Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 32, Number 89, 14 April 1907 — Page 6

El

The RUPERT IMUGflilIES.

Tun

Baitik9

By

""HE baby's savings hank is an excellent thing. It often saves the grown ups from serious embarrassment. When Seta Radford. Jr.. was born. Seth Radford. Sr . had opened an account

for him in a small tin institution, .with a paid up capital cf $100 and with-a- guaranteed interest of 1.000 per pent.-per annum. In. exartlv three months there befell a. stringency in the Radford establishment, and. while, the; baby was not looking the father looted the bank. All he left behind was a little note here's the very note. thi3 is what he wrote: "On demand I promise to pay Seth Radford. Jr.. one hundred dollars f$lon with interest at the rate of 100 per cent, a month. Value received. Seth Radford. Sr." Tt was against the law to charge such usury, and nab- was beginning life like a high financier. He would certainly have boon investigated and sept to the peniterjtjrv ff the transaction had hen discovered by an'' of 'ho magazine sleuth, and pointed out to anv of the now pchool of district attorneys . Two months passed and Seth. Sr.. had not vet managed to reoav the fnf;nt Shylo'-k. eveopt bv occasional'" slipping through the plot' in the hfiV a casual instalment of dime", quarters or do'lar bills As for th bahv. he wae apparently ipdi'ferept to fit a condition of the loan mar'-et. He never halppeed ''s 1)oo'": he ncrer counted UP Ms pettv rocii main interest "n ijfo u'jij a !?rr!" hunch of "livestock fen pink and chubbv toe. TTe ira a Tiror --ith respect to these, and seemed alrnvs afrafd that one of them would get lost. Reside, hi mother was eoncfautlv looking them over, and threatening to hi'e them off: and ho was such a f reedy person that he could never be quite sure of her The mnfed raH'e of the money in his hank made onr m'isic to Seth. Tr.'s. flower-like' little ears. T fp Tttnch rre'erre1 the raltle of a ropj rnt'o To-rf-tv for the rio-ertth time, he rmched his hank con toroTjtiinnpIv to the floor, and returned to the nnmhnnr of his toes Ptb Sr.. had alread'' nicked -n the hank and restored it eleven times, but now the thud of it caup-ht hi-1 attention from a mood of deen bines that even the r"rg"ng gooele of the bahv ha! not managed to dissipate Fortune had been liavinsr fun with Mr. Radford. Tt had clayed seesaw with hfm for two rears: one month he was soaring skvward. a rih vouth: the pevf month ho bumped terra ftrma with the accent on the firma . .T"t now he was off the plank entfrelr. eat on the ground, bruised, aching; and the seesaw board was high out of reach. Two ve.r before he had sur'der'lv hp$ he was alone Ha had seen hj mother laid a little iri-flvo alongside the grave of M father. The town of his hfrth and Hs vouth suddenl'- cease .1 to mean home to him. TTe resolved to strike out into he unknown His assets were a little cash, a good dl of eu. TfoHv and a fslrv-u-rse of self-renewin hone TTe decided that New England was a poor Place to heein small Texas was its antipodes. yoi. hig. not laded Southwest he set his course, and arrived in Halvesfon j"t as the Tieaumopt oil fVlds hurst into fame with all the world amazing fury of their own gushers. Young Radford know lees about the oil business than erer tie RennsvlT''ni' TTrts. who rame Into the field with old traditions of how to handle slow streams o high-grade oil Thev were like trtflsher with famous or their hooks. Bankrupt cfe an fortunes danced before the onlooker's eves, while whole Takes of subterreno grease evnloded. through Tone pipes, filled the air with hvdro-ear-bonic typhoons, and settled on the ground in unctuous rivers of ur.holy smell. ' "Vew Kneland was never like th!." s?id Radford, "but it looks interr-cHne. well as Inetrtctfve." TTe hired himself o-t as a helper on a drilUne ric to Team the trade if trade it was to jramblo with earth's "innards" In such uncertain, but epic fashion. Promotions were rapid, for derricks wro snrinsrIne up as fast as hammers eo"ld wed nail and pine, pefore he was aware of it. Radford, who but vesterdiv had not known a chain-ton: from a fishtail drill-blit. was invited to take charge of n brand new derrick. Then the number of earthward sticks bean to pain on the nnward s:!orv. People came to offer him wonderful barsrnins which would make anybody rikh without doubt, but. which the nresent owners for) various reasons of health, family, etc.. could not ston to develop. Rut Radford was born In New England. TTe was not convinced. Th oil fever besran to lasr in Texas. Then cam a preat find at Ratson's Prairie. Thre was an overnight exodus. Seth arrived amoner the earliest, on a cow ponv after plowing through swamps at night. TTe decided to back his judgment. He honght a little shoestring strip of ground before the prices had Jumned very far. As soon as the derrick was up, and the pipe down, he brought in a gusher so bie that he could not get tanks fast enough to hold the oil. He saw liquid doMars belonging to him sliding awav by the hundreds. But most of them he managed to capture. He named the well the "Alice" after a certain person. The nrice of oil was high. The Southern Pacific was using It on the engines, and the supply was short. Factories boenn to burn it Instead of coal. Refore Radford quite realized it. he was worth about S 25.000. and more bubbling up as fast as it could climb out of the ground. TTe called himself a genius. TTe was a Koal oil King with two K's. He wondered what he should present to his native town a library? a mantial training school? or a park? He wrote to Alice to ask her advice. She was a Galveston girl. The first one he had met after he struck Texas. One was enousrh. Tt had taken a single look from her der. dark Texan eyes and two words in her mellow Southern speech to paralyze all his powers of resistance. . His heart looked no farther. Tt said "J'v suis; j'v reste." He had not known her Ions .when he camp to acre- with her opinion that, in the Civil War. the North had seceded from the South and from all. decency, and har' somehow, after a series of ignoble defeat, emerged victorious only because the Southern cer.erals were too gentlemanly to fight any loneer with nigger-stealers. . Before he had left Galveston, he had partly persuaded Alice to forgive him for being born In the odious North. At Reaumont he had dreamed of her. of her Southern graces, her Southern subtleties of tact and beauty Her every mannerism was an angel's trait. He endured the mud. the grease, the fatigue, the fever, because he hoped it would some day bring him the wealth that she ought to have. And now he had $25,000 of his own and more pouring in. He wrote her and said: "My Darling: I can't live without you any longer. Can you love me? Will you marry me? Seth.' Ho haunted the pbst-off.ee shack for her answer. But it came by wire. Just a "Yes. yes. yes." only three words, and all the other seveu lft unused! But he forgave the extravagance

