The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 8, 1906, Page 8

CALL. THE SAN FRANCISCO ' SUNDAY him. Half of his e were o children = 5-,* 4 & iroom to see their L B J not to be found on a load of w | ¥ = looked ing between the r: ¥ | 47 ied their the v had fall s d had re- hysteria of fri of a fresh lac > the wheat b % an 3 / : S for ail he or his may ve floated to the e wagon b ment later. in a furnished only a subcor wildly at 1l heart, took his 13-year-old son a and spanked him in a stasy; spanked him mer heaven peace glorified ; spanked him, ca: times the little body voice howled and ed his big. bony An hour later Jimmy S the dirt from the in ular circumference t fre the and his chin and hi g s twilight fell he stay in the conning : tower in the Pe on barn and watch- a crack w ed his home thro two boards. Wt leave the house for tow Jimmy- hurried down a 1 his fz At the close of twilight came up the hard-beaten Is home, through burde he sa r knew. her, yet out of his father's reach Jimmy path Sears that led & and ers. Thete was the and through th window he could see Mrs. Jones moving about. He at the supper dishes were y. He saw his eldest sis- tea towel in her with Mrs. Jones. with rage. He feit en had deserted him war again ft him to fight un tle brother, who manded t asking for vou all if 1 R ' The insult ace dental. Jimmy suppos ra “ | tes of food on the tabi 5 sneering bumptiou a7anable resources. in payment for the as he dived inte ea $ wrong he had done. Onmly the heel of his is sister's “Why, Jimm e left foot touched the ground, and he warning frowns did net cha progressed slowly. So the ifternoon was Mrs. Jones went to fhe front . f | old when he turned the corner and diplomatically leaving all the de 5 . dged Into Baker's store. The speech hehind her, that Mrps, Sears might ¥ " s daye the he was going to make Jimmy had recited her son’s voice. In i moment the - to himself over and over. He intended to caught the faint 1 of walk up to the counter and say, “I want to pay for that chicken I took, Mr, Ba- Kker.” Jimmy harbored a hope that the grocer, called his name pitying the poor, lame boy, would call smered. When sh ? him back and cancel the debt, and per he filled his mout % haps give Him a stick of licorice. Jimmy “I'm a-eatin’. now.” Hs - 2 eedd knew his part by heart. He of ice down the back of b E there would be no halt or break ter, who sat near him. When she wept dialogue. But the demon that was tor- noisily he laughed under his breath and turing his destiny that day probably chuckled as Jimmy crossed the grocery store threshold. The boy that the grocer saw when he looked up from the pickle barrel certain- 1y had a badly freckled face; the grocer thought the boy had bold, mean eves. The vouthful jaw set firmly, and the pain in his foot engraved ugly lines in his 2 The button was off one wristband. A long tear down the lower part of his rs leg revealed a glimpse of brown tanned skin. He was not a boy who looked like a creature of dreams and of a high resolve. No boy who amounts to rouch ever does look the part, as the ac- tors say. So when J v Sears—ragged and brazen—stood before the wronged chicken owner, rage flooded the man's bosom. He rushed around the gounter end, mumbling at the boy. The instinct of fear crowded all the fine speeches out spoke aloud to his sister at the dishpan: “What'd you want to take Annie’s doll away from her for? Give it back, why don’t you?” “Why—Jimmy—Sears!"” Then, lifting her voice: “Mamma, Jim- my's put ice down—" But the lad pressed the ice against the child's back. pretend- ing to remove the source of the trouble, and the child’s lusty howls drowned the girl's protest. When he heard the bed- room door close to shield his mother from the turmoll, Jimmy knew that he had outwitted Mrs. Jones, so he quelled the disturbance he had caused. When Mrx Jones returned to the kitchen the boy was sitting on the porch steps with his little sister, telling her about Raw-hesd and Bloody-bones, greatly to the child's horror and delight. Jimmy heard his elder sister inquire, “Did mamma eat her supper?” He heard retorted the girl. < adm o,f IJlmTw h;flfl- He l";“k;“_‘n":‘; :1_3;’: Mrs. Jones respond, “Not very much ef claimed, as he saw the groce it; but she will afte il ess. hutter paddle: “Dern you, don't you &% after. & whitl: ¥ o She said to leave it in there.” ' ¢ M leglons was not so proud. But there the louch me; I'll pay for your old chicken.' “louign’t she eat any of that niee spirit swooped low upon him—the Watch out no . 