Show f J I I OUR R R REDHEADED By Frederick D HEADED Walworth KID k I I R is a bank s busy day So MONDAY lyl when ot or July or 01 Birthday Or somE other or of our uly numerous comes com on lon ay and the he lay day of July Jub or the tho day of Fob Feb 1 uary or whatever day Tuesday ma may chance hance to he IS Ig burdened with the la Ia bot or of three days dayi and a halt the bank takes off his coat and his hI cuffs cus cusand I and his and prepares for n a atall taU tall ot of til It Is h ot well to as ask k a savor favor of I the thc cashier on a Tuesday I Bob turned pp at th bank on Tues Tuesday day JUly fit and nd hIs reCeptiOn have dishearten Cd a person lacking Jacking as tough an integument A it was Bob seem to realize he had been boen I turned down Mr Martin the cai I ler fer had his coat off of and both hands workIng like lika an ele electric fan In ma a mass mas massIf Jr If b bills which Uncle Sam should have bave T redeemed and turned into papIer h hat and vases ago Th I nay MY was unseasonably warm and th the cashiers collar slapped limp and gluey I upon his apoplectIc neck At t 19 he turned his head away a I Lookin for tor a job sir said Bob sole solemnly I flut u I yOU OU wc w ha had d no no PIa place ae foi you said the cashier r Well veu I thought id d tjust hang hane and d see eth in turn up he replied He hImself In t the e Inow and proceeded to bang ng around His first officIal recognition came about 10 the cashier him a sight draft 19 t take ke around to Jim Clark for tor acceptance r Get him to write his name nam on the face or of it he explaIned as Bob lett Twelve be he hl had tt not returned Takes that hat boy a good hIle to riO go around the corner comer an and ba back ob observed served the cashier I like Uke his looks th the fir time I saw him said arvo He sort ot of slow to me It mo may be stated here ts wIt wIll as elsewhere that Harv y hM has nevor een known to produce an origInal on that Inal Id Mutt ii Certainly he ha never ex expressed pressed ono one Inside the bank he Is the In all how ever eer great or small Outside he a lUte like position for anyon he chances to meet inset Harvey is loo put to together gether and walks from hrs his knees ns as though he feared a good full swing mi might ht shake a leg off Now It is a sin fact but I have ave never known a aman man who walked from his knees who amounted to a row or of brass tucks tacks with the heads off However to g give e the angel l his s due he Is a fair accountant and draws a good salary which goes to sho that in this perverse generation of viper iper It alwa always s the man commands ho the money I for instance was getting only about half as much as Harvey About 1230 the telephone benl d ar an unusually violent spasm and I an answered answered the call Jim Clark requested in no vacillating spirit that we call all off our dog For a moment I thought Mr Ir Clark was suddenly gone Ins ne and Iwas rapidly formulating plans to hold his attention while I sent for Wit Wil Williams Barns liams the constable when I n bored Boli BOD Theres a over here with a draft pursued Mr Clark says hes from the bank I dont ow owe the and I wont accept the thinS thing and hE says hell stay slay with me tm till I write my name on the face tace Says you tou people told to Send somebody o over er here and get et him Will you I had to go over and bring Bob back backas as he declied to be called off by means of the phone Ho told Mr lIr Clark he that easy Everybody in our town knows every everybody bod body least b by pre lious to his advent at the bank DOD Boo had not been one or of the population Whence he came cne he declined to state stale simply saying he come Ina In a bo car Aside from what we dubbed his car carrot carrot rot patch he was by no means bril brilliant or otherwise attractive in fact he was the ite But for deadly tenacity ot of puri purpose a aTom as Tom remarked hed beat the prIze bull terrier in a 8 bench show So tar far as we could learn he had no other endeavor to get a place He came ame to us ns first it ma may be by b chance he liked our looks and he hesta sta stayed cd with us like a Vera Cruz flea After his encounter with Ur Mr Clark lie he considered himself a regularly con constituted member or of the bank f farce and wore a constant and extensive smile ie which varied o only ly in deg degree and at coun The cashier surrendered sure dered a at discretion and gave him a dollar donar tell telling lug ing him to make It last till saturday This he apparently did for he never admitted being hungry tr from m that tithe forth foith That evening Jim and I hunted up up Tony the combination and watchman who slept in the and arranged that Bob should bunk with him Bob took kindly to life arrange arrangement mont ment and Ton Tony was glad enough to have havethe havethe the company at night and help In cl cleaning up after atter bank hours His weekly wages were fixed at 2 by Mr Martin and when Bob was handed banded the money r on Saturday he nearly burst wIth prIde over his affluence Where h he got his meals at this time we did not know probably at some cheap restAurant restaurant rant Subsequently he was more or less lessa a adopted opted by Tony and his wife To say that he made himself indis Indispensable would be stating plain truth Jim and I eagerly agreed