TOD by James Whitcomb Riley (Copyright by James Whitcomb Riley) Stoddard Anderson was the boy's name, though had you made inquirey for Stoddard Anderson of any boy of the town in which he lived - and I myself lived there, a handy boy in the ____ old days - you doubtless would have been informed that nobody of that name lived there. Your juvenile informant, however, by way of gratuitous intelligence, might have gone on to state that two families of Andersons resided there - "Old Do-good" Anderson, the preacher, and his brother, John. But had you asked for "Tod" Anderson or simply "Tod" your boy would have known Tod your boy in all likelihood would have had ____ reasons for remembering Tod, although his modesty, perhaps might not allow him to inform you how Tod had "waxed up" to hime more'n____!" But he would have told you as I tell you now, that Tod Anderson was the preacher's boy, and lived at the parsonage. Todd was a queer boy. Stoddard Anderson was named in honor of some obscure divine his father had joined church under when a boy. It was a peculiar weakness of the father to reate the experience of his early conviction and as he never tired of repeating it, by way

of____and admonition to the wayward lambkind of his flock, Tod mastered his most intricate and sacred____ology, together even with the father's most religious formulas, to a degree of perfection that enabled him to preside at mock meetings in the hayloft and offer the baptismal service at the "swimmin' hole."

In point of personal or moral resemblance, Tod was in noway like his father. Some said he was the picture of his mother, they who could remember her, for she fell asleep when Tod was three days old with her mother ____ locked around him so closely that he cried, and they had to take him away from her. No - Death had taken her away from him. It needs now no chronicle to tell how Tod thrived in spite of his great loss, and how he grew to be a big fat, two-fisted baby with a double chin, the pride and constant worry of the dear old grandmother into whose care he had fallen. It required no space in ____ crowded page to tell how he could stand up by a chair when eight months old, and crow and laugh and doddle his little chubby arms till he quite upset his balance, and

pulling the chair down with him, would laugh and cry louded than

ever, and sprawl, and jabber; and never lift a whimper of distress but when being rocked to sleep. Let a babyhood of usual interest be inferred - then add a dew more years and you will have the Tod of ten I knew. O moral ____like and consistence Christian, what is it in the souls of little children so antagonistic to your own sometimes? What is it in their wayward and impulsive natures that you cannot brook? And what strange tinctures of rebellious feeling is it that embitters all the tenderness and love

you pour out so lavishly upon their

stubborn and resentful hearts? Why ____ you so covetously cherish the ____ divine, "Children obey your parents"

and yet find

no warm nook ____ the breast for that o'd house____ truth that goes wailing through the world: A boy's will is the wind's wilt, And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts?

Tod went to school - the thriftless Tod! - not wholly thriftless, either: for although he had not that apt way of skimming like a swallow down the placid rillig of learning, he did posess in some mysterious strength, a most extraordinary knack of acquiring just such information as was not taught at school, and had no place within the busy hive of knowledge. Tod was a failure in arithmetic, Tod couldn't tell twice ten from twice eternity. Tod knew absolutely nothing of either Christopher Columbus or the glorious country he discovered expressly for the use of industry and learning, as the teacher would have had him implicitly believe. Tod couldn't tell you anything of John Smith, even that very noted captain who walks cheek by jowl with the

dusky Pocahontas across the illimitable

fancy of the ten-year-old school boy of our glorious republic. Tod knew all about the famous Captain Kidd, however. In fact, Tod could sing his history with more lively interest and real appreciation than his fellow schoolmates sand geography. The simple Tod ____ joined the geographical chorus with: I'd a Bible in my hand As I sailed, as I sailed and I sunk her in the sand as I sailed. ____ Kidd - had a

