Booth Tarkington

“ Mr. Thomas uttered a loud cry of his own, and, dismissing gestures, rose from his chair prepared to act. But his son briskly disappeared from the doorway; he had been reassured from the top of the stairs. Annie had responded, and Ludlum sped upward cheerfully. ”

“ I love you for not being one! If you want to spank Luddie for telling that story about his wrist I wish you'd go and wake him up and do it!”
“No,” said John. “Lucius called to me as he was running for the car that he is going to be married next week. I'll wait and spank one of her children. They'll be the worst spoiled children in the world.” ”

“ What made him so smart-alecky to Lucius just now?”
Again she laughed with condescension. “Why, Luddie didn't mean to be fresh at all. He just spoke without thinking.”
But upon hearing this interpretation, Mr. Allen cast a rueful glance at his lovely cousin. “Quite so!” he said. “Children can't tell their reasons, but they've always got 'em!”
“Oh, no, they haven't,” she laughed. And then she jumped, for there came a heavy booming of thunder from that part of the sky which the roof of the porch concealed from them. ”

“ Thomas and Ludlum did not rejoin them until the announcement of dinner.
When the meal was over, Lucius and his hostess played cribbage in the library; something they did at all their reunions—a commemoration of an evening habit of old days. But to-night their game was interrupted, a whispering in the hall becoming more and more audible as it increased in virility; while protests on the part of a party of the second part punctuated and accented the whispering:
“I d'wawn' to!”—... “I won't!”... “I will ast mama!”—... “Leggo!” ”

“ For instance, a lot of it was my father's.”
“What did he do?” asked John,
Lucius chuckled again. “The worst he did was to tell me stories about Indians and pioneer days. Sounds harmless enough, but father was a good story-teller, and that was the trouble. You see, the foundation of all romance, whether it's Indian stories or fairy-stories—it's all hero and villain. Something evil is always just going to jump out of somewhere at the hero, and the reader or the listener is always the hero. Why, I got so I wouldn't go into a darkened room, even in the daytime! ”

“ He howled.
“That was about the last, I think,” observed Lucius, from the window. “It's beginning to clear already. Nothing but a shower to make things cooler for us. Let's go play with old John again. Come on, Luddie.”
“GOODNESS ME, BUT YOU GOT TO WIPE YOUR OLE FACE A LOT!” SAID LUDLUM IN PURE SPITEFULNESS. “I GUESS WHY YOU'RE SO HOT MUS' BE YOU STUFF YOURSELF AT MEALS.”
But Ludlum clung to his mother, remonstrating. “No!” he cried. “Mama, you got to stay in the house. I don't want to go out there. It might begin again!” ”

“ In fact, the air was so sticky that these disappointments were almost continuous, with the natural result that Ludlum became peevish; for nobody can be distinctly disappointed a dozen or so times an hour, during the greater part of an afternoon, and remain buoyantly amiable.
Finally he could bear it no longer. He had followed his parents and Uncle Lucius out to the comfortable porch, which gave them ampler air and the pretty sight of Mrs. Thomas's garden, but no greater coolness ”

“ A LUCIUS BRUTUS ALLEN STORY
THE little boy was afraid to go into the dark room on the other side of the hall, and the little boy's father was disgusted with him.
“Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Ludlum Thomas?” the father called, from his seat by the library lamp. “Nine years old and scared! Scared to step into a room and turn the light on! Why, when I was your age I used to go out to the barn after dark in the winter-time, and up into the loft, all by myself, and pitch hay down to the horse through the chute. You walk straight into that dining-room, turn on the light, and get what you want ”

“ I got to, to go up-stairs with!”
“You don't want your bow and arrow in bed with you, do you?”
“Mama!” Thus Ludlum persisted in his urgent appeal to that court in whose clemency he trusted. “Mama, will you please come get my bow-an'——”
“No, she won't.”
“Then will you come up-stairs with me, mama?”
“No, she won't! You'll go by yourself, like a man.”
“Mama——”
Mrs. Thomas intervened cheerily. “Don't be afraid, dearie,” she said. “Your papa thinks you ought to begin to learn how to be manly; but the lights are lit all the way, and I told Annie to turn on the one in your room. ”

“ As we grow older we forget the horrible visions we had when we were children; and what's worse, we forget there's no need for children to have 'em. Children ought to be raised in the real world, not the dream one. Yes, sir, I lay all my Aunt Mira Hooper's grudge against me to my father's telling me stories so well and encouraging me to read the classics and——”
“Lucius,” Mrs. Thomas spoke in a low voice, but in a tone which checked him abruptly.
“Yes, Jennie?” ”

“ Ludlum eagerly agreed. “An' then afterward she has to read me a chapter in our book.”
“So you go and make John tell you a story, Lucius. I have to be polite to Luddie because he's had such a fright, poor blessed child!”
Lucius was obedient: he rejoined John upon the porch, and the two men chatted for a time.
“What book is Jennie reading to the boy?” Mr. Allen inquired, after a subsequent interval of silence.
“I don't know just now. Classic fiction of some sort, probably. She's great on preparing his mind to be literary ”

“ Ow!” he vociferated. “Mama, I want it to stop! Mama, I can't stand it! I can't stand it!”
“It's odd,” said Lucius, during an interregnum. “The thunder frightens us more than the lightning, doesn't it?”
“They're both so horrible,” she murmured. “I'm glad they affect you this way, too, Lucius. It's comforting. Do you think it's almost over?”
“I'll see,” he said; and he went to a window, whither Ludlum, having jumped down, followed him.
“Don't open the curtains much,” Mrs. Thomas begged, not leaving her chair. “Windows are always dangerous.And come away from the window, Luddie. ”

“ The pain which he thus so powerfully expressed, was undeniable; and nowadays few adults are capable of resisting such determined agony. The end of it was, that when Ludlum retired he was accompanied by both parents, his father carrying him, and Mrs. Thomas following close behind with the bow-an'-arry.
They were thoughtful when they returned to the library.
“I would like to know what got him into such a state,” said the father, groaning as he picked up his book from the floor. “He used to march up-stairs like a little man, and he wasn't afraid of the dark, or of any thing else ”

“ Here, for a considerable time, he proved the superiority of an earnest boy's wind and agility over those of a man: as soon as one part of him was separated from the leg of the table another part of him became attached to it ”