The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1907-03-29

every boy. good or bad, rich or poor,
stands among boys on his own merits.
In the social order of boys who live in
country towns a boy is measured by
what he can do, and not by what his
father is. And so Winfield Hancock
Pennington, whose boy name was Piggy
Pennington, was the King of Boyville.
For Piggy could walk on his hands, curl
ing one foot gracefully over his back,
and pointing the other one straight in
the air; he could hang by his heels on
a flying trapeze; he could chin a pole so
many times that no one could count the
number; he could turn a somersault in
ward and forward; he could tread"
water, and lay his hair; he could hit
any marble IN any ring from "taws" and
"knucks' down; and, better than all, he
could cut his initials in the ice on skates,
and whirl round and round so many
times that he looked like an animated
shadow, when he would dart away up
the stream, his red "comfort' Tapping
behind him like laugh of defiance. In
the story-books such boy would be the
son OF widowed mother, and turn out
very good or very bad but Piggy was
not a story-book boy, and his father
kept a grocery store, from which Piggy
used to steal so many dates that the
boys said his father must have cut up
the almanac to supply him. AS he never
gave the goodies to the other boys, but
kept them for his own use, his name Of
Piggy was his by all the rights of
Boyville.
There was one thing Piggy Penning-
ton could not do, and il was the one Of
all things that he most wished he could
do; he could not, under any circum-
stances, say three consecutive and CO.
herent words to any girl under fifteen
and over nine. He was invited, with
nearly all the boys of his age in town,
to children's parties And while any
other boy, whose only accomplishment
was turning a cart-wheel, or slSinfhng
the cat backward, or, at most, hanging
by one leg and turning handspring,
could boldly ask girl if he could see
her home, Piggy had to get his hat and
sneak out of the house when the COM
pany broke up. He would comfort him
self by walking along the opposite side
Of the street from some couple, while
he talked in monosyllabes about a joke
which he and the boy knew, but which
was always secret to the girl Even
after school Piggy could not join the
select coterie of boys who followed the
girls down through town to the post
office. He could not tease the girls
about absent boys at such times, and
make lip rhymes like
First the cat and then her tail:
Jimmy Sears and Maggie Hale"
and shout them out for the crowd to
hear. Instead of joining the courtly
troupe, Piggy Pennington went off with |
he boys who really didn't care for such
things, and fought, or played tracks |
Up" or wrestled his way leisurely home
N time to get in his night wood" But |
lis heart was not in these pastimes. 1t |
was with red shawl of peculiar shade,
hat was vending its way to the post
,ffice and back, to home in one of the
ew two-story houses in the little town
Time and time again had Piggy tried to
make some sign to let his feelings be
,nown, but every time he had failed.
-yfng in wait for her at corners and
uddenly breaking upon her with a glory
II backward and forward somersaults
lid rot convey the state of his heart.
Ianging BY his heels from an apple-tree
imb over the sidewalk in front Of her,
did not tell the tender
ale for which his lips could find no
words And the nearest he could come
0 an expression of the longing in his
reast was TO cut her initials in the ice
eside his own when she came wobbling
asst on some other boys arm. Brt She
9ould not look at the initials, and the
of his skates was SO ill.,
istinct that it required a key; and
put together, poor Piggy was
0 nearer declaration at the end OF
ne winter than he had been at the be-
inning of autumn.
One morning in the late spring he
pent half an hour before breakfast
monR his mothers roses, which were
ist in FIRST bloom lie had taken out
iere all the wire from an old broom
nd all his kite string. His mother had
, call three times before he would leave
is work. The youngster was the first
, leave the table, and by eight o'clock
G was at his task again. Before the
rst school-bell had rung, Piggy PEN
ngton was bound for the school-houss
18th a strengthening parcel under bis
m. He tried to put his coat over il,
1t it stuck out and the newspaper that
as wrapped around it bulged into so
any corners that il looked like home
Cd bundle of laundry
lust before school was called, Piggy
ennington was playing scrub" with all
S might, and little girl--his Hearts
esire--was taking out OF her desk
reatE of roses tied to shaky wire
anne. There was a crowd OF girls
und her admiring it, and specializing
out the probable author of the gift;
i to these she did not show the patent I
rdicine card on which was scrawled
err the druggists advertisers, ;
ours truly, w. Fl. Pr
When the last bell rang, Piggy Pen
agton was the last boy in, and he did
I look toward the desk where he had
/ the flowers until after the singing. /
len he stole a sidewise glance that
", and his Hearts Desire was deep in s
+ geography 1t was an age before
Z filed past him with the "B class IN {
o0raphy, and took 2 seat directly in I
mt Of him, where he could look at her
the. time, unobserved by her. Once (
! squirmed in her place and looked +
ward him, but Piggy Pennington was '
i'd over heels in the User rolling y
,idly." When their eyes did meet at /
/, just as Piggy, leading the march '
around the room, was at the door to
out for recess, the thrill amounted :
shock that sent him whirling in a Z
wheel of handsprings toward the +
lground, shouting, "scrub--hrst bat, /