A Son of the City

ady the surroundings of dreary blackboard, dingy-green calsomine, and oft-revarnished yellow pine woodwork were becoming irksome. The spelling lesson had not been so unpleasant, for he could sense t

Or "A field contains four hundred square yards. One side i

thmetic homework on the blackboard. Instantly John's attention wandered to

and he longed-as he had longed for the launch that morning-for a vehicle which would take him along untraveled roads to a country where schools were not, and small boys fished and played games the long days through. Next, a three-year-old stubbed her toe against the street curbing opposite the

little harmonies of sound as it swept through the tall, waving grass; strange birds carolled joyously from the orchard by the road, and near at hand th

ver-shifting panorama of flower and bird and animal life which he loved so well. Past the ramshackle farm of the first neighbor to the north, past the little deserted country school house, past the pressed-steel home of a would-be agriculturist, which had rusted to an artist

et his hook float with the current past some particularly promising bit of watercress. There was the fallen, half-rotted log under which the swift current had dug a deep hole in the sandbed for the big fellows to haunt and pounce out upon bits of food which floated by. H

k to present day surroundings. He rose uncertainl

," he st

elling the cl

lance, roaming the room, caught at the newly written pro

telling-"

e,' J

and not to use pen and ink if we couldn't get along without blots and-an

ed with an exultant grin on his freckled face. Several little girls seemed on the verge of foolish, disci

lties do you credit. But it happens t

submissive, conscience-stricken little mortal. Inwardly he seethed with anger. What right

rm, "I spoke just six times to you last week. Finally you promised me t

great out-of-doors called to him with an insistence which was irresistible, but shucks, she wouldn't understand. How was he to

as Sid DuPree sprang forward to admit the newcomer-a new girl and her mother. From the shelter of his big

ing through a dexterous shot, or a soft, evenly grained top split cleanly to the spear head amid the proper shouts of approval than her fretful, piercing voice put an end to further fun. Such goings-on made her head ache, she averred time and again. If they didn't leave immediately, she'd telephone the police station. Once she had said it was a "wonder some parents wouldn'

girl-ah! she was

her eyes were a deep, rich brown. As the conversation ended between teacher and parent, she left the platform and walked to the front seat assigned her in a timid, shrinking way which stamped her as

es himsel

f "'Fraid cat! 'Fraid cat!" Or that bully might throw pieces of chalk at her or pelt her with snowballs in the winter time until

the pupils. Pencils scratched laboriously over rough manila pads as their owners copied the questions from the board. The boy two seats ahead of John took a wa

test papers she had been corre

dered sharply. "Class pre

d inactivity of restless little bodies. Moreover, they were vastly more enjoy

he crisp command after the children had stumbled to their feet

, "Thrust forward, upwards, and from your sides," "bend trunks," to all points of the compass, "lunge to the right and left, and thrust

rallel rows, took hold of each other's hands. At teacher's command, they swung their a

k ahead. A day earlier he had counted himself fortunate in having her for a neighbor, for she was clever at studies which re

hand released her plump right fingers at the end of

ed daily for months is out of line with its neighbor, that the seat behind the new little girl was u

ich fourth-graders indulge when teacher's back is turned, or to win her quick, flashing smil

to allow voluntarily some other pupil to fill the inkwells, distribute pencils, scratch pads, and drawing paper at their appoi

Africa in front of him as a blind, he fell to comparing

her with a great deal of favor during the past two weeks, for she was a jolly little sprite with a mother who, thanks to the neighborhood's laundry patronage, contrived to clothe her daughter in a constantly varying and seldom-fitting assortment of dresses. Now echoes o

, nevertheless, his girl. So he drove ruthlessly from his heart all memories of a certain gray-eyed Harriette, his third-grade charmer, and erect

rth to support a direct request for transfer, Miss Brown would never assign it to him. Many a past bitter experience had shown the most harmless de

went upstairs to the big, sunny sewing room, searched the family needlecase for a long stiff darning needle and extracted several rubber bands from the red cardboard box on the lib

ord book from the right-hand drawer, and gave a few reassuring pats to her dark, orderly hair. Scurrying footsteps pounded up to the cloak room entrance. A moment later, Thomas Jackson, still

. Hardly had Anna's timid "Here" reached her ears than a series of subdued c

a Bo

nap and glared at the class, which hesitated between ill-suppressed amusement and f

d-graders. Try to act as really g

e the maddening repetitio

office and suspended for two weeks." During the awed silence which followed, she seated herself and t

son," she cal

his morning," volunteered the

een something whizzed through the air. Thomas Jackson jum

I'll fix him. Who done it?

that rub

set in a thin, nervous line, and the hand which held the record book trembled ever so slightly. In an opposite corner of the room, two little girls giggled hysterically. The ring of pupils around him, true to the child's creed of no t

and the back of Olga's seat. A glance at Miss Brown found her watching Billy Silvey closely in

room. Miss Brown's face went white with rage. John caught the

ray of reflected light caught the teacher's eye, and she pounced

e stood beside him. "So it's you who

eat of a visit to the principal's office and consequent suspension, but an outraged sense of p

our books,"

t ink-scarred-a manila scratch pad, a ruled block of ink paper with a cover crudely illustrated during his many bored moments, and a s

m sternly, "is that you'll have to stay after school an hour for the rest of the week. As for your

s the only vacant one in the room located at all near Miss Brown's des

such a well-behaved little girl, I'm going to let her e

is arms and, half-way up the aisle, stood aside to let his divinity pass. Longingly his glance took in every detail of the silken curls, the curving lashe

as greatly puzzled, for boys did not usually take detentions after school so much to heart. But fifteen minutes before school ended for the day, she knew th

it until teacher fixes you for ducking." A friend called an enthusiastic invitation to play tops on the smooth street macadam. Silvey stopped to convey the important information that the "Tigers"

hool yard to the street and hippity-hopped over the cement sidewalk tow

nge stood, her gait slackened to a walk-still eastward. Past the little block of stores which housed a struggling delicatessen, an ambitious, gilt-signed "elite" tailoring establishment,

a girl, you might be obsessed with a desire to find her residence that you might pass it occasionally and wonder in a dreamy sort of a way

a-thump, he watched the door of the big apartment building at the end of the street close upon the little white-clad form, and he knew that the van load of furnitur

the dairy farm, which served as baseball grounds, athletic field, and football gridiron, accordi

ootball," Silvey explained. "We

s dismissal, owned half of an old football casing, which had been padded to make a head guard, and there was a scattering of sweaters among them. Sid DuPree, thanks to parental affluence, was the only boy who laid claim to a co

ed into the field and sent the pigskin spinning

and size as that which the big university team used, and which cost as much as, or more, than a new suit of clothes, according to the

ively assigned, and the squad raced over weeds and stones in an effort to master the rudimentary plays, while Silvey strutted and blustered and administered corrective lectures in a manner that was a ludicrous imitation of a certain high-school coach. Let John excel at baseball if he would

"Tig

the team sauntered noisily homeward. He wanted to learn t

Only the school docto

ol board's orders, were to "Make daily visits, morning and afternoon, to examine all cases of susp

ou mean?"

me up to the office to see him. 'Stay home a day, my boy,

as a cure. He wished he'd been Albert. He'd a' stayed on the pier all morning and hooked the big carp again. Some folks

evening by a sudden and seemingly morbi

ad and homemade marmalade, "what's measles and

er, after the manner of women, remembere

eeling sick,

she tell him about any of the for

then. It'll upset your stomach.

nyway. Only one of the boys at school had gone home with the measles

the desk, his eyes glued to the portly, green-bound Family Doctor. Beside him on a pad were scribb