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Show j" tre of )Utll ffoxtry James Earmmi I Synopsis of Preceding Chapters. JCTHONY WEST and his frioud Joe Shelbum. both Harvard seniors, come to New York to spend the holidays. Eluding Jo and bis sporty companions. Anthony takes Grace Thomas, a prett telephone girl, whom lie has nei at the hotel, out to dinner Later he escorts her to ;ur homo, where be passes a dellr.ous hour 'fh nor nrm at)out his neck and her kisses' on his lips. The next morning Anthony is awakened by ft telegram calling him home bo-cuuse bo-cuuse of his mother's serious Illness Sfw CHAPTER IV. "ALBUQUERQUE." TTIE name of Anthony West had been, in the familiar ' phinse. one to conjure with. MgH not onlv in Little Rapids, but I I, . throughout the entire Stat? of Ne jjl brasko, and even beyond the bor dert. Knv citizens In the State jBTH had been more dlstingui-lied and $j5t3J3 none more helmed thin the editor ',:'' f "lpdf r of the Beacon. Yet he vlin ''a'' n'urr 'ie'fJ Public Office higher ' un membership on the school board and m-vo, . nselously sought 'JK the favor of any. unless candor and :B kindness and good humor were de- IttjjH vices for lecuring it, He mi,-lit l' , . j. have made the large salary of a i metropolitan newspaper editor, but ''afffi nothing COuld ever tempt him from jpflHf the Deacon, Its baby circulation and BH it? small income. f'sW 1 Tn he !..rn to an inheritance like I Hr- that was no mean a lvnntage. had nthonv the younger but known It. a Bit the prevalli ig modesty of the hoiii a tint sphere was too clear for iSfl oven a touch of the Incense of su- gH petiortty to taint It. There was uj QPw one above or beneath the Wests jgjJ "Here Is a man fit lo stand ho- fore kings," a fervent school teacb-911 teacb-911 er once said of him before the Women's Club to whom she was "introducing" him "V' . or sit down, as the case, mi hi be," was his mild response and ilao the opening of his address. "I do that every day in my dealings With the eiti-ens of Little Rapids" jH And lP was speaking the literal truth. "1 cannot ond would not leave my jSBmi on anv money wbn I die," be was H wont to say. "but sbalUeave him an ksla hoii"-t American bringing up in an hone t American town If he can't imib i.is- w.i' on that, no othr it. -ff h -1 it 1 i f will help him." Wffig Me had come t6 Little Rapids Kyj "from Ohio, whither his father in his turn bad tome from Massachusetts, HrW and. &s the Nebraska town grpw iujk and developed shade trees and a H9I country club. Anthony 'st ami the Beneon also prospered, "but RfiS nothing to worry the (Jrand Jury."' as he put "A man's prosperity." he declared on one occasion when a quickly-gSE quickly-gSE enriched fellow townsman was fac- HKJi InE trial, "should bo like a coral reef If it's any faster than that. flSt the c!iu.nces are he's using human hones as a fertilizer." HI "Son." be Mould remark to little Anthonv, who loved the twinkle In kM his father's eyes and the crinkly EH smil2 around them, "son, if you mM, want to be rich and also Innocent, n3J you vn got to strike oil on your ov n p proper) I" areideni. while drilling tta?gW 'a?r But you've got to drill Hlflf for something." Annie West, his wife, was of precisely pre-cisely his way of thinking and she Idealiked her husband, She had 1 ome to the office of the newly lighted Beacon, an eager graduate m$ from the State University, as a j?Sj$jjf proof reader and the cord thai vi- MR brated between them from the very H Aral soon drew them together into frfflhcl the happiest marriage In Little MRB Rapids. Her one dread, rt Brat, jSKtl Was lest he should be tempted into ItjfcfC the hi" city, away from the seat of .IStfrfs Iheir happiness. Iler husband's laughing philosophy however was: 'If I'm good enough so they Mam ae to leave here, then I'm too good 0 think of leaving " No one could have fitted better into the office of the Beacon than Jim Howard, assistant editor, nowa editor, superintendent and general HLf factotum. Anthony west would Hr have had to go far to find such a co worker, hud lm thought ot seeking one. Rut Jim was the sort you do I not seel;, but find. As a matter of f tnet fact, It was Jim who came to find West. He had been a tramp printer, who, like many of his klud. had fallen into the morass of drink In bone-dry State, (lifted though he was originally, he had fallen, owing to ins weakness, into a slate ot ut ter poverty neglect and wretchedness wretched-ness and llv-d In an almost constant con-stant stale of inebriation Being, slrungely enouxh, of u scrupulous honesty even In the midst of his de-bauohbt de-bauohbt he would appear at his place of employment with drink-sodden drink-sodden features, glased eyes, often with onlv a red flannel shirt under hia coat, and with a childishly va cant snitre he would utter the singl word. "Albuquerque." Neither he nor any one else could fell the mysterious significance of that partl'-ular place name. But its meaning for themselves all his employers em-ployers learned very speedily. It Man equivalent to "taboo." It was as though Jim was saying. "Steer clear of ni" to-day I can't work, I am bllni' drunk and no earthly use to any one." But It also meant the truth, the bed rock undl.