PAGE 21
Boys Will Be Boys
by
“Trouble? No, suh! It won’t be no trouble to me,” said Mr. Birdsong promptly. “Why, it’ll be more of a pleasure, Judge.”
And so it was.
Except for one small added and purely incidental circumstance, our narrative is ended. That same afternoon Judge Priest sat on the front porch of his old white house out on Clay Street, waiting for Jeff Poindexter to summon him to supper. Peep O’Day opened the front gate and came up the gravelled walk between the twin rows of silver-leaf poplars. The Judge, rising to greet his visitor, met him at the top step.
“Come in,” bade the Judge heartily, “and set down a spell and rest your face and hands.”
“No, suh; much obliged, but I ain’t got only a minute to stay,” said O’Day. “I jest come out here, suh, to thank you fur whut you done to-day on my account in the big courthouse, and–and to make you a little kind of a present.”
“It’s all right to thank me,” said Judge Priest; “but I couldn’t accept any reward fur renderin’ a decision in accordance with the plain facts.”
“‘Tain’t no gift of money, or nothin’ like that,” O’Day hastened to explain. “Really, suh, it don’t amount to nothin’ at all, scursely. But a little while ago I happened to be in Mr. B. Weil & Son’s store, doin’ a little tradin’, and I run acrost a new kind of knickknack, which it seemed like to me it was about the best thing I ever tasted in my whole life. So, on the chancet, suh, that you might have a sweet tooth, too, I taken the liberty of bringin’ you a sack of ’em and–and–and here they are, suh; three flavors–strawberry, lemon and vanilly.”
Suddenly overcome with confusion, he dislodged a large-sized paper bag from his side coat pocket and thrust it into Judge Priest’s hands; then, backing away, he turned and clumped down the graveled path in great and embarrassed haste.
Judge Priest opened the bag and peered down into it. It contained a sticky, sugary dozen of flattened confections, each moulded round a short length of wooden splinter. These sirupy articles, which have since come into quite general use, are known, I believe, as all-day suckers.
When Judge Priest looked up again, Peep O’Day was outside the gate, clumping down the uneven sidewalk of Clay Street with long strides of his booted legs. Half a dozen small boys, who, it was evident, had remained hidden during the ceremony of presentation, now mysteriously appeared and were accompanying the departing donor, half trotting to keep up with him.