Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1922-01-01
Copyrtsht by the Drvin-hdnir Company.
tAll Rights Rcserved.)
CHAPTER l.
NFNTICh u.
Great Discoveries.

= TICHOLAS BARTON was born
M with queer temperament.
He was one of those who
think n great deal, but say very
thing, perhaps. OF a poet. At least
beneath all his quietude and &c.
serve there was great well Of
emotion, with deep waters, which
threatened 10 rise and overwhelm
him when they were stirred by
kindness or unkindness, by queer,
unexpected beauties OF sound or
color or scent, or by some keen,
sharp touch from one Of those mys.
ferrous fingers of fate which some
times come out Of the darkness TO
pluck at human heart strings.
lie was conscious of great mys.
teries about him. Sometimes he
walked little way toward them,
with peering eyes, with n wild beat
ing Of the heart, with an adven-
turouS fear. like primitive Great
ure in great forest Then. panic
stricken, he would hurry back 10
his familiar work, saying nothing
OF his venture, or of the things lie
had seen
He was very watchful, and. as Il
were, always on his guard. as
though encompassed by hidden
perils. Because i; seemed to him
that ut any moment the vast pow
ers about him might change the
familiar into the unfamiliar, the
known into the unknown. And it
was OF the unknown that he was
afraid, though he was tempted 10
explore 1t.
Yet he was not a coward. nor
weak-willed. nor Of morrill, moods
There were times when he showed
extraordinary courage, facing great
dangers with quiet and noble
resolution. His strength Of will
amounted at times to stubborn
obs,inacy when not all the great
powers about him, not Bristles nor
Beauty nor Polly-not even the
Beast-could make him bulge an
inch IL he did not want to bulge.
AS for being morbid. think
Nicholas Barton's history will provo
the falsity of such charge.
He was dreamer, and he liked
loneliness. and lie INDUCED in
queer. fantastic, and. sometimes
preposterous imaginations, but
his dreams were such as como
to people who are sensitive to
the beauty and wonder of life,
and in his loneliness he was
cheerful. and busy with brain and
hands. His chief desire was 10 get
at the truth of things, that kept him
busy. Because In spite OF his in.
sat!able curiosity, his intense in.
quisitiveness. his probings and
searchings, the truth of things wpa
always difficult 10 grasp. Truth
was always playing a game Of hide
and.seek, like God, like the squirrel
(whom he loved better than Cod.
like Bristles when he said, Lets
he bears !"-and disappeared under
the table cloth.
Yet 1t was this desire for truth.
the big. eternal queries in his eyes.
which gave to Nicholas Barton his
pcculia. power and made people 4
little frightened Of him. Even be-
fore he had uttered his first word
in the world. when he lay dumb
and watchful in a wheeled carriage,
Bristles had been scared by his
sons eyes.
Gle seems to look into ones
bones" said Dristles. IL believe he
knows what an awful rottcr I am"
ale frightens mo sometimes with
the enormous gravity in those blue
eyes, OF his" said Beauty. 81 am
sure he knows when lose my
temper with YOU"
you shouldn't lose your temper
with me-" said Bristles. You know
how much ! love YOU"
THAT Is why said Beauty. IA
You had little hit of the bully In
you should be as meek as lamb.
think every woman should marry
a bully"
"Hush!" said Bristles. 1.-The kid
Is listening"
"How absurd OF you! Az If he
could understand" said Beauty.
And yet she had quaint idea
that Nicholas Barton. her son, had
listened and understood For his
blue eyes were fixed upon her with
his great desire for truth. He had
that grave stare. before which n few
years later IN his life. his mother
dropped her eyelashes so as TO hide
her soul.
That was when he was eight
years old, and after tho Beast had
come.
During those eight years OF life
he had been making many strange
discoveries about the world IN which
he lived. He discovered that he
was not the only kid in the world,
hut that there were thousands OF
kids, each OF them belonging TO a
Bristles and q Beauty, and living in
the square holes bshind the big
walls which hid them from him
after they had run away from the
shadows which crept across the
grass and stole down from the tree.
trunks and whispered together in
dark corners. Just about the time
when the lamps became alive. That
discovery came TO him gradually.
ii must have been when he was
four years old that the tremendous
fact Of other Kids. more than ever
be could count by using his ten
fingers over and over again, burst
upon him like a thunder clap 1t
made him feel rather miserable nj
first, because, as he told Polly, It
made him feel frightfully little. OF
course Polly could not understand
she never could--and he did not
take the trouhle IN expIaip "a TO-