-pui.-ed fat. no use or need of hiding anything bet w een us "Albuquerque, ' h would repeat latuouily once or twice and then wander away and reappear only after af-ter a varying number of days, thin, pallid, cadaverous Bui even with bis trembling lingers he could set more in r of type in a given time than anv of the sober printers. Men shook their heads pityingly behind bis back. "If ouly he could stay straight " (hey said to each other, but in the tone of one who should say. "If only January could turn into June, or the desert into a wheat Held " No one ever expected Jim to straighten oiL without the help of a I ix-foot coffin. But one day in Santa Pe, Jim came across a copy of the Bea n thrown out of a train window, and he read the editorials and then the entire p;per from the first column to the last. "That's the paper I'm goini: to work on," he told himself and that night he boarded a freight liaiu in the general direction of Little Rapid' Rap-id' He was thrown off, he boardef BnotUer( he was arrested, but some how, experienced tramp that he was, he niado his way to Anthony .'. sst'l office and asked for en.ploy-meut en.ploy-meut "This is the paper I want to work on," said Jlrn. after explaining how he came to flud it. "I beat my way on the freights all the way from Sante Fe." he added, "so as to get here." West wo? diffidently experienced to apprr-lse him at once and cor reetly. but there was something about tho man thai appealed to him strongly, "t an you do job work?" he asked "I can do anything except," ex cepi keep away from th drink WM what he w.in honestly going to say, but he stopped, "Booze?" supplied Anthony West shrewdly, Jim norid. d "This i: n prohibition town," laughed We 1 Jim smiled faintly "Oh. I know " proceeded West 'That's no bar and no pun But we'll take a chance. Maybe we could get rid of the habit if W tried together, eh? What's yojur name?" "Jim Howard " "Well, let's take a chance. Jim. and see what we can do together if we try." A light In the smouldering burnt out eyes of the tramp, like a throb of gratitude, was his only comment on this. Aloud he said, "All right." and he Was about to take his coat off Bui he paused, remembering that he had only a red undershirt beneath it. Again West read his thoughts "Here'.- some money," he said Cheerfully. "Our emporium Is Just round the corner to the right. Thev cany home pretty good blue shirts there You can go to work at that case in there when you come back." And so Jim Howard came to the Beacon His struggle against rum henceforward became Anthony tude to that man's son, and grandson. grand-son. A great man Kipling He understands the powor of friendship, friend-ship, of gratitude, of tho human heart generally, "And your father, Anthony, did as much for me a3 f'hinn did for the Bhll He made me a man. This Is a secret, my boy; you mustn't tell anybody But I feel toward your dad and his son Just as the wild Bhlls felt toward the Chinn family. You see. I wasn't a man at nil until I came to work for your dad So if over you need a friend, what you've got to do Is to came straight to old Jim Howard and -.ay 'Jim. I need you ' That'll be enough see?" Anthony laughed boyishly. "Sure, I will, Jim. I know you're a friend to us think I don t know?" No ouc more than a boy appreciates appre-ciates the confidence of a grown man. And Anthony came to feel as 4:1 f- "v- .VV mrs'-'. v '- -rBsgiHghB - - carried cut upon her to tho tune of further young laughter." West'.-- struggle. He sat up with him during his nights of horrors ifter his first debauch in Little Rapid?, took him to an institution for the cure In Illinois, brought him back and established him in his own house for a period of months thereafter, there-after, and made of Jim an unshakable, unshak-able, devoted friend by befriending bim. "What you need, Jim. is what wc all need." he told him. "friends, cheerful surroundings, good food and work that Interests us. I'll see that you have all of those. From now on you're foreman of the composing com-posing room and you've got to help me with 1 he paper." Jim wp.s cured When little An thony was a schoolboy, ho remembered remem-bered the word "Albuquerque" merely a a joke between Jim How-aid How-aid and bis father, and about the time Anthony was entering the High School, Jim, recently married, was moving into a little house he ad bought in Boone street, only a block away from the West house, a much respected citizen of Little Rapids. Early Tn his career as assistant editor of the Beacon. Jim established estab-lished confidentially cordial relations rela-tions with the son of his employer and rescuer. "Ever read Kipling?' he asked the boy one day In the office. "I've read the Jungle Book," Anthony An-thony answered glibly, "all about Bagheera and Kaa and the pack and Mov gU gee, I wish I could ewlng that way from tree to tree" "Yes," taid Jim, "that's fine that story of the beasts. But now you're going to the High School, you're old enough to read stories aboHt men You want to read a story called 'The Tomb of His Ancestors,' in a book called 'The Day's Work.' It' 4 about the