Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1909-11-17
THE MAKING OVER
OF A SPOILED MAN.
BY MARY p. WINSTON.

BY MARY P. WINSTON.
Copyright 1909. by American Press Asso-
ciation.I
A boy from seven to twelve tied to
I nurses apron string Is always an
object of pity to me. l have seen one
Of these boys looking wistfully at .
group Of romping children. longing to
Join in their play, but deferred by the
woman who had him in charge. They,
dressed In corduroy or Bingham. are
without fear Of soiling their clothes;
he, rugged out in white wash" suit,
knows that one speck Of dirt on It
will bring down the anathemas Of the
she dragon hired to keep him clean.
Tommy Burch and / would have
been friends In our childhood had we
been permitted. But Tommy was al
ways Immediately dressed, and q
middle aged lady tutor-nurse had him
In charge to elevate his mind. was
always dirty, and my mother seldom
put good clothes on me, for she knew
/ would tear them to tatters climbing
trees. II Tommy had had common
nurse he might have occasionally got
away from her, but with his gov
erness 1t was another matter. he
was never permitted to be out Of her
sight for a moment.
The worst Of it was that Tom was
not born a milksop. He became one
because he couldn't help himself.
When he had got rid Of his governess
he begged me to take him cunning
and fishing and all that. A love of
such sports was born In him, but be
had been so delicately reared that he
was unable to stand the hardships
they involved and couldn't keep pace
With me in anything. Nevertheless !
was fond of him, and we became
quite chummy. So after first effort
at tramping all day through wood
and eating bacon and bareback for
supper he gave it up and devoted him
self to drawing pictures, for which he
had considerable talent. If he had had
own resources he might have made an
artist Of himself.
My cousin, Frances Rose. having be-
come the object Of Burch's alteration.
he confded the secret to me and asked
me to sound her as to whether there
was any chance for him. l suggested
to her one day that she and Tom would
make a good match.
II make a match with that ladylike
young manw she exclaimed disdainful-
~. Not much"
HE might at least teach you to
speak good English" retorted. Then
told her Of the way Tom had been
brought up and the dragon and all
that She listened atteptively and from
contempt, with woman's sudden
| change of front, veered right round to
sympathy. So when I proposed that
| she help me to try to rectify the dam
age done she fell in with the plan. We
| were to coach Tom in athletic games
| and manly amusements. giving him
| sundry hard raps. such as he should
have had years before. All I let him
| know about it was that Frank admired
manly men and he'd better go in for
athletics. He was trifle old to begin,
| but promised to help him.
commenced with boxing gloves and
| after a few lessons hammered him so
numerically that feared had killed
him. When he came round l told him
| I'd turn him over to Frank for a new
beginning. which she. girl. would be
better fitted to make than I, right
tackle football man.
Frank took him up. and l could
plainly see she developed deep inter-
est in the work. have seen her keep
him on the tennis court. playing first a
| set, then a double set. losing just
| enough games to necessitate a play
or" the sweat running down his
cheeks, his neck and trickling down
his back, while he painted like horse
with the heaves.
A crisis came at last. 1t was in
cross country horseback riding. Frank
could ride like centaur. She disdain-
ed to strain horse by sitting side
wise. She rode straddle with divided
skirts. She made Tom get out Of bed
before daylight to ride with her. in
creasing the length Of their canters
till on one occasion she kept the poor
beggar out without a morsel Of food
from s O'Clock till noon. During this
time he was obliged to jump his horse.
she leading the way over fences,
bitches and logs. he had been born
with no craven spirit and would have
gone to his death rather than give
In to her. This led her to push him
to see how far he would 60, till one
day she went over log so large that
she barely missed 1t. Tom. who was
not SO expert horseman, raised his
beast too soon. and the animal, COM
ing down with his belly fat on the
log, rolled over on his rider.
was sent for to go to Toms house
and found Frank there In the hall
looking like ghost, while the doctor
was making up his mind whether
there was any chance for the milksop