Show it it ml cholla band by BOOTH copy com ight by doubleday page pae G r company THE BOY FATHER OF THE MAN aprea another ot of those booth TA rk ington boy and girl stories 1 that hat set everyone laughing and i living ivi ng over again tile tho days of th this a one la is much like penrod and seventeen bevente a all and the orloe oriole its different too in that it carrata carrl hamiley malholland and dora yo vo cum through school and college life to early maturity in the world war tio so iva it i bellour as aa well as runny funny and lf its one of tar AkIng tons best beat of its 13 kind enough CHAPTER 1 I I 1 when johnnie comes marching home a again g aln Flur rahl give him a hourly hearty welcome then hurrah the men with walh cheers I 1 the boys boy with sh eh ou out a the ladles 1 lles they will all turn out and well w e ai a all 1 feel gay when johnnie c onles cornea m marching a r ching lioma hom agal again I 1 the old man arid and the little buy boy h ahli Is grandson ant together in the shade of the big walnut tree in ili the lie front yard watching the decoration day ill ia rude us its it passed up lip the long street i anil nil when the last of the hie veterans ai out of tight sight the hie grandfather murmured the words of tile the tune that came drifting back from the now distant land band at tile thy head of f the procession did you iu the th joy asked did I 1 what did on nil hicl guy gay w it 11 the army got home ionic it didt t get licnik all nt at once precisely irl tit alin i grandfather explained when the war was over I 1 suppose we vio felt rel relle vvo more till fillY thing else aou you feel ft el so go guy ay when the war was avns abou though 1 I I 1 fuessl tile lioy boy ventured venture 1 11 I guess ve MO were you PU seared grandpa Irand pa were yu you over ever seared scared tile the johnnies would mould will no we ever afraid of eliat elvell aril you ever eer seared scared yourself grandpa Crand pa I 1 mean when you ou were in a battle 1011 oh yes cs I 1 was the old man laughed Inu glied scared aplenty I 1 1 1 I I dont see hie why 11 tho the boy said promptly 1 I ile bo reared in a battle loul you course hotl not I 1 grandpa why dont you in ili the decoration day pa rade they let you im not ablo able to march tiny any more too short of breath and too shaky in the legs nail and too tm blind 1 care said the boy rid bo be in tile parade anyway it I 1 was vai yo ou U it if id been in ili your place grandpa rind and let me bo be in ili that parade id been right up tip by the bond band look grandpas Orand Grand pul pat watch roe me Orand grandpa pal I 1 this Is alie way id be grandpa ile he rose from the garden bench where they sat and gave a complex imitation of what had most appeal etl to him as aa the grandeur gran deurs 0 of the procession ces gion ills his prancing legs 0 aing those of the horse of tho the grand marthai marshal r while ills bis upper parts rendered the drums and bugles of the hand band as well na as the officers anti and privates pr latea of the company which had been a feature of the parade the only thing ile he left out wa tins s the detachment of veterans tet crans rut putty ty boom I 1 rutty putty boom I 1 putty boom boom boom I 1 lie he vociferated na as the drums and then as tile ho bugles tn tn ta ro ra taral lie addressed ills his restive legs whoa there you geel haw I 1 git lit cupl up I 1 then waving an air imaginary sword collumn right 1 foroud I 1 carry ha harmal rinal ile ho carried armi show dier barms harin st 1 ile ho shouldered arms and returned to ills sent bo b tile me grandpa the way id do arid and ns its tile lie grandfather nodded in seeming to agree a thought recently recent dismissed returned to tile the mind of tile the combo composite sIto procession arid and te le asked well why erent vi you sou ever afraid the johnniea Johnn lea tes would whip alp the unions granara 7 oh we knew they 1 11 I S so sn tile the lit ville ie boy laughed disdainfully thinking chinkin g ills his question silt gilt answered 1 N I guess those ele do johnniea Johnn Joh nilles lea whipped a leal they know how to fight tiny nt at alt did they grandpa Gian dpn oh yes cs they hey did I 1 what chaft the lioy boy was M III erent they till all just ole cow als Grand grandpa pal no ko datil the grandfather they were pretty alne soldiers athey were well they ran away wb whenever enever you ou began shooda shoot ln tit nt em m thear they sometimes they did but most tines they sometimes they bought like and sometime we were tile the ones that ran away 11 but the ohp johnnies Johnn lea beia bad men they grandpa