hill tribe of Wild men In Indf' caMed Bhlls. A certain Englishman Eng-lishman named John f'hinn had .ought them, ruled them and civilized civ-ilized them. Hh was their friend. He made the Bhll a man. they said. The story la all about their gratl- though he had two fathers He was always running to Jim with some secret and always confiding to hlni some marvelous Idea. Now it was a scheme to get rich by pigeon-b pigeon-b reeding, now a plan for converting a bicycle into a motorcycle Al ways Jim was patient and sympathetic, sympa-thetic, but always he was waiting, waiting until tho hoy wa3 old enough t-- turn his mind on more important things. CHAPTER V. ADELA GRAY Tin: brooding spirit of peace that overhangs the average aver-age town of the Central West never whollv dies from the hearts of its sons In after af-ter life It appeared to Anthony as either u bleak and dull emptiness or as a BWeet pastoral simplicity, depending on his mood. But that curiously colorless geometrical yet vital entity that was Little Rapids never quite faded from bis memory, and those days of his boyhood, in any caoe. were halcyon days. There was a fullness about them, an Indescribable richness of occupation occu-pation and detail that filled a boy's life with i delicious sequence of interest. in-terest. There wore rabblt-hutcbes to be made out of packing boxes, dOVOCOtOP for the squab farm in the shod, a Licyclo to bo perpetually (died and tinkered with and. of course, the embroidery of school and lessous that served as a hem to the general garment of life. And then there was Adela Gray. She was two years younger than nthonv, ond such was her amazing genius (ho could explain it only on the ground of genius) that she was his equal and contemporary in classes and usually his superior In the marks she received. Hers was not the robustious style of pretti-noss. pretti-noss. of sheer young animal health, but the more appealing and interesting inter-esting sort, of dark hair, pallor and large eyes and an extraordinary gift for reverence and admiration. Anthony West, senior, master of the mysteries Of the written and printed word, and a great and good man besides, be-sides, was to Adela little short of a demigod. It was an apt Illustration of woman's eternal adoration of learning, priestcraft and sanctity. And some of her admiration was even trarsferred to young Anthonj She loved to be with hi.n. to go to and from school with kin.; to run up the steps of an afternoon and con suit him about the ta.'k in Latin or in algebra, not only for tho sake of seeing him but so she might also catch a glimpse of his father with bis round pleasant face, his twink ling eye and his humorous smile "Where's mother7" the elder West would sometimes inquire upon ontorlng the houso with features composed to the sternness of a hanging hang-ing judge. The boy and trfrl. p ssi-bly ssi-bly working together at their les sons in the living room f.'ould laugh in anticipation. The j knew that expression. "She B in the kitchen, father," the boy would Inform him. "Go and get her, son." West would reply with unrelaxed severity sever-ity "Tell her there's a man here who wants to kiss her." And the children would laugh uproariously and mother would appear in rc sponse to the noise and sentence would bo carried out upon her to tho tune of further young laughter. "I adore your father." Adela would afterwards whisper to Anthony, An-thony, her great eyes shining with adoration "Great old dad," Anthony would say with masculine brevity and secret se-cret pride; but ho loved Adela for her worship. Mrs. West was so happy that sometimes she was sad to the point of tears. The tears came with the occasional forebodings that never wholly pass by the feminine heart, forebodings of the envy of the gods. She loved her husband, loved her only son, and the paramount object of her prayers was that their life should never change. In her best and happiest moments she was aware that to other families como storm and tempest and shipwreck, but she believed that somehow her llttlo bark would be miraculously spared. At other times, notablv when she was tired, the very se-lenlty se-lenlty and gaiety of her household. Hie humor of her husband or some mark of brilliance in her son. would bring the unbidden tears to her eyes. If he happened to observe It, her husband would jocularly accuse her of being temperamental and sentimental an accusation she accepted ac-cepted with misty laughter In her eyes. It was a charge she never refuted, for every good woman is to that extent hoth temperamental and sentimental and unashamed. Those middle years in tho High School were so big and pregnant with tho possibilities of lifo tbat young Anthony at times felt himself him-self a veritable Monte Crlsto. The. question was at which point to take hold of the world that was so promisingly, prom-isingly, so brilliantly his. He dls-CUBSed dls-CUBSed matter uith hln chum. Arthur Ar-thur Clark, he discussed them even more Intimately, because more easily, with Adela Gray. J nere was West Point, there was Annapolis, there was the State University at Lincoln there were the Eastern colleges and the professions an