The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-07-18

lie uTODDtu nlo bpOOh AAotAce%s
let go Of his tilted bowl, Watching
It sway drunkenly, and settle into
equilibrium again without enthusi-
asm. All around there was the scrap
ing of spoons or iron-stone china, the
scratch of small shoes on the rungs |,
of chairs, and the subdued hum OK
little voices. The windows were
wide open, and from beyond the
dusty screen came the clatter Of pass
ing wagons and the cool splash OF
water from the asylum hose as John
washed down the brick-paved court
yard.
James William leaned back and
drew a long breath; then, with su-
perb indifference to his red-and-
white-barred bib, he wiped his mouth
with the back of his hand. Next
to him, seizing an opportune mo-
ment when his neighbor's eyes were
fixed on the window, a red-haired
boy seized the bowl with its soggy
remnants of bread and milk, and
greedily devoured them. 1t was an
indication of the depth of James
williams gloom, that when he no
ticed the theft he failed to resent 1t.
Outside a push cart drew up be-
yond the iron fence--a push cart.
containing a dingy tin can, whose
lid was fitted down over sheet of
brown paper. "Ice cream!" called
the vendor shrilly. 'Ice crea-am!"
James William sighed--not that
he cared about the ice cream, but
that, being sad anyhow, it brought
back to him the memory of his
mother, of the sizzling days on Wy
lie street when the car tracks burned
ones bare feet, and the paint rose
in blisters on the wooden shutters;
when the advent Of the ice-cream
man, with his penny spoonful of
sticky deliciousness on a bit of
brown paper, was the only cool mo-
ment of the day. Family, perhaps.
he regretted his mother; there were
visiting days when other mothers
CAME with offerings of newly-mended
stockings and a surreptitious gift of
candy. James William sometimes
had a heartache at those times, a
queer little pain that he hid under
cloak of contempt, with lump in
his throat, that boy like, he COM
bated with gibe.
Hello, mothers baby" he would
say huskily, when some mother hav-
ing taken a red-eyed farewell a
little mattress would be left bulging
at the side with bag of molasses
taffy under 1t, taffy that in the heat
had melted into a knobby lump and
whose flavor was so strongly tainted
with portions of the adhering paper
bag.
But it was of none of these things
that James William thought as hi
gazed broodingly through the screen
1t was not homesickness that mad,
his mouth twitch and his eyes blinl
furiously at the upper windows o
the house across the street, blazing
scarlet in the setting sun. Instead
there was passing through his min'
a chaotic succession of passion
anger, resentment, humiliation.
James William had been taken oi
the fire corps
What did 1t matter that the mex
week the Fresh Air" outings began
What salve was 1t to his injury
have Miss Adams say she knew
was an accident, but that there wer
no accidents in fire corps, and ths
boy who would fall headlong dow
the stairs from the dormitory woul
be apt to fall with a baby in h
arms, with goodness knows what tel
rible results
And his father was a fireman, toe
That was what hurt. The fatht
who had broken up the home aft,
the mothers death, and sent his be
to the asylum because he couldn
stand the familiar surroundings-l
was fireman, with a record unsu
passed for bravery. The boy wo
shipped his father. and he took h
exile and their few meetings docil
But he watched the papers for II
doings of No. IL Fire Company, al
the sound OF an engine goag put h
heart in his throat. Lonely We
most children in orphan asylums a
lonely--at times.
1t had all occurred during the q
drill the night before. The B wa
was the, dormitory of the fire corn
there twenty-eight embryo firem
went to sleep every night Usual
they slept, moist and quiet. un
morning. But once every mon
there came tremendous momel
when some time in the night {
clapper of the big gong over I
mantel would give a whirr and tn
set up a deafening clamor til
brought every small boy out of
bed In an instant, wide awake, a
set his feet In bee-line for I
door. Just underneath b 1 ward v
the babies dormitory, where TWEEN
eight pink-cheeked. round-faced
fants lay placidly Indifferent to
clamor around them. Before :,
fire gong had finished dozen
perious strokes, the twenty-eii
small boys were standing straight
drum-majors, each beside a WI
iron crib; signal, and process
OF night-gowned figures made
the door and the stairs, each
this time with mildly surprised
generally resigned baby-a life-s
Ing corps which deposited its salv
on the bricks of the courtyard.
To james William in bed Sc,