The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1916-05-25

to "Bibbs" mainly through lack of
imagination on his mothers part, for
though 1t was her maiden name, she
day when the sickly boy was nine, he
requested with unwonted vehemence
TO be allowed to exchange names with
his older brother, Roscoe Conkling
Sheridan, or with the oldest, James
Sheridan, Jr., and upon being refused
went down into the cellar and re-
NAMED there the rest Of that day. And
the cook. descending toward dusk, re-
ported that he had vanished; but a
search revealed that he was in the
coal-pile, completely covered and still
burrowing. Removed by force and
carried upstairs, he maintained a cryp-
tic %demeanor, refusing to utter a syl-
liable of explanation, even under the
lash. This obvious thing was wholly
q mystery to both parents; the mother
was nonplused, failed to trace and
connect; and the father regarded his
son as a stubborn and mysterious fool,
an impression not effaced as the years
went by.
At twenty-five Bibbs was physically
no more than the outer scaffolding Of
a man, waiting for the building to be-
gin ~inside-a ~long-shanked, long-faced,
rickety youth, sallow and hollow and
haggard, dark-haired and d~ark-eyed,
with a peculiar expression Of counte-
nance; indeed, at first sight Of Bibbs
Sheridan he seemed upon the point of
tears. To a slightly longer gaze, not
grief. but mirth, was revealed as his
emotion; but Bibbs never, on any oc-
casion in his life, either laughed aloud
or wept.
He was a disappointment" to his
father. At least that was the parents
word-a confirmed and established
word after his first attempt to make
a business man" of the boy. He sent
Bibbs to ''begin at the bottom and
learn from the ground up" in the ma
chine shop OF the Sheridan Automatic
Pump works, and at the end of six
months the family physician sent
Bibbs to begin at the bottom and learn
from the ground up In a sanitarium.
"You needn't worry, mamma" Sher-
idan told his wife. There's nothin'
the matter with Bibbs except he hates
work SO much 1t makes him sick. I
put him In the machine shop, and l
guess l know what I'm doin' about
as well as the next man. Ole Doc Cur
ney always was n o. them nutty
alarmists. Does he think I'd do any
thing d be bad for my own flesh
and blood? He makes me tired!'
Anything except perfectly definite
health or perfectly definite disease vas
incomprehensiblc to Sheridan. He
had a genuine conviction that lack of
physical persistence in any task in
subtle weakness of character itself, to
some profound ~shiftlessness or slyness.
Look ut me-" he said. Look at
what / did at his age! Why, when I
was twenty years old, wasn't / up ev-
cry morning at four o'clock chopin
wood-yes! and out in the dark and
snow-to build a fire in a country gro
Gerry store? And here Bibbs has to go
and have a doctor because he can't
Pho! 1t makes me tired. If he'd gone
at 1t like q man he wouldn't be sick
He paced the bedroom-the usual
setting for such parental discussions
in his night gown. shaking his big,
grizzled head and gesticulating to his
bedded spouse. "My Lord!" he said.
IF the little, teeny bit o. work like
this is too much for him. why. ne amt
fit for anything! It's nine-tenths mag
ination. and the rest of it-well,
won't say it's deliberate, but l would
like to know just how much OF it's put
on!'
"Bibbs didn't want the doctor" said
Mrs. Sheridan. at vas when he was
here to dinner that night. and l noticed
how he couldn't eat anything. Honey,
you better come to bed"
"Eat" he snorted. "Eatl It's work
that makes men eat! And there's an
other thing you'll notice about good
health. IL you'll take the trouble to
look around you, Mrs. Sheridan; busy
men haven't got time to be sick, and
they don't get sick. You just think
it over. and you'll find that 80 per
cen of the sick people Won know are
either women or loafers. Yes, ma'am"
Honey" she said again. drowsily,
"you better come to bed"
"Look at the other boys" her hus-
band babe her. "Look at Jim and Ros-
coe. Look at how they work. Right
now there isn't a harder-workin',
brighter business man In this city than
Jim. I've pushed him, but he give me
something to push against. You can't
push nervous dyspepsiay And look
at Roscoe; just look at what that boys
done for himself, and barely twenty
seven years old-married, got a fine
wife. and ready to build for himself
with his own money when l put up the
new house for you and Edie."
Papa, you'll catch cold In your bare
feet" she murmured. You'd better
come to bed" 3
"And I'm just as proud OF Edie. for
a GIRL" he continued, emphatically, "as
I am Of Jim and Roscoe for boys.
She'll make sOme man n mighty mod