The Yale expositor., 1910-01-21
THE MAKING OVER
OF A SPOILED MAN.
BY MARY p. WINSTON.

u
object of pity to me. | have seen one
Of these boys looking wistfully at a
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 gingham, are
without fear of soiling their clothes;
he, rugged out in a 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 l would have
been friends in our childhood had we
been permitted But Tommy was al
ways Immediately dressed, and a
middle aged lady tutor-nurse had him
in charge to elevate his mind. l was
always dirty, and my mother seldom
put good clothes on me. for she knew
I would tear them to tatters climbing
trees. If Tommy had had a common
nurse he might have occasionally got
away from her, but with his gov
erness it 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 he
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 l
| was fond of him, and we became
| quite chummy. So after a first effort
at tramping all day through a 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
the luck to have been thrown on his
own resources he might have made an
artist of himself.
My cousin. Frances Rose. having be-
come the object of Burch's alteration,
he confided 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 good match.
81 make match with that ladylike
young man. she exclaimed disdainful-
ly. Not muchv'
"He might at least teach you to
speak good English" | retorted. Then
I told her of the way Tom had been
brought up and the dragon and all
that She listened attentively and from
contempt. with a wOman's sudden
change of front. veered right round TO
sympathy. SO when 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 rs he should
have had years before. All let him
know about II was that Frank admired
manly men and he'd better go in for
athletics. He was n trine old to begin,
but promised to help him.
commenced with boxing gloves and
after n few lessons hammered him SO
numerically that feared l had killed
him. When he came round told him
I'd turn him over To Frank for n new
beginning. which she. girl. would he
better fitted TO make than |. right
tackle football man.
Frank took him up. and | could
plainly see she developed Il deep inter
est i'm the work. ] have seen her keep
him on the tennis court. playing first a
set. then double set. losing just
enough games to nccessitate play
Off" the sweat running down his
cheeks. his neck and trickling down
his back. while he painted like II horse
with the heaves.
A crisis came ut last. Ii. was in
cross country horseback riding. Frank
| could ride like Il centaur She disdain-
ed to strain Il horse by sitting side
wise. She rode Straddle with divided
skirts She made Tom get ont Of bed
before daylight TO ride with her. i'll
| creasing the length Of their canters
| till on one occasion she kept the poor
beggar out without II morsel Of food
from 3 o'clock till noon. During this
time he was obliged 10 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 sec how far he would go, till one
! day she went over a log so large that
she barely missed it. Tom. who was
| not so expert horseman. raised his
beast too soon. and the animal. COM
ing down with his belly fiat on the
log, rolled over on his rider.
l was sent for to go to Toms house
| and found Frank there in the hall
| looking like IA ghost. while the doctor
was making up his mind whether
there was any chance for the milksop
| she had been trying to make Il man Of.
| Tom lowered between life and death
! for month. then gradually came
| around. The first thing he did after
| getting out was to come to Inc and
tell me of his engagement to my
aousin. ! wasn't surprised. for be
had shown that had he been suffered