American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1922-08-17

NA@%N' hilu OMDONS AHh OhG huN-
when he wasn't half watching what
he was doing-he drew something
quite different.
Perhaps he wouldn't have looked nj
it twice, if the teacher hadn't stepped
up behind him and taken it out of his
hands. 1t was geography" then. n o
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.
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 drawing?"
II don't know" the child an
swered. He looked and for an instant
let his thoughts go wandering here
and there. "Those IRE trees" he
said. A word caught at his throat and
he blurted it out. "Pines! Pine trees,
growing on a mountain"
Not bad for a six-year-old boy"
the teacher commented. "But where,
Bruce, have you ever seen or heard
Of such pines?" But Bruce did not
know.
Another puzzling adventure that
stuck in Bruce's memory had happened
only a few months afte" his arrival
at the Square house, when a man had
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 mel there. But he did
remember, with remarkable ~clearness,
the p%erplexing talk that the man and
the superintendent of the Square
house had together on 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. 1t came out the very
first moment he was in the house,
when the Mlssus was Introducing him
to my eight-year-old son. This is lit
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 il
at all"
Nor did the superintendent under
stand; 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 Pickering o.
dim about the memory of this occasion
A tan, exceedingly slender man sa
beside the window-a man wei
dressed but with hard lines about hi
mouth and hard eyes, Yet the superin
tendent seemed particularly anxiou
to please him. "You will like thi
sturdy fellow" he said, az Bruce wa
ushered in.
The mans eyes travelled slowly froI
the child's curly head to his rapid
growing feet; but no CLEAN of inter
est came into the thin face. 81 SUI
pose he'll do-as good as any. 1t wa
the wife's idea, anyway, you know
What about parentage? Anything d.
cent al all?'
The superintendent seemed to wal
a long time before answering. Littl
Bruce, already full of secret COME,
lures as to his own %parentage, though
: that some key might be given him q
: last. "There is nothing that we ca
/ tell you, Mr.. Duncan" he said a
last. "a woman brought him here
. with an infant girl-when he wa
=, about four. l suppose she was hi
t mother-and she didn't wait to tai
to me. The nurse said that she wOr
outlandish clothes and had plainly ha
, a hard time
| But she didn't wait-T
6. "She dropped her children and fed
A cold little smile flickered at tn
mans lips. at looks rather dan