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Show l; 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 m 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ( 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 r 1 1 1 1 ; 1 1 1 feH. 15 li THE KING OP ! 11 BOYVILLE :-: li E' , .1 it WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE j - U VI i i i i i i i i i : i i t i :: i i i i i i i i i i i i i t i :c i i ! i i i i i i i i i i Copyright, 1922, by th Micmillan Co. BOYS who are born in a small town are born free and equal. In the big city It may be different dif-ferent ; there are doubtless good little boys who disdain bad little boys, and poor little boys who are never to be noticed under any circumstances. But In a small town, every boy, good or bad, rich or poor, stands among boys on his own merits. The son of the banker who owns a turning-pole in the back yard, does homage to the bilker's boy who can sit on the bar and drop and catch by his legs; while the good little boy who is kept In wide collars and cuffs by a mistaken mother, gazes through the white paling of his father's fence at the troupe headed for the swimming hole, and pays all the reverence which his dwarfed nature na-ture can muster to the sign of the two lingers. In the social order of boys who live in country towns, a boy is measured by what he can do, and not by what his father is. And so, Win-ticld Win-ticld Hancock Pennington, whose boy name was Piggy Pennington, was the King of Iloyville. For Piggy could walk on his hands, curling one foot gracefully over his back, and pointing the other straight in the air; he could hang by his heels on a flying trapeze ; he could chin a pole so many times that no one could count the number; he could turn a somersault in the air from the level ground,, both backwards and forwards, he could "tread" water and "lay" his hair; he could hit. any marble in any ring from "taws" and "knnclcs down," and better than all, he could cut his initials in the ice on skates, and whirl around and around so many times that he looked like an animated shadow, when he would dart away up the stream, his red "comfort" "com-fort" flapping behind him like a laugh of defiance. In the story books such' a boy would be the son of a widowed mother, nnd turn out very good or very bad, but Piggy was not a story book boy, and his father kept a grocery gro-cery store, from which Piggy used to steal so many dates that the boys said his father must have cut up the alma-' alma-' nac to supply him. As he never gave the goodies to the oilier boys, but Jtept them for his own use, his name of "Piggy" was his by all the rights of Boyville. There was one thing Piggy Pennington Penning-ton could not do, and it was the one of - all things which he most wished he could do; he could not under any circumstances cir-cumstances say three consecutive and coherent words to any girl under fifteen fif-teen and over nine. Even after school Piggy could not join the select coterie of boys who followed the girls down through town to the postofhee. He could not tease the girls about absent ab-sent boys at such times and make up rhymes like : "First the cat and then her tall ; Jimmy Sears and Maggie Hale," and then shout them out for the crowd to hear. Instead of joining this cojirt-ly cojirt-ly troupe Piggy Pennington went off with the boys who really didn't care for such tilings, and fought, or played "tracks up," or wrestled his way leisurely leis-urely home in time to gej, in his "night wood." But his heart was not in these pastimes; it was with a red shawl of a peculiar shade, that was wending Its way to the post oflice and back to a home in one of the few two-story houses in the little town. Time and again had Piggy tried to make some sign to let his feelings be known, but every time he had failed. Lying in wait for her at corners, and suddenly breaking upon her with a glory of backward and forward somersaults did not convey the state of his heart. So only one heart beat wiH but one single thought, and the other oth-er took motto candy and valentines valen-tines and red apples and picture cards and other tokens of esteem from oilier boys, and beat on with any number num-ber of thoughts, entirely immaterial to tne uses ot tins narrative. i.ut I'lggy Pennington did not take to the enchantment of corn silk cigarettes and rattan and grapevine cigars; lie tried to sing, and walled dismal ballads bal-lads about the "Gypsy's Warning," nnd "The Child in the Grave With Its Mother," and "She's a Daisy, She's a Purling, She's a Dumpling, She's a Lamb." whenever lie was in hearing distance of his heart's desire, in the hope of conveying to her some hint of the slate of his affections; but It was useless. Even when lie tried