Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1903-04-01
JACK SPRAT ]
! By Edith Wyatt :
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Cnnxrirht 1912 Ivy u s McClure Co ]
By Edith Wyatt
Copyright, 1902, by IS. $. Mcclure Co.

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!: Copyright, 1902, by IS. $. Mcclure Co.
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TN Lake View there once lived as
n neighbors two children, little
IA boy named Milo Cox Atkinson,
but called Butter, and a little girl
named and called Pearl Porter.
To this little girl her grandfather,
Major Porter, showed an affection so
devoted as to be, popularity supposed,
almost ruinous. He just spoils that
child" Mrs. Atkinson would say as size
looked out of Ter window and saw
Pearl fastening up the majors mus
taches with hairpins. and she would
turn away with sigh. 1t was per-
haps this devotion, but more probably
a native impulse of the heart, that had
made Pearl an unusually vain child.
She was a pretty little thing, with
floating mist of hair and large brown
eyes, always beautifully dressed in lit
tie, stiff, white embroidered clothes.
She was born with a sense of carriage,
and she could not help knowing when
ladies said in loud whispers, isn't she
sweet?"
Her reputation as "a proudly cat
among the children of Lake View had,
however, been founded less by her per-
sonality than by an incident of her
early youth.
When she was only four years old,
she had been given a little blue silk
parasol with an ivory handle. With
this at church she had been left in the
pew by her aunt when that lady went
up to the communion rail. When Mrs.
Burden had reached it and turned that
those returning might pass her, what
was the amusement of the congrega-
ton and her own establishment on see
ing Pearl tripping lightly up the aisle
with her new blue parasol opened and
held gracefully above her head.
The aunt herself was very dressy
lady, and she more thoroughly than
any other member of the family sym
pathized with Pearl in her taste for
making calls, for wearing kid gloves
and for carrying small cardcase with
rose folded in it.
This aunt Major Porter's daughter
was a large woman, with long red
| cheeks, tilted blue eyes and an over
whelming, tightly busked figure. Al
the top of her small forehead, long face
and towering bulk she always wore Q
| glittering little bonnet She lived il
| Washington, and she was able to pc
and indulge her niece only on occasion
al visits.
On these visits Mrs. Atkinson used t
watch with longing these two opposit
and fashionable types walking out t
the carriage together.
She loved Butter, but she had Away
dreamed of having just such child n
PEARL
All Buffers tastes We're differen
1 from Pearls. He had no imagination
for the world of graceful convention.
His companions We're other grubby
freckled little boys, most of them dis
regardfully dressed in trousers baggini
about two inches below the knee. But
ter numbered among his acquaintance
a boy who had run away from HON,
n boy who had whip tattooed on hi
arm and man supposed by Butter
circle to be a murde er. Butter cut til
. mans grass, and when the man CAV
him Is cents-the market price is 10
Butter handed him BACK the unneces
sary s and said, mo blood money TO
me-" The man had laughed in pui
zled way. OF course il he had don
anything else it would have given hi
away.
Butter also knew a boy who had
printing press, and in partnership wit
him he had conducted successfully a
enterprise of printing pink and gree
highly glazed calling cards for the Il
! cash capital they derived from til
source, they realized every summer
large income of pins and newspape
from circuses in the barn.
Major Porter sometimes attendt
these circuses with Pearl and sat in
I box for ten newspapers, and, though
! was so enchanted with Pearl, he ust
to watch with pang of envy Butter
! 1.-THE, wiry frame turning handspring
in the back yard, for, though he Ii;
! never had golden curls or carried
{ parasol he had once tumbled on t,
: grass and chased fire engines in a dus
} and happy oblivion of the customs
the world.
Once year a circus came to one
the empty lots of Lake View west
d the Porters'. 1t stayed for one day II
K then pursued its glorious march
4 honor of more western cities. III
day was one long haze of delight
J Butter Atkinson. Its ecstasy began
the morning, when he went with
I friends over to the lot to see the TIC
pitched, and it lasted through the CT
2 cert at the end of the circus.
y Mr.. Atkinson always took Butt
& had never thought of not taking h
until one miserable day when an l
} considering vice president elect and
} thoughtless wife spent twentyfc
6 hours of being entertained in the neis
! borhood when the circus was ent
tanning.
A large afternoon reception was 6
- en- for the Kendrickses at the Por
= home. Mrs. Hendricks was an {
friend of the major. Mrs. Atkins
81 assisted in receiving. Butter was
q fvited by Mrs. Burden to open the do
q She believed this to be n piece of Xxi
ss consideration. Mrs. Atkinson, too, S;
~ that Butter would be glad to rememl
"a it when he was an old man, and s
1oS could not understand why he lool
rs so morosely at the clean clothes s
5S had with such pleasure put out on
As bed.
g He walked out to the woodshed O
5$ er lunch kicking his heels sullenly 4