Connecticut western news., 1915-08-19
CHAPTER XIX. The Quiet Afternoon.

if they would examine a boys punishments and sorrows, for he pro ! longs neither beyond their actual du"a- ton. With a boy, trouble must be of homeric dimensions to last overnight. To him, every next day is really new | day. Thus, PenrOd woke. next morn ! ming, with neither the unspIred rod. nor MT. Kinosling in his mind. Tar. itself, so far as his consideration of it went, might have been an undiscovered substance. His mood was cheerful and mercantile; some process having work cd mysteriously within him, during the night, to the result that his first walk ing thought was of profits connected with the sale of old iron-Or perhaps q ragman had passed the house, just before he woke.
 By 10 o'clock he had formed a pGrt- nership with the indeed amiable Sam, and the firm of SchOfield & W-i.iams plunged headlong into commerce. Heavy dealings in rags, paper, old lrOn and lead gave the firm q balance of p cents on the evening of the third day, but a venture is glassware, follow ing, proved disappointing on account of the skepticism of all the druggists in that part of town, even after seven laborious hours had been spent ill cleansing a wheelbarrOw load of cid medicine bottles with hydrant water and ashes. Likewise, the partners were 1 disheartened by their failure to dis pose of a crop of greens" although they had uprooted specimens of that decorative and unappreciated flower, the dandeliOn, With such persistence and energy that the Schofields' and Williams lawns looked curiously hag gard for the rest of that summer.
 The fit passed, business languishCd. became extinct. The dog days had set in.
 One August afternoon was so hot that even boys sought indoor shade. In the dimness of the vacant carriage house of the stable lounged Masters Penrod Schofield, Samuel Williams, Maurice Levy, Georgie Bassett and Herman. They sat still and talked. It is a hot day, in rare truth, when boys devote themselves principally to conversation, and this day was that hot.
 Their elders should beware such days. Peril hovers near when the fierceHess of weather forces inactiOn and boys in groups are quiet. The more closely volcanoes, western rivers. nitroglycerin and boys are pent, the sdeadlier is their action at the point of outbreak. Thus. parents and guardians should look for outrages of the most singular violence and of the most peculiar nature during the confining weather of February and August.
 The thing which befell upon this broiling afternoon began to brew and stew peacefully enough. All was in nocence and languor; no one could have foretold the eruption.
 They were upon their great theme: "When l get to be a man. Being hu- man, though boys, they considered their present estate too commonplace to be dwelt upon. So, when the old men gather, they say: "When I was boy" It really is the land of now adays that we never discover.
 When I'm man." said Sam Will l Hams, I'm goin' to hire me a couple of colored walters to swing me in hammock and keep pourin' ice water on me all day out O those waterin' cans they sprinkle flowers from. I'll | hire you for one of 'em, Herman
 No; you ain goin' to- said Herman S'omptly. You ain no fiowuh. But nev' min nat, anyway. Ain nobody goin' hiah me whens I'm a man. Coin l be my own boss. I'm go be railroad man!'
 You mean like a superintendent, or sumpthing like that, and sell ticketsT' asked Penrod.
 ''Supin-nv' min nat! Sell ticket? No suh! Go be a po'tuh! My uncle a po'tuh right now. Solid gole buttons oh, oh!"
 Generals get a lot more buttons than porters," said Penrod. Gen erals''-
 "Po'tuhs make the bes' livin'," Her man interrupted. My uncle spen' mo money n any white man his town.''
 Well, I rather be a general" said ISuEOu, OF HeIdLOF, or SumpLnlnE
 like that
 Senators live in Warshington," Mau- rice Levy contributed the information
 T been there. Tarshington aint so
 much. Niog'r4 falls is a hundred times as gcod as Warshington. Sos 'TIantic City. was there too. I been everywhere there is. T.
 'Wen, anyway" said Sam Williams,
 raising his voice in order to obtain the
 floor, anyway, I'm goin> to lay in a 1 hammock a@I day and have ice water
 FDrinIed on tsp O me. and I'm gOln'
 to lay there all night, too. and the
 next day I'm goin' to lay there a cou-
 pie O years maybe"