no tile the forehead fore licad vacant showed bowe little berteal hadow rr ly fly it i struggle to think will but he began slowly listen grandpa listen berel you sald mild yoli you you never got seared the ole oe johnnies Johnn lia were coln coin to win they did alj win pretty often said the grandfather they won non a good ninny haltI vs 1 11 I Ille III fill you said gold you never got BOI ac tire win the war no we were never afraid of that well out ait if they ivere good men inen lind fought like wil wildcats dents Oran brandlin dlin unil kep winning battles anti and every filing ihling lit liow w col could ild that thattie thi ithe fie how could 11 ll help biln scared win via tit htiu war the grandfathers feeble eyes twinkled brightly why we knew they ramsey at this ills the lie little vertical shadows on ill ilcin cys fore licad became more pronounced for lie had succeeded in thinking well they know they ild they lie argue argued they thought they were wiio coln to w win in they yes I 1 guess they did hut but you see they were wrong well bill struggled usten listen I 1 usten listen hero grandpa I 1 well midway if they never got soared wed win via will mid nobody pot got seared scared win will well I 1 dont see you dont see what lint but halisey found himself unable to continue ills concentrate concen trat foil oil oh much lie 1 I see sec and ami ills grandfather I 1 ter laughed again agnin you vou incon it if I 1 it he c johnnies JohnnI cs felt just us ns sure of jintil winning n g the lie war Ps we did and kept awitin winning I 1 ng bottles tylly hy e ever have lit lidd oil anny doubts we vc were going to win th ats it it 1 I guess so grandpa well voil I 1 think it was as mostly because we were certain that we were right 1 I see gee sold said the johnnies knew they were on oil the side of tile t 0 N f I 1 1 I C care a re 11 said the boy id be ba in the parade anyway if I 1 was wa you devil dell nut but tit at this the grandfathers lunch laugh was louder than it had been before and looked hurt well weil you ran can lough laugh if you want tol to I 1 lie objected in tin an aggrieved voice anyway the sunday school told us its when people knew they were on oil the lie devils side aide thoy they always 1 I dare say I 1 daresay dare the old man interrupted a little impatiently hut but in tills this world mighty few people think on the devils side ramsey Ra insey the eolith thought tho the devil wn was on oil our side you ou see sec well veil that kind 0 mixes it all up moron ever suppose you look at it this thih way tile the south vas ivits fighting for what it believed to be its right to be n country by itself but we were fighting for liberty nod and union now and forever one anti inseparable theres the reason we had the certain knowledge that we were going to win the war ilow how arid and simple it dainsey think so lie he had begun 0 to o frel feel bored by tile the conversation and to undergo the lie oppression lie us laity suffered in school the earnest old voice of the veteran was only a sound in the hoys cars bouin the vete veterans hod begun to fire their licar cannon on the lie crust crest of the low jow fill ont tit at the cemetery and fro ij e bittle way down the street cattle came the rat n tat of a toy drum druin rind sounds of a life played execrably A file tit lit dill arev drev in cocked hats ninba of pers pera crime marchIn 6 importantly up all th the sidewalk under tile the ni maple tiple shade trees and in advance upon n velocipede rode a tin personage ilir shrieking leking incessant commands but not concerning himself ath whether or not tiny military obedience was thereby obtained here a revivify revivifying ing effect upon young ramsey llam scy ills his sluggard eyelids opened electrically lie he leaped to ills his tott feet rind and abandoning his without li reface or naolo gy ey sped across tile lie lawn rind and out of tile the gate charging headlong upon the comm commander mider of til th ronia iny you got get off that loci pede wosley Uen derl he bellowed you gilme that sword I 1 what rights you got to go biln captain 0 my army id up to knowl know I 1 who got up lip this army in the llie first place I 1 id d ilke to know I 1 I 1 did nii self es afternoon anti and you ou get it back in line or I 1 wont let 0 o baring to it tit at alil the hie succumbed lie in dismounted being out ont shouted and overawed omi over iwed awed on oil foot lie took bb place in tile ranks while Ita insey be collie came sternly vociferous in tendon intention farhud marchl march 1 col lenir in inn right 1 right show adler unit for wild march