embarrassment, a profusion of riches Adela's earnest eyes shone with Interest. "No. Anthonv," she concluded decisively, de-cisively, "not Annapolis. I wouldn't be a sailor for anything, if I were you You do see foreign countries, but you've got to be away from home weeks, years et a time out on the ocean alone In storms it muit be terrible." "Yes." he met her, "but look at the training vou get- and on the water you get simply rotten with health! And the places you see China, Gibraltar, Singapore Yokohama!" Yoko-hama!" "For the sake of a few measly strange places!" protested Adela. "You can see thoso In other ways! And you can do millions of more Interesting things on dry land." Anthony was somewhat dashed and disappointed at her lack of enthusiasm en-thusiasm for a lifo on the ocean wave. "Women always want to keep a fellow at home. Nobody would ever do anything except clerk in a grocery gro-cery if they had their way" "Nasty thing!" exclaimed Adela with Indignation. "Do you want to leave your father and mother and everything?" "Well, a fellow has to do some-thing some-thing I suppose you'd feel the same Way about West Point9" "No, I wouldn't How do you know how I'd feel? But what's the use of bfing a soldier when there aren't any wars?" she argued. "And it would be worse if there were wars." "Oh: yes! " this with mocking truc-ulence. truc-ulence. "I'll get a safe little job In Klein's grocery or in Waldman's tailor shop and press the pants of Little R&pids." Adela "hurst into gales of laughter laugh-ter and the discussion was adjourned ad-journed until the next time. There were similar discussions bearing upon medicine and law and engineering. This last profession, however, was only weakly touched upon because of Anthony's distaste dis-taste for mathematics. "I'll tell you what, Adela," he came lounging to her porch one afternoon af-ternoon He was obviously laboring labor-ing under an Inspiration. "I've got it' I know what I am going to do. I've decided. I'm not going to study for anything at all! Why tie myself my-self to any one thing, llko the army, or nary, or law or medicine? The great thing is to go to some big I college first. Get a general, all- round education Then you're fit for anything That's what all the big men have done. If you read their biographies I've been reading some of them. Look at Alexander Hamilton look at Webster look at Teddy Roo That's the V game, eh, Adela?" "But Hamilton and Webster I didn't they know law?" iffl "Oh, I suppose so. Everybody I knows law I mean everybody ought to know law. Easy enough to learn law Yon begin with Blackstone," he elucidated. "I'll ask Dad to get me Blackstone at once. Probably Jim Howard's got one. I'll borrow it and begin right now." "Oh, that's scrumptious"' Adela cried with admlratlop. I ll get a I Blackstone. too, out of the library. Then we can talk about it ' "Yes." said Anthony, tolerantly. "Not a bad Idea, Addle ' Suddenly he chuckled. "What's the matter, Tony?" 'Why," said Anthony, with the air of a discoverer, "we've forgotten the diplomatic service" "Oh. of course1" and Adela j elappod her hands "And you're so j good at French and German," "Yes" nonchalantly "those things are rather easy to me." "Isn't it simply wonderful how many things you can do'" mar- I sellod Adela. In an ecstasy of admiration. ad-miration. "Oh, how I wish I were a I boy! What can a girl do?" Anthony was moved from the sublime contemplation of hl6 powers pow-ers to give a moment's attention to Adela's case. It was only fair. I "Shucks," he said. "There are plenty enough things a girl can do. Look at your drawing' Why should j you not be an artlsf Do you knov how much some of them get for a I picture?" Adela shook her head. "Five hundred and even a thousand dollars Is nothing for 'em to get for one picture. That's poor Isn't it?" 'Oh. if I only could!" she mur- j mured wistfully. "What's the reason you can't?" I ho demanded with a certain feroc-Ity feroc-Ity "Look at Rosa Bouheur look at all the others," he concluded lamely. JH "I suppose I can scratch a little j but you've got to learn color It lakes years and years but look at all the things you can do. Be a Statesman a Diplomat be Great i Oh, Antbonj, aren't you glad you are not going to West Point or Annapolis?" An-napolis?" Anthony nodded his agreement, j and both felt that he had narrowly j escaped misdirecting his genius. It was at about this lime that An- ! thony made up his mind that he L was going not to the State University Univer-sity but to Harvard. Those talk? with Adela and occasionally with hl9 mother, the groplngs which amounted to little more than turning turn-ing the pages of the books at Jim Howard's, advanced his decision j rapidly. He sent for catalogues to Harvard. Yale and Princeton, but from tho first Harvard was the university uni-versity to which he was drawn "Look at the language and liter- j ary courses they offer a fellow and the psychology and history everything!" He could not see why every holder hold-er of a Harvard degree should not be a light of genius an Admirable , H Crichton. a finished and accomplished accom-plished man of tho world. "Its perfectly grand!" sighed Adela "I