Judge — June 1938 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

CONTACT By Terence Cronyn ‘OR the first few weeks that Junior was away at boarding-school our contact with him was sketchy but inter- esting. The first letter that we received from him arrived two days after we had left him at school. It was a brief, smudgy epistle, much to the point, and obviously marked with drops of mois- ture. It said: der Mom and dady schol is aful. I hate it her ples take me away. the boys are aful Herbert B. Smith Jr. That evening Kate telephoned the school and got hold of Mr. Prendergast because she said that he had nice eyes. Mr. Prendergast said that he had seen Junior almost all day; he had taught him in class for four periods in the morning and two in the afternoon and had had him on his football squad after school; further he, Mr. Prendergast, having been On Duty, had presided over Jun- ior’s breakfast, dinner and tea, and had just finished supervising his bath and going-to-bed. Mr. Prendergast felt that Junior was in good spirits consid. ering that he was only ten and that this was his second day away from home. Kate suggested that she should run up 18 to the school for the night and again Mr. Prendergast was firm. He said that it would be best for the boy if she and I did not go near the school for at least a month. A day or so later we had a second let- ter. This one said: Latimer School wenesday Deer Mom and dad. I just got liked for throing a dart at a boy, it dident hert we play reel football after schul and i lik it. 1 am in the 2d form because of my ARITHMETIC. Latimer has a good football teem I no a boy calld , faty Duglass lots of love Junior P.S. give my love to Jorge The P.S. gave us a bit of trouble un- til Kate remembered that “Jorge” was the coloured gentleman who was rfe- sponsible for removing the garbage from the apartment. Kate didn’t like the idea of Junior being strapped but I said that if he insisted on throwing darts in class it was the only thing to do and Kate said that she supposed so. From then on we got a letter like this every Monday afternoon. The chief items of information contained in them continued to have to do with the pun- ishments he had received recently, with the state of the school football team, with the activities of the said “faty Duglass,” and with those of another boy referred to throughout as “bil.” Mr. Prendergast had Kate right under his thumb and so, before she did it, she wrote and asked if he thought it would be all right if she phoned Junior some night. Mr. Prendergast wrote back and said that Junior seemed to be working occasionally, that his spelling was bad but that his mathematics were fair, and that he had the makings of a real foot- ball player. He added as a P.S. that it would be quite all right now to tele- phone your son, but be sure to ask for Smith III as there are two other H. Smiths in the school. So one Sunday evening Kate put in a call to the school but it wasn’t altogether successful. First she got a voice that said coldly that this was the headmaster's residence. I heard her reply and yelled for God's sake don't get hold of old Pendy just for this and she hung up. Then she tried again and got closer to home as she was put through to the Junior School Masters’ Common Room. The reply here was that Smith III was engaged for half an hour but he would phone back if she would leave the operator's number. So we sat and listened to Jack Benny some more. Then the phone rang and the operator said on the call to Mr. Herbert B. Smith Junior III I'm sorry but . . . when Junior's voice suddenly broke in. Kate and I both talked to him. Kate found out that he was well, that it was raining at Latimer, and that he wanted her to send that old baseball bat, a rug for his bed, not a soft thing but a rug, and all his erector set. I discovered that he was well, that it was raining at Lati- mer, and that, as well as the things he had told Mom, he wanted his stamp-al- bum. Just then the operator broke in and began again on the call to Mr. Herbert B. Smith Junior III I'm sorry but . . and I hung up. We spent the rest of the evening try- ing to figure out the best way of send- ing a bat, a rug, a large package of steel girders and a stamp.album to Latimer. Finally I said we'd better go up and see the boy next week-end and take them in the car. Kate wanted to ask Mr. Prendergast first but I said no, let's assert ourselves, we're the boy's parents, aren't we? So we went. The Judge comicbooks.com