2 chicken Mrs. Pennington sent?’” : 4 of destruction that always follows TWO scale weights slipped involuntarlly "o nor Mrs. Carpenter's lemon folly.” T Jimmy tripped, and into Jimmy's hands, and he backed from .p,or mamma,” sighed the girl J the counter to the sidewalk. His hands el - e But Jimmy had other minutes later he walked past his moth- er's open door, and fumbled around in the sitting-room. the chicken, the hat, the bow and and the boy all parted company Then Jimmy felt a pain—a sharp pain that he recognized too well. He feared to were uplifted as if to throw the weights. The grocer had not come up to the boy, whio shouted in a burst of fear and anger: “I'll pay for your chicken, I say. Now ) he b re of the extent of his injury, In- 3 “Is that you, Jimmy?" asked hts tw knowledge told him he had Yyou keep away from o Py mother. tumped” his toe. The grocer hesitated. dismayed for & “..yegm rejoined the boy. 1 second time by the threatening weights in the boy’s hand. But pride urged the man on. He stepped up quickly, and planted a’ smarting blow on Jimmy's leg. It was well for the grocer that he ducked his head; for when the paddle struck the boy did not flinch, but let drive one weight after another, and cried before each crash of glass tuat the flying irons made inside the stors, “Yes, you will!” The pain in his foot began to throb as he zathered up his chicken and weapons. He walked for a few moments without Jooking at the wound. He felt the oozing blood, and he bent his body and went along, grunting at every step. Finally, coming into a flood of sunlight on the path, he sat on a log and slowly lifted up. his foot, twisting his face into an What are you doing? Lookin’ for my other coat.™ “Won't you come in and see me, Jim- ? 1 haven’t seen you for two -whole “In a minute,” returned Jimmy. Standing awkwardly ip the doorway, he asked, “What 4" you want?’ “Come over here, Jimmy,” returned the Sl roox cerar agonized knot. DOTNDI NG Srenrs that the baby would take all the care due to his toddling the elevation of the and the little one s been cut in a cowardly mauner while she seemed deliberately A lump of pity filled his throat for the Stlll, in his heart, he forgave his in the duplicity. He saw, from ock on which he that her throat had mother for- her part These refiections kept Jimmy quiet for ten minutes. the end thereof a calamitous fate took him up and mad edy is the everlasting p him its toy. g up of litt could not know that an evil destiny had come to guide his steps when he started downward, for it To meet “Piggy” Pen- “Bud” Perkins and Carpenter coming out of the Pennington yard was not such a dreadful thing. Jim- my had met them a score of times before at that particular gate, with no serious It was not in the least He assured sat on the hay that came so gently. nington and *that old thing.” whes M:s. Jones bad mar- consequences. ominous that the four boys started for the Creek of the Willows, for Jimmy had gone to the creek times without num- ber in that very company. It did not augur evil for Jimmy Sears that the lot feli to him to go forth and forage a chicken for the great corn feast of the Black Feet—a savage tribe of four war- riors among whom Jimmy was known as the “Bald Eagle.” Perhaps there were sigs and warnings in all these things: but it is only necessary to know that when Jimmy Sears stooped to pick up his nail-pointed arrow, lying beside a stunned puilet, he heard the sharp nasal “sping” of a rock whirring near his head. Chick- en and bow and arrow in hand, he began to run, not looking back. “Here, here, Jimmy Sears, hold on there!” cried a voice. Jimmy knew the volce. It ‘and the chicken belonged to the same person. So Jimmy quickened his speed. He heard the clattering thump of pursuing feet It was 200 yards to the end of the cob-strewn @ow lot. Phe boy fixed his cour: toward the lowost lengia of fence. Then he kept his eves upon the ground. He clinched his teeth, and skimnied over the earth. The feathers in his hat—stuck there to satisfy the veri- tics of his assumed Indian-.character— caught the breeze; so. rather than lose his hat, he grabbed it in the hand that held the chicken. He cleared the fence and plunged into the timber. Tooking over his shoulder he saw a man's form on the =ence: the thud of boots on the sod and the crash of branches behind him sent terror through the boy’s frame, and he turned toward the creek that flowed slug- glshly near by. He took great bounding strides, throwing his head from side to side ag he ran. The boy knew the path. It led to a rickety fence—a cattle-guard that crossed the river. - The boy was sure that no man would dare to follow him, even If the fence would hold a man’s weight. He had scur- ried up the bank before his pursuer had reached the side Jimmy had leaped from so lightly. He scooted through the un- derbrush. Again and again did the ‘champeen fence-walker” smile to him- self as he slackened his pace to dodge a volley of rocks, and again and again did James Sears—an exemplary youth for the most part, who knew his ten command- ments by heart—lock exultingly at his pullet. . He gloried in his iniquity. Len- tulus