Evening star., 1938-12-12

shaped face, big end up, usually q
sniff, but in imagination he rode q
magnificent charger or occupied q
powerful car, and his staff and or
derlies and messengers buzzed about
him, and his embattled hosts
stormed the farmhouses and villages
of the landscape and swept over
the hills while his pitiless guns
searched their recesses. The ad-
vance was always victorious, and
with the homecoming came the
triumph.
Usually Hooplady House was in
volved In that. The prisoners stood
before him. That drawing master
a proved traitor, was shot out of
hand. Several Of the upper boys
shared his fate. The rest of the
staff were shot or reproached and
insulted according to the mood of
the day. Sometimes his father and
mother appeared on the scene and
were put under protective detention
Cousin Rachel, the pincher, now in
a greatly chastened mood, submitted
to her fate. Sam and ALI were rarely
given roles.
Carstall Has Role in Phantasy.
But one figure was very frequent
In these dreams. He was sometimes
the second in command, sometimes
the opposite general surrendering
with all the honors of war, sometimes
an ambiguous political associate In
the revolution, or the counter-revolu-
ton. or the war of liberation, or the
great conquest, whichever it hap
pened to be. His admiration for the
generallSslmo was extreme, his
loyalty amounted to devotion. This
was Carstal. MY trusty Carstall.'
Rudie never seemed able to keep
Carstall out of the phantasy. He
never wanted to do so.
He whistled to himself as he took
his imagination on these excursions.
He never learnt to whistle normally
1t was sort of acid piping through
his teeth and 1t lacked any consistent
tune.
And always he got home by twi-
light. For In the dark the kings
and captains departed, the fighting
and the conquests died away, and
the small boy was left exposed to
those bears and tigers and gorillas
which escape so frequently from
menageries even in the most settled
districts, and to criminals and homi-
cidal maniacs and hedge-bogles and
all the shapeless terrors of the night
AS his mind grew and his reading
expanded his reveries became more
realistic and coherent, and darkness
less menacing. He began to study
maps, particularly maps in which
each country and its foreign possess
sions were done in the same color;
he began to collect pictures and
comparative diagrams Of armies and
navies and air forces. He was par
ticularly keen on air warfare. Drop
ping high explosive bombs, together
with printed warnings and procla-
nations, appealed to him as just
the perfect way of making war. He
read the newspapers with an avidity
uncommon at his tender age. He
knew the salutes and symbols Of all
the dictators in the world and the
inner significance Of every colored
shirt. And as he grew up toward
them, these heroes, these masters OF
men who marched like lurid torches
through the blue haze and reek OF
contemporary history, seemed con-
tinually to come down nearer the
level Of his understanding and
sympathy.
So it was our Holy Terror nour-
ished his imagination and antici-
pated his career.
Rud Was Never G0d-FearinE.
His early religious experiences did
not amount to very much and they
played only a small part in his sub
sequent career.
He was never God-fearing.
Nowhere in the world in his days