The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1916-12-14

Quent hilarity and loud and long ap-
plause, perhaps, that the professor
was relieved from the explanation Of
this rather astounding phenomenon
of the idealistic workings Of purely
practical brain-or, as my impious
friend scoffed the incongruity later,
in particularly whitening allusion, as
the 'blank-blanked fallacy, don't you
know, of staying the hunger Of howl
ing mob by feeding 'em on spring po-
etryw
The tumult of the audience did not
cease even with the retirement of
Sweeney, and cries Of "Hedrick! He'd
rick.!" only subsidized with the profess
sor's high-keyed announcement that
the subject was even then endeavor-
ing to make himself heard, but could
not until utter quiet was restored, add
ing the further appeal that the young
man had already been a long time I'M
der the mesmeric spell, and ought not
be so detained for an unnecessary Pc
Rod. "See," he concluded, with an
assuring wave of the hand toward the
subject, "see, he is about to address
you. Now, quiet-utter quiet, if you
pleasew
"Great heavens" exclaimed my
friend stifingly; "just look at the boy I!
Get on to the position for a
poet! Even Sweeney had fled from the
sight Of him!"
And truly, too, it was a grotesque
pose the young man had assumed; not
wholly ridiculous, either, since the
dwarfed position he had settled into
seemed more a genuine physical condi-
ton than an affected one. The head
back tilted, and sunk between the
shoulders, looked abnormally large,
while the features of the face ap-
peared peculiarly childlike-especially
the eyes-wakeful and wide apart,
and very bright, yet very mild and
very artless; and the drawn and
cramped outline Of the legs and feet,
! and of the arms and hands, even to
the shrunken, slender-looking fingers,
all combined to convey most striking
ly to the panied senses the fragile
frame and pixy figure Of some pitiable
afflicted child, unconscious altogether
of the pathos of it's own defOrmity.
"Now, mark the cuss, Horatio!"
gasped my friend.
At first the speakers voice came
very low, and somewhat piping, too,
and brakeman eery sort of voice it
was, of brittle and cratic timbre I'M
dulant infection. Yet it was beauti-
full. It had the ring of childhood in
it., though the ring was not pure
golden, and at times fell echoless. The
spirit of it's utterance was always clear
and pure and crisp and CHEEKY as the
twitter of bird, and yet forever ran an
undercadence through it like low
pleading prayer. Half garrulously,
and like shallow brook might brawl
across shelvy bottom, the rhythmic
little changeling thus began:
I'm thist little crippled boy, an
never goin' to grow
An git great big man at all !-'cause
aunty told me so.
When I was thist baby onc't failed
out of the bed
An got the curv'ture of the spine
'at's what the doctor said.
I never had no mother nen-fer my
pa ruined away
An dassn't come back here no more
cause he was drunk one day
An stobbed q man in thish-ere town,
an couldn't pay his fine!
An men my ma she died-an' I got
'curv'ture Of the spine!"
a few titterings from the younger
people in the audience marked the
opening stanza, while a certain rest
lessness, changing to more attentive
positions seemed the general tendency.
The old professor in the meanwhile
had sunk into one of the empty
chairs. The speaker went on with more
gayety:
"I'm nine years old! An you can't
guess how much weigh, I bet =
Last birthday I weighed thirty-three-
An weigh thirty yet!
I'm awful little fer my size-Tm purt'
nigh hitler AN
Some babies islam neighbors all
calls me The Little Man,
ALI LUZ Ouc LlluC Ac 1duSACu uA ScaAO .
4 'spect, first think you know,
You'll have a little spike-tailed coat
an travel with a shown
An men laughed-tiu looked round
an Aunty was a-cryin'-
Sometimes she acts like that, cause I
got 'curv'ture of the spinev"
Just in front of me a great broad
shouldered countryman, with rainy
smell in his cumbrous overcoat, cleared
his throat vehemently, looked startled
at the sound, and again settled for
ward, his weedy chin resting on the
knuckles of his hands as they tightly
clutched the seat before him. And
it was like being taken into a child
ish confidence as the quaint speech
continued:
81 set-while Aunty's washin'-on my
little long-leg stool,
An watch the little boys an girls