Argosy All-Story Weekly, October 6, 1923 — page 62: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

z -ARGOSY-ALLSTORY Wey = —s at-a time, say for a month. Twenty } Ais ; ipy wit { yee at Wi No punishments; time’s too short. Ifa lad is cruel, or filthy, or in any way a real - -‘Menace to others, warn him. If he repeats, ship him back F. O. B, and replace with Cero bY, bt Kiet NaN it el = _ another one. And if I ever heard of my _ @verseer teaching them any fool games out of books, P'd sack him! ___ baseballs and bats and a football or two, __~ for these who wish them; but no drills, set- ups, lessons; nothing but fifty acres of God’s -_ country, a clean_bed, lots to eat and their — own ideas as to play. Not so much as a ~~ book, even! I wouldn’t make ’em go to =a church, -as far as I am concerned. But they ean if they want to, or if their folks insist, What do you think of such a plan?” --_ _He seemed to await almost anxiously: the ___-Slapper’s views. -. ~ Hot dog, mister! —___ liked myself.” —--—_ “ Well, that’s what I aim to do.- - itis such a drop in the buc ___ kids, and T can only handle a couple of score -—_ for two months! But it is a beginning. _~ Other men, younger and richer, may hear about it: and carry if on in a bigg eet way. Of course I haven’t really figured it all out yet. But this isn’t to be a sanitarium; __T haven’ the means to run one. Just ordi- nary, healthy boys. All creeds, races, colors. -_ ‘They have got to get on together when they __ grow up and run the country after we have a gone: let ~ ?em get used to it early. How would you like the job of overseeing such a —_erew?” ‘The Slapper blinked. ‘I'd be a hell of 9 ey. to be trusted with a lot of kids!” he Ses throw fits! - ____ “You've got every young one == can — ‘toddle al —_ lage,” the major argued. “And I haven’t Zz “Bead apy mothers woEyane, about it, oe Well, “there ain’t much mischief they ee “can get. into here. And I was a sang Phat’ S == I'd have : = ae .< pretty: fair way to wade a ‘man is to ss ee Ss how he kills” time, 2 Bo ois m7 ore the next month. July and August. school battalion, or anything like that. Have plenty of - Only, yucket! - “Millions of cbt ‘Their folks: would one Tunning after you in this vil-. em book stuff, and drilling ’°em like a = long as they don’t set fire to barns or tram- — ple down gardens or run cows to death or maim one another, let ’em alone, say I! — And the man who could enter into my plans would be worth to me—well, I don’t know, say a thousand dollars for the season. He’d- have the rest of the year to himself, and the house to live in if he wanted to.” | 2 Hendrie added: “ Of course, I’d have to— have a live housekeeper. Wouldn't do to get an elderly woman; they’d drive her to drink in no time. Some sensible girl who could cook, and who would get on weil with boys. Wonder how that Letty girl at the place you board would. do? She anything of a cook?” The Sanne See violently, “Whoe Her? Mister, she’d make the Ritz look like a night lunch! And the kids couldn’t help liking | her.” _ The major meditated. Zz “You think well of her, I take it?” — The Slapper sighed, and admitted that he did. “Well, befere you definitely decide to leave us, give my idea the low down. I don’t ‘know why you are here, and I don’t care. But I do know that I eae trust a “bunch of young truants in your hands and not feel P’'d committed myself to infant damnation.” “He’s a good old guy,” reflected the Slapper as he trudged back to the Tuckers. — “Wise, too. Got just my idea of how to. handle kids!” He told Letty about it, ouardedly, sak mentioning the. suggestion of herself as housekeeper. - | ““T guess you i could a6 it all right,” she admitted. “ Our village boys would Set fire to the church if you asked them to! And it—it would give you something to do here, wouldn’t it? Something that would be 5 worth while.” — = His quiet evenings with Letty were not < as pleasant as they had been. He realized that she expected something he dared not give. She was not the sort to continue to make the advances; she had kissed him, frankly and innocently, that first time; but neveR == since, And it was See: that she was. eee =