The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-07-23

l RA EEROD never missed murder, ] M a hanging or an electrocution 1 in the newspapers. He knew almost as much about Rena l Magsworth ss her jurymen did, though they sat in a courtroom 200 miles I away, and he had it In n1nd-so frank he was-to ask Roderick Magsworth Bftts, Jr., if the murderess happened to be a relative.
 The present encounter, being merely one of apathetic greeting, did not af ford the opportunity. Penrod took off his cap, and Roderick, seated between his mother and one of his grownup sisters, nodded sluggishly, but neither l Mrs. Magsworth Bitts nor her daugh- ter acknowledged the salutation of the boy. in the yard. They disapproved of him as a person of little consequence, and that little bad. Snubbed, Penrod 1 thoughtfulIy restored his cap to his i head. 4 boy can be cut as effectually as a man, and this one was chilled to low temperature, He wondered if i they despised him because they had seen a last fragment of doughnut, in his hand; then he thought that per 1 haps it was Duke who had disgraced him. Duke was certainly no fashion able looking dog.
 The resilient spirits of youth, how l ever, presently revived, and, discover i ing a spider upon one knee and a bee tie sinultaneou upon the other, Pen rod forgot Mrs. Roderick Magsworth 1 Bitts in the course of some expert ments Infringing upon the domain of Dr. Carrel. Penrod's efforts, with the aid of pin, to effect a transference Of living organism were unsuccessful, but he convinced himself forever that a spider cannot walk with a beetles legs. Della then enhanced geological interest by depositing upon the back porch a large rat trap from the cellar, the prison of four live rats awaiting. execution.
 Pearod at once took possession, retir- ing to the empty stable, where he in. stalled the rats in a small wooden box. with a sheet of broken window glass. held down by brickbat, over the top. Thus the symptoms of their agitation 1 when the box was shaken or hammer ed upon could be studied at leisure. 1 Altogether this Saturday was starting i spIendidly
 After time the students attention was withdrawn from his specimens by l a peculiar smell, which, being follow ed up by a system of selective snifdng, J proved to be an emnatfon leaking into the stable from the alley. He opened the back door.
 Across the alley was a cottage which . thrifty neighbor had built on the rear line of his lot and rented to ne groes, and the fact that negro family was now in process of moving in'' l was manifested by the presence of a thin mule and ramshackIe wagon, | Ief a stove and few other unpretentious household articles.
 A very small darEy boy stood near 1 the mule. In his hand was q rusty chain, and at the end of the chain the l delighted Penrod perceived the source of the special smell he was tracing-a i large raccoon. Duke, who had shown not the slightest interest in the rats, 1 set up a frantic barking and simulated a ravening assault upon the strange animal. It was only a bit of acting, however, for Duke was an old dog, had suffered much and desired no un- necessary sorrow, wherefore he con fined his demonstrations to alarums and excursions and presently sat down at a distance and expressed himself by intermittent threatenings in a quaver- ing falsetto.
 Whats that coon's name2'' asked Penrod, intending no discoureesy. ~Aim gomno mame.' said the small 1 darky.
 s'What?'
 "Aim gommo mame.''
 "What?"
 The small darky looked annoyed
 '.Aim gonHo mame hell you" he said fmpattentIy
 Penrod conceived that insult was in- tended
 Whats the matter of you?. he de- i handed. advancing. You get fresh with me and I'll''-
 sHyuh, white boy!" A coIored youth of Penrod's own age appeared in the | doorway of the cottage. You let 'at brothuh mirle alone. He ain do noth- i in to you"
 Well, why can't he answer?,'
 He can't. He can't talk no better'n what he was talkfn.. He tongue tie''
 'soh!' said Penrod, modified; then, obeying an impulse so universally aroused in the human breast under like circumstances that t has become a quip, he turned to the afflicted one.
 Talk srss@ -77~e'' he begged eagerly.
 (To Be Contiuued. 1