Forrest Crissey

“ Clint stared dumbly, unbelievingly, at the relic man. He had been so often joked by the men of The Corners that he was instantly on the defensive. And so great a stroke of fortune could not possibly come to him! But there was a gravity in the man's voice and face which contradicted this suspicion, and the boy finally stammered, "I'd—I'd like it, Sir.
"You look like an honest boy," continued the man, "an' that's what I want most of all. I'll give you three square meals a day and buy you a good suit of store clothes an' cap an' shoes when you come back in the fall if you stick it out. ”

“ There was terror in the eyes of the old English sheep-dog, a fierce suspicion of his doom.
"He's a good watch-dog," admitted the farmer, "but folks 'round here accuse him of killing sheep. But they've never caught him with the wool in his teeth. It was a case of fight the neighbors or kill the dog, so we had to come to it." As the man handed the lead-rope to Clint he said, "His name's Caper."
Suddenly it occurred to Clint that he had not stopped or even thought to ask the permission of Mr. Heizer. "They say he's a fine watch-dog," pleadingly ventured the boy. ”

“ Never saw a boy that wasn't dyin' to get a peep inside the old wagon even." And as Clint was feasting his eyes upon the marvels of the interior of the wagon the relic man remarked to the others, "Don't seem to be quite so forward as most boys."
"He's a good boy, sir," volunteered the blacksmith, "an' it ain't his fault that he's let to run the town. A while back his father took to preachin' 'round and seemed to plum forget that he had a boy. That was after the mother died. Clint's a bright lad, and honest—every hair of him. The elder's just got married again. ”

“ But that's a good thirty miles from the wagon, an' mebbe my legs won't hold out. Anyhow, we can sleep in a haystack. We ain't afraid, are we?"
The legs did not hold out. They grew strangely heavy, and when he came alongside a corn field his determination weakened. Picking a few choice ears, he retreated up a ravine, and at a spot hidden from the highway he built his fire, roasted the corn, and laid upon each sizzling ear a thin, wafer-like slice of ham, shaved with the keen blade of his jack-knife, which the relic man had taught him to sharpen to a razor-like edge. ”

“ The precious bones were stored in the padlocked drawer underneath the wagon-box—and as he was putting them in place the relic man remarked, playfully:
"Didn't know that we carried a graveyard right along with us, did ye, Clint? Well, we do, an' it's most full now. There's more money in it than in any other line of the business." ”

“ There was still another and a more poignant realization awakened by the harness-maker's taunts. It was a disgrace in the eyes of grown-up folks to be "let to run." Of course his liberty was the envy of the other boys who had folks to look after them, and he never discouraged the appreciation of his one enviable possession. But he was too sensitive not to catch from the atmosphere about him the verdict that his vagrant liberty while his father was "off preachin' " was held as a shame both to himself and his father. ”

“ His misery choked his throat as he thought that if his mother had not died this double disgrace of a father who weakly took to preaching and then more weakly married would never have come upon him—and he would be wearing clothes as good as the postmaster's Bennie. And perhaps he could brag about his father with the stoutness and loyalty of Tommy Ancliffe, the State Senator's son, who had confidently proclaimed that it took almost as big a man to go to the Legislature as to be President. ”

“ Run home an' fetch all the clothes an' things you want to take with you—an' don't forget anything you might need. Come back here to the shop and we'll start about five o'clock, just after the last mail is distributed."
Before Clint climbed into the wagon for his grand departure every boy in Coral Corners knew that he was the most enviable of all boys who had ever inhabited the village. Some secretly proposed running away from home and joining the wagon at the fork of the roads by Pigeon Woods. But against all such proposals Clint was adamant. ”

“ And this was just the kind of a dog he had most desired—an odd, stocky creature with half-human eyes.
In the week that followed the acquisition of the new companion Clint felt that he was truly living in the land of Romance. Perhaps he might have continued much longer in this delectable state of mind had they not reached "the mounds."
"They's some Indian graves a little back from the next town," remarked the relic man, "an' if the farmers hain't opened 'em up yet I'm goin' to steal a march on 'em. Sometimes them graves are mighty rich diggin's—stuffed full of relics. ”

“ Then, too—in spite of the fact that he had seemed for a long time to be safely out of his father's mind, excepting when he was "prayed over" with distressing fervor on being heard swearing at half-witted old Nancy who tended the house—there was in the boy a faint feeling that this Highlands school-teacher was helping to take his father from him a little more completely. ”

“ Later in the day, when his feet dragged heavily and his throat was choked with the dust, he confided to his fellow traveller: "If we c'd only make the Dunkard settlement to-night, they'd give us a place to sleep, all right. They're good and never turn travellers away. ”