The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-17
JACK [NTEeS r|oR0NNALS ,AcADEW

noisy disputations frightened the peas- ants, while Labassindre's "Beuh" bel- lowed through the woods. frightened all the game.
 The genluses tried to guide Jack in the way he should go When she show ed his bewilderment at their extraor' | dlnary remarks and questions, they | decided in solemn conclave that he was an idiot, clod, unable to rise to their heights. You should make a work. man of him" said they to the poet. l who graYely agreed with them
 pr. Rivals was furious when he heard the decision. He suppressed his | contempt for the motley crew sufi. l ciently to call and beg D'Argenton not l to sentence the lad to a life foi which he was quite united. Charlotte wept at the thought of her son in over alls and with grimy hands, but DAT genton threw back his hair and de- l claimed: The days of the Aristocracy are ended. The Middle Glass Is doom- ed! To the Workman belongs the world!' Whereupon Charlotte's eyes | shone through her tears, and as she looked at her poet. she saw a vision of Jack In a curious mingling of royal robes and a workman's blouse.
 | As for pr. Rivals Hirsch, Moronval | and Labassindre howled him down so successfully that the countryside felt | sure that those madmen" had begun to murder each other at last.
 | A few days afterward Jack was ta- | ken like a convict to the iron works at Indret. It was a terrible transition from the woods-a change as if he had been thrust into the internal regions | themselves. His life became a fam | ing dream. In the midst of the appal-
 ling tumult of many hundred hammers
 the whistling. roaring and stamping
 of great machines, the fierce flashes
 from furnaces and forges, among haIt
 naked. perspiring. blackened giants. | the delicately molded child tried to do
 tasks that were far beyond his
 strength, though easy enough for the
 other apprentices with their toughen-
 ed muscles and tough hands.
 Pale and growing paler each day thin' gasping for breath. his sleeves turned up from his slender little arms sparks falling on his white chest his hands blitsered with fire and toll, his lthroat inflamed, red-eyed and haggard he became a factory drudge. forced Iconstantly into more menial services as his hopeless lack of mechanical skill became apparent.
 At first he tried to forget 1t at night and return to his own world by read. ing the books that pr. Rivals had given him. But as the weary month: went on. torpor and fatigue made hin tsit like a log. In time he became Ioblivious to his books, to anything He crept to his lodgings in work. mans attic to sleep. and awoke tc creep again to the iron works.
 For time he kept up correspond ence with the doctor and with Cecile But gradually they seemed further and further away; and when he looked al his blackened hands and broken fin gernails at his feet in great, rough boots, and at his coarse smock. he fell with a bitter heart that he had beer cut off forever from such a delicate and pretty creature as the girl whG had been his playmate.
 He decided to give up the past ana learn in earnest to be good workna n He labored after hours and on holidays under the guidance of skillful men But always at last, they said Tt II useless" So his apprenticeship passed slowly and neared its end.
 Then one day a fellow workman stole a great sum-6.000 francs-fron the man with whom Jack was lodging The lad was suspected, and arrested only to be freed again, almost i'm Imediately because the real eulprit wa discovered. But before hie innocence