Williams news., 1922-10-20

eyes. It did, however, leave certain lights, but they were such that their remembrance brought no pleasure to Bruce They were just a wild glare, a fixed, strange brightness as of great fear or insanity.
 The Woman had kissed him and gone quickly; and he had been too young to remember If she had carried any sort of bundle close to her breast. Yet, the man considered. there must have been such bundle-Otherwise he couldn't possibly account for Linda. And there were no doubts about her, at all.
 Of course he had no memories of her that first day, nor for the first years. But all later memories Of the Square house always included her. She must have been nearly four years younger than himself; thus when he was taken to the house she was only an infant But thereafter, the nurses put them together often; and when Linda was able to talk, she called him something that sounded like Bwova- boo She called him that so often that for a long time he couldn't be sure that wasn't his real name. Now, In manhood. he interpreted.
 Brother Bruce, of course. Linda was of course a sister"
 Linda had been homely; even a small boy could notice that. Besides, Linda was nearly six when Bruce had left for good and he was then at an age in which impressions begin to be lasting Her hair was quite blond then, and her features rather irregular. But there had been Hghtin her eyes By his word, there had beenl
 She had been angry at him times in lx,l~ I he remembered how that light had grown and frightened. She had flung at him too. He laughed at the memory of her sudden, explosive feroc- fty-the way her hands had smacked against his cheeks, and her sharp little nails had scratched him Little Spit fire" he sometimes called her; but no one else could call her anything but Linda. For Bruce had been an | able little fighter, even in those days. He was fond of drawing pictures This was nothing in itself; many lit tie boys are fond of drawing pictures. | Nor were his unusually good. Their | strangeness lay in his subjects He | liked to draw animals in particular l the animals he read about in school | and in such books as were brought | to him. And sometimes he drew 1n-
  | when he wasn't half watching what he was doing-he drew something l quite different.
 Perhaps he wouldn't have looked at | it twice, If the teacher hadn't stepped | up behind him and taken it out of his hands. It was geography" then, not l drawing" and he should have been 1 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 But 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 drawihg7"
 TT don't know" the child an- swered. He looked and for an instant let his thoughts go wandering here | and there Those are trees," he said. A word caught at his throat and he blurted it out "Pines Pine trees, growing on a mountain"
 "Not bad for9a six-year-old boy. the teacher commented. "But where Bruce, have you ever seen or heard of such pfnesT' But Bruce did not know.
 Another puzzling adventure that l stuck Bruce $ "oUuOTy ItppChCO only a few months after his arrival at the Square house, when a man hat taken him home on trial with the idea of adoption
 All the incidents and details of the excursion with this prospective parent were extremely 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 d1C
 remember with remarkable clearneSS
 the perplexfng talk that the man ano
 the superintendent of the Square
 house had together on his return.
 "He won't do," the stranger ha6
 said II tried him out and he wont
 fill in in my family. And I've fetched
 him back.
 'I believe in being frank, and tel you there's something vicious in tha
 boys nature. It came out the ver1
 first moment he was in the house
 when the Missus was introducing hin 1, to my eight-year-old son. This is lit
 tie Turner she said-and this bo, sprang right at him. I'd never Ie little Turner learn to fight, and thi
 boy was on top of him and was pound ing him with his fists before we could pull him off I didn't understand at all.''
 Nor did the superintendent under 7 stand; nor-in these later years , Bruce either
 He was quite a big boy, nearly ten , | xx,bap he finally left the Square house