Show STUDENT-LIFpie-mind- as lie was ed he under- stood The fashionable frame house painted in gaudy colors where his ruled her submisdaughter-in-lasive husband held no cosy corner by the fire for Jimmy But nature knows her own children and all the wild things babies included learned to love and trust him and to come at his call His poultry thrived and prospered as no other man’s was ever known to and the stories he could tell and the sights he could see were the constant delight of evd urchin that still ery trembled just a little at the dark More than once I have dropped in on a little group perched open- in the mouthed and wide-eve- d shade about his doorstep Jimmy would be shelling corn and rambling on in his slow absent-minde- d fashion “There ain’t no houses or people out that way back o’ them woods you know jest woods an’woods forever An’ little fellers wonder out there sometimes as ain’t got no home an’ no folks An’ the beasts they seem to know an’ never hurt ’em but they jest take care of ’em and teach ’em things The squirrel he chuckles at ’em and’ leads ’em to the nut trees and the fox he shows ’em where the berries grows an’ the bear he climbs the an’ gets ’em honey I go out there sometimes myself an’ all them beasts they talk to me an’ tell me how sorrrv thev are ’cause mv folks has all left me They’re lots socia-ble- r and helpful-lik- e than human critters to all us poor fellers as ain’t w bare-legge- bee-tre- es mt got no home-folks- ” 9 E Sometimes a drop the corn and the yellow among childish audience would nod' solemn little heads in sympathy He was a child with them and remained' so through the advancing years though he failed steadily and the big grey eyes grew dim and his hearing almost entirely left him There came one touch of brightness into his life — his little granddaughter Gradually his relations with the gaudy house down town had become more kindly and Jennie —which the fond mother declared was “short for Jenny vieve” —had claimed the old man as a vassal within two months after her arrival She grew into a tiny winsome princess with all the perverseness of her mother and a native sweetness peculiarly her own By this time Jimmy made regular visits to his son’s and as soon as the little one could toddle she began to repay them Soon she was a regular member of Jimmy’s little circle of prattling comrades while he laughed and gurgled in a pathetic little joy at having her there His stories multiplied and expanded and the supply of shelled corn resulting from his narration bade fair to involve his whole flock in dyspepsia Jimmy sang now as he roamed about the house —queer ditties without rhyme or reason though they indicated the new gladness welling up in his heart He no longer avoided the villagers and we rejoiced at the change the little child had wrought Only the mother in a jealous-hearte- d way resented Jimmy’s in- tear-woul- old-fashion- ed d |