Judge — September 14, 1907 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

BACK TO s4]T IS thirty long years since I saw this spot,” said the Hon, Elias Porterfield Higgins to his wife. They were driving up the main street of Greenville. was the placid town in which Elias had spent his boyhood, and on an average of once a week since he was married he | 7 = had talked feelingly of it, —>7~yy > and had asserted that Ae one of these times he would take his wife there and show her where he got his start. Finally, feeling that her husband needed a vacation that should be different from the ordinary summer trip, she had insisted upon going to Greenville. And here they were. “There is the old house in which I was born,” Elias said, pointing from the village hack to a little cottage that nestled in a clump of trees and rose-bushes. \ Greenville “'Tain’t, neither, ‘Lias,” said the driver of the hack, who had been listening.“ You was borned in a house ‘way over the other side 0’ the saw-mil “ What—what? How do you know about—— Who are you, sir?" Mr. Higgins demanded indignantly. The Hon, Elias Porterfield Higgins was not accustomed to being contradicted, nor even to having his statements disputed. “You oughter know me, 'Lias,” the driver replied, grin- I'm Pete Murray.” Well, well! Pete Murray ! nin By gracious! I'm glad to see have often heard Mr. Higgins speak of you, Mr. Murray,” Mrs. Higgins said, smiling. “ He talks a great deal about his old days in Greenville, and of his playmates here.” “IT knowed he wouldn't forget us,” Pete observed happily. “Nother one o' the old crowd has come back, ‘Lias. You remem- ber Curtis Tuttle, don’t you 2” “Don't 1? We called him * Peanut ' Tuttle then. governor of some state out west. So he’s home, too?” “Yep. Said he wanted to come back and visit the scenes o° childhood’s happy hours.” “Well, speaking of Peanut Tuttle," Mr. Higgins remarked, “right across there in the lot back of the Methodist church I gave him the worst drubbing I ever gave a boy in my life—and I was something of a fighter—wasn’t I, Pete ?” «Mr. Higgins is always telling me what a prodigious pugilist he was as a boy,” Mrs. Higgins said proudly. “He hed a good many fights, that's sure,” Pete said noncom- mittally. «Funny thing, though. Curt Tuttle was a-talkin’ last night an‘ sayin’ that he licked you, 'Lias.” “ His recollection is at fault,” Mr. Higgins said with the grand air he always assumes when he wishes to end a discussion. At the Greenville Hotel the Higginses met the Tuttles. Elias and Curtis fell upon each other's necks and almost wept in the joy of reunion. Mrs, Tuttle and Mrs. Higgins were becomingly glad to meet each other, and listened all evening to their husbands’ sto- ries of prowess in hunting, fishing, baseball, foot-racing, and other sports of their youthful days in Greenville. The two men parted for the night in high spirits, and their wives said to them that the visit seemed to have taken ten years from their shoulders, and that it was a pity they had not come to Greenville oftener. Next morning the Tuttles and Higginses set out to walk about the village. Mr. Higgins wore his frock- suit and silk hat, as did Mr. Tuttle, and the two dis- tinguished sons of the village were stopped many times during their promenade to shake hands and exchange greetings with citizens who remembered them and who felt that they had honored and distinguished their na- tive town. Elias Porterfield Higgins finally found his birthplace, and it was not over back of the saw- He became Z 7 Yz Nae BOYHOOD. mill, either. Neither was it the cottage he had first selected. But it was a sufficiently quaint old place to excite the admiration of Mrs. Higgins and Mrs. Tuttle. Then Tuttle found his old home, and there were more ae reminis- SS SS ences and Te Siero | sighs and smiles all around. Eventual- ly the quar- tettereach- ed the Meth- odist chuch- yard. “Curt,” Higgins smiled, “remember the day you and I had the fight here?” “Dol? [should say! What did we fight about ?” “I've really forgotten what we fought over, but I recollect dis- tinctly that I got you down and pinioned you with my knees on your arms and made you holler enough.” “ Like the dickens you did! As I recall it, 1 thumped you all over the face and blacked one of your eyes, and the boys had to separate us.” “Huh! The truth of it is, I knocked you down the first lick." “Rats! Why, I remember it perfectly, now. I had the better of you from the start, and I gave it to you so good and hot that you tutned and ran and cried for help all the way home; and if your father hadn't come out to the gate I'd have chased you into your home.” “What! ‘Lias Higgins, from anybody in all my life. “ You ran from me all right, and "—— -"'T licked you then, and I can do it again !" “You never saw the day you could lick one side of me!" Elias !" exclaimed Mrs. Higgins. «Curtis !" exclaimed Mrs. Tuttle. The two men were glaring at each other. up, their silk hats were tilted back on their heads. Biff! The Hon. Elias Porterfield Higgins whacked Governor Curtis Tuttle on the ear. Blip! Governor Curtis Tuttle slapped the face of the Hon. Elias Porterfield Higgins. The two portly statesmen swayed back and forth. They tried neck-holds, body-holds, grapevine twists, and even attempted foul- ing in the clinch, while from the gathering crowd of.onlookers came encouraging shouts and jeers. / Mrs. Tuttle was in hysterics; Mrs. Higgins was on the verge of fainting. Finally the two men, after a frenzied lot of wrestling, fell heav- ily together ; then, completely exhausted, they released their holds and lay on the grass, panting for breath. « Just like it was before,” Pete Murray said, grinning ; Neither one of you can lick the other.” Governor Curtis sat up. So did the Hon. Elias Higgins. “ Curt,” sheepishly said Elias, « he’s right. I remember it now.” “Elias,” Tuttle said, “I recollected it when we got in the clinch.” “Well, there’s nothing like old times,” Higgins laughed, ex- tending his hand. “Nothing, and never will be,” said Tuttle, shaking the hand heartily. And although their wives said they should have been ashamed of themselves, the two men wore their battered hats back to the hotel, and wore them also all the evening while they sat on the porch with a bunch of old residents and bragged and boasted and lied, and remembered many things that never happened. But while they were on their separate trains on their respective homeward trips Tuttle and Higgins each turned to his wife and said, «I licked him before, and T could have licked him again, but I didn’t like to humble him before his wife.” W. D, MESBIT, I want you to know that I never ran Their blood was a dog: fall, comicbooks.com