The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-08-12

garet:
THAT boy! He's unpinned his man
tie and fixed it to cover his whole cos
tune. After we worked SO hard to
make it becoming!'
Never mind. He'll have to take the
cape off in a minute returned Marga-
ret. She leaned forward suddenly,
narrowing her eyes to see the better.
What is that thing hanging about his
left ankle?" She whispered ~uneasily.
"HOw queer! He must have got tan
gled in something"
"Where?" asked Mrs. Schofeld in
alarm.
Ills left foot. 1t makes him stun
BILE. Don't you see? 1t loOks-it looks
like an elephants foot!'
The Child Sir Lancelot and the
Child Sir Galahad clasped hands be-
fore their child king. Penrod vas con-
scious Of q great uplift; in a moment
he would Lave to throw aside his man
tie, but even so he was protected and
sheltered in the human garment of a
man. His stage fright had passed. for
the audience was but an indistinguish-
able blur Of darkness beyond the daz-
zling lights. His most repulSive speech
chat in which he proclaimed himself a
"tot') was over and done with, and
now at last the small, moist hand Of
the Child Sir Galahad lay within his
own. Craftily his brown fingers stole
from Matrices palm TO the wrist. The
two boys detained in concert:
" are two chuldrun Of the Tabul Round
Strewing kindness all around.
With love and good deeds striving ever
for the best.
May our littul efforts e'er be blest.
Two littul hearts we offer. See,
United in love, faith, hope and char-Ow!'
The conclusion of the duet was mar
red. The Child Sir Galahad suddenly
stiffened and, uttering an irrepreSsible
shrek Of anguish, gave a brief eXhibi-
ton Of the contortiOniSts art. Giles
twistin' my wrist. bern you, leggo.')
The voice Of Mrs. Lora Rewbush was
again heard from the wings. 1t sound
ed blOodthirsty. Penrod released his
victim, and the Child King Arthur,
somewhat disconnected, extended his
scepter and, with the assistance of the
enraged prompter, said:
Sweet child friends Of the Tabul Round.
In brotherly love and kindness abound:
Sir Lance'ot, you have SPOKEN well,
Sir Galahad, too, as clear as bell.
so now pray doff your nantes gay,
You shall be knighted this very day"
And Penrod dotted his mantle.
simultaneously Il thick and vastly
gasp came from the audience, as from
800 bathers in Il wholly unexpected
surf. This gasp was punctuated irreg-
ularly over the auditorium by imper-
fectly subdued screams both of diSmay
and i~ncreduIous JOY and by two dismal
shrieks. Altogether it was an eXtraor-
binary sound, n sound never to be for
! gotten by any one who heard 1t. 1t
was almost as unforgetable as the
sight when caused it, the word sight"
being here used in its vernacular sense,
for Penrod, standing unmantled II
revealed In all the medieval and arts
tic glory Of the janitors blue overalls,
falls within its meaning.
The %janitor was a heavy man, and
his overalls upon Penrod were merely
oceanic. The boy was at once swad-
died and lost within their blue CULTS
and vast sagg!nGs, and the left leg,
too hastily rolled up, had descended
with Il distinctively ~elephantine effect,
rs Margaret had observed. Certainly
the Child Sir Lancelot was at least a
sight.
II 10 hln that a uronf MANY In
that hall must have had ever then a
consciousness that they were looking
on at history in the making. A SUI
preme act IS recognizable at sight; II
bears the birthmark Of Immortality.
But Penrod, that marvellous boy, had
begun to declain, even with the ges-
ture Of finging off his mantle for the
accOlade:
'I first, the Child Sir Lancelot du Lake.
Will volunteer to knighthood take.
And kneeling here before your throne
! vow to-
He finished his speech unheard. The
audience had recovered breath, but
had lost self control, and there ensued
something later described by a partici-
pant ms a sort of cultured riot.
The actors in the pageant" were no
so d~umfounded by Periods costume
as might have been expected. A few
~precocious geniuses perceived that the
overalls were the Child Lancelot's own
comment on maternal intentions, and
these were profoundly impressed.
They regarded him with the grisly
admiration Of young and ambitious
criminals for q Jail mate about to be
distinguished by hanging. But most
of the children simply took it to be the
case "a little strange, but startling)
that Periods mother had dressed him
like that-which is pathetic. They
tried to go on with the pageant"
They made a brief, manful effort
But the irrepressible outbursts from
the audience bewildered them. Every
time Sir Lancelot du Lake the Child
| opened his mouth the great, shadowy