that hat If Bob was fired wed have to resign or what was equIvalent inter interview Interview view the directors Ith a view to la a raise Up to his advent the running of the banks errands had devolved upon us and We were loath to return to any such arrangement Also as Bob lived at the bank the he always had the wIn wIndows windows dows open and the place readY for tor bus busIness mess Iness when we arrived ThIs gave Jave us usan usan an additional five min minutes tes In bed each morning and during the wInter thIs is not nota a thing lightly to be despised The bliss 6 waking up in a room where you can see your breath and are mor tally tany certain ln your water Is frozen en over even when it or of looking at your watch and finding that you have seven severt whole minutes morel more Cham Champagne Champagne Is 15 not like It However Bob had us near nearly nearly ly a year and had as I sa say made him himself self to Jim and m he succeeded in il attaching himself to the bank as one of t the permanent fix fixtures fixtures tures After Atter the events I am about to relate the directors would have put up with the loss ot of the cashier or Harvey or even rae me b before fore they would have l let t Bob go Hes with us yet et and will be until either he or the bank goes spes up Our bank Is the only institution ot of Ute the lund kind in the vicinity North one must go six miles south twenty miles and west W twelve miles to find another place or of deposit and to the the Atlan tit ic ocean This being so the bank ank Is unusually prosperous for a country in institution paying regular dIvidends or of 12 and 13 per cent to Its stockholders It is run Tun conservatively and Is as sound and safe as United States Our trouble bi gan with the failure of the Tidewater T TJ or New York ThIS p rr respOndent and with hWe n d wide p sIt some ii tow low In Int I t rest anti and available In time ot of need This nearly 4 1 of our ready read cas cash t to n t the demands of depositors The bulk I or of our deposits was of course Invested in paper Bot avaIlable untIl i not always some of the assets was In the form of real estate inconvertible except at a heavy lose There was something like actually in the bank to meet worth of deposits and the day when the New York papers announced the failure of the Tidewater l saw the beginning or of the tte only run our bank ban has ever experienced i the knowledge that we were badly caught In the Tidewater failure did not become generally known until afternoon and the held out till tUl we could close clOS the bank doors at 3 I I was dismally doing m my work that I night ring where I could set get a ap other place If the baule barth wept under I when I became aware of oC Bob at my mr i elbow He looked more doleful than I I felt I Oh cheer up I it may not no nobe i ibe be true You look Jook as just I been measured by bJ the und undertaker 1 He at me solemnly as s though i not Dot certain of my sanity I I II f f I 3 I t I jt r rIa 1 J WITH A REVOLVER AT FULL COOK C AND IDS BIB FACE A p PEA GR GEN YELLOW nd something not meant for the tf oars cars while he be sprinkled the I reeking runes muss with rosewater from a I bottle on the counter Most of the bills had been dragged from rom deep pockets by members in the thirty third degree of the Teat great unwashed fraternity and as the cashier had remarked the they carried one hundred to the dollar But that was on onn ona n a previous occasion There was no notime i time for any levity on Tuesday July Ii Please sir Im lookin for a job We Vve all heard It but its origin was i Tot rot Immediately apparent The cash continued counting dirty bills Mt 11 Harvey the teller glanced at th the cashier ashier and returned to his books Tom who was on the ledger paused with n a check in his l hi his on the line Jine t took ole one swift look In III th direction of the sound evidently saw flaw nothIng and proceeded to enter the heck check The rest of us were en enraged engaged raged with mercilessly multitudinous hecks and aud seemingly endless columns td did noto even pause paulc The cashier had Informed us that if w we w ted an anything thing to eat t that night before we aved In we had better hit It up UI lively 1 Mister I say gay rm Im lookin for a job This time we all stopped supper or 20 10 supper The cashier looked up an angrily rily and small ll bo boy not over washed villainously redheaded and judging front from the age of his bIs face tace stunted In his growth His Hie eyes did hOt reach the level Ivel of the counter it WaS aft after r 4 and the doors had for an hour He must hava haV arrived Via the window Id like to run your oUr errands h elucidated pleasantly We have no place for you said the 1 shortly and in a tone which made nade further conversation on the subS sub ludicrous The boy retreated to the window and sat at down on the sUI Mu At 5 he was still there He t even een whistle tIe He simply sta stayed ed with us his eyes roving around the bank and taking stock as asit asIt it were At 6 lIe he had not departed We Ve were working furiously Tom IMf had a 8 difference and was grow growing growing ing gray hunting for It I was some hundred and aDd dollars out and andas andas as rapidly losing my reason Jim hi hIs checks even entered yet was apparently goIng to sleep f standing Art rt