The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-01-27

should see our teas at school. There
is sometimes this kind OF jam, and in
summer the fellows have Strawberries
as many as ever they like-and this
half Summerfeld major was allowed
cold partridge"
For teal" cried Janet, with ever
SO many notes of admiration. .
"Oh, his people send him such
whopping hampers" said Tom, she
could never get through it all if he
didn't have it for tea"
NASTY meat" said little Janet,
with a grimace; "but the jam is very
NICE" she added, with a sigh. There
is no nursing when you're gone.
Aoyer gives us very nice tea and
plenty of cake; but she thinks i am
better down stairs, not always with
nurse"
"And do you think so? You We're
always a little"
"It's nice when mother talks to me
and not to Beau" said Janet, with re-
luctance. The grievance of the many
times when this was the case was i'm
piled, not put into words. But when
there is you and me it will be very
NICE" cried the little girl. There is a
nice plain little table in the not
covered or anything. 1t had a cover
on, but that come off, and I am al
lowed to have it to paint pictures
upon and play at anything you like.
Well have it between us in the room
as if it was a little party" cried Janet,
land they will 'never:mind US, as long
as we don't make much noise."/
But I want to make a noise. I
want to have a real square meal. 1t
isn't good for a fellow, when he's
growing, to be kept short of. his grub.
I want" "..
"Oh, Tom, what a horrible, horrible
world"
Much you know" cried the hoy.
Fellows sisters all like it to have
the same words as we say. But if you
think I'm coming back from Halls,
where they have all Elton rules, to sit
as quiet as a mouse in the drawing
room, and have afternoon tea like an
old fogey, I sha'n't, and there's an
end of it! cried Tom. y
Lady Car came in as he gave forth
this determination in a. loud voice.
She came in very smoothly, as was
her wont, with the soft trail of her
satin gown on the soft, messy carpet,
on which her light steps made no
sound. In her eyes was still the
dreamy smile of her pleasure in all
the details and chronicles of a school
boy life, so elevated and attuned, its
poisms and it's worries and its high
purposes. She was imagining to her
self a form in which it might all be
set forth in chapters or cantos. ""The
Dawning Genius" would be the title
Of the first. She saw before her the
spiritual being, all thought and EN-
thusiasm, making a hundred Nchimeras
divine-the boy-part, their heir of all
the ages, the fine flown OF human
promise. Half the adoring wife and
half the woman of genius, she came in
softly, with delicate chimes of verse
already sounding in her mind, 'andathe
scheme of the poism rising before
him.
Not the prelude. oh, no; but the
development, the dawn Ga far more
lovely word), the dawning of genius,
of which in it's time it might be her
delightful mission to record the COM
pletion, too.
She was reused from this vision by
the noisy boyish voice. II sha'n't, and
there's an end of it," cried Tom, and
she raised her dreamy eyes, startled
to see the boy standing in this form
and defiant, his legs apart, his sturdy
little square figure relieved against
the window. How different from the
ideal boy of whom she had been
dreaming! the real boy her on.
They both looked at her with an
alarmed aspect, not knowing what
would happen. Poor Carry was the
gentlest of mothers. She eve pun
ished them, never scolded, but yet no
one could tell why they had always
the air of being afraid Of her. They
looked at her now as children might
have looked who were afraid Of be-
ing sent into solitary confinement,
shut up in a dark closet, or some 9th
er torture. Toms voice fell in a mo-
ment, and Janet came out in defense
like the little woman in the weather.
house, where the little a skulks in
doors, disconnected by the good
weather. Janet came forward with a
little hand raised. "Moyer, it was not
naughtiness. 1t vas because he has
been out in the world, and knows
things different from me-"
"Yes?" said Lady Car, smiling upon
them, land what are the things this
man of the world knows? To be
sure, dear, he must be greatly in ad-
vance Of you and me-"
The children we're all the more
abashed by this speech, though its
tone was SO gentle. They stared at
face, dark and stolid, the likeness in
tensifed in Tom by the sudden alarm
Of his look. She had put out her
hand to him, to draw him close to her.
What is it," she said, my little
boy?" She was, to tell the truth,
rather afraid of him, too.
Its nothing" said TON. cts
something she's said"
"Oh, Tom" cried Janet, with a
sense of injury. "Moyer, he say