The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-12-03
CHAPTER xxxIv

CuhE1 1EakS AAAlV
 NEXT door to the -and-stone 1N chalet where Teckla and her father lived all year round, was the Virginia mansion of President Bull, where Dr. Planish was stay- ing.
 It was the morning of Presenta- tion Day, and T. Austin Bull and he were already in doctoral robes, very gloomy and priestly and proper. But a catastrophe threw down all this majesty.
 The small cat of the youngest Bull granddaughter scrambled up tree, and was too scared to come down. There was domestic fur ry. The President, with his robe Tapping, tried with a bamboo fish, ing pole tg guide the kitten out on branch that hung low. The four grandchildren capered round and round the tree, screaming; the Pres ident's two daughters, and Teckla Schaun, from next door, stood watching, comfortable and amused, while Mrs. Bull leaned from one upstairs window, and the young col- ored maid from another, ironically cheering.
 Suddenly pr. Planish was home sick for precisely the place where he was suddenly it was unen- durable to think of going back to the city that was an hourly futility and a yearly defeat.
 There loomed up farmer neighbor, bearing a lofty ladder and bawling, You boys got great minds but no sense. It's a good thing I never went to college. Now let real man get at that cat!''
 You're right" agreed the two doctors, as the farmer began to climb, the kitten to swear, and the children to sing, "At that cat that fat cat - catch that catl"
 Then Teckla said to young Gideon, "Now you're happy. It's the first time here that I've seen you relaxed. But I think your heart is still in our backwoods."
 
 LIE wanted to discard all of his II careful Presentation Day speech. He had seen the men stu dents in uniform, he had seen the girl students on the campus, Smok- ing cigarettes, their legs bare with little rolled socks, and he felt that if this academic shrine was less decorous than in his day, it was shockingly more sensible.
 He did not feel altogether safe in intoning to this audience, this sharp-eyed gang of intellectual pirates, that they ought to look into something new called Democ- racy. All through his oration he heard, like a ringing in the ears, his own doubt, Maybe I ought to be asking these young people about freedom and courage, not telling them"
 He did not recover his front till, at evening at the Presidents home, he was surrounded by his old acquaintances, asking him respect fully - pretty respectfully - about the private scandals and phobias of the Great Leaders: Governor ol4AAdl0 d II OClldtOn obAeAOuA~ and Milo Samphire and, always, the dazzle-sounding, radiogenic Winifred Marduc Homeward.
 "All noble souls, yet often I feel as if I wanted to give them all up and be back in this peaceful world of scholarship" he sighed.
 That's because you've been away a long time. You forget how many fakers we put out, in our modest way" said old Eakins, pro- lessor emeritus.
 Dr. Planish was not even sure that Eakins was impressed by his inside news about what the British Army was planning in the way of future aircraft. Some of these old devils out here are horribly on. They do read, and they know Europe which is more than do!' he wor- ried.
 He noted that since his time here, the Doctoring and Profes- soring of the faculty members had