NEX T WEEK,

being rich. As he turned to go back to his tent, he v.alked so large tlaat he touched bnly the high spots. He looked at the sky. A moment before it had been lit with ft2is; now they were all white magnolia blossoms filling the wind with a scented whisper of "Yes. yes, yes." They took their honeymoon In New York at the Waldorf-Astoria. There was something appallinely blissful about the bills. TVhen Alice was afraid to buv something gorgeous, Seth would say: "Iisten. honeyr can-you hear the gluggle-glug-ele-gluggle? that's the oil coming out of the ground everv four gluggles means a dollar. Don't be afraid." They decided to run aero3 to Kurope. Seth said that his right hand man. Tom Pominlck. would take care of evervthinsr He bought a stateroom on a steamer sailing the next day. Just as they were leaving their suite at the hotel, a page brought Reth a telegram: "The oil has quit gushing: got to get air compressors. Tom." "T ought to be on th,e ppot." groaned Seth "Would i break your heart, dearie, to give ny the Knrope idep for a while? Or could vou take '-o-:r mother and lt me come over latrr, when T can?" "Do vom reckon T tna'ied you to get rid of you?" said Al'ce A week later the newspaner at Ratson's Prairie announced in its ?oietv column"The 'mnnbr ot ' .r.rrr -7 cer. 7.f r. Sth Radford. ??ifi his ebarminv hrV'e. n e t??s Aee Pa tn, of Galveston h-ve retTtrnc.1 from N'cr YorV, and will n a 1,-e their nki:rn arrojr our elite. Welcome to Hptc-or" prfrie, ScfhV Now. gushers pro free !nd r?i'pinv. P'Vfrt fi " r,achf-err costs mone'- and brings Jess oil. Th mimns worked htrder and harder, 1nt the flow p-rrw clower slower slower- and the price of oil cTit dowp drwr down The snirits of the Radforrls fol'owed the pr?fo. "t don't exjct'v admiah the oil business," s?id Al'co. GrndnaHv Rations Prairie lost prestige. Seth ho-jo-ht rpore rro'ind and dusr mere wells. tometirnes he strtiek a pocket of oil that only flatterv could call a gusher TTe was rrld if it mnared to nav Its own cost before it netred out. Sometimes, after w?rv work and b encountering of good omen after cood omen till hope grew frantie. there onrne a time when it was plainly nselers to drill

