Show the old settler 0 my dear san Jua ners my friend edgar has reached the learned age of nineteen years business brings us together frequently f re and since afi fn my advanced stages of ignorance I 1 am trying to learn and since he simply itches to impart his abundance of knowledge he does the talking he has told me just about everything he ever did ahl whether A her he dil did it or not and he is always the hero of hi his story the brave generous grateful hero but I 1 simply had to stop him the other day youve told me a lot of fine things I 1 said no now w let me tell you something youve pictured to me your wonderful sense of grai gratitude tude in working three weeks for that man who found you sick in a box car and cared for you three days that was fine for you to volunteer to do the that much for him but its more than I 1 can listen to without protest according to your own story there was a man and woman who cared for you fifteen years beginning when you were a helpless brat of a baby without power to do a thing in return they gave you their time their attention their sacred love and all they hoped for in return was that you would love them and thank and help them a little as soon as you were able to give that help but you as soon as you got to a place where you could do anything in return for the truest friendship you will ever find in this or any other world went sneaking away like a coyo coyote te treating them with too much contempt to let them know where you were going or whether you wo would uld ever come back 1 I think of that mother tonight if she mourned herself to death lying there on her sleepless pillow and wondering where her boy is and whether he ever felt any sense of gratitude for the love and care she lavished upon him no sir edgar I 1 wish you had bad not told me how grateful you were to the man who found you sick and cared fr for you three days and got your three weeks of free service I 1 in return when a boy goes back on his father and his mother he is about the most scrubby specimen of ingratitude there is in all the world edgar had dropped his head and was looking at the floor and he said nothing again for a long time ALBERT R LYMAN |