Free press., 1908-05-30
rane tha ueru nert DIV shnwed now

gang the very next day showed how
all alone he really was now.
Day followed day in rapid flight;
week piled upon week, and the Incl
dent was wellnigh forgotten save by
Buck Jones.
Buck was the best fighter, runner,
swimmer of them all; his fertile brain
conceived their many deeds of daring,
stealth, and cunning. Buck it was
whose supremacy as leader Of the
gang had been established one short
week after his family moved to town
from Idaho-and had never since been
even questioned. He never had to
come in at eight o'clock; he 1t was
who kept the other gangs from utterly
wiping out the south side bunch by
his own personal prowess.
1t was only few days later, while
Buck Jones had to stay after school,
that the north siders came and falling
upon the leaderless- bunch" put them
to a sorry fight-nay, more, chased
them through the very yards into their
houses, and daringly stood outside and
made jeering comments. Buck heard
the tale and decided at a meeting held
neat uetS dJ IeCSSS IhciI eiOIAOh "e~N
necessary.
Then did a feeling of great JOY
enter the breast of Algernon Pinckney
Schuyler Brown At last-at last
his opportunity had come and
found him ready.
Can l go too, Buck?'
There was an incredulOus pause.
Could this be the pretty Algernon Of
fering to go into combat, where it was
direst disgrace to come out with cloth
ing whole or features unmarried? In
cold tones the leader spoke:
we don't want babies, Sugar
Lump"
1t was too much-too cruel that
even in the moment of self-immolation,
of struggle and triumph, he should be
denied the palm. He pitied his miser-
able lot as he sadly walked back into
the schoolroom, sunk in the deepest
depths of despair Don't want ba-
bies; don't want babiesi" echoed and
reechoed the words in his ears till
a mighty defiance gripped him and a
desperate determination. He'd go any
how.
That was the longest school-day
ever recorded, but the teacher finally
put down the last of lot of very bad
grades, and the school trooped gayly
out on the sidewalk, with Mary Foster
this once walking alone. For far
ahead, punched closely together in
ragged array, helter-skelter down the
middle of the street like so many
sheep, troOped the south side gang
Buck Jones at their head, brandishing
stick and whizzing rocks at trees
along the roadside. And behind them
all alone-with eyes intently fixed
upon the hard, dusty road, now and
then kicking a piece Of wood out Of
the way, came-Algernon Pinckney
Schuyler Brown. There were great
daubs Of dirt on his broad Byron col
lar as though some one had smeared
it purposely; his shoes and stockings
were white with the dust he raised
by lovingly scraping his feet side
wise along the road, his face and
hands dirtier than even Boyland eti-
quette demanded, and those pockets
that never held aught more dangerous
than immaculate handkerchiefs, stood
out in strange knobby Jumps that to
the initiated spelled-rocks. Save for
the dOwncast head, one would have
surmised Algernon was about to do
battle.
The battle was long and bloody and
valiantly waged. When at last they
had chased the north siders home, it
was very, very dirty little gang that
boasted of their individual feats of
Valor.