to whistle plaintively as he passed her house in the gloaming, his notes brought forth no responsive echo. One morning in the late spring, he spent half an hour before breakfast among his mother's roses, which were just In first bloom. He had taken out there all the wire from an old broom, nnd all his kite string. His mother had to call three times before he would leave his work. The youngster was the first to leave the table, and by eight o'clock he was at his task again. Before the first school bell had rung, I'lggy Pennington was bound for the school house with a strange looking parcel under his arm. lie tried to put his coat over it, but it stuck out and the newspaper that was wrapped around It, bulged into so many corners, cor-ners, that It looked like a home-tied bundle of laundry. 'What you got?" asked the freckle-faced freckle-faced boy, who was learning at Piggy's feet how to do the "muscle grind" on the turning-pole. But Piggy Pennington was the King of Boyvlllle, nnd he had a right to look straight ahead of him, as if he did not hear the question, nnd say: "Lookle here, Mealy, I wish you would go nnd tell Abe I want him to hurry up, for I want to see him." "Abe" was Piggy's nearest friend. His other name was Carpenter. Piggy only wished to be rid of the freckle-faced freckle-faced boy. But the freckle-faced boy was not used to royalty and Its ways, so he pushed his inquiry. "Say. Piggy, have you got your red ball-pants in that bundle?" There was no reply. They had gone a block when the freckle-faced boy could stand it no longer and said: "Say, Piggy, you needn't be so smart about your old bundle ; now honest, Piggy, what have you got in that bundle?" bun-dle?" "Aw soft soap, take a bite good fer yer appetite," said the king, as he faced about and drew up his left cheek and lower eye-lid pugnaciously. The freckle-faced boy saw he would have to fight if he stayed, so he turned to go, and said, as though nothing had happened, "Where do you suppose old Abe is, anyhow?" Jt st before school was called Piggy Pennington was playing "scrub" with all his might, and a little girl his Heart's Desire was taking out of her desk a wreath of roses, tied to a shaky wire frame. There was a crtjH of girls around her admiring it, and speculating spec-ulating about the possible author of the gift; but to these she did not show the patent medicine card, on which was scrawled, over the druggist's advertisement ad-vertisement : "Yours truly, W. II. P." When the last bell rang, Piggy Pennington Pen-nington was the last boy in, nnd he did not look toward the desk where he had put the flowers, until after the singing. Then he stole a sldewise glance that way, and his Heart's Desire was deep In her geography. It was an age before be-fore she filed past him with the "B" class in geography, and took a seat directly in front of him, where lie could look at her all the time, unobserved unob-served by her. Once she squirmed in her place and looked toward him, but Piggy Pennington was head over heels in the "Iser rolling rapidly." When their eyes did at last meet, just as Piggy, leading the marching around a dark day. When a new hoy, who didn't belong to the school, caine up at recess to play, Piggy shuflled over to him and asked gruffly: "What's your name?" "Puddin' 'n' tame, ast me agin an' I'll tell you the same," said the new-boy, new-boy, and then there was a fight. It didn't soothe Piggy's feelings one bit that lie whipped the new boy, for the new boy was smaller than Piggy. And he dared not turn his flushed face toward's his Heart's Desire. It was almost four o'clock when Piggy Ten-nlngton Ten-nlngton walked to the master's desk to get him to work out a problem, and as he passed the desk of Heart's Desire lie dropped a note In her lap. It read: "Are you mad?" But he dared not look for the answer, an-swer, as they marched out that night, so he contented himself with punching punch-ing the boy ahead of him with a pin, and stepping on his heels, when they were in the back part of the room, where the teacher would not see him. The King of Boyville walked home that evening. The courtiers saw plainly plain-ly that his majesty was troubled. After this feat the king wns quiet. At dusk, when the evening chores were done, Piggy Pennington walked past the home of his Heart's Desire and howled out a doleful ballad which began : "You ask what makes this darkey wee-eep, Why he like others am not gay." But a man on the sidewalk passing, said: "Well, son, that's pretty good, but wouldn't you just as lief sing as to make that noise?" So the king went to bed with a heavy heart. He took that heart to sehood with him the next morning, and dragged it over the school ground, playing crack the whip and "stink-base." But when