had his balance and from the top of a stool was yawning a aid Jd between gasps smiling sweetly at Thy my voc vocabulary bula and egging me on By Byj j w we were aU ali waIting for Jim HI H tad ad his footings le he and thought v had a difference but sure how bow much At this brilliant Tom took Jims books and straightened thIngs out By that Um time UmIt It was az and I for one was waa limp WIth hunger Fortunately the cash Was as two dollars doUard over and we closed up for th the night Q Z the ca Cashier blar observed if j the bank aa U ahead d two dollars th ed be no trouble out who was short shorts s we WC turned out the lights and shut th shutters e came upon the boy boyI I 61 ill sitting tn In the wIndoW Tom asked him who he was aid he said his name wag as Bob He gave no sign ot of needing sympathy expressed in either words or orash ash asb Rather he gave one the Im of being excellently well able to care for himself He left the bank With us and we e separated in a wild for tor something to e t tI I was the first to reach the barut next morning but Bob was waiting on th He came caine In with me helped me mc open aJen the windows 8 and 1 have accompanied me inside tIle the had I not remonstrated I was U Ut t SUrO whether he thought he be to the bank or the b banI be belon belonged lon longed to him but It wa was one of the thet t o 0 He took the rebuff however with Witha a 8 r resigned philosophy and seated him himI I J as before In the open window w wn When n Tom arrived he stopped short on seeing the boy Well kid been here all night he asked ked Yep replied BOb Where Torn TOm at L this start startling startling ling Out front replied the bo bot You on the steps Yep Had an Nope Tb deu deut v anything to scat oat I last t No Why the YO be near Youre dead right saId aid Boo Bob Tom hurriedly brought out u a Ic and gave avelt It to him telling him to togo togo go across the thO skeet and nd fill Il tip UP The Theby b by JV obe obeyed ed without wasting any time an and l Tom Did you hear what that kid said saidA A hE bE asked me mc HoJ Ho about his sleep lu fn on those stone steps without any anything anything thing to e It makes maltes me hold cold in lp to think of iLot it The na Mr tr H r had both d aften Bob Dob d Tom TIn related ted t h atlon and the yh ah ahier ier enok hoL tt t tin boy What are arc you doIng here Ill p S Weh Vei pull through yet r I said d Huh h he grunted I aint worry worrying ing none about the bank Mr Ir Martin will tend to the bank all The fhe cashier was his god and before him r m only he bowed down I seen me inc dad this afternoon Ie added dismally Well good I said Bring him round and Introduce him If hes bes anything like you roU thOugh tell him not notto notto to make a long cant call r added It is ie never well wll to let a 00 b g Idea he heIs heIs Is indispensable wh when n he Is uHe He see me tho gh Bob continued ignoring my levity evit Won Wonder del der hov he me clean here Th Thought Id shook him for keeps I bet beL bethe he aln aint t round here herc for no nog g od neither You little barbarian I Isaid Isaid said You dont seem Incrusted with wHit smiles at the of your our parent Think YOure funny dont you huh 1 said Bob and left rue me and I promptly forgot his dad There was a of directors in the bank parlors th that t a afternoon converted itself into a committee of the whole on ways and means Mr Martin had sent off tele telegrams grams rams to halt half a o of the banks asking assistance and of offering erin to deposit bonds as seCurity Ten thousand dollars was obtained in n this way from the Bea Beach h Grove Banking compani compan and caine in on the last tram south that evening The only other bank able to help was the Longford First National l which offered if ifIe we Ie would come and get it The last train to the west was gone and there was no train back that Longford Is twelve miles west of our ourtown ourtown town over oer bad roads It If we could get i this the cashier believed iti It would tide us over and restore con confidence fi nce In our ability tu 10 pay dollar for dollar If we did not get it the bank must Blunt close Its do doors rs by 12 next day almost to 10 a certainty Someone must drive across to Longford Langford with the b and return Uh mith the money be before before fore the b bank opened next nett morning Our part ot of the country Is 19 as safe as any other but under the circum circumstances stances when the composite e eye e of the ty was centered upon the bank it would be impossible for Cor one ot of the bank force torce to leave town own with out the object of his missIon being Im Immediately Immediately mediately And In our town itis it is a common that a dollar bill looks to some folk as as big as a lot Jot So it was not a hilarious party which drove west late that evening There was too much at stake Te had a buckboard and anda a good team The cashi cashier r and I sat behind with he bOnds in a vaU valise e be between between tween us When we were read ready t start Bob climbed up beside the driver on the front seat Here Bob saId Mr lr Martin sharp sharply ly we cant take you I 1 got to go go said Bob simply and he went Mr lIr arUn may have re realized that ince decided to go goit goit it would be impossible to leave him behind He would have materiaLized at Longford |