further and several thousands of dollars had hole p-orfe. wffh poth'ng to show but twelve hundred feet deep. an empty T'm afraid T brought you bad It Alice. :ck. honey." said "You are good luck "t"t'i lust hv yourelf." Sth would answer, with all the cliecr he could muster. After a rear they we- nenrlv bankrupt and the ma5or!5 of peonlo had left B.if sons' Prrirfe. srn-e with full nttrses. some with flat. tn time. Serh realirrd that there v.-s nothing to do but shut, down the Tarv weRs. paint the machinery to prevent rust and wait for a new field. Waiting Is hard wo'':, and Seth had been schooled to excitement.. Then for a while there camenough of that. Two lives wero fn danger; one dcrer than his own Hfe, one that ws to be dearer Fort"ne favored fhepi wfth n smile, nnd. accordfn" to the i"'TV5r,ar?r!. TfvtVor -tpd child we-e dofrg well as could he Trorted." "Child" wcirrhed ten nound. and vp'i ijke a riute: and th'- named him after hi? darMv. The amateur father and mother used to sit tp.Ik'uf of the prospects of their voungster. There was Hflle to do. Th hov o'irht to have a bnnk." said Seth. Thv felt that thev could brdly be-rin it with less thin a hundred dollars. Thev used to sit and figure out how much that would amount to at compound interest by the time the child -as old rnoub to voe Mice made ft something like thnee niiilor, r'i'."'-5 h"t Seth said she was "careless with her nonchfs." Still, even as corrected, the rum was verv handsome, and thev thought of it whenever hev dropped a dime or a nW.-el into the little tin hank. Tt was a pleasanter thing tn think of tv,-n the sum Jn their own bank.' for that dwindled dai'-. O'feu. when Seth was famished for a oignr. he pushed the money through the little tin slot, and smoked the aromatic weed of hope. Rut the baby was not many mouths old when the oil field at Humble broke out. Seth rushed t0 the set-no and snout almost his last cent in land. He established Mrs. and Master Radford at. a hotel in Houston, and joined the group of younr iri who ook the early morning train everv dav to Humble and returned at night, dirtv. disheveled end tired, then washed nn. dressed up and marched into th dfn'n"-r-vom like gentlemen and gilded youth, wi'h thfdr handsome wives. Five hlg wells came in while Seth was drilling. The sixth was his. and a gusher. He put a large bill in the baby's bank. Tn three davs the well flowed hot salt water. No power could save ft. Tt was like fiffding a roll of thousand-dollar bills and afterward discovering that thev are all counterfeit.' Seth's next well escaped and flowed nrooor oil enough to put him in funds for a while. The third began as a millionaire-maker and then dissolved into tears "Sniir.e infection will save a dying man's life." said Seth. "but It's sure death to an oil man." The year had reached its "embers." Chritr :is was nearlng. Seth had honed to spend it In North, and he had told Alice a lot about sloighridinr. She had never seen even a sled Rat their plans were now malnlv conversation, for was growing hard even to borrrvv moncv. Some distant relatives of Seth's who ha.T heard of him when he was at the Waldorf rediscovered, his existence and invited him and his familv to a house partv. Tt meant three, besides railroad fare. Seth declined glumly. r "We shall have each other, honev." smiled Alice. "Rut we shan't have snow." groaned the Northerner. "T'm sick of roses They don't belong on the porch at Christmas. T want a white Christmas. I'd give a million dollars to hear sleigh bells." The next well was plainly to be his last. TTe gave up Humble and went to a new field, at Sloper's X-Road. where salt water had not broken in to corrupt the few wells that had been found. TTe exhausted everv resourre for funds. The bankers, when he called, regretfully referred him to a Tittle stack of notes unpaid. Most of his friends were as near gone as himself. TTe wheedled out of them small sum after small sum. He began to pawn, but soon ran out of pawnables. He owed his crew two weeks' wages, and it was increasinglv embarrassing for him to go near the derrick, especiallv as the drill had struck a stratum of hard gypsuni." Sometimes they could only make two or three Inches a day. Tbe slowness of the work got on the nerves of the men. Tt made them thirstv. and it made them surly to have to borrow the price of a drink from another rig, when wages were owing to them. Alice had refused to stay at the hotel in Houston any longer and run up bills. After a bitter quarrel in which altruism clashed with altruism, she forced Seth to allow her to come out to the field town and take a room in a pine-shack, which even the tame title of boarding-house seemed to overhonor. The landlady was Mrs. Bunnell. Her sister Jane was the belle of the field which was not saying m;;ch. And so December reached its twentv-rotirth a warm and sultry day in which everything seemed as far as possible from the normal Christmas conditions. Late one afternoon Seth. came in and o