wish I could go there." j "I wish you could," he said without with-out enthusiasm. He was too absorbed ab-sorbed to treat that yearning for the Impossible seriously. Girls were always wishing for things beyond their reach. What he could not understand, however, was that Arthur Clark . should not also take fire at the Idea of going to Harvard. My dad couldn't afford to send me there," Arthur protested mildly. "I'll have to go to tho State Unl-versify Unl-versify if I go at all." "Neither can my dad afford It," retorted Anthony emphatically "But I'll go there just the same if I have to work my way. Nothing can stop me." As this was said in the presence of Adela. he realized that ho had committed himself Ir-levocabh Ir-levocabh The glow,of admiration in Adela s eves made a retreat from his position impossible. When Anthony sounded his father upon his new decision, his father smiled. "Is that the Simon-pure and only genuine lrtest nbm. son?" "Yes. djid. That's vvhnt I really want to do." Continued on cxt Page (0) 1020 IntMnaUona Feuture Service, lac. Great Britain Klcbtu Referred. II I A TraobtiinLMtdi KommcefAirc&R Life I I Continued from Preceding Page "Harvard's a long way from Little Lit-tle Rapids, my boy; don't you think "Yes. dad. But you don't want me to remain forever in your pocket?" "I don't know," West laughed a shade spdly. "Lots of room in my pocket." 1 know," Anthony caught him up. It costs a lot to go to Harvard. Cut I'll be economical and I 11 work my way if ncrc--r.ary at least partly part-ly Say you'll let me go. dad. If a fcilow begins by muffing his very first ambition, what's ho going to amount to?" West was touched by the boy's eagerness. In his boyhood in Ohio ho. too, had dreams of going to au Eastern college. Ho, however, was rne of several children He went West instead But Anthony was an only child, and already he was longing to go two thousand miles away. The desire of children to leave their parents is one of the secret sorrows of parenthood. "Well," he said chcerfullv, iho with a strange heaviness at the heart, "we'll 6ee what we'll oo. You've got quite a piece of high-schooling high-schooling tt do yot. Plug along, son." But doubt and mere speculation were intolerable conditions to Anthony. An-thony. He had determined to go to Harvard and to Harvard ho would co. He began an elaborate correspondence with the university relative to the terms of hi3 admission admis-sion as though his going were a settled fact, and it was with something some-thing of an effort that he recalled himself to activities and needs ;f the moment. It was then, at the beginning of his fourth year in the high school, that Fate dealt him a blow that snt him reeling headlong. His father, returning from Chicago in a night train, was killed in a collision. col-lision. Anthony West, of the Beacon, who had been like a tower, like an institution, wns suddenly snufi.ii out like a candle. I CHAPTER VI. THE FUTURE pnrHE spirit and the courage displayed dis-played by Mrs. West in her tragedy were the marvel of all her friends and neighbors in Little Rapids. If in dark moments of sorrowing and depression 6ho Questioned the inscrutable reasons for such a death as that of her husband, hus-band, she never publicly quarrelled with fate or cursed her lot. ller son, she resolved, should see her turning her face to the blows of oestiny as unflinchingly as she had met the blessings. The paper was the problem that loomed paramount over all tho other problems. But the bread that its founder had cast upon the waters of life when he befriended be-friended Jim Howard now came back a hundredfold to the widow and orphan. For when Mrs. West inquired whether he would be willing to Carry on the Beacon "for the present" if he were given an interest in-terest in it in addition to his salary, he unhesitatingly accepted the responsibility re-sponsibility and refused tho interest, in-terest, "I have," he declared, "already a greater interest than any financial interest could give me." When her own arguments proved unavailing, Mrs. West sent Anthony, An-thony, whom she believed to be ir-sistible ir-sistible to all the world because the loved him, to argue Jim into accepting an interest. To Anthony Jim gave his reasons for refusal a i;ood deal more treely and explicitly-"Don't you worry at all," he said, putting his hand on the boy's Blender shoulder. "Everything will be all right and the paper will go on until yoU get your education and come into the game. Perhaps you and your mother don't trust me on account of my past performances" Anthony protested vehemently. vehem-ently. "Well, I'll do my best. I'm the Bhll remember, Anthony? and you're John Chinn. And your lather made the Bhil a man though mabe I'm bragging. But anyhow, I'll stick and I'll do my best." And so the matter was settled r.nd Jim Howard was tending tho Beacon fires- and Mrs. West tola Anthony how grateful he ought to be, and Antnony was grateful except ex-cept that gratitude is not a spec-i. spec-i. It y of tho young That came later, but In tho meanwhile the af-tVftion af-tVftion between Jim and the boy (. opened markedly. Maturity, however, does hasten cn tho heels