ringing in his ears as he sang ____and an overflow of tears as he sang. And thou he ran away from school that afternoon, and sand Captain Kidd, from A to izzard, in the dull blaring of the "Industrial Hive" to the very evident amusement of "the workers," and the discomfort of the ruler of "the swarm." The teacher called on the good minister that evening and after a long talk on the back porch, left late in the dusk, wiping his eyes with one hand and shaking the other very warmly with the preacher. And Tod slipped noiselessly along the roof above them, and slipped down the other side and watched the teacher's departure with a puzzled face. Tod was at school next morning long before the call of "Books," in fact so early that he availed himself of his isolated situation to chalk the handle of the teacher's pointer, to bore a gimlet hole in the water bucket, to slip a chip under one corner of the clock in order to tilt it out of balance and time, and in many more ingenious ways to contribute to the coming troubles of the day. The most audacious act, however, was to climb above the teacher's desk and paste a paper scrap of a letter "o" in the motto "Be Good," that had offered him its vain advice for years. As one by one these depredations met the teacher's notice through the day, the culprit braced himself for some disastrous issue, but his only punishment was the assured glance the teacher always gave him, and the settled yet foreboding look of pain upon his face. In sheer daring Tod laughed aloud - a hollow, hungry laugh that had no mirth in it - but as suddenly abaided in a close investigation of a problem in mental arithmetic when the teacher backed slowly toward his desk and stood covertly awaiting further developments. But Tod was left again to his own inclinations after having with a brazen air of innocence, solicited and gained the master's ____in the solution of a very knotty problem, which it is needless to say he knew no more of than before. Throughout the remainder of the day Tod was thoughtful, and was evidently evolving in his mind a problem far more serious than could be found in books. Of his own accord, that evening at the close of school, he stayed in for some mysterious reason that even his deskmate could not comprehend. When an hour later, this latter ____ the old bars opposite ____ Tod and the teacher hand in hand come slowly down the walk, he whispered to himself with bated breath: "What's the durn fool up to, anyhow?" From that time Tod grew to be a deeper mystery than he could fathom, inasmuch ____ some strange spirit of industry fell upon him, and he became

a student.

Though a perverse fate had seemingly decreed that Tod should remain a failure in all branches wherein most schoolboys readily succeed, he rapidly advanced in reading; and in the declamatory art he soon acquired a fame that placed him high above the ____

of competitors.

Tod never cried when be got up "speak." Tod never blanched, looked silly, and hung down his head. Tod never mumbled in an undertone, was never at a loss to use his hands, nor ever had "his place" so poorly memorized that he must hesitate with awkward repetitions, to sit down at last in wordless misery among the unfeeling and derisive plaudits of the school. Tod, in a word, knew no such word as fail when his turn was called to entertain his hearers either with the gallant story of the youthful "Casablanca," "The Speech of Logan," or "Catiline's Defiance." Let a pupil be in training for the old-time exercises of Friday afternoon, and he was told to speak out clear and full - not hang his head - not let his arms hang down like empty sleeves - but to stand up like a king, look everybody in the face, as though he were doing something to be proud of - in short, to take Tod for his model and "speak out

like a man!"

When Tod failed to make his appearance with his usual promptness one Friday afternoon, and the last day of the term, there was evidence of general disappointment. Tod was to deliver an oration written especially for that occasion by the teacher. The visitors were all there - the school committee, and the minister, Tod's father, who occupied Tod's desk alone when "Books" was called. The teacher

with his pallid, care-worn face,

tip-toed up and down the aisles, bending occasionally to ask as whispered question, and to let the look of anxious wonder deepen on his face as the respectful pupils shook their heads in silent response. But upon a whispered colloquy with the minister, his face brightened, as he learned that "Tod was practicing his oration in the wood house half and hour before the ringing of the bell." A boy was sent to bring him, but returned alone, to say that he had not been able to find any trace of him.

"Oh, he'll be here in time enough,"

said the teacher apologetically to the sad-faced minister. "He's deeply interested in his effort for this afternoon, and I'm certain he wouldn't purposely disappoint me." The good man in reply shook his head resignedly, with a prayerful flight of the eyes indicative of long suffering and forbearance.

The opening service of singing and prayer.

No Tod.

First class in arithmetic called examined.

No Tod.

Second class, ditto; still no Tod.

Primary class in ditto, composed of

little twin ____ aged six with very red hair and ____ fair skin, and very

___ The king____ way to appease the____within. He____window ____little____down a tree; next____down the other____near the root____surprising him with a____pecking near the top____of____________Tod's graphic pen, which had____each plunging mounter with a ____ rider, holding a slack brindle in one and , and with the other resting____hat in the most____and defiant manner. this piece of grotesque art and others ____ of the outgrowing____of their author, were not ____only serving as it seemed in____ tha dissolve the ____shrouding the good father's fade. And so the excersize were along till recess came and with it came this missing Tod. "I'm in time, am I? Goody!" shouted Ted, jumping over a small boy who had stooped to pick up a slate pencil and stopping abruptly in front of the teacher's desk. "Why, Tod; what in the world!" Tod's features wore a proud, exaultant smile, though somewhat glamoured with a network of spiteful-looking scratches; and his eyes wre more than usually bright although their lids were blue and swollen to a size that half-concealed them. His head, bheld jauntily erect, suggested nothing but boyish spirit ; but his hair tousled beyond all reason with little wisps of it glued together with clots of blood: his best clothes soiled and torn; a bruised and naked knee showing through a straight rent across one leg of his trousers, conveyed the idea of a recent passage through some

gauntlet of disastrous fortune.

