Booth Tarkington

“ Of course the hope of reward is to be considered as a motive withholding men from crime, but the hope of a reward is only a form of fear. And thus, with infinite pains to avoid too much optimism, the Professor demonstrated himself, his colleagues and all the rest of us to be but base metal at bottom, no matter what angels' heads we show on the golden surface. ”

“ This sketch, so brief and indistinct, gave way to one more definite and detainable, for it had just been implanted in her memory: the picture of a fat little boy hurling a missile at a tall young man and running amuck without provocation. “What could have been the matter with Robert?” she thought. He was as sane as most boys are, and no sane person, not even a boy, could conduct himself so bitterly without even a fancied provocation. Yet he and Renfrew Mears were “just walking along together,” Renfrew said. But had Renfrew been altogether frank? ”

“ Somewhere above, there was manifestly a human being—a human being who wept and ate simultaneously.
Muriel ascended the stairs, and with her first footstep all other sounds ceased. “Robert!” she called, when she reached the top. “Robert, where are you?”
Her inquiry was explicable, for she knew Robert to be present, but a look about her gave her no information. Nothing appeared to have been disturbed since her previous visit to the attic, so short a time before, and everything was in order; for this attic, though spacious, was neat. ”

“ But the fat boy should have kept his eyes ahead; for while he looked behind him, a large policeman was coming along the cross-street. The fat boy ran into him at the corner.
Thus Master Robert Eliot found himself at last in custody. His exhilarated and insulting expression was on the instant displaced by the look of one who cannot contemplate his position without a certain amount of horror; and the tumultuous arrival of the Sicilian appeared to disconcert him wholly. The policeman shook him: hot invectives scalded him and his ancestors ”

“ Muriel went outdoors again, but Robert was not to be discovered there; and concluding that he had taken his crackers and his strange misery to some outlying and unguessable part of the neighborhood, she went back into the house by way of the kitchen, and ascended the back stairs, intending to go to her own room. In the upper hall she passed the attic stairway and noted with an absent-minded slight satisfaction that she had been so thoughtful as to close the door when she had come down from the attic, a little while before. ”

“ In the darkness Laurence swallowed nothing so hard that the swallowing could be heard. “Well, if he did, and they're comin' over to our house to tell my father and mother about it,” he said, “I might as well tell 'em first, because I didn't have a thing to do with the whole biznuss, and I was just walkin' along with Robert and Tommy Clune, and they did the whole biznuss before I could say a word to stop 'em, and I didn't even get a single banana or anything. And I can prove it by Mr. Mears, because he saw the whole biznuss and knows all about it.” ”

“ Renfrew's tone of voice seemed noncommittal, and Robert's misgivings increased when he thought of the large sums of money spent in the mollification of the push-cart man and the policeman. So without gratitude and reluctantly, the fat boy walked beside his protector, and his condition was that of the many, in this world, who escape one calamity only to conjure up another before them. Robert's dismal conclusion was that he would be handed over to his parents for punishment, that Mr. Mears would give them an account of the recent horrible affair and make a demand for money expended. ”

“ Renfrew asked.
“She aint,” said Robert. “Nobody's home. She aint there.”
“Why, yes, she is!” the young man exclaimed, mildly surprised, for already they were not far from the house, and at that moment a vista through intervening shrubberies disclosed Miss Muriel Eliot in a wicker chair upon the broad veranda. “There she is now.” ”

“ A FEW years ago an international society of scientific men assembled in Turin to read intricate essays, make technical speeches and discuss matters so perplexing to the rest of us that we do not even know the names of them. However, there was one professor who made a speech that anybody could understand, and although what he said was horrifying, the scientific gentlemen nevertheless considered it worthy of their profound attention. He was an “authority,” a criminologist who had spent his life in the active study of his subject—that is to say, he was supposed to know what he was talking about. ”

“ For them mankind consists of two classes: themselves and other people. And since Robert's sister belonged to the adult punishing-and-rewarding class and he was now the captive, as he believed of another member of that class, and also, through recent misfortune, subject to its arbitrary punishments, Robert could come to but one conclusion: that he was to be turned over to his sister and held in durance until his father and mother returned to the house. ”

“ Now, if he is right, then of course we must expect to find criminal tendencies more strongly manifested in childhood than in the later ages when caution has been acquired; and whether the great criminologist be right or wrong, it is true that at least some children show what seems to be a native and instinctive leaning toward a life of crime. Certainly the case of fat Master Robert Eliot would go far to incline the open-minded to vote with the Professor. ”

“ Since all men are subject alike to the criminal impulses, the only difference between actual criminals and other men is that the other men have learned to fear the consequences of following these impulses. Remove from any man all such fear, and the habits it has formed in him, and that man will certainly commit a few crimes ”

“ This here kid, he's worse'n any kid downtown! He's on his way now, Mister. Cut it out!”
“Dees keed,” the Sicilian thought proper to add, “he's a worse-dam stealer in a worse-dam town. I weesh to keel 'im!”
“Well, but see here a minute,” Renfrew persisted. “Why, this boy's father's one of the most prominent—”
“Cut it out!” the policeman repeated. “This here push-cart man, he'll appear in court against him, wont he? Where'd I be if I didn't do my duty?”
“Oh!” said young Mr. Mears, enlightened, and took the push-cart man aside for a short private conference. ”

“ Tarkington's delightful stories of the courtship of Muriel and Renfrew will rejoice to know that the next story in the series will appear in an early issue. Though Renfrew Proposes to Muriel in the present number “for the last time,” one cannot but feel that there's plenty of time left for slipping. ”

“ Robert returned, hard pushed. “I mean it was somep'n he said to me. If a person calls you names an' everything, it's just the same as doin' somep'n to you, isn't it?”
“Shame!” Muriel said. “To think anyone could believe that Mr. Mears called you names! If you go on making up stories—”
“I didn't!” Robert shouted. “I didn't say he called me names: II said if he did! I only said it was somep'n he said to me ”