returning to Capua with victorious He peeked at his toe, at first stealthily; then, little by little tak- ing away his nursing hand, he gazed fixedly at the wound. In the meantime the chicken, which had been lying behind him under the log, had regained its senses, squawked hoarse- ly twice, and walked Into the bushes. ‘When Jimmy's mind turned to his prize the prize was gone. He had been in the depths as he sat on the log. But the loss of the pullet brought with it a still fur- ther depression, and Jimmy forgot all about his Impersonation of the wald Eugle.” He lost his conceit in the red ocher stripes on his face and the irides- cent feathers in his hat and the blue- black mud on his nimble feet. For a few moments he was just a sad-eyed boy who saw the hand of the whole world rajsed against him. His stubbed toe was hurting: him, 2nd the murmur of a ripple in the stream a few rods below the cattle guard called to him enticingly. As soon as the boy deemed it safe to venture out of the thicket, he hobbled down to the water's edge and sat for a long time in the shade, with the cooling water laving his bruised feet. He knew that the other boys would miss him, but he did not care. He was enjoying the gloom that was settling down upon him. Slowly and by almost Imperceptible de- grees there rose in his conscience a sense of guilt. For another hour he wrestled with a persistent devil that was tempting him to strangle his scruples; he won. Jimmy Sears had seventeen cents in his castiron bank at home—the result of a year's careful saving. He crossed the creek and trudged back to town, and fancied that he was walking in a sancti- fled road; for he was full of the resolve to/ go stralght to the store of the grocer who owned the chicken and offer all his and again, “Yes, you wul!” He forgot the ache in his cramped heel and the burning in his bruised toe as he ran to the middlé of the street. “You old coward, why don’t you plck on some one your size?” The tears were rising to his eyes; he had to run to escape from the tide. Just as he turned he caught a glimpse of his father joining the gathering crowd. After that his feet grew wings. A freight train stood on the track in front of the boy, a quarter of a mile away. A mad impulse came to him as he ran, and he yielded to it. He clambered breathlessly into a coal car and snuggled down into a corner inside a little strip of shade, and panted like a hunted rabbit. A sickening paim throb- bed up from his toe. The train moved slowly at first, and Jimmy knew that he could not hide from the train men in a coal car. He had a vague idea that midway of the traln, between two box cars, would be a safe place. When the train began to in- crease its speed Jimmy climbed up the side of a cattle car and ran along the roof. He Wad gone three car lengths and was about to make his third jump. w8 he saw the angry face of his father. appeared on the depot platform just posite to him. Instinctively the boy W& ed to the other side of the car roof, and his jump fell short. The father saw his son’s head go down, and for an awful minute Henry Sears heard the lumber- ing train rumble by. In the first second of that minute the frantic man listened for a scream. He heard none. Thea slowly he sank upon a bagsage truck. He was helpless. The paralysis of horror was upon him. Car after car jolted along. At last the yellow caboose nuhe? by\ v mother. “My poor, neglected boy.” He would not let his eyes find the new baby. He stood stiffly on one foot, and gave his mother his hand. She drew hi down and kissed his cheek, while he pect ed at her lips. As Jimmy rose his mother smiled. “Are you hungry, Jimn The boy nodded a voc tive. Being a bey, one o ders of human creature erous a the lowest ¢ in point o mother understood the rankl heart. . Nor could he kept the supper dal ings. “Won't you have some of my supper”” “Don’t you want §t?" returned the be to justify his greed. “ivo, Jimmy, I'm not hungry. all for you." While her son sat on the floor, eating of the tray on the chair By the bed. his mother’'s hand was in hig halr, stroking it lovingly. His sister and the other chil- dren looked in and saw him. Jimmy knew they were whispering “Hoggy!" but he did not heed them: As his stomach filled. flowed. a common colne 1 kept his heart over jence even with older and better b an Jimmy, and the tears came to b es. At last. when the plate was cl he rose and went to the place where the newcomer lay. He bent over the little puff in the bed- clothes and grinued sheepisily as he lift- ed the cover from the sleeping baby's face. He looked at the red features a moment curiously, and sald in his loud, husky, boyish voice: ‘Hullo, there, Miss Sears; how are you this evenin'? Then he pinched his mother's arm and walked out of the room, his soul at peace. (Copyright by the S. S. McClure Co.)