carry hornis i the DIP cirni army went ent trudging away un dor der tile the continuous bur bar unheeded lire fire of orders ciders and presently disappeared round a corner leaving the file veteran chuckling feebly under his fits tree ind arid alone with the empty street all trace of what lie had said seemed to have been wiped from the grandsons mind but eliut memory hns bits curious anis ramsey lind understood not a fifth nor a tenth ot of ills grandfathers talk rind lip lie had forgotten nil all of it yet let not only biere there many many thries limes in ili the boys bos later life m when hon without ascertainable cause he woula remember words and sentences 1 hy ay iy the grand grandfather rather though the its tenor anif drowsily had heard but sound of nn air old earnest voice mid ove oven the veterans meaning finally took on a greater definiteness till it became bec iune in ili the grandsons thoughts som thing clear and bright anti and fill hint he knew without being behil g just sure whose where or how lie he lind learned II 11 CHAPTER II 11 SPY sat miserably in school ills his con conscious selous being consisting principally of a lull dull late hate torpor 1 was I as it 11 little dispersed during a fifteen minute interval of Il music lusle when he ant and till all the other oilier in ili the large lares room of tile the the five it grade sang repeatedly peat edly of what they enunciated as the star span gull gub hulled banner but afterward lie he relapsed into the liea low spirits rind animosity natural to anybody an body during enforced con finc ment under instruction no allevia don was accomplished by tin nn invaders lina Invade derd rb temporary usurpation of the teachers teacher 3 platform a brisk rind ly cheerful young woman mounting thereon to tench german for a long time mathern mathematics atles nna german had been about equally ally repulsive to Ita kamsey insey who found himself dally in the ali compulsory presence of both but lie he was gradually coming to german with the lie greater hor because after months of patient mental resistance lie tit at last began to comprehend that hie file german lan language has bag sl sixteen teon special arid and particular ways of using rising the german article corresponding sp to unit that flexible lilt hit of it a word so easily managed in anglish the lie what in tile the world was the use ot of baang aang sixteen ways of d doing 0 ing a thing that could just as well lh be done in one it if the Cei germans mails had them diem selves with insisting upon sixten its useless val variations valuations lations for infrequent words such as hippopotamus for or instance ramsey might have thought the affair unreasonable but not necessarily vi 1 clous it would be easy enough to mold avoid talking about a hippopotamus if lie he eer hall had to go to germany but the fait fact that the germans picked out a arid the and ninny many other little words in use all tile lie time and gave every one of them sixteen forms and expected Ita insey to learn this dizzying uselessness down to the last insl crotchety detail with when to employ which n ns s a nausea to pro joire for tile lie final convulsion when hen one use which because it was an exception there was a fashion of making ensa ena matters hard that was merely hellish the teacher wa was strict bu but cathu sla blastic she bhe told th the children over and over that the german wasa was n bountiful beautiful language and her ter face always hoj hoi a glow when site she said this at u ell times alinea the children looked patient they supposed it trust be so because ahe he was tin nn adult rind their teacher ton cher and they the hell believed eved her with the same rann nun ner of believing which those of them who went to sunday school used capre when ilien the lie sunday chon cronl tc acera ors were I 1 pushed into explanation of various matters set forth in ili the old testa men mant or pave gave reckless descriptions of 0 heaven alint Is to say the children eh hll dren ildren did lit not or deny alicade they had been driven into habits ol of resignation anti and were pasing out of tile age when childhood Is able io 0 r eject adult Inon nonsense Ita insey Mil bolland did not knoo whether the english IV language was beautiful or pot not lie never meyer thought about it moreover though ills his deper deeper inwards hated german he lined ha german fler pinn teacher rind it was plen snut saut to look at al her when that glow caroe came upon her fac face e I 1 you bet your life lifa I 1 hla h la te her te tc hers pet pel what I 1 call her ta ne BE CONTINUED |