ol suffering, even in the young, and Anthony was per-COPtlbly per-COPtlbly older three months after his father's death. With many searching of tho heart ho told himself that now oC course Harvard was out of tho question. ques-tion. But his mother, who heretofore hereto-fore had remained neutral in those dibcussions of careers that would lake her son far from her, now seemed encased in a veritable panoply of strength and determination. determina-tion. Every woman is n virtuoso in suffering for those she loves. Mrs. West now insisted that to liar-yard liar-yard he must go, since Harvard was best, if only for tho sake of the paper's future, his fathers prlnri p?l monument. She put it on that ground) though none guessed what it coat her. She even enlistel Adela's aid, and Adela loyally supported sup-ported her, though deep In her i eart the girl felt that Anthony o.'ght not to leave his mother, 'You certainly ought to go, Anthony," An-thony," she insisted doggedly. She was sixteen now and mature for her age, and there, was a new, a haunting haunt-ing wistfulness in her great eyes. the young, and Anthony was per- '"" reptibly older three months after his father's death. I With many searching of tho "" heart ho told himself that now oC ' course Harvard was out of tho question. ques-tion. But his mother, who hereto- Vy foie had remained neutral in those discussions of careers that would lake her son far from her, now ' Don 1 You ee," Grace had smiled seemed encased in a veritable luminously, "my xtraightness panoply of strength and detcrmina- s aj j,ye got? tlon. Every woman is n virtuoso ' in suffering for those she loves. Vy Mrs. West now insisted that to liar-'. liar-'. nid he must go. since Harvard was best, if only for tho sake of the ' paper's future, his fathers prlnri p?l monument. She put it on that -'Xtctot$U. ' ' r. ground) though none guessed what . it coat her. Sho oven enlistel t" Adela's aid. and Adela loyally sup- " ' ' $Mr ''' ported her, though deep in her ' "'-i J-'.- .. ' . '' heart the girl felt that Anthony " . , - '. ' '' .: o.'ght not to leave his mother, , - . .', - '. r; . ' V.--(A',- 'You certainly ought to go, An- f i ' -',. ' ; rjv$v'&V' thony." she iubistcd doggedly. Sho , , ' ?''v.' ; was sixteen now and mature for her age, and there was a new, a haunt- , iSSl A. '' i 'V'' ; ''"'V-v- ' , :? '(- 'f$'S.$J: rng wistfulness in hor great eyes. - ' , . . ? ' ' vtvM;'- ?, ."if , . - - " " ' . ' r- -', ' " -'. '': '' 5 f'- V-.V' 'tv'-,'V-- '' ' ' .." ., ' ' ' jC-'' A ' : - PHI? ' ' W . - - t'4X' -til " jlljf J$$t .. ' v'l'sP ' vS . , ting into a great body. A lot of US " ' :-.v:'.'. v) 'L . ' , don't seem to belong at all we're ' " f..', , ' . . Kf yy i - ' , Jhst scattered, rolling about here '"' - kh ' :'''; i llko bafls ot tumbleweed in tho -, . w .. " . ' . ' wind." Sam had never seen that f -p:r' : ' '. i v , i '' "' product of the prairie that so aptly .-, , ', i. ',' ' C-'. 'j ft I Illustrated Anthony's meaning, but ' ' '''M-. ' ' - M- . 1 X na unJerstoo1-" i'l&i. -' ' 'Zi''" ' . ; ' .fe , ' , . "Like driftwood, you mean," : if' ' commented the denizen of the . f ?.T;.iiie roast, "that's about the size ,f '-n$lm$t' il There's nothmg to do about it," be observed philosophically. 1 "The Boston boys have their cliques Z j . it, .,. . Jind their parties and their girl i .'. '- ,V friends in Bo.ston and Brookline ,' jf& a'xw I'' J-mi so on. But we fellows have to do the best we can." ,fPj$f?:$L. :- ' " ' "' fllug and th dlscoverv that so "Yes," said Authony. not without &S;.sJ& jrfflBHPi-'' ' -nucb ot tc.i u.al education was dull a touch of bitterness. "But they've L .fr$t)m&: .'-- ' . il?' v;.:. another maturing influence in developed a big university and we 3Sb?I' can take It or leave it If we como ' . Younger than a good many of his tr' t- 'vllv strangers, and ''ZX.-.Af$ t'H : 'rr fellow students, ho was more ma- we've got to make the best of tho w--h:fr ----u"-y ' . , lure than most lie camo to realize opulent hospitality we get." "Y" that in one sense his father had "You've hit it: JHBlr I c. n a belter educated man than "At home I used to know girl.i," ;-wgr , 9ume 0f those Eastern scholars: Anthony was almost thinking Ihr.t Jim Howard was better read in aloud ' There were parties. Older I . . . .V ' l 1 Till I . I i ' U'riCA i . I f i , , , . A In MM H m. "You will meet Mt people dtt- ferent people '' She could not help reflecting hat was her own personal per-sonal point of view. "Ixits of Eastern girls" 6he added with a laugh, though it stabbed her heart to say the words. " you'll forget all about me," she was now woman enough to want to say. But what ehe did say was, "They'll spoil you -but you ought to go all the same." Anthony believed himself to be passive if not actually adverse under this feminine urging to do the thing he most wanted to do. "Anyway," he finally yielded, "I don't have to stop there indefinitely. A year or two may give me all I want a good start to go from history, languages, literature a little lit-tle economics and phyrhology 'hat's the kind of thing a newspaper news-paper man wants. Once I get z I tart I can keep it up while l am working on