Penrod and Sam

e to refrain when daily, up and down the neighbourhood, the brothers strutted with mystic and important airs, when they whispered together and uttered words of st

private errand. He climbed the Williams' alley fence, and, having made a modest investigation of the exterior of the shack, which was padlocked, retired without having disturbed anything except his own peace of mind. His curiosity, merely piqued before, now became ravenous and painful. It was not allayed by the mystic manners of the members or by the unnecessary emphasis they laid upon their coldness toward himself; and when a committee informed him darkly that there were

bad influence. Georgie felt that Sam would WANT him to come and play in the shack if Penrod didn't make Sam do everything HE wants. What hurt Georgie most is that it's SAM'S shack, and he felt for another boy to come and tell him that he mustn't even go NEAR it-

ured was omitted from this discourse which leads

ing way, Mrs. Williams. Of course, we mothers mustn't brag of our sons too much, but Georgie REALLY isn't like other boys. He is so sensitive, you can't think how this little affair has hurt him, and I felt that it might even make him ill. You see, I HAD to respect his reason

ch took place between Sam and his father that evening, for Mrs. Williams, after talking to

play in the shack all he wants to," th

ut

t going to have neighbour

, Pa

yourself you haven't an

sai

inst him. You couldn't mention anything he ever did which wasn't what a gentleman should have done. It's no use, I

, PA

hauled away, you and your friends continue to tantalize this inoffensive little

ut

ALL, I

as cr

. The entire membership was in attendance; the door was closed, the window covered with a board, and the candle lighted. Then all of the brothers-except one-began to express their sorrowful apprehensions. The whole thing was spoile

e that he had picked up somewhere. It was broader and thicker than the old one and, during the melancholy prophecies of his fellows, he whittled the lesser end of it to the likeness of a handle. Thus engaged, he bore no appearance of despondency; on the contrary, his eyes, shining brightly in the candlelight, indicated that eager thoughts possessed him, while from ti

st cheerful, "this is only Tuesday. We got pretty ne

n answering yodel came presently; Penrod Schofield appeared, and by his side walked Georgie Bassett. Georgie was always neat; but Mrs. Williams noticed that he exhibited unusual gloss and polish to-day. As for his expression, it was a shade too complacent under the circumstances, though, for that matter, perfect tact avoids an air of triu

ding. Upon that, Penrod took Georgie's left arm, Sam took his right, and the three marched off to the backyard in a co

ment upstairs, and, for a couple of hours, employed herself with needle and thread in sartorial repai

essimist said, arriving out of breath. "That s'iety o' Mis

inquired mildly. "They are

tside celluh do', n'en-bang!-they bus' loose, an' been goin' on ev' since, wuss'n Bedlun! Ef they anything down celluh ain' broke by this time, it cain' be only jes' the foundashum, an' I bet THAT

lliams

mes, Fanny, when there are boys. They're just playin

se, Miz Williams, not mine. You wa

ue it by artificial light. Descending to the lower floor, she found the house silent, and when she opened the front door to see if the evening paper had come, she beheld Sam, Pen

a bad thing, after all, to show a littl

ion of every kind had been wiped from his

he sai

le pleasanter because you'd

es

rgie gon

es

noise in the cellar-Did

a'

Bassett have

remember details with absolute accuracy-"well, he

e thank t

o'

e even th

o'

s always so polite. He SEEMED to be

a'

seem to be enj

Sam looked at his mother in a puzzled way, and then he found it neces

pologetically. "I stumb

yourself?" she

s maybe I better

me up to your father's bathr

truthfully, "it ha

to apply the arnica to the alleged injuries himself. He was so persuasive that she yielded, a

Georgie show up, and w

Penrod were good as gold. I saw th

passed Mrs. Bassett's, I saw Doctor Venny's car in front, and that barber from the corner shop on Second Street was going in the door. I couldn't think what a widow w

anything to do with his having been over h

'm glad

began, when Fanny appeared, s

s detained at the instrument not more than five minutes; then she made a plunging return into

serably propheti

to you, too. She CAN'T talk much-she's hysterical. She says they lured

was already

he commanded, ov

all. "Sam!" she called, addressing the

n echo

AM

n sitting upon the floor in the shadow of the stairs and gazing meditatively at the hatrack. His manner indicated that he wished to produce the impression that he had

ied, "what ha

he said gently. "I got the arnica on

up!" sh

a'

nto the

mposed in a time so slow as to suit this march of Sam's. One

his encounter was a piteous sight. After one glance at his father's face, Sam turned

oice was as terrible as his face. "

m gulped; "no

ha

just 'nish

he fireplace, and there turned again, fac

s,

s said, deliberately, "that you and Penrod Schofield and Roderick Bitts and

p his head a little and to summ

to the cellar. We weren't goin' NEAR the cellar with him. We never

way from you, poor thing! Tryin

gedly. "We weren't chasin

id he go in

tly GO in the cellar,

he GET in the

ell in,"

d he fa

way, but just then he kind of-well, the first I noticed was I couldn't SEE him, and so we went and

clean breast of this whole affair and take the consequences. Y

s,

e Bassett fell down the cell

as blind

the beginning and tell me just what you did

s,

on,

all. He wasn't even hurt when he fell down cellar. There's

deadly. "Did you hear me tell

t effort and wa

o get dirty and he just wouldn't do it; and we all kept telling him he had to, or else how could there be any 'nishiation; and he kept gettin' madder and said he wanted to have the 'nishiation outdoors where it wasn't wet and he wasn't goin' to lay down on his stummick, anyway." Sam paused for wind, then got under way again: "Well, some of the boys were tryin' to get him to lay down on his stummick, and he kind of fell up against the door and it came open and he ran out in the yard. He was tryin' to get the blindfold off his eyes, but he couldn't because it was

onically; "I see. What were t

ir

lse you did to him? Wh

ret," Sam murm

l find your friend Penrod's parents agree with me in that. Mrs. Bassett had

rpart. Through the falling dusk his spirit may have crossed the intervening distance to catch a glimpse of his friend suffering

Mr. Willi

ause it's too warm yet, and we weren't goin' to

he FU

body that had any sense at all? Well, then we had the rixual, and-and-why, the teeny little paddlin' he got wouldn't hurt a flea! It was that little coloured boy lives in the alley did it-he isn't anyways near HALF Georgie's size but Georgie got mad and said he didn't want any ole nigger to paddle him. That's what he said, and it was his own foolishness, because Verman won't let ANYBODY call him 'nigger', and if Georgie was goin' to call him that he

as the 'just a

ave to wear in a bag around his neck. It wasn't enough to even make a person snee

s. "That accounts for

from our flag, and we put just a li

s. "That accounts for

, swallowing. "Then he

rit to precede him through it. But just before the pair passed fr

"what does 'In-O

te boy had be

of Infadelaty," he moaned-an

of Mrs. Bassett, though Roderick's punishment was administered less on the ground of Georgie's troubles and more on that of Roddy's havi

ad prompted them to linger in the alley in the vicinity of the shack, and it was to this fat

n the alley toward their own home. This was directly across the alley from the Schofields' stable, and they were horrified

, shaking his head. "Gl

ed gloomily