The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-07-22
CHAPTER l.
A Boy and His Dog.

bdl hAO ooCly upOu tuc
back fence and gazed with
envy at Duke, his wistful dog.
A bitter soul dominated the va
rious curved and angular surfaces
known by a careless world as the face
of Penrod Schotield. Except in soil
tude, that face was almost always
cryptic and ~emotionless, for Penrod
had come into his twelfth year wear
ing an expression carefully trained to
be inscrutable. Since the world was
sure to misunderstood everything,
mere defensive instinct prompted him
to give it as little as possible to lay
hold upon. Nothing is more impene-
trable than the face Of a boy who has
learned this, and Penrod's was habitu-
ally as fathomless as the depth Of his
hatred this morning for the literary
activities Of Mrs. Lora Rewbush, an
almost universally respected fellow
citizen, a lady of charitable and poetic
i%nclinations and one Of his W moth
er's most intimate friends.
Mrs. Lora Rewbush had written
something which she called 1.-THE
Children's Pageant Of the Table
Round" and it was to be performed
in public that very afternoon at the
Women's Arts and Guild hall for the
benefit Of the Colored Infants Better
ment society. And If any flavor of
sweetness remained in the nature of
Penrod Schoield after the dismal
trials Of the school week Just past,
that problematic, infinftesimal EN-
nant was made pungent acid by the
imminence Of his destiny to form a
prominent feature of the spectacle and
to declaim the loathsome sentiments
Of a character named upon the pro-
gram the Child Sir Lancelot.
After each rehearsal he had plotted
escape, and only ten days earlier there
had been a glimmer Of light Mrs.
Lora Rewbush caught a very bad cold.
and it was hoped it might develop into
pneumonia, but she recovered so quick
ly that not even a rehearsal of the
Children's Pageant was postponed.
Darkness closed in. Penrod had rather
vaguely debated plans for a self mutt
ldIiOh SuCu 40 Nouid hldhC LIE up-
pearance as the Child Sir Lancelot in
expedient on public grounds. 1t was
a heroic and attractive thought, but
the results Of some extremely sketchy
preliminary experiments caused him
to abandon 1t.
There was no escape, and at last his
hour was hard upon him. Therefore
be brooded on the fence and gazed
with onvy at his wistful Duke.
The dogs name was undescriptive
Of his person, which was obviously
the result of a singular series of mes
alliances. He wore a grizzled mus
tache and indefinite whiskers. He
was small and shabby and looked like
an old postman. Penrod envied Duke
because he was sure Duke would new
err be compelled to be a Child Sir
Lancelot. He thought a dog free and
u%nshackled to 60 or come as the wind
listeth. Penrod forgot the life he led
Duke.
There was a long soliloquy upon the
fence, a plaintive monologue without
words. The boys thoughts were ad-
jectives, but they were expressed by
a running Aim of pictures in his minds
eye. morbidly prophetic of the hideosi-
ties before him. Finally he spoke
aloud, with such spleen that Duke rose
from his launches and lifted one ear
in keen anxiety.
IT hight Sir Lancelot du Lake, the child.
Gentul hearted, meek n mild.
What though I'm but a littul child.
Gentul hearted. meek and Oof"
All Of this except "oof' was a quota
ton from the Child Sir Lanceiot, as
conceived by Mrs. Lora Rewbush.
Choking upon it, Penrod slid down
from the fence, and with slow and
thoughtful steps entered a one stored
wing Of the stable, consisting of a SIN
gle apartment, doored with cement
and used as a st0reroom for broken
bric-a-brac, old paint buckets, decayed
garden hose, wornout carpets. dead