed to
forget him, and the tale of his numer-
sous attainments was told and told
sagain. He had left only very few
pounds worth of furniture behind him,
sbut, according to his wife, he had been
s"most too clever" for money making
one Of those men so topheaYy with
brains that they cannot conveniently
sstoop to pick up mere weekly wage.
And, then, he had died quite young, be-
fore he had been given his Chance" !"
"a common laborer, farm hand, keeps
himself from the time he is released
{ from school, but it is notorious that
men of talent take longer to start
themselves in Independence; some
: times the twenties see them still only
thinking of doing it, the thirties sur
prise them with the task unaccom-
plished. Every one knows that brains
] take longer to develop than industry
--or at any rate, all Mrs. Hayes's in
timates knew it, havingh had the theory
set forth TO them in homely language
many times. rES5 - HS7ver mad his
chance, you understand me" she would
end; was just snapped off like a bud
as the frost catches"
. But Johnnie, lucky boy, Joined his
mothers robust constitution to his
fathers intellect, SO she ayerred, and
the constitution. at any rate, seemed
quite in evidence And if they look
to see what his father looked like, let
them. look at Johnnie, said his mother,
"his living picture!"
Judged thus by Johnnie, his father
seems to have had a sturdy, stumpy
figure, a round, blunt featured face,
powerful white teeth, shock OF stub
by, sun bleached hair and prominent
light blue eyes that were wont to stare
unblinhngly during a conversation at
whatever object first met their gaze
all this added to a curious reluctance
to5say a word more than the absolutely
necessary. A common enough type in
that neighborhood. yet not even that
neighborhood's preconceived idea of a
son of genius.
But, If any smiled, they were kindly
folk and .tsok care to do it only be-
hind the mothers back.
During Johnlie's passage from a
heavy baby into healthy, hearty boy,
Mrs. Hayes was spared half the pangs
of motherhood. She gave away the last
Of his petticoats without sigh, with
her own hands, to an accompaniment
of smiles instead of tears, she cut close
che mop of hair which had always re-
fused to respond to her efforts to en-
tice it into curls. She was in such a
hurry for him to attain mans estate,
and to show forth to wondering
world the heritage his father had left
him, that she hurried him with all her
might through his early years. John
ME never. grew out of his clothes like
sothers boys. He. was forced to turn them
sup, the trousers half way to his knees.
and the sleeves to his elbows, before he
could move in them, and they were al
ways beyond patching before his limbs
overlook them When he was five years
gold she publicly announced her inten-
ton of calling him John" as weight
Ter and more fitting name. But he was
so unmistakabty Johnnie that no one
could remember to follow her example,
and half her time she only managed to
end sentence started TOO nimbly with
Johnnie" that had slipped out
AS soon as he could toddle Johnnie
swent,:to school, and continued to go
daily until the extreme limit Of age
when. schooling is compulsory on the
youth of England. Once laboriously es-
ta5lished in standard" he showed
amarked disincIination to leave it, and
the utmost prodding never advanced
him. beyond the borderland of the
Fourth" But his mother blamed the
school and her want of means to send
him to a better enc. not Johnnie. OF
course, what any yolel learned would
not be the learning to tempt her hns-
bands son. Johnnie received subtle
fattery from her instead Of blows for
his slow progress. He met it, as he
met. :most things, with the impenetra-
BILE stare of his light blue eyes. His
opinion of Himself would have inter
ested a good many people by this time,
but his silence remained unbroken on
that point as on so many others.
There followed the usual little diff
Guilty IN fitting the village genius with
a means of earning a livelihood. Mrs.
Hayes refused TO contemplate anything
whereby honest sweat might be
caused to flow from her sons low, hair
thatched brow. Most Of the men about
her worked out Of doors, or at some
humble trade, and nothing of that
/. kind, she had decided years ago, would
do Tor Johnnie. With great difficulty
and some delay. she obtained him cr'-