the paper." Jim Howard, to whom he re peated this stoical programme, smiled from the depths of a ripo experience "All right, my boy. Go ahead. But you nned'nt work overtime at being an angel. I reckon most of us would be satisfied if you came out merely a good man " Authony entered Harvard University Uni-versity in the Autumn of nineteen-nine nineteen-nine and Ihe accomplishment of that feat was like a solid landmark in his existence. Ho was in hi3 nineteenth year and despite the soberness of tho circumstances under which he had left home, his heart was hungering for some magically romantic rot urn for al' the passionate yearning that be bad so long openly and secretly directed toward that goal . It Is notable, however, that Har-vard, Har-vard, an well as many another achievement returns certain vague (Cl IStflp. Tn1"m-"i..n disappointments to those who too passionately long for it. was Intensely lonely during tho first months; there was nobody else llK-re from Lis town, and he was b ith surprised and hurt to find that he signified absolutely nothing In Lis new environment. His name would have marked him at tho State University, but here no one seemed to kuow anything about it. He had a room in the Yard and, StbCO he knew no one to select as a roommate, the college office assigned as-signed a bland, solid boy from Maine, Sam Cullen, to be his roommate. room-mate. With a 6ober zest Anthony plunged into his work, as one conscientiously con-scientiously aware that sacrifice had been made to enable him to come here. Half the students at Harvard arc in that position and do the like at the outset. Later on, in a good many cases, varying degrees de-grees of reaction set In. because youth and rigor are normally an-I an-I ltic It was so with Anthony, lb n -h his mlud was naturally keen and ho had a genuine affinity for the subjects he selected. But mostly it was a matter of dry plod- i r, -.,.ro Service. Inc. Great llrl Biiig and the discovery that so much of formal education was dull was another maturing influence in Ambon 's life Younger than a good many of hi.3 fcilow students, ho was more mature ma-ture than most. He camo to realize thai in one sense his father had I in n a better educated man than some of these Eastern scholars: Ihr.t Jim Howard was better read in things that really mattered than :njry a Doctor of Philosophy within the faculty. Those discoveries were very illuminating to him. For the first Btep in truo education, cfier all. i-; the knowledge that education Is not an especially pat-i pat-i iiti-d product sealed up in th-j seati. uf learning. L ut somehow Harvard had never quite Tot hold of him. He had expected ex-pected too much, perhaps, but In any case, there was a pervasive s ense of disappointment. Thero war a lack of intimacy in the vast machinery of the university that bo was always feeling and endeavoring endeavor-ing vainly to combat. "What ; wrong v.th this place?' he suddenl demanded of Sam Cul-ldi Cul-ldi one evening, as they sat with their pipes before a wood fire grate. "Wrong," repeated Sam in astonishment. aston-ishment. "Nothing that I can see. What did you expect?" For a moment Anthony was non-pluised. non-pluised. What did he expect? It difficult to put into words. But there was something that he had fiercely yearned for, something for Which BaCliflces had ben made at home, two thousand miles away, and he had not found it. "I thought thc:o would be more interest in ue," he struggled for his meaning, "more direction, more Attain At-tain KifhtH Rmcttm' tir.g into a great body. A lot of us don't seem to belong at all we're .insl scattered, rolling about here Uko I). iris ot tumbleweed in tho wind." Sam had never seen that product of the prairie that so aptly Illustrated Anthony's meaning, but he understood." "Like driftwood, you mean," commented the denizen of the M.-.jne roast, "that's about the siZ9 of it There's nothing to do about it," he observed philosophically. "The Boston boys have their cliques nnd their parties and their girl friends In Boston and Brookline and so on But we fellows have get to do the best we can." "Yes," said Authony. not without a touch of bitterness. "But theVve developed a big university and we i in take it or leave it If we como to It, why we're strangers, and we've got to make the best of tho pulent hospitality we get." "You've bit it.' "At home I used to know girl.i," Anthony was almost thinking aloud "There were parties. Older people were interested in your goings go-ings and comings, but this" "Oh. cheer up," chuckled Sam. "I I. now what . troubling ou. But they've got some peaches of waft reuses at Johnson's, I notice, and tb yre Off duty by half past eight " "That's not exactly what I cr.me here for." Anthony answered, and the conversation closed. Nevertheless Anthony said nothing noth-ing at home, when he came for the Summer vacation, about leaving Harvard forthwith: and the following follow-ing year, when he had made some acquaintances and begun to earu some pocket money by occasional t'.toring In French and German, he omIv hop'-il that r,o mie would sug- t his leaving college. Jim Howard, however, the ancient wreck whose shibboleth