he saw Heart's Desire wearing in her hair one of the white roses from his mother's garden the Pennington's had the only white roses in the little town he knew it was from the wreath which he had given her, and so light was his boyish heart that it was with an effort that he kept it out of his throat. There were smiles and smiles that day. During tlfe singing they began, and every time she came past him from a class, and every time he could pry his eyes behind her geog- "He Walked on His Hands in Front of the Crowd for Nearly Halt a Block." the room, was at the door to go out for recess, the thrill amounted to a shock that sent him whirling in a pin wheel of handsprings toward the ball ground, shouting "scrub first bat, first bat, first bat," from sheer, bubbling bub-bling joy. Piggy made four tallies that recess, nnd the other boys couldn't have put hlrn out, if they had used a hand grenade or a fire extinguisher. He received four distinct shots that day from the eyes of his Heart's Desire, and the last one sent him home on the run, tripping up every primary urchin, whom he found tagging along by the way, and whooping at the top of his voice. The next morning. Piggy Pennington astonished his friends by bringing a big armful of red and yellow and pink and while roses to school. lie had never clone this before, and when he had run the gauntlet of the big boys, who were not afraid to steaT them from him, he made straight for his schoolroom, and stood holding them in his bunds while the girls gathered about him teasing for the beaulies. It was nearly time for the last hell to ring, and Piggy knew that his Heart's Desire would be in the room by the time he got there, lie was uot mistaken. mis-taken. But Heart's L'esire did not clamor with the other girls for one of the roses. Piggy stood off their pleadings plead-ings as long as he could with "Xaw," "Why naw, of course I won't," "Xaw, what I want to give yr.u one for," and "Go away from here I tell you." and st ill Heart's Desire did not ask for her flowers. There were but a few moments left hefjre school would be called to order, and in desperation Piggy gave one rose away. It was not a very pretty rose, hut he hoped she would see that the others were to be given away, and ask for one. Kul she his Hearth Desire stood near a window, talking to the freckle-faced bny. Then Piggy gave away ( lie rose after another. As the last bell began to ring he gave them to the buys, as the girls were all supplied. And still she came not. There was one rose loft, the most beautiful of all. She went to her desk, and as the teacher came In, bell in hand. Piggy surprised himself, the teacher, and the school by laying the beautiful (lower, without a word on the teacher's desk. " That d.:v was i raphy, or her grammar, a flood of glad-' ness swept over his soui. That night Piggy Pennington followed the girls from the schoolhouse to the post oflice, and in a burst of enthusiasm he walked on his hands in front of (lie crowd, for nearly a block. When his Heart's Desire said: "Ah, ain't you afraid you'll hurt yourself, doing that?" Piggy pretended not to hear her. and said to the boys: "Aw, that ain't nothln'; come down to my barn, an' I'll do somepln that'll make yer head swim." He was too exuberant to contain himself, and when he left the girli h? started lo run afier a stray chicken,' that happened along, and ran till he was out of breath. He did not mean to run in the direction his Heart's Desire De-sire had taken, but he turned a corner, cor-ner, nnd came up with her suddenly. Her eyes beamed upon him, and he could not run away, as lie wished. She made room fur him on t lie sidewalk, side-walk, and he could do nothing but walk beside her. I'm' a tj'oel: they were so embarrassed that, noil her spoke. It was Piggy who broke the silence. His words came from his heart. He had not yet learned to speak otherwise. other-wise. "Where's your rose?" lie asked, not seeing it. "What rose?" said the girl, as though she had never in her short life heard of such an absurd thing as a rose. "Oh, you know." returned the boy, stopping irregularly, to make the tips of his loos come on the cracks In the sidewalk. There was another pause, hirlr.ji v. lil. 'n Piggy pi.-ked up a peb-and peb-and il.rvw it at a bird in a tree. His heart was sinking rapidly. "Oli, that rose?" said his Heart's I'vsire. turning full upon him with the enchantment of her childish eyes. 'Why. here It is in my grammar. I'm tis.rg it to keep with the others. Why? ' "Oli, nutldn' much," replied the boy. " bet you can't do t.'.is," lie added, is he slowed up into her eyes from an ; : 1 1 ; ; i . hai.dsprir.g. And thus the King of Boyville first set his lignt, iii tic foot upon the soil of an vxknev. u country. |