The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-04-08
THE BOYS
1t Is Not Safe TO Ignore
Them
b. EDITH TUCKER
By EDITH TUCKER

IN village IN the interior OF New
York state In colonial days. when
America was crude country, with
the crude customs of the mother coun-
try. there lived a man named Fisk.
His home was near the schoolhouse,
and since he was always kind and
good natured with the boys he be-
came favorite with them.
Now. boy. though his brain is not
matured. knows great deal about
certain things upon which men know
nothing. The boy Is very observant
within bis little field. He can tell yor
the exact number of chickens Farmer
Cole has and the number of cows In
Farmer Morgan's pasture. These
schooIboys knew that the horse was
great favorite with Mr.. Fisk. He
was constantly coming home with a
was always disappearing. His abb
sences from home Were frequent. but
not long. and on every return he
brought a horse with him. Older per
sons were more interested In his
means of livelihood. But as to that
matter he was unapproachable and al
together uncoGmunicatiye.
One morning there was great ex-
element among the boys. News had
come that band of horse thieves
which had Travelled those parts for
years had been captured and that
their friend Mr. Fisk was leader of
the gang The mystery of Mr.. Fisk
was solved. He had turned out to be
a horse thief.
Every one was interested and excit-
ed and absorbed IN the denouement /
But the boys. since the culprit had
been their friend. were not quite GER
tain that they were pleased at IL |
They preferred to wait to see what I
was to be done with him. Some of
them argued that horse stealing was
very sinful and Fisk should be pun
ished Others contended that he
should be punished but they hoped he
would get of Altogether. there was
no settled opinion about the matter.
There was 70 Jail in the village. and
the thieves were lodged in a room In
the tavern. the doors being locked and
bolted The SEINE day at noon the court
convened In the parlor of the tavern to
try the offenders The Judge. the law
yers and other officials assembled, and
the sheriff went for the prisoners, leav
ing the crowd. In which the boys were
to await their coming
But the sheriff did not return. and
shout arose without that the prisoners
had escaped.
And why should they not have es
capped? Not through the bolted door.
There was no necessity for escaping
that way when they had better All
they had TO do was TO step out of
window on TO the roof of a shed and
thence down to the ground. Having
been in hurry, they had dropped GER
tain articles, which indicated their
route. They had fed to a wood behind
The tavern and were doubtless now hid
ng there. The wood was oak and
with an underground in which
he boys bad chased squirrels and had
started partridges. Among the crowd
hat went on the hunt for the horse
hieveS were no such eager persons as
he boys. Had they been suffered to
cad there Is no doubt that the fugitives
would have soon been captured, but
he sheriff. whose stupidity had led to
heir escape, offlcious. pompous. appre-
.iative of bis authority ordered the
Joys back while he organized and sent
orth bodies of men. I
Boys are especially unsafe creatures
o ignore. No one likes to be relegated '
o the rear when he aspires to go TO the !
ront. and, after, all, boys are but min
AZURE men. The little fellows got to- 6
ether, and It was at once evident that Q
be treatment they bad received had Z
urned their sympathies from pursuers
0 pursued. Among them was a young Z
ter tall, 1.-the. with Miry- muscles. He I