Show HOW FRENCHY TESTED < THE ROCKING ROCK By CHARLES BATTELL LOOMIS Youve all heard of the rocking stones of New England stones so exquisitely ex-quisitely poised that although they weigh tons they can be rocked by a child They have stood for ages but here I am giving you useful information informa-tion and Im sure thats not what you want But I had to say that much in order that you would understand what follows There is one of these rocking stones a Harwinfleld in Connecticut It is r fifty feet high and fifteen feet thick and it rocks so easily that it would bean be-an excellent place on which to put a baby to sleep were It not for the fact that few mothers could reach the to with their babies in their arms I is s smooth and steep that not many boys have been able to climb i a far back a the memory of mangoes man-goes I you happen to know anyone in Harwinfleld you can substantiate what I a going t tell you I has always been said by the local country folk that if a bov could reach the too turn around three times and then Jump to the ground clearing the stone in his descent he would b able to double money or anything else he could pickup pick-up You may imagine that just as in the vicinity of Captain KIdds buried treasures ures boys are forever digging s there had always been Harwinfleld boys whQ were crazy to reach the top of RockIng Rock-Ing Rock turn three times and Jump And then the riches of the world would be theirs But the rock wa as slippery a ice on the top and there was barely room for a small foot so while everY few years a boy would be found able to reach the apex he could do no more than slide off again and land with more or less bruises on the other side But oh Angevlne was a venturesome venture-some as any boy that ever lived and he had a good deal of the Rocky Mountain Moun-tain coat In his makeup He was a i French Canadian who had come with his father and ten brothers and sisters old to Harwinfield when he was two years oldFrom From his babyhood he had heard of the legend connected with the rock and h i early determined to reach the top and spin around three times As for the jump Well he would think about that when he got up I might not be necessary John was ten years old when he first reached the top of the rck The other boys cheered him until he tried to standup stand-up and failed and then they Jeered I Boys are not unlike their fathers In some things John slid down and landed in a heap on a pile of hay at the foot of the rock but he was not daunted He practiced prac-ticed standing on one foot on a fencepost fence-post until he was able to balance himself him-self on a crowbar stuck in the ground and then he tried the rock again I had been noised around about that he was going to try It and every boy In Harwinfleld and a few from East Canaan were on hand to see how it would turn out I was on a Saturday I afternoon just before haying time Are you gon to try the jump asked his particular friend Con Staggers Stag-gers gersTell you when I get up said John Then he rubbed chalk on his shoes as hed seen acrobats do in the circus and began the climb Up he went almost al-most a easily as a fly would have done it and insideof a minute he had reached the top He slowly raised himself him-self to a standing position on one foot Then he began to turn Bully boy John Goo boy Keep It up Youll do it Frenchy Once twice thrice he went around Now jump said Cn but at this point Johns nerve forsook him He knew that to Jump and clear the rock meant n passage of over fifty feet in the air with the probability of a broken Ie at the end He was not quite old enough to love money enough to give a leg for it S he slid down the rock in timehonored fashion and landed in the hay Why didnt ye do it John asked I I Con almost in tears Mebbe you have the power anyway any-way drawled Hank Vinton John took 3 2cont niece out of his pocket Md rubbed It between thumb and forefinger andIn a twinkling he had two of the oldfashioned coins Well you dont know what fun Is u you werent there I was because I was a boy then and I lived there and I a one of the frt to get my pennies changed Into as many more We didnt stop until our pockets were bulging with pennies that seemed unheard un-heard of wealth to us whose fathers were hardworking farmers to whom a quarter of a dollar represented more than 10 does to folks nowadays I had to go home at 4 oclock so I didnt haven have-n chance to spend mine but most of the other boys went to Hiram Haydens store and called for Jackson balls aind Union balls and Haggis chewing UIon bals Halgls gum and Imitation tobacco made of slippery elm and licorice r Old man Hayden was astonished at the orders and like the ban In Simple Simon he said Show me first your uennv And then came an awful disillusion izing Every penny beyond the ones that the boy ha had originally was bad You never saw such a mad lot of fellows in your life Con Staggers told me about It The would have thrashed John unmercifully I Hiram hadnt interfered He was quite an old man and when he heard the bovs storv he said that it was all because John hffdnt Jumped Yeve got the paower to double things but ye haint got the paower to make em good And It was s John could make two of any one thing but he couldnt get g the good out of the new thing Of course it was lots of fun for us all hut i was exasperating too For Instance hed pick a nice red strawberry apple oft a tree and turn it Into tw but the second wouldnt be good to eat Itwould look like an apple and feel like an apple and heft like an apple but it was no good Well we boys never got through pestering him to try it again and do the Jump I he broke a leg as Bradford Williams reminded him it wouldnt b any of our legs and will you believe It Just after haying was over he finally consented We1 all went out to the wintergreen lo where Rocking Rock stands and we put a Roklns down all around It to break his fall John chalked his I I t t c i iti ½ 4 V Pt ij4 1 wk th1t i4r ry Y21 1 N Lt5li4c A ZF JUMPED shoes and climbed the rock as before Then he rose to his feet quickly and nervously and spun around once twice Then whether he lost his head or not he fort to go around the third time but jumped I was his arm that was broken He bore the pain like a little hero We forgot all about the power and Con and I and Zack Lummls carried him over to Widow Leonards On the way there he said I guessouchI g the power this time Give us ar ouch penny to try it on I gave him a cent and he tried to double it but it still remained a cent Hed lost the power he had before His arm wasnt badly broken and In a few weeks he was around again But he was the last boy to stand erect on the top of Rocking Rock I have a lot of things he brought into existence while he had the power a top and some marbles a kite and a few coins but the top wont spin and the marbles wont roll and the kite wont fly and If the authorities knew I had the coins I couldnt hoard them any longer But to this day Harwinfield boys tell of Frenchy Angevine who came so near to revolutionizing the wealth of the whole world And for a good many reasons I wish that he had succeeded |