The Huttig news., 1915-01-30

based on a faint hope. If Samson should come back to Misery he would come back full of new notions. No man had ever yet returned from that outside world unaltered. No man ever would A terrible premonition said he would not come at all, but. if he did if he did-she must know how to read and write. Maybe, when she had learned a little more, she might even go to school for term or two.
 The cramped and distorted chirog- raphy on the slate was discouraging It was all proving very hard work. The girl gazed for time at something she saw in the embers, and then faint smile came to her lips. By next Christ mas she would surprise Samson with letter. It should be we'll written. and every "hain't' should be an isn't"
 
 The normal human mind is a res ervoir which fills at a rate of speed regulated by the number and caliber of it's feed pipes. Samson's mind had long been almost empty, and now from so many sources the waters of new things were rushing in upon it that under their pressure it must fill fast, or give away.
 He was saved from hopeless com plications of thought by sanity which was willing to assimilate with out too much effort to analyze. The boy from Misery was presently less bizarre to the eye than many of the unkempt bohemians he met in the life of the studios, men who quarreled garrulously over the end and aim of Art, which they spelled with capi tai A-and. for the most part. knew nothing of. He retained. except with. in a small circle of intimates, silence that passed for taciturnity. and solemnity of visage that was often construed into surly egotism.
 He still wore his hair long, and though his conversation gradually sloughed off much of it's idiom and vulgarism, enough of the mountaineer stood out to lend to his personality sayor of the crudely picturesque.
 Meanwhile he drew and read and studied and walked. and every days advancement was a forced march Lescott, tremendously interested in his experiment, began to fear that the boys too great somberness of dispo- sition would defeat the very earnest. ness from which it sprang So one morning the landscape-maker called on a friend whom he rightly believed to be the wisest man, and the great. est humorist in New York.
 'l want your help" said Lescott. sl want you to meet a friend of mine and take him under your wing in fashion. He needs you
 The stout mans face elouded A few years ago he had been peddling his manuscripts with the heart.sickness of unsuccessful middle age. Today men coupled his name with those of Kip ling and De Maupassant One of his antiquities vas meeting people who sought to lionize him. Lescott reat the expression. and. before his hosl had time to object, swept into his re. eital
 At the end he summarized:
 'The artist is much like the setter pup. If it's in him, it's as instinctive. as dogs nose. But to become effi- cient he must go a-field with steady veteran of his own breed"
 T know!" The great man, who was also the simple man. smiled reminis- gently. They tried to teach me to. herd sheep when my nose was itching for bird country. Bring on your man.; want to know him."
 Samson was told nothing of the be- nevolent conspiracy, but one evening shortly later he found himself sitting. at cafe table with his sponsor and stout man, almost as silent as him.. self. The stout man responded with something like churlish taciturnity to the half-dozen men and women who came over with f1atteries But later, when the trio was left alone, his face frightened, and he turned to the boy from Misery.
 Does Billy Conrad still keep store at Stagbone?'
 Samson started and his gaze fell in, amazement. At the mention of the. name he saw a crossroads store with rough mules hitched to fence palings. It was picture of home, and here was a man who had been there! With glowing eyes the boy dropped uncon- seiously back into the yernacular of the hills.
 Hey ye been thar, stranger?"
 The writer nodded, and slipped his whisky.
 Not for some years. though" he. confessed, as he drifted into reminis.. cence, which to Samson was like Wa ter to parched throat
 When they left the cafe the boy felt as though he were taking leave of an old and tried friend By homely methods. this unerring diagnostician of the human soul had been reading him, liking him. and making him feel heart-warming sympathy.
 It was not until much later that Samson realized how these two really. great men had adopted him as their little brother" that he might have