The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-28

floor with his head and shoulders into that hole as fur as he could. holding lantern way down into 1t, so as Hank could see. And jest as Hank made that mark he spoke some words over him, and then he says:
 1 ''Now, Henry Walters, I have bap- tized you, and you are a member of | the church.
 You'd "a thought Hank would of broke out cussing agtn at being took 1 unexpected that away, fur he hadn't re 1y agreed to nothing but signing l the pledge. but nary a cuss- He jest says, Nov, you get that ladder l They got it, and he clumb up into the kitchen, dripping and shivering.
 .sYou went and baptized me in that l water?s he asts the preacher. The preacher says he has.
 Then says Hank, tsyou done a 1 low-down trick on me. You knowed l I has made my brags I never jined no | church nor never would jine. You 1 knowed I was proud of that You | knowed that it was my glory to tell of it and that I>set heap of store by it in every way. And now you've went l and took it away from me! You never fought 1t out fair and square. neither, | man playing to outlast man, like you 1 done with this here pledge, but you l sneaked it in on me when I wasn't looking"
 They was lot of men in that crowd l that thought the preacher had went too far and sympathized with Hank The 1 way he done about that hurt Brother 1 Cartwright in our town, and they was split in the church, because some said 1 it wasn't reg'lar and wasn't binding. | s.-r- H.,- come an evangelist.
 But Hank, he always thought he had been baptized reg'lar. And he never was the same afterward. He had made his lifelong brags, and his pride was broke in that there one pertic'1ar spot And he sorrered and grieyed over it a l good deal and got grouchier and 1 grouchier and meaner and meaner, | and ickered oftener, if anything. Signing the pledge couldn't hold Hank. He was worse in every way after that l night in the cistern and took to lam ming me harder and harder.
 Well, all the lammfngs Hank laid on never done me any good. It seemed like I was jest natchera1Iy cut out to have no success in life, and no amount 1 of whaling could change it, though Hank he was faithful Before was l twelve years old the hull town had seen it, and they wasn't nothing else expected of me except not to be any good.
 That had it's handy sides to 1t too. They was lots of kids there that had to go to school, but Hank, he never would of let me done that If had ast him, and never asted And they was lots of kids considerably bothered all sr-- II. -.-F tions. They made lem go to Sunday school and wash up reg'1ar all over on Saturday nights, and put on shoes and stockings part of theetime, even in the summer, and some of lem had to ast to l go in swimming, and the hull thing was a continuous trouble and prfvation l to lem. But they wasn't nothing pre- dicted of me, and I done like it was predicted. Everybody lowed from the | start that Hank would of made trash outsn me, even if I hadn't showed all the signs of being trash anyhow. And if they was devilment anywhere about that town they all says, Danny, he done it. And like as not has. So l gets to be what you might call an out cast. All the kids whose folks ain't trash, their mothers tells 'em not to run with me no more. Which they done it all the more for that reason, on the sly. and it makes me mQre impor- tant with them.
 But when I gets little bigger all that makes me feel kind O bad some times. It ain't so handy then. Fur folks get to saying when I would come | around:
 Danny, what do you want?"
 And if I says Nothing they would say:
 well, then. you get out O here!' Which they needn't of been sus- picioning nothing like they pertended they did, fur I never stole nothing 1 more'n wortermillions and mushmil- lions and such truck and mebby now and then chicken us kids use to roast in the woods on Sundays, and jest as like as not 1t was one of Hanks hens then, which fingered I'd earnt it.
 Fur Hank he had streaks when he'd work me considerable hard. He never give me any money fur it. He Ioafed a lot, too, and when he'd loaf I'd loaf. But did pick up right smart of handi- ness with tools around that there shop of his'n, and if he'd ever of used me right I might of turned into a purity fair blacksmith. But 1t wasn't no use trying to work fur Hank. When I was about fifteen, times is right bad around the house fur a spell, and El- mira is working purity hard, and 1 thinks to myself:
 @Well, these folks has kind O. brung you up, and you afn't never done more'n Hank made you dos Mebbe you orter stick to work a little more when they's a job in the shop. even if Hank don't.'
 Which I tried 1t fur about two or three years, doing as much work around the shop as Hank done and ruebby more. But 1t wasn't no use. One day when I'm about eighteen l seen awful plain I'll have to light out from there. They was a circus come to town that day. I says to Hank:
 "Hank, they is circus this after noon and ag1p tonight"