Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-08-24
Hurrah For the Boy!

The rain was pouring down. 1t had
poured all day. The smooth, paved
street, presenting as it did solid bot.
tom through which no drops could
leak way, was turned into rushing
river. To cross it and keep dry was
impossible.
(, A grating over the top Of the sewer
should have let the water down, but
| it did not. The day before the air had
been full Of beautiful, falling, yellow
: leaves. Today, those same leaves were
anything but lovely. Sodden and
brown, they drifted into piles wher-
ever the currents moved them. The
stream of water swept them sluggisLly
along until they came to the grating.
where they halted. 1t was no wonder
that the water did not drain away
| from the street, for the grating that
| led to the sewer was choked complete
! ly with the masses of wet leaves.
Men came strding along in wet,
Tapping raincoats, looking neither to
the right nor left. They gave log
jump when they reached the street
crossing, and some we're almost fort
innate enough to clear the stream, but
all got their feet wet.
| Men in automobiles skidded through
the water. 1t spiasheT nigh on eacr.
side, reaching above the wheels In a
sheet of spray. Men in buggies and car
riages and delivery wagons drove their
! horses splashing through the ever-in-
creasing stream.
J Business men, college men, teach.
ers and preachers, jumped over the
water, but no one thought Of looking
for remedy. Women and girls. like
ghosts in their monotonous, close
sheathing raincoats, paused before the
stream with little squeals of dismay,
and attempted unsuccessfully to go
arounA 1t. Although they made wide
detours, it is doubtful If any of them
reached the other side without wet
feet.
Then the boy came along whistlins.
| He wasn't more than twelve years old,
and his black raincoat and rain hat
were shining, partly because they were
made Of glossy black rubber and part
ly because they were so very wet. He
stopped when he came upon the run
ming stream at the street crossing, and
looked toward the corner where the
! grated opening into the sewer was
situated The unsightly mass Of SGD.
| den brown leaves came into his vision.
| Apparently, he alone Of all who had
passed took time to think why these
leaves had lodged there.
He waded over to the piled up
mound. He rolled up his sleeve and.
bending over, thrust in his slim young
arm. Such mass of sticky wet
leaves as he brought up! Again he
thrust it in at the farther end Of the
grating Armful after armful Of oh.
struction he brought out from the open.
ing. Before he had finished. the water
+, in the street began to go down. The
next man who passed found the stream
only half as wide as the man before
him had found 1t. Then some ladies'
crossed it without going in over their
rubbers. Soon it all had flowed away.
and the crossing could be made with
comparative ease.
! The boy went whistling on, and
never seemed to know that he had
done fine thing but he had eased the
walking of dozens of people, and had.
perhaps, saved more than one case Of
diphtheria or pneumonia, due to wet
feet. l said to myself from my win
dow chair, where ! watch the passing
at the corner: "Hurrah for the boy!
He was worth more than all the men
who passed at that crossing. He alone
had used his eyes to find reason for
the inconvenience all had suffered.
and put his boyish brain to work to
discover remedy. Hurrah for the
boy"