The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-08-19

were wide with establishment, and
there may have been in them also the
mingled beginnings Of admiration and
self %reproach. Penrod. warming to his
work. felt safer every momen
"And So" he continued. 81 had to
sit up with Aunt Clara. She had some
pretty bic bruises. too. and l had to-
But why didn't they send for a doc
tor?' However. this question was
only a flicker of dying incredulity.
"Oh, they didn't want any doctor!"
exclaimed the inspired realist prompt
~. They don't want anybody to hear
about it. because Uncle John might re-
form-and Their where'd he be II every.
body knew he'd been n drunkard and
whipped his wife and baby daughter?"
"Oh." said Miss Spence.
You see. he used to be upright as
anybody" he went on explanatively.
at all begun
Began. Penrod."
"Yes'm. 1t oil commenced from the
first day he let those travelling men
coax him into the saloon" Penrod
narrated the downfall Of his Uncle
John ut length. In detail he was moth
ing short Of plethoric, and incident
followed incident. sketched with such
yividness. such abundance Of color and
such verisimilitude to a ~drunkard's
life us n drunkard's life should be, hat
had Miss Spence possessed the rather
chilling attributes of William j. Burns
himself the last trace of skepticism
must have vanished from her mind.
Besides. there are two things that will
be believed of any man whatsoever,
and one Of them is that he has taken
to drink. And In every sense 1t was
a moving picture which, with simple
but eloquent words, the virtuous Pen
rod set before his teacher.
His eloquence increased with what
1t fed on. and as with the %eloquence
so with self reproach in the gentle
bosom of the teacher. She cleared her
throat with difficulty once or twice
during his description of his minister
ing night with Aunt Clara. And I
said to her, why. Aunt Clara, what's
the use Of takin' on 80 about itT And
l said. Now, Aunt Clara, all the crying
In the world can't make things any
better And then she'd just keep
catchin' hold Of me and sob and kind
of holler, and I'd say: Don't cry. Aunt
Clara. Please don't cryv"
Then, under the influence Of some
f%ragmentary survivals of the respecta-
BILE portion of his Sunday adventures,
his theme became more exalted, and,
only partially %misquoting a phrase
from n psalm, he related how he had
made 1t Of comfort to Aunt Clara and
how he had besought her to seek high
err guidance in her trouble.
The surprising thing about a struc-
ture such rs Penrod was erecting Is
that the taller it becomes the more
ornamentation 1t will stand. Gifted
boys have this faculty of building mag
nificence upon c~obwebs-and Penrod
was gifted. Under the spell OF his
really great performance, Miss Spence
gazed more md more sweetly upon the
prodigy Of spiritual beauty and good
ness before her, until ut last, when
Penrod came to the explanation Of his
Just thinking" she was forced to
turn her head away.
you mean, DEAR she said gently,
that you were all worn out and hard
ly knew what you were sayingT
"Yes'm."
"And you were thinking about all
those dreadful things SO hard that you
forgot where you wereT'
81 was thinking" he said simply,
how to save Uncle John"
And the end Of 1t for this mighty
boy was that the teacher kissed him!
TO BE CONTINUED