Melvin Sturgis

“ The crowd expected to see miracles and they demanded to see them. His failure to perform according to their tastes set off disputes that swept across the country. Was he a healer or a charlatan? A wise man or a fool? ”

“ Then he came back to Elmwood and I've known him ever since."
"As a child, was the defendant er, ah, strange; that is, different from the other children?"
"He certainly was." The woman drew herself up primly. "Why, the first time that I ever laid eyes on that boy I said to my neighbor 'did you ever see a child with such a big head and such brooding eyes', why—"
The public defender started to rise.
"I don't mean physical characteristics, Mrs. Holk," the prosecutor hurriedly interjected. "The court is interested only in facts that will prove relevant to the case at hand." ”

“ Surely, she can see that he is not normal. He should be in that school for abnormal children over in the valley," Billy's father said emphatically.
The next day his aunt and uncle had talked to his mother and Carl listened at the window. He knew that he wasn't supposed to eavesdrop but he was puzzled, and scared. At first, his mother answered the proposal with a flat "no", but his uncle's persuasions won out in the end. Tearfully, she finally agreed that a year or two in the school might be of some help in correcting his too obvious imagination. ”

“ If you want incidents, I can tell you a dozen. There was one time when he was about five and I was over visiting with his ma. He came running into the house telling some big story about a bird with a busted wing that he had fixed up. Of course, his ma shut him up; she always was too easy on him. Another time—"
The man with the too big head and the serene features gazed softly at the witness stand. ”