Tince

By Charles

threw himself on a chair-in abject collapse. "The rotary table has just snapped in two. I can't raise money for another. The work has shut down. The men are grouchy, and I'm all in," he explained. "The men haven't struck, have they?" Alice "Oh. they're as faithful and patient as you'd expect, angels to be." said Seth. "and they promised not to knock off till the last hope was gone,-but this has flnlshed them." , "They mustn't stop yet." said Alice. "You just stav heah-and tend the babv awhile." "T guess thafs about all I'm good for." Sth groaned, too deeply dejected to note that she had slipped on her hat and hurried out. TTe sat chewing the bitter cud of baffled hopes, and mechanically picking up the toys as the baby threw them overboard. It was then. that, after the eleventh consecutive restoration of the little tin bank, the clink of the money shocked his ear and opened his mind to temptation. He put ft awpy. and vowed to die first. Rut the bank fasciinated him. and as the baby continued to tel! over his toes. Seth. Sr.. found himself half-un-consciously working at the lock, when Alice bnrct f Tt. "The men have promised they'll stay on." she said "Tom Domirdck said he'd work till somewhere or other frore ova. if l asked him tew. So T asked him. All he needed he said was money enough to get a new rotary something or other. Do yon reckon we could Fcrape up a few dollars some place?" At that moment the little tin bank came suddenly open in Seth's hand, and there was a local cloudburst of pennies, dimes, quarters, bills, and gold pieces. , Alice's eyes widened with joy. She credited the habv with the whole idea, and was on her knees threatering to nip off all the pink toes at once. "I'd rather die than rob the baby's bank," said Seth. "Well, thank goodness, T haven't such principles." cried Alice. "I'll be the burglar. Besides, he's very anxious for us to use it. aren't you. you b'ssed. itty, wootsum-tootsum," etc.

HE. COVERED HIS NOSE WITH When she jabbed her forehead in Seth, Jr.'s, ticklish ribs and burrowed, the baby emitted joyous noises that might have been taken for approval. They sufficed the easy conscience of Alice, and she hobbled about on her knees harvesting the shekels. She forced them into Seth's pocket, got his hat, slammed it on his head, kissed him-and shoved him out of the door. He went with bowed head to the derrick, gave Tom money enough to pay for the repairs, and a little extra to buy cigars and things. When Tom returned with a new rotary and a resharpened bit, he ordered Seth ofl the premises. "You go way f'om heah, Mista Radford," he commanded. "You are daid beat. You need sleep." Seth 3-ielded, and went back to Alice. He could still hear the mumble of the revolving drill when he fell asleep at midnight, worn out with despondency. He slept like a dead man. for hours. Suddenly he sat up aghast. Had a wild-cat leaped at his throat, and screamed in his verv ear? He rubbed his eyes, and looked about. The scream continued. It was like the death-crv of a thousand panthers. The very physical impact of it was a terrific pain. He leaped from Lis bed. Day was just break-

