News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1915-07-28
RS must ask TO be exc,sed

ours. | must ask to be excused"
With that he went out Grossly, stop
ping in the hall a moment before pass
ing beyond hearing. And after lunch
Penrod sought in vain for his accor-
dion. He even searched the library
where his father sat reading. though,
upon inquiry. Penrod explained that
he was looking for a misplaced school
book. He thought he ought to study
a little every day, he said, even during
vacation time. Much pleased. Mr..
Schofield rose and Joined the search
finding the missing work on mathe-
matics with singular ease-which cost
him precisely the price of the book the
following September.
Penrod departed to study in the back
yard. There, after a cautious survey
of the neighborhood, he managed TO
dislodge the iron cover of the cistern
and dropped the arithmetic within. A
fine. splash rewarded his listening ear.
Thus assured that when he looked for
that book again no one would find it
for him, he replaced the cover and be-
took himself pensively to the highway,
discouraging Duke from following by
repeated vofeys of stones, some i'm
aginary and others all too real.
Arrived upon the populous and fes-
tive scene Of the dog and pony show,
he first turned his attention to the
brightly decorated booths which sur
rounded the tent. The cries of the
peanut vendors, of the popcorn men,
of the toy balloon sellers, the stirring
music of the band, playing before the
: performance to attract crowd; the
J shouting of excited children and the
| BARKING of the dogs within the tent
all sounded exhlaratingly in Penrod's
! ears and set his blood a-tingle. New
| ertheless he did not squander his
money or fling it to the winds in one
grand splurge. Instead, he began eau
tiously with the purchase of an ex-
traordinarily large pickle, which he OBJ
| tanned from an aged negress for his
odd cent, too obvious a bargain to be
missed At an adjacent stand he
bought a glass of raspberry lemonade
$50 alleged and slipped it as he ate the
Next he entered small restaurant
tent and for a modest nickel was sup
piled with fork and box of sardines,
previously opened, it is true, but more
than half full. He consumed the sar-
dimes utterly, but left the tin box and
the fort, after which he INDUCED In an
inexpensive half pint of lukewarm CT
der at one of the open booths. Mug in
hand, a gentle glow radiating toward
his surface from various centers of ac-
tivity deep inside him, he paused for
breath, and the cool, sweet cAlences of
the watermelon man fell delectably
upon his ear:
"Ice cole watermelon; ice cole water
melon! The biggest slice of ice cole,
ripe, red, ice cole, rich an rare; the
biggest slice of ice cole watermelon
ever cut by the hand of man! Buy our
ice cole watermelonw
Penrod, having drained the last drop
Of cider, complied with the watermelon
mans luscious entreaty and received
round slice of the fruit, magnificent
in circumference and something over
an inch il thickness. Leaving only the
really dangerous part of the rind be-
hind him, he wandered away from the
vicinity of the watermelon man and
supplied himself with Il bag of pea
nuts, which, with the expenditure of a
dime for admission, left Il quarter still |
warm in his pocket. However, he |
thO af
stand inside the tent, where a large !
oblong paper box of popcorn was hand |
ed him with 20 cents change. The box
was too large to go into his pocket, but
having seated himself among some
wistful Polack children he placed it
in his lap and devoured the contents
at leisure during the performance. The
popcorn was heavily larded with par
tally boiled molasses, and Penrod
sandwiched mouthfuls of peanuts with
gobs of this mass until the peanuts
were all gone. After that he ate with
less avidity, sense almost of safety
beginning to manifest itself to him,
and it was not until the close of the
performance that he disposed of the
last morSel.
He descended a little heavily to the
outfowing crowd in the arena and
bought caterwauling toy balloon. but
showed no great enthusiasm in manip-
ulating it. Near the exit as he came
out was a hot waffle stand which he
had overlooked, and sense of duty
obliged him to consume the three waf-
fles, thickly powdered with sugar,
which the waffle man cooked for him
upon command.
They left a hottish taste in his
mouth; they had not been quite up to
his anticipation, indeed, and it was
with a sense of relief that he turned
to the hokey-pokey cart which stood
close at hand, laden with square slabs
of Neapoltan ice cream wrapped in
paper He thought the ice cream would
be cooling. but somehow it fell short
of the desired effect and left a peculiar
SAVIOR in his throat.
no be Continued)