had been Albuquerque, was tireless, alert, ef-fe ef-fe live, producing a splendid Bea-cou Bea-cou and-his editorials were attracting attract-ing attention throughout the State Mrs West watched in an awed si-lence si-lence composed of three fourths gratitude and one-fourth pathos that her husband's place should be Ailed almost adequately. Anthony was not a ?ood corres-nor.denf. corres-nor.denf. but when rn did write he rote admirable descriptive letters, full of a gay humor that reminded her much of his father. Adela alio Was the recipient of occasional bulky letter:? that she treasured in a manner she would not for the iV' world divulge to their author. That Wk I young man, she thought, was con-ceiled con-ceiled enough. It was a peculiarity of Adela's at that time that she v.-a-, fearful of betraying how much affection af-fection she felt for people. H Anthony's sense of disappoint meiit n Harvard had worn off. Iu time he had made friends in the casual, gonial way of the collcgo boy. though to his mind there WJ I ;lili a lack of Intimacy in tho-1? friend-hips. He had joined a Club or two, though not the exclusi 0 clubs whose memberships were Bl adorned with well-known Bor.ton and New York names, and he con-triboted con-triboted occasionally to some of tho college papers. Ho even came to I know two or three Cambridge Hfl girlSi upon whom he made formal N( v Emgland calls. Generally H speaking, however he had an lin- IB deriving feeling that lite as he had dreamed it was not here. LBI His last year at college had com. HH The period of decision and of change was drawing near. Remote was the h who had longed so passionately come hero yet how like a dream fB the time had passed! A restl - uess, a kind of violent impatience M obsessed hint He was at th' very j gates of life, that strange, unelmt- jR ed sea, and still without pl.n or m compass. His uucommendable trip vHBI to Now York with Joe Shelburn lH - In tho nature of fierce reaction Bl against his indecisive drifting. And :PH the telegram announcing his motb cr 's serious illness had overtake j 1 im like a catastrophe. CHAPTER VII. ' HOME. :T W0DER whether ra I human at all," An hony thought, as he caught . K himself smiling even as tho train- IIhr vas whirling him to his mother's Hl bedside He was disturbed, wor- El ried, uneasy, yet as he was coming MB out of the dining car a phrase Sam f 9 Cullen had jocularly used came to him ?nd he smiled, albeit ruefully. ' Look out. or Little Rapids will M get you," Sam had warned him .me evening I ' Look out. or Little Rapids will - fl get you" the phrase revolved In his mind as he sat down In the H club car. lighted 'lis stumpy briar pipe and puffed at it mechanically. Was Little Rapids certain to get him? Miserably, he supposed It was. Everything was against his leaving his mother alone any long- 1 cr. She bad borne up well during El the years since his father's death. Sl She had acquiesced in the aep-aratiou aep-aratiou from her only son, for her son's good, for the sake of hi v, :she3 and how much she must 11 have suffered! Now he must do HH the right, the manly thing, and MEM stay by her. If only he could take Rfl his degree! It isu't much, a de- RH gree but it's a saM-.faeijon to have; jl ii after years of work. Only two &HH courses he needed; six months flH more at Cambridge and the trick P 1 would he done. Bui life was full of melancholy frustration?. And I even if he took that degree, what HsH was there af :crui lis : Little Rap. Bffl ids' Ho .xnuddered Inwardly. HKgp New York! The senration of E New York came back to him tin- hEc! bidden with a startlinc sense of actuality. The burst and th; crash and I he bustle of i, the endless H possibility enfolded in that vast complexity it was a cosmos iu EKI itself That was life! Why was it that at his age, twenty-two, and all but a gradu- 1 jwa afe, his mind should have so tittle t fcffiffl directive purpose? His thoughts s3 suddenly flew off at a taugent He must go to Little Rapids, assume pfll9 the burdens and the responsibilities or a littlo country paper to rre IKta clsely what end9 Outside of that narrow pasture, whore he must walk like a horse that is hobbled, there was the world, there were bj9B! careers, brilliance, riches, erperi- pOWzl ence foreign travel wonderful men and women. Was there nc way jfii Out? No solution of the problem" A bier man could doubtless find a M do-. I, - B vVomen! How eager and apne-ahlo apne-ahlo had been this girl Grace Thomas. She was only a telephone girl, but she was a New York tele- ! phone girl There was the differ- H ence. Tho vitality of her and the H attractiveness and her straight talk. "My straightness is all I've RS?8 got.' Her words were beatlne in his brain to the muffled sound of tho carwheels beneath him. A splendid girl He hoped Joe Shel. burn would let her alone Confound Con-found Joe Phelburn! The warmth of ner kisses Adela could never but Adela was of another world. W9 Then the purpose of his errand BErP came forcibly into his mind and HB&P ho abruptly took up a newspaper Hff to change the trend of his whir'.mr K thoughts. Coi.VTl-M. tit. iT i.ku, nrriwr, Co. B To Be Continued Next Sunday, |
