Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1919-10-10
CHAPTER III.

Until he reached the age Of twelve
Georges education was a domestic
process; tutors came to the house,
and those citizens who yearned for his
taking down often said: "Just wait till
he has to go TO public school; then
he'll get 1T !" But at twelve George
was sent to private school in the
town, and there came from this small
and Independent Institution no report,
or even rumor of Georges getting
anything that he was thought to de-
serve; therefore the yearning still per-
sisted, though growing gaunt with
feeding upon itself.
The yearners were still yearning
when George at sixteen was sent
away to great prep school,"
"Now," they said brightly, "he'll get
1T! He'll find himself among boys just
a5 important in their home town as he
is, and they'll knock the stuffing out
of him when he puts on his airs with
theml Oh, but that would be worth
something to seer They were mis-
taken, it appeared, for when George
returned few months later he still
seemed to have the same stuffing. He
had been deported by the authorities,
the offense being stated as ''insolence
and profanity; )" in fact, he had given
the principal of the school instruc-
tons almost identical with those for
merly objected to by the Rev. Malloch
Smith.
But he had not got his come-upance,
and those who counted upon 1t were
embittered by his appearance upon
the downtown streets driving a dog
cart at criminal speed, making pc
destrians retreat from the crossings,
and behaving himself as If he "owned
the EARTH"
When Mr.. George Anderson Nina
fer came home for the holidays at
Christmastide in his sophomore year,
probably no great change had taken
place inside him. but his exterior was
visibiy altered. Nothing about him
encouraged any hope that he had re-
ceived his come-upance; on the con-
trary, the yearners for that stroke of
justice must yearn even more itch
ingly: the gilded youths manner had
become polite, but his politeness was
Of kind which democratic people
found hard to bear.
Cards were out for a ball in his
honor, and this pageant of the ten
antry was held In the ballroom of the
ANDERSON mansion the night after his
arrival. 1t was, as Mrs. Henry Frank
lin Foster said of Isabel's wedding, ga
big Amberson-style thing" All "old
citizens recognized as gentry received
cards, and of course so did their dane
ing descendants.
The orchestra and the caterer were
brought from away, in the ANDERSON
manner, though this was really a ges.
ture-perhaps one more of habit than
of Ostentation--for servitors of gayety
as proficient as these importations
were nowadays to be found in the
| town. 1t was the last of the great
long-remembered dances that "every
body talked about"-there were get
ting to be so many people in town that
no later than the next year there were
too many for everybody" to hear OF
even such ball as the Ambersons.
George, white-gloved. with a garde
MIA in his buttonhole, stood with his
mother and the Major, EMPOWERED In
the big red-and-gold drawing room
downstairs, to receive" the guests
and, standing thus together. the trio
offered picturesque example of goot
looks persistent through three gene
rations. The Major, his daughter ans
his grandson we're of type all Am
berson: tall, straight and regular, will
dark eyes, short noses. good chins
and the grandfather's expression, n,
less than the grandson's, was one o
family amused condescension. Their
was difference however. The grand
sons unlined young face had nothing
to offer except this condensation
the grandfathers had other things t
say. 1t was q handsome. worldly oil,