Connecticut western news., 1915-07-01
CHAPTER X.

oO ul1 11cIIuuu dllu AGILItIH Roddy's staggering lie had changed the face of things utterly. No one questioned it; no one realized that it was much too good to be true
 "Roddy," said Penrod in a voice tremulous with hope, "Roddy. will you join our show?'
 Roddy joined.
 Even he could see that the offer i'm piled his being starred as the para mount attraction of a new order of things. It was obvious that he had swelled out suddenly. ill the estimation of the other boys, to that importance which he had been taught to believe his native gift and natural right. The sensation was pleasant. He had often been treased with effusion by grownup callers and by acQuaintances of his mother and sisters. He had heard la- dies speak of him as charming" and that delightful child. ''~and little girls had sometimes shown him difference. but until this moment no boy had ever allowed him for one moment to pre- sume even to equality. Now. in trice he was not only admitted to comrade- r ship, but patiently valued as something rare and sacred, to be acclaimed and pedestaled. In fact the very first thing that Schofield & Williams did was to find a box for him to stand upon.
 The misgivings reused in Roderick's bosom by the subsequent activities of the firm were not bothersome enough to make him forego his prominence as Exhibit A. He was not a quick minded" boy, and it was long and much happened before he thoroughly comprehended the causes of his new celebrity. He had a shadowy feeling that if the affair came to be heard of at home it might not be liked, but. in- toxicated by the glamour and hustle which surround a public character, he made no protest. On the contrary, he entered whole heartedly into the prep arations for the new show. Assuming, with Sam's assistance, blue mustache and "sideburns," he helped in the painting of new poster. which, sup planting the old one on the wall of the stable facing the cross street, screamed bloody murder at the passers in that rather populous thoroughfare: SCHoFiELD & WILLIAMS NEW BIG SHOW
 RoDERiCK MAGSWoRTH BITS JR ONLY LIVING NEPHEW OF
 RENA MAGSWORTH
 THE PIANOS
 MUDERESS GoiNG To BE HUNG NEXT JULY KILLED EIGHT PEO- PILE
 PUT ARSiNECK iN THEIR MILK ALSO
 SHERMAN HERMAN AND VERMAN THE MICHIGAN RATS DOG PART ALLIGATOR DUKE THE GENUINE InDiAN Doc ADMISSION 1 CENT OR 20 PINS SAME AS BEFORE Do Nor Miss THiS CHANSE TO SEE Rob-
 BRICK.
 ONLY LIVING NEPHEW OF RENA MAGSWORTH THE GREAT FANIOS
 MUDERESS
 GoiNG To BE
 HUNG
 Megaphones were constructed out of heavy wrapping paper, and Penrod, Sam apd Herman set out in different directions, delivering vocally the in- flammatory proclamation of the poster to a large section of the residential EJarter and leaving. Roderick Mags- worth Bitts, Jr., with Verman in the loft, shielded from all deadhead eyes. ] Upon the return of the heralds the Schofield & Williams military band played deafeningly, and an awakened public once more thronged to fill tb' coffers of the firm.
 Prosperity smiled again. The very first audience after the acquisition of Roderick was larger than the largest of the morning. Master Bitts, the only exhibit placed upon a box, was a super curio. All eyes fastened upon him and remained, hungrily feasting, through out Penrod's luminous oratiOn.
 But the glory of one light must ever be the dimming of another. We dwell in vale of seesaws, and cobwebs spin fastest upon laurel. Verman, the tat tooed wild boy, speaking only in his native foreign languages, Verman the gay, Verman the caperer, capered no more, he chuckled no more, he beck oned no more nor tapped his chest nor Wreathed his idolatrous face in smiles. Gone, all gone, were his little artifices for attracting the general attention to himself. Gone was every engaging mannerism which had endeared him to the mercurial public. He squatted against the wall and glowered at the new sensation. It was the old story the old, old story-of too much temper ament. Verm&n was suffering from artistic jealousy.
 The second audience contained cash ] paying adult, spectacled young man