It was nothing. Tod said, only on his way to school he had come upon a blind man who played the fiddle and sold leadpencils, and the boy who had been leading him had stolen something from him; and Tod had voluntarily started in pursuit of the fugitive to overtake him only after a prolonged chase of more than a mile. "And now I've got you out o' town," said the offender, wheeling suddenly upon him, "I'll jes' meller your head for you!" After a long pause, in which which Tod's face was hidden from the curious group about him, as the teacher best above him at the back steps pouring water on his head, he continued: "Didn't think the little cuss was so stout! Oh I'm scratched up, but you ought to see him! And you ought

to hear him holler '____!' and you see

him hand over three boxes of pens and them penholders and pencils he stol'd, and a whole bunch o'envelopes; there's blood on some of 'em. and e give me a leadpencil, too, with red in one end and blue in the other. Father, you sharpen it." Tod never spoke better in his life____(microfilm damaged)______. where a "girl poised high in air on a cord, in a spangled dress" was kissing her hand to mighty concourse of people, who waved their hats and handkerchiefs in wildest token of approval and acclaim. Nor was this the sole cause of Tod's delight, for the fat man with the big watch seal had seemed to take a special fancy to him and had told him he might bring a friend along that his ticket would pass two. As the gleeful Tod was scampering off to ask the teacher if he wouldn't go, he met his anxious father in a deep state of distress, and was led home to listen in agony and tears to a dismal dissertation on the wickedness of shows, and the unending punishment awaiting the poor, giddy moths that fluttered round them. Tod was missing next morning. He had retired very early in the evening previous. "He acted strange-like" said the good grandmother, recalling vaguely that he hadn't eaten any supper, "and I thought I heard him crying in the night. What was the mater with him, Isaac?" Two weeks later Tod was discovered by his distracted father and an officer, cowering behind a roll of canvas, whereon a fat man sat declaring with a breezy nonchalance that no boy of Tod's description was "along o' this 'ere party." And the defiant Tod,

____ It was looking very much like____by the time the_____ things were cleared away. ____ ____ with preserve____up____ ____ ____running here and there with____ ____damnation in the ____ ____"Tod hurry up!" and "____ ____ ____ John take the baby till I ____ ____ parasol," and "There. ____ didn't like that basket off till I find my ____ dish!" Already the girls had ____ the swings which were being____ ____and were tying handkerchiefs over their hats and standing in despairing contemplation of the ruin of their dresses. ____ ____ from the stand for all ladies not to be at all alarmed. It wasn't going to rain, and there wasn't a particle of danger of ____; but there a clap of thunder interrupted, and went on growling urgently, while a little girl with her hair blow wildly over her bare shoulders and a face which a moment before glowed like her crimson scarf now grown whiter than her snowy dress, ran past the stand and fell fainting to the ground. "Is there a doctor on the grounds?" called a loud voice in the distance and, without waiting for a response - "For God's sake, come here quick; a boy has fallen from the swing and maybe killed himself." And then the crowd gathered round him there ____ with white face and frightened women and little shivering children. "Whose boy is it?" "Hush: here comes his father." And the good minister with stark features and clenched hands, passed through the surging throng that closed behind him even as the waves on Pharaoh. Did I say we were excited? Not at all; for there was one calm face, though very pale - paler yet for being pillowed on the gree grass and the____ "You musn't move me," the boy said when he could speak; "tell 'em to come here." He stalled and tried to lift his arms about his father's neck. "Poor father! poor father!" as though speaking to himself; "I always loved you, father, only you'd never believe it - never believe it Now you will. I'll see mother, now - mother. Don't cry - I'm hurt, and I don't cry. And I'll see the teacher, too. He said I would. He said we would always be together there. Where's Fanny? Tell her - tell her -" But that strange ____ silence fell upon his lips and as the dying eyes looked up and out beyond the ____ tree tops, he ____to catch a gleam of sunshine through the foolish cloud that tried ___ hand to stop. ----- Perfect Gold Mine. Wiggs - lie flatly is one of those____chaps, is he" Too bad! Why____live along from hand to mouth all____. Wiggs - Oh no, he won't! He'll upon the rich man believe____ He's just____automobile ____will____to put him____and drive to auto____accident at the same time!