isa-normaladvance-1903-00067

Description:	THE NORMAL ADVANCE.67ground must see the pictures in his mind. Heattempted in sheer self defense to put them fromhim, but his efforts only fanned them into cleareroutline. As he sat by himself studying an uninteresting ant hill, a schoolmate suddenly accostedhim. He started, blushed and became confusedas if caught red handed in the act. He blusheddeeper as he thought that the cause of his confusion must be plainly visible. The game ofBlack-man did not interest him, for he knewthat she did not care whether he played or not.He was inclined to feel provoked with her for it.When he was at last persuaded to participate, hekept as far from her as possible. During thegame she singled him out and innocently chasedhim, but she did not know that while his heelsmade only ten miles, his heart was making sixty.He could chase and lay hands on any other girlin the game with impunity, but not on her. Heenvied the boy who did catch her, but not for thewealth of the Klondyke would he dared to havedone it.Early the next morning he arose and washedhis face in the dew. He was sure that frecklesmust be an abomination unto her. To the consternation of the household, he resurrected a necktie, and was in the act of arranging it, when anexclamation of wonder from an elder sister,blighted the aesthetic bud, and sent him from thehouse with feelings torn and bleeding. He knewthey didnt want him on the place. He would goaway some where. Maybe he would be killed insome terrible catastrophe. Then they would besorry for the way they had treated him. Hewished he might be killed, only that then he couldnot know of and enjoy their anguish of spirit. No,he would not be killed, but would carry out one ofhis vaguely formed plans of becoming great. Theyshould not hear of him till his name and famewere sounded throughout the land. Then hewould return in a blaze of glory to his sorrowingfolks and freely forgive them all the wrongs theyhad done him. As he trudged heavy hearted, toward school, the white head and the snubbed nosebegan to mingle in his consciousness. He reachedthe stile and she was sitting on it. She greetedhim with a cherry Good morning. His skycleared ! He would remain at home! Indeed thisresolution had been growing in direct proportionto his approach to the stile, and now it was of fullstature. He scarcely returned her greeting. Awaydown the road he saw a bunch of boys approaching, and he started to meet them. His heels flew,but ordinary running was too mundane, so hemade long leaps into the air. With scarcely apause, he caught up a stone and threw it at abird in a tree by the road side. Then withshoulders up and head bent down he lengthenedhis leaps. Next with head thrown back and chestextended he settled down to a steady run. Heburst into the group and landed on the back of aboy! From here he sprang to the ground and dida handspring! He challenged anyone in thecrowd to a race to the school house. His chal-lenge was accepted, and a dinner bucket wastransferred. They caught hands, let go as their,arms struck a boy thirty feet in advance, and wereoff! She was still on the stile when he arrived,puffing, blowing and perspiring, but ten feet inadvance of his opponent. She clapped her handsand shouted, comeer! comeer ! comeer ! Hehad beaten, she saw it, and that was compensationfor a thousand times the effort.That day he was the leader in every game. Hecaught her in Blackman and as he touched herhe blushed again, for he knew that the wholeschool, yes, the world knew his secret now. Hespent a good part of the afternoon standing in thecorner for putting a bent pin in the seat of theboy in front of him.As he sat on the edge of the porch that evening,and touched his toe to the bucket of cold waterfor the twentieth time, only to jerk it away againas if he had received an electric shock, he saw thefirst star of the evening step forth from the mistsof nowhere. That star brought from the mistyand unresolved confines of his consciousness, thelittle white head and the snubbed nose. They wereever hovering about, and needed only the impetusof the star to step forth into distinct outline. Herepeated that prayer to the star which possessessuch occult powers:
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/33816
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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