The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-07-21


 mother?''
 'Yes'm-not just visiting-you see, she had to come. Well, of course, lit tie baby Clara, she was so bruised up and mauled, where he'd been hittin' her with his cane''-
 "You mean that your uncle had done such a thing as that!' exclaimed Miss Spence, suddenly disarmed by this scandal.
 "Yes' ID. I>And mamma and Margaret had to sit up all night nursin' little Clara And Aunt, Clara was in such a state somebody had to keep ta1kin' to her. and there wasn't anybody but me to do it. So r.
 But where was your father?' she cried.
 "Ma'am?''
 ''Where was your father while
 s.Oh, papa ?' Penrod paused, reflect ed, then frightened. "Why, he was down at the train waitin' to see if Uncle John would try to follow 'ern and make ,em come home sos he could persecute 'em some more. I wanted to do that, but they said if he did come mightn't be strong enough to hold hfm-and''- The brave lad paus- ed again modest1y. Miss Spence's ex- pression was encouraging. Her eyes were wide with F astonishment and there may have been in them also the mingled beginnings of admiration and self reproach. Penrod, warming to his work, felt safer every moment.
 '.And SOL he continued, "I had to sit up with Aunt Clara. She had some pretty big bruises. too, and T had to-
 But why didn't they send for a doc tor?" However, this question was only a flicker Of dying tncredulity.
 ooh. they didn't want any doctori'' exclaimed the inspired realist prompt IY- They don't want any body to hear about 1t, because Uncle John might re- sfornn-and then where'd he be if every body knew he'd been q drunkard and whipped his wife and baby daughterY
 'sOhn' said Miss Spence.
 You see, he used to be upright as anybody 7 he went on explanatively. ATt all begun
 Began, Penrod."
 ssYes'm m. It all eommenced from the first day he let those travelling men coax him into the saloon" Penrod narrated the downfall of his Uncle John at length. In detail he was noth- ing short of plethoric, and incident followed incident, sketched with such vividness, such abundance of color and such verisiEnilitude to drunkardss. life as ,a 1runkardss life should be, that had Miss Spence possessed the rather chilling attribntes Of William J Burns himself the last trace of skepHcism 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 it was a moving picture which, with simple but eloquent words, the virtuous Pen rod set before his teacher
 His eloquenee increased with what it 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. Ind I said to her, " hy. Aunt Clara, hats the use of takin' on so about it?' And 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 hol1er, and I'd say: Don't cry, Aunt Clara. Please don't cryi'''
 Then, under the influence of some fragmentary surviyals of the respecta- ble portion of his Sunday adventures, his theme became more exalted, and, only partially. misquoting phrase from a psalm, he related how he had made it of comfort to Aunt Clara and how he had besought her to seek high CT guidance in her trouble.
 The surprising thing about a struc- ture such as Penrod wass erecting is that the taller it becomes the mora ornamentation it will stand. Gifted boys have this faculty of building mag nifcence upon cobwebs-and Penrod was. gifted. Under the spell of his really great performance, Miss Spence gazed more and more sweet1y upon the prodigy of spiritual beauty and good ness before her. until at last, when Penrod came to the explanation of his just thinlxing,'' she was forced to turn her head away.
 You mean, dear,'' she said gently, tlatyou were all worn out and hard F knew what you were saying ?'' : '' Yes'm m. 7
 And you were thinking about all those dreadful things go hard that you forgot where you were?
 q was thinking,n he said simply. Eshow to save Uncle John ;
 And the end of it for this mighty boy was that the teacher kissed him!
 CHAPTER VII.
 Fidelity of d Little Dog.
 TAHE returning students that