American Fork citizen. [volume] (American Fork, Utah) 1912-1979, 1921-12-24


seldom valued except as comedy; and
even then with no warmth OF heart
for the comedian. hut rather with an
incredulous disdain; so II ls safe to say
that under other circumstances Noble
might have been missing, indeed, and
few Of the Atwaters would have
missed him. but as matters were. they
worried q grent deal about him, fear
ing that rash act on his part might
reflect notoriety on themselves through
their beautiful relntive-and through
the North End Daily Oriolc. And
when nine o'clock came and Mrs. Dill
reported to Herbert's father. over the
telephone, that nothing had yet bssu
heard from her son, the pressure OF
those who we're blaming the Oriolc
more than Julia became % wearing
that Herbert decided he would rather
spend the remaining days Of his me
running AWAY from Waliie Torbin than
put In any more Of such dogs eve
ming rs he was putting in--thus NJ
defined II.
lie made confession: that Is to
say. II was a proclamation. He pro
claimed his innocence. lie began the
history of Il with description or
events distinctly subsequent to the III
tie game with Patty Fairchild, and
explained how he and Henry had felt
that their parents would not always be
with them, and as their parents wished
them To be polite they had resolved
to be polite TO Florence. Proceeding,
he related In detail her journalistic
exploit.
OF the matter In hand he told the
perfect and absolute trutll-and was
Immediately refutcd, confuted ana
demonstrated TO be false witness by
! Aunt Fanny, Aunt Carrie, and Cousin
| virginia, who had all heard him We
hemently declare, no longer ago than
the preceding Sunday. that he and his
! partner had taken secure measures TO
| prevent Florence from ever again set
ting foot within the newspaper build
| ing. In addition he was quite show
cred with definitions and these. though
! ~ variant all sought to phrase but the
/ one subject his conduct In seeking to
drag Florence through the mire, when
she was absent aud could not defend
herself. Poor Florence would answer
later In the evening, he was told, Sc
( vcrely and though her cause was thus
| champoned against the Islander IL IL
! true that some of them felt STRINGS OF
: curiosity In regard to Florence. In
/ fact. there was getting to be something
| like II cloud upon her reputation. There
were several important things for her
To explain; among them, her taking
! II upon herself to see that Noble re-
| ceived copy Of the Ori0le, and also
her sudden departure from home and
rather odd protraction Of absence
was In good company. Uncle Joseph
had telephoned from n suburb that
they were dining at farmhouse anu
would thence descend to the general
region of the movies.
That word of any sort had come
from Uncle Joseph was In measure
reassuring but the air of perturbation
and gloom was not noiiceably re
moved. The general impression might
be summed up In the words Of his
sister.
Nobody knows what that man'll do,
when he decides toy Aunt Carrie
said ncryOusly. Letting the poor
child stay up so late! She ought to
be In bed this minute, even II It Is
Saturday night Or else she ought to
be here to listen to her own bad little
cousin trying to put his terrible re-
sp0nsibillty on her shoulders"
One item of her description OF him
self the badgered Herbert could not
bear In silence, although he had just
declared that since the truth was 50
ill-respected among his prosecutors he
would open his mouth no more until
the next day. He passed over bad
but furlously stated his height In feet,
inches and fractions of inches.
Aunt Fanny shook her head In
mourning. THAT may be, Herbert"
she said gently, But you must try to
realize It can't bring poor young Mr.
Dill back to his family"
Again Herbert Just looked at her
lie had no Indifference more profound
than that upon which her strained
, conception of the relation between
/ cause and effect seemed to touch and
from his point of view. TO be missing
should be the lghtest of calamities
II Is true that he was concerned with
, the restoration of Noble Din to the
!. rest of the Dllls so far as such an
$ event might affect his own incOmpara
o bile misfortunes-but not otherwise
I He regarded Noble and Mobiles disap
y pearance merely as unfair damage Il
= himself. lie continued to look at this
o sorrowlng great'aunt OF his. and hi'
!. thoughts made his strange gaze ap
, pear to her so hardened that she shool
n her head and looked away,
/. "Poor young Mr.. Dill" she said
h IF someone could only have beef
D. | ,,.ith him and liant linking 10 him uU