She miss o

Ing. and In the rosy twilisht of dawn he could see Alice staring at him and hugging the baby to her breast. From her look he could teil that she was calling to him. From the baby's distorted scarlet features h could see that Seth, Jr.. was howling with all the horse power of his lungs. But not a sound could he hear except that fearful shriek. , He went close to Alice and yelled at her. but she hook her head: she could not hear a syllable. Her features were wrung with the torture of the noise. Tie motioned her to cover her head with the bed covers. Then he slipped into a few clothes, and hurried out. clasping his hands about his ears as if to keep his skull from being split with the clamor. TTe saw his crew running away from his well. The long steel cable had been sent fving like a twine string: two joints of pipe had been hurled against a tree and wrapped around it. The derrick was almost hidden in a white haze: a geyser of fine sand was streaming upward and eating away the loftv crown-block. Seth knew what it was. TTe found Tom. and thev gesticulated at each other: they made faces, but no audible sound. Their voices were vain as candles in the full sunlight. Each was trying to yell the same thing. "She's a passer, blowing her head off." Thev were soaked, drowned, obliterated in a sea of intolerable noise. A mile away at the railroad station the passengers were equally made dumb bv the uproar. If a man wanted a ticket.- he had to write out the name of the str.tion. An engine rolled in with a hell that rockerf without sound and a whistle emitting puffs of white steam that no one heard. The animals of the region were greatly disturbed There was much breaking of harness on the part of horses, and one or two galloped about under empty saddles: their riders were doubtless etnek in the mud somewhere, head first.. A few rigs, wandering here and there, had sniffed at the noise and returned to their luxurious wallows in the oily muck Snddenlv Tom clutched Seth and pointed. He saw one of the nigs struggle and pant, then fall ever. Others did the same. A frightened hound

HIS HANDKERCHIEF, AND RANk came scurrying about for its master, stopped short, shivered, fought for breath, dropped dead. Chickens Hopped on their backs as if bowled over by unheard fhot. Seth thought of his family. A sluggish river of fatal ga3 was flowing toward the boarding-house. He covered his nose with his handkerchief and ran. It was of no use to yell alarms or pound on doors nothing could be heard. When he dashed into his own room, he found Alice huddled under the bed clothes, wrapping the pillow about her ears and the baby's. She did not hear Seth enter. She could not understand his wild motions. Ho caught her up in his arms and ran with her. Tom had followed Seth Into the house and now followed him out, dragging the landlady and her daughter, each by an arm. Mrs. Bunnell, at that hour, was not ready to receive, and she was scratching Tom with might and main. Sister Jane chiefly regretted her curl papers; she was whacking Tom with a wire hairbrush. But the three women were like the Sabines in the arms cf the Romans; their resistance was unavailing till Seth and Tom had gained a safe l jktanco to the windward. There The women co-;ld look back and see the chickens, tbe pigs and the dog3 lying asphyxiated by the invisible death that

