Evening star., 1909-04-18

/
offer to shake hands; just viewed me sardonl-
cally. Not to be rebuffed. however, seated
myself on sack of bran in front OF the store
and picked a little talk out of him | wanted
| to know what had become of all of the "feers' =
of my boyhood. He knew what had become
of alf of them-knew only too well At the
finish was sorry had asked him about any of
them. They had all come, or were coming. to
sous sou hem 1t manfesa delight fraser 0
Where's Jim Harvey, that slick haired boy
| that used to be always at the top of the class
and that all of our mothers threw up to us
constantly" asked Old Man Fraser.
"Oh, that torn down devil, !" promptly re-
| readin' the papers all these yearsl Why, Jim,
he was hung f'r robbin' trains down in Arkan-
| sas good fifteen year ago..
And links Purcell, whose folks were swells
| and lived on the Esplanade?"
Links, he died O. drink fore he was twenty
fve."
"And Smoke Gaylor, whose father was the
| big 1awyer?"
| HSmoke Gaylor want never no good. He
done time f'r stealin' fore he come of ages
Haint been back since he got out. Dunno
where Smoke is now. He want never no
good. Smoke want. Mr. his father before
him, eff you're askin' me.
| And thus on, down the rest of the list of the
names of boyhood pals that submitted to Old
Man Fraser. Without exception they had
gone galloping to the dogs, or were well on their
way. Yes, was sorry had asked him about
| When was taking my leave of Old Man
Fraser he suddenly broke into an unpleasant
cackle.
"Ye might tell y'r dad, ef SO be as he's
livin'," !" said Old Man Fraser, showing his tooth
less gums in a wide but not cheerful grim that
he went away from here OWN me two dollar
n eighty-hve cents. Reckon he must ma
fergot it. Of course eff he's dead, it's all right
For the sake of the family credit l settled for
/ ~, srht -Exro rth
into the justice of the claim, and then bade Old
Man Fraser an unregretful goodby.
| The Old Schoolmaster
LIE had told me that Decker my school
II master as boy, had gone into politics
and was then city clerk l had long cherished
the dream of once more seeing Decker and
shaking him by the hand. He had been
clean cut young fellow as remembered him.
The only thing had held against him as boy
was his excessive piety Outside OF that had
considered Decker strictly all right And so he
had gone into politics! He was the last human
being should have imagined that OF. But
looked him up. nevertheless l found him at
the City Hall Oh what mean, close huddled,
squat ornery little City Hall found it to be.
after l had been imagining 1t during all the
intervening years to be at least as big as the
| Capitol at Washington!
| had no trouble in finding Decker. But l
never should have known him. He had a
ward heeler's thick, bristly mustache. His
nose was red-and not from weeping. His face
was coarse. So was his manner. All his old
| air of refinement, even of distinction, as re-
membered it, had departed. He was the little
| town politician all over. Moreover, he was
| about three parts drunk when / walked in on
| him.
No need to recapitulate our brief converse
| ton. l was grateful to him for one thing: he
gave me good sound slap on the back. Drunk
or not. he did that, and it felt good. He did
me the honor to tell me that I'd been pretty
fly little gink" (whatever the last word means)
back in the years when he d taught me readin',
writin', n 'rithmetic. But l hated to see my
old schoolmaster in the shape he was in and so
l left him with his bottle, which he kept IN the
second drawer of his desk, together with
collapsible aluminium cup from which he took
several gulps during the short time spent with
him.
A Sweetheart-and Her Husband
HE had told me where to find the closest
= crony of my boyhood Dick Gordon,
| without however, telling me anything OF
Dicks circumstances So l set out to look
Dick up He had been a handsome, ruddy
faced, frank eyed boy, as l recalled him. OF no
particular c1everness, but wholesome and en-
gaging No doubt reflected as poked along
in search of his home, Dick had made good
He couldn't be other than one of the leading
citizens of the town
But Dicks home was hut, ramShackle,
smoke grimed hut down near the edge of the
roily river A lot of ragged, frazzle haired
children were MA vino around the hut as