Geoffrey's Victory by Mrs Georgie Sheldon — page 43: what you’re looking at

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

THE DEVELOPMENTS OF SEVERAL YEARS. 39 rapidly, physically, after his restoration, and bade fair to be a man of splendid physique. He was not long in realizing that he was far from be- ing like other boys of his age, and he began to be very sensitive over the fact—to grow grave and thoughtful, and sometimes positively unhappy. “Why can’t I be like other boys?” he once asked of Mr. Huntress, with a perplexed look on his fine face, and the gentleman kindly explained that, when he had been very young, some one or something must have struck hima blow on the head which had injured his brain, so that for years it had been the same as if sound asleep, and had only just waked up again; that his body had grown, but his mind had not. ‘‘Oh, I know,” Geoffrey returned, with a startled look, anew light coming into his eyes. ‘Jack threw a great stick of wood at me.” “What made him do that?” Mr. Huntress asked, eagerly. The boy bent his head, and seemed trying to recall the events of that dim past. “He came into the kitchen with a dreadful red face,” he said, “and he was very ugly to Margery—I can’t think about what. He put his hands aroundsher neck, and she screamed. Iran up and struck him, and tol him I’d tell my papa, and—that’s all I know, he concluded, with a sigh. Mr. Huntress could imagine that the man was intoxi- cated, and being in a frenzy, he had perhaps seized a stick of wood from the hearth, thrown it at the child, and knocked him senseless. “ What was Jack’s other name?” he asked. “ Jack—Jack—” Geoffrey began, then shook his head hopelessly. ‘‘I can’t tell,” he concluded; and Mr. Hun- tress felt that it only annoyed him, and it would be use- less to try to find out anything definite from him, so he let the matter drop. One day, after Geoffrey had bean with the family some three months, he came in from the street looking flushed and angry Seeking Gladys he besought her most piteously to teach him to read. Upon inquiring what prompted the request, she found that Geoffrey had been attracted by a glaring placard that had been pasted up somewhere on a building, and had asked some boys what it was. (E(0) miGcooo S *« S|