26
U niversity
of
O regon M onthly
The dog had treed a squirrel. They threw clubs at it
for half an hoiir and returned to the pond,
Jim’s waist and trousers were still lying on the'bank
where he had pulled them off. But they could not see Jim
anywhere. Thinking him up to some tricky they plunged
into the water and soon forgot all about him. After a while
John began diving. One time he thought he. felt .something
soft. He diyed again and came up looking scared. '“George,
there’s something in the bottom here. W hat if it’s Jim?”
He repeated the dive and brought thé object up. It was Jim.
They caried him to the bank and laid him softly down on
hi§ clothes, ' Then they dressed and hurried home, George
being in the lead because of John’s bow legs. When he
reached the knoll overlooking the house George thought again
of his brother’s wedding.
Horses wet with sweat and stamping impatiently at the
flies were tied to trees and the hind wheels of wagons. A
crowd of.yoüng people sat fanning with: might and main in
the shade of an elm tree in the yafd. Will had his chair
drawn up in froint of his new wife and was wafting whole
hurricanes of coolness into her face when George came up.
“Where’s ma?”
Will motioned into» the house.
George had been calm and unexcited and had not shed a
tear. But when he came to the door and sâw his mother in
a new white apron talking to the other women, he broke en
tirely down. He managed to sob out somehow, “Oh ma,
Jim’s drownded,” and threw himself into her lap.
Alfred Powers, ’10.