The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-04-26
Continued from Tmelfh Page.

sorrowfully Questioningly. as X, there
were something they wanted to under
stand and couldn't. Before McGennis
was half way to the plaza his smile was
a savage grin. and he had kicked the
big horse into laundering gallop. And
so he rode down between the rows OF
silent people. looking straight ahead.
He had reached the plaza and was
swinging his horse for the corner where
his house was when the siLht OF the
schoolhouse on the further side checked
him. This hour. just before sunset
had come to be the one play time hour
of his busy days and he spent 1t at the
school. Not as teacher, nor among
the boys who were his uno hc!al puphs'
Al the other end Of the school from the
boys room was another equally DIG
room crowded fun of girls. and 1t VIZ
there, oddly enough, that McGennls
spent the one happy hour when he did
not have to be asdeputy supervisor.
oddly. for McGennis, as he put 1t.
had no use for skirts" In his short
tempestuous life he had seen many good
men wasted for love of women. ana far
from being curious at their fate and the
causes Of II ne had drawn back into
himself till he regarded the softer hall
of human kind with a suspicion which
| bordered on hatred.
But there were women OF another
sort. Tiny things whose little clinging
fingers could hardly circle one Of his
! stubby ones. Wee things of such primal
| innocence that as they stood unclad at
the village wells with their plump little
brown bodies shining in the sun and
their wisps Of black hair hanging all
dragged about their faces while their
| mothers poured water over them they
| looked M unabashed II he came riding
by and smiled up friendly and lispeo
'Good-a-mOrnin'."
or such women McGennls had no fear
and so II had come about very grad
ually that after all the others Were
gone they waited in the big room III
McGennis came with a wonderfully
colored book, and then with shinint
eyes and tiny gurgles " excited "ugh'
ter they closed about him and worme'
their warm little selves Inside his arms
and balanced precariously on his shout
ders. steadying themselves by his hair
and lay piled. heap of eager headi
and forgotten arms and legs, on the pit
table where the book was, while I'M
deputy supervisor revealed to them th'
|
and an ample and the astonishing un
likeness Of either to violet. Ana a.!
one who had come unseen on McGenni
then would hardly have known MN ~
a deputy supervisor
McGennis at the plaza corner lei
suddenly that these friends of his wer
waiting for him then, and he could no
hear 10 dlsappoint them. So he swun'
the big horse and galloped across an
rolled from his saddle at the scho":
house door and pushed 1t open an
took one step inside and stopped.
For from the benches and the crowde'
, table there rose n wall Of infantil
! despair so shrill and queerly, piping'!
, minor. SO manifestly the outpouring q
, very tiny broken hearts that 1t wa
like a toy wall, almost amusing In 1t
imitation Of the real thing.
Rut McGennis did not smile at II
For an instant he stood and then n
: turned and closed the door with FUN
, bling fingers and climbed heavily int
= his saddle and with loose reins rode OF
, to his house and went up 10 ms sal
and sat down there, lookingly Blind
= out on Sicaba.
The sunset came. frightened an
I faded and passed away ana night shl
= down over Sicaba and still he sat there
n His muchacho came to light lamp an
n McGcnnls sent him away. Later hi
:, cook came. speaking authoritatively q
: dinner. and McGennis sent his COO
I away too and sat on in the dark.
At last 1t was the hour when eve
g Scaha for little while must seel
y beautiful to the most hostile critic.
81 II. a