The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-12-21

strangeness lay in his subjects. He
liked to draw animals in particular
the animals he read about in school
and in such books a. we're brought
10 him. And sometimes he drew IN
dams and cowboys. And one day
when he wasn't half watching what
he was doing-he drew something
quite different.
Perhaps he wouldn't have looked at
1t twice, If the teacher hadn't stepped
up behind lin and taken it out of his
hands. 1t was geography then, not
drawing" and he should have been
"paying attention" And he had every
reason to think that the teacher would
crumple up his picture and send him
to the cloak-room for punishment.
Bnt she did no such thing. When
her eyes glanced down, her fingers
slowly Strengthened. Then she looked
again-carefully.
What Is this, Bruce?' she asked.
What have you been drawing?'
Il don't know" the child an
swered. lie looked and for an instant
let his thoughts 90 wandering here
and there. Those are trees" he
said A word caught at his throat and
he blurted 1t out. pines Pine trees,
growing on a mountain"
mot bad for Il six-year-old boy"
the teacher commented. But where.
RpJIan haN.a Nnn n,or y,np - hand
Of such pines?" But Bruce did not
know.
Another puzzling adventure that
stuck in Bruce's memory had happened
only a few months after his arrival
at the Square house, when a mar had
taken him home IN trial with the idea
Of adoption.
All the incidents and details Of the
excursion with this prospective parent
were eXtsemely dim and vague. He
did not know to what city he went,
nor had he any recollection whatever
Of the people he met there. But he did
remember, with remarkable clearness,
the perpleXing talk that the man and
the superintendent of the Square
house had together IN his return.
He won't do" the stranger had
said. 81 tried him out and he won't
fill in in my family. And I've fetched
him back.
81 believe in being frank, and I tell
you there's something vicious in that
boys nature. II came out the very
first moment he was in the house,
when the Missus was introducing him
to my eight-year-old SON.. This is lit
tie Turner she said-and this boy
sprang right at him. I'd never let
little Turner learn TO fight, and this
boy was on top of him and was pound
ing him with his fists before we could
pull him off. l didn't understand it
at ALL"
Nor did the superintendent under
norm these later years
Bruce either.
He was quite a big boy, nearly ten.
when he finally left the Square house.
And there was nothing dickering or
dim about the memory of this occasion.
A tall, exceedingly slender man sat
the window-a man well
dressed but with hard lines about his
mouth and hard eyes. Yet the superin-
tendent seemed particularly anxious
to please him. you will like this
fellow" he said, as Bruce was
ushered in.
The mans eyes travelled slowly from
the child's curly head TO his rapidly
growing feet; but no gleam of inter
est came into the thin face. II sup
pose he'll do-as good as any. 1t vas
the wife's idea, anyway, you know.
What about parentage? Anything de-
cent at all?"
The superintendent seemed to wait
a long time before answering. Little
Bruce, already full of secret %conjec-
lures as to his WI parentage, thought
that some key might be given him at
last. There is nothing that we can
tell you, Mr.. Duncan" he said at
last. "A brought him here
with an infant girl-when he was
about four. l suppose she was his
mOtner-anu Sne ulunt walt TO talk
to me. The nurse said that she wore
outlandish clothes and had plainly had
u hard time"
"But she didn't walt"
"She dropped her children and fed"
A cold little smile ficKered at the
mans lips. ut looks rather dam
nable." he said significantly. But I'll
take the little beggar. anyway"
And thus Bruce went to the cold
fireside Of the Duncans-a house I'm
a great and distant city where, in the
years that had passed. many things
scarcely worth remembering had tran
spired. 1t was a gentleman's house.
as far IS the meaning Of the word
usually goes-and Bruce had been at
forded a gentleman's education. There
was also. for a while. a certain amount
OF rather doubtful prosperity. n wom-
m who died after n rev months Of
rnsual interest H. him. md manv
many hours Of almost overwhelming