flowed stealthily north. Instantly paralyzing any living thing that breathed of it deeply. Hero and there were men smitten blind from a few Inhalations of the gas. Thev held their foreheads in their hands, and rocked with anguish, knowing that they must suffer for dajs before sight or comfort would return. The ear-sawing noise continued and effort at speech was resigned. Bat the appearance of th women was eloquent to the eye, and they were soon invited to other shacks for proper clothing. When there were no more lives to save. Seth and Tom took counsel in such sign language as they could Improvise. Tbe crew knew their business and hurried to the nearer general store, where they got wads of cotton which they packed into their ears. Then they ; went plowing through the greasy mud till they . found a patch of blue clay. They dug their hands fnto it and slapped it over their ears by the fistful. When they were masked, all but the eves, nose and mouth, they followed Seth's lead, and keeping to tbe windward of the deadly breeze, made a rush for the derrick. Tbe sand blast that ate away the collar on th joints of pine and the case-hardened rings of th new rotary table, spared the softer tissues of their faces and hands, but the scream of the slant gas whistle slashed through their heads with the agony ' of countless knives. Orders were given by seizing a man and pointing. The crew worked like mad, sweating with the torment of the din. Everything was bungled In the haste and had to be done twice; but. in time, with rones and tackle, a nipple and an open gatevalve, and a joint of pine made up tight into ono piece, were swung from the torn and shattered derrick. Failure followed failure before It was firmly screwed Into the well casing. Then nine was taken, at random without regard to ownership, and inadv Into n line a few hundred feet long, nt the eryl of? which the gas was set on fire. Tbe titanic shriek,' stopped as if Niagara wore suddenly turned to stone. There was onlv the dull roar of a great Game twisting and winding in unearthly beauty. "There's oil In that gas strfita. notlcee them ten! streak In that blue flame?" said Tom. Seth looked at it. with tears rolling down his set face. - "We've rot to kill that gas first." said Seth. wih we bad pecker's hvdraulic pump, 'old Bety, T loaned bim a. boiler once: his fireman was too fond of dime iibraries and he let the crown sheet blow out. I never got paid for It, either. We'll , Just, go and fake it.. Garraean.has (he mules and, wagon and he in in Houston to-dnv celebrating ' Christmas, but his stable niggers will die for me. We ought to have nine sticks of CO per cent. dyna mite down in that hole before night." ' Tom was of without thought of sleep or stomach. He was thinking. "I wonda what old Mista' Napoleon would do in a Texis oil field." Tbe other men took off their clay masks, pulled1' the waste from their aching ears, ate ravenously, drank like men half-dead of thirst, then set to work making the Tieeessarr foundation and a'.eam connections for "Decker's Old Betsy." Before these were ready, the sun was down, hut bv the light of tbe huge gas flare, six jack-rabbit mules came dragging a wide-wheeled wagon. Tn the middle, heavilv chained to the bed. was "Old 4 Betsv." With rollers, skids and crow-bars she was' coaxed into nlace on the hastily made foundation. The wheel of the gate-valve was screwed tight and the light from the great torch went out. Tber was onlv a little glimmer from a new moon. When "Betsv" was ready, steam was turned on, and then the battle began. "Fourteen inches of steam behind , a five-Inch, 'piston. It ought to go against that gas." said Tom. "She'll do six hundred Pounds. I've seen her.' But If "Betsv's" credit was srood for six hundred she failed to show it. She filled her suction pipe, made half a dozen ouick strokes, and stood quiverlug with effort, steam jetting from the safety valve.' "T,ook out." said Tom. "There's sas coming up. on the outside of the casing; there'll be hell popping heah in a minute." The men scattered; the derrick foundation trembled. There was a gurgle and splash below th derrick floor. But Seth would not budge at such a crisis. IT remained alone in the trembling derrick."Hang ft nalr of chain tongs on that safety raH-e!" he shouted. Then he opened the steam valve wide and stepped outside the derrick. Tho faithful "Old Betsy" slowly nicked up her natural gait and doegedlv forced the gas back down thfl pipe under the pressure of steam and muddy water, until Seth had his wild well under control. Meanwhile some of the men had got the wire, others the dvnamlte, another the plunger magneto. A tonr heaw piece of cast iron was attached be-i low the dvnamite as a sinker. Then tbe condensed annihilation was lowered carefully Into the well, with thw tenderness that would be shown a sick, bah" ' "She'fs on bottom. said Seth. unmindful of th harwrds as he pulled the wire up and down. "Stand aw.v. Tom: I'll handle that magneto." . Seth would never let his men take a risk that h cop' take himself. "Hero goei my best hope Jn this oil field. It; makes me or breaks me." he said as he attached ' the two blaelr and greasv wire to the magneto. Ani then he took the lever with both hands, and gae jf a quick plunge. t t ' Far down below there was a muffled thud, there was a on Ivor of the ground, an anxious silence that Imnerceptiblv ereeedoed Into a mutter, a rurgle. a growl, a roar, a god-like whoop wnd a vast tower of black oil was shooting aloft and nlahing bacV . with a sound that was angelic symphony to the oil men's verv souls. if was nearlv midnight when Seth appeared again at the- boardin-houso, which a rising wind bsd e-"it clear of the fumes. He washed up. as well , A no could, in t.he moonlight at the fin basin on the oan box outside, but he wa st(R somewhat the worse for fatleue and hi? anointment was overdone. Rnt Aliee gathered nim close and kissed him more than once. Fven the baby bad felt It unfit to sleep at such a crisis In their three lives. He sat up on the bed pnd earnestly hunted for his numerous toes In a shaft of moonlight. Seth wa so excited that he began at once to gahh'e husipecc. "We estimate the well at ln,nf)o barrels a dav. Old Tazoiton came round an hour ago and offered mo S2.".0nn cash as she flows. But I told him that with oil at the present nrice, Fd clean up that much In a few days, so I declined. You see. 13.000 barrels of oil at 3S cent a barrel makes " "You can tell me that tomorra, honey," said Alice, stopping hi lins with a kiss. "Aren't vou glad T robbed the bank?" "Yes. I thought of that." said Seth. sheepishlv. "T'm kind of ashamed and kind of proud. I gee It will be square if we refund what we borrowed with 100 per rent, for the loan. A newspaper reDorter asked me what the name of this well would be. and I told him 'The IJttle Tin Bank. He said. 'Why?' and I said. 'Becanse.' " "And that's reason enough." said Alice. "But we owe it all to the baby." Then Seth. Sr.. and Mrs. Seth. Sr., knelt down by the bed 8nd seized Seth. Jr. They kissed him and nuzzled hlrn so that ho lost count of his toes and had to begin all over again.

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