The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1922-12-14

S So " W A'N
eyes. Ii did, however, leave certain
lights, but they were such that their
remembrance brought no pleasure t.
Bruce. They were just a wild glare
n 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 a 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 a light in her eyes |!
BY his word, there had been!
She had been angry at him times In
plenty-over some childish game-and
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-
ity-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, ever In those days.
He was fond OF drawing pictures.
This was nothing in itself; many lit
tie boys are fond of drawing pictures.
MOI were his unusually good. Their
Strangeness lay in his subjects. He
liked 10 draw animals in particular
the animals he read about i'm school
and in such books as were brought
10 him. And sometimes he, drew In
dams and cowboys. And one day
when he wasn't half watching What
quite different. %
Perhaps he wouldn't have looked ut
Ii twice, If the teacher hadn't stepped
up behind him and taken ii 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.
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?"
Il 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 II out. pines! Pine trees,
growing on a mountain"
mot bad for a six-year-old boy"
the teacher commented. But where,
Bruce, have. you ever seer 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 after 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
'iu hot hHoW W Nhdt city le 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 mar and
the superintendent Of the Square
house had together on his return.
HE WON'T do" the stranger had
said. II tried him out and he won't
fill in In my family. And I've fetched
him back.
81 believe In being frank, and / 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 IN top of him and was pound
ing him with his fists before we could
pull him of. ] didn't understand 1t
AT ALL"
Nor did the superintendent under
stand; nor IN these later years
Bruce eithe,
He was quite a big boy, nearly ten.
when he finally left the Square house.
And there was nothing Pickering or
llm about the memory Of this occasion
A tall, exceedingly slender man sat
beside the window-a man well
drogSpd luf NTH hard fipao oho,t his