The circle banner., 1915-01-29

when brought to light, emphaticall.
asserted that the fat man was in NO
wise blamable: that he had run ava,
on his own hook, and would do i
again II he wanted to- But he broke
there with a heavy sob; and the fai
man said: There! therei Cootsey, &c
along with the old 'un, and here's a
| dollar for you" And Tod cried aloud
The good minister had brought a
letter for him, too, and as the boy
| read it through his tears he turned
| homeward almost eagerly.
| Dear Tod lit ranJ, have been quite sick
| since you left me. You must come back,
| for miss you, and I can never get well
again without you. I've got a new kink
on pair of stills I've made you, but I
can't tell how long to make them till ySu
come back. Fanny comes over every day,
and talks about you SO much I half be-
lieve sometimes she likes you better than
she does her old sick uncle; but I can
stand that, because you deserve 1T, and
I'm too old for little girls to like very
much. It'll soon be the Fourth, you
know, and we must be getting ready for
big time. Come home at once, for
am waiting.
TO Stoddard Anderson, from his old
friend and teacher.
Tod went home He fastened to
the teachers darkened room. The
dear old face had grown pale-so very
pale! The kindly hand that reached
out to grasp the boys was thin and
wasted, and the gentle voice that he
had learned to love was faint and
low-so very low, it sounded like
prayer. The good minister turned 81
lently and left the two old friends to-
gether; and there were teardrops in
his eyes.
And SO the little, staggering life
went on alone Some old woman gos-
sip, peering through the eye of a
needle on the institution known as
the Ladies' Benevolent Sewing So
ciety," said that it 'peared to her like
that boy of the preachers jes' KEEP a.
pinin' and a-pinin' away, ever sence
they fetched him back from his runa-
way scrape. She'd seen him time and
again sence then, and although the lit
tie snipe was innocentlike to all ap-
pearances, she'd be bound that he was
in devilment enoughi Reckoned he
was too proud to march in the school
p'cession at the teachers funer1; and
he didn't go to the meetin' house at
all, but put off to the graveyard by
hisself; and when they got there with
the corpse, Tod was a-settin' with his
legs a-hangin' in the grave, and a
pitchin' clods in, and a-smilin'. "And |
only jes' the other evening"" she con-
tinued, "as l was comm past there /
kind O. in the dusklike, that boy was
a-settin' a-straddle o. the grave, and |
jes' a-cryin'! And I thought it kind |
o. strangelike, and stopped and hol-
lered: What's the matter of ye.
Tod?' and he ups and hollers back:
Stumpt my toe, durn ye! and thinks
|, My youngster, they'll be a day o
reckonin' fer youl'"
The old world worried on, till July
came at last, and with it that most
glorious day that wrapped the baby
nation in its swaddling clothes of
stripes and stars and laid it in the lap
If Liberty. And what a day that wasi
And how the birds did sing that morn
ng from the green tops of the trees
when the glad sunlight came glancing
through the jeweled leaves and woke
heml And not more joyous were the
,irds, or more riotous their little Il
hrobbing hearts to pipe the trail and
heep and twitter twenty million
oves,' than the merry children that
anne fiuttering to the grove to join
heir revelry
o brighter than a dream swept ;
he procession of children from the
own toward the boy that swung his :
at from the tree top near the brook. I
nd he flushed with some strange &C. {
tasy as he saw little girl in white, /
18th a wreath OF evergreen, wave her {
rimson sash in answer to him, while /
lie column slowly filed across the I
pen bridge, where yet again he saw {
er reappear in the reflection in the f
,ream below. Then, after the dull d
oening of prayer, and the more tedi- v
is exercises following, how the woods v
d ring with laughter; how the boys s
Gu Will ouo duOtueT Ill LuOlI ldDOIS e
arranging swings and clearing un- h
srbrush away preparatory to day
unconfned enjoyment; and how the h
rls shrieked to ''see the black man fl
ming" and how coquettishly they G
ruggled when captured and carried
by that dread being, and yet what
.gerness they displayed In his be- A
IL! And "Ring"-men and women Il
en- joining in the game, and kissing IL
o another's wives and husbands b.
re mad. Why, even the ugly old P
with a carbuncle on the
ok Of his neck, grew riotous with fe
rth, and when tripped full length v,
on the sward by the little widow in Io
lf-mourning, hustled nimbly to his fe
1t and kissed her, with some wicked
n about grass" widows, that made ss
n laugh till his face grew as red to
his carbuncle That bashful young to
N who had struggled off alone, sit ne
6 so uncomfortably upon log, kill tn
, bugs and spiders, like an ugly lo
mt with q monster club-how he lie
st have envied the airy freedom of wi
IL - l.