morning that he considered him the best actor he had ever seen). He'll
be out with a fly-by-night troupe afore the next month. Alfred's a gone
goslin'. He's got no trade an' he'll hev to scratch to make a livin'. I
sort of pity Uncle John an' Aunt Mary, kase they think so much of the
boy, an' it's a great pity for them. Uncle John ought to beat the
foolishness out of him long ago. He never touches him, no matter what he
does. Does he?"

Lin looked at Cousin Charley in a sort of pitying way as she asked: "How
is hit thet all are agin Alfurd? Ye all like him, I no ye do, but durned
ef ye evur lose a shot at him. No, his pap don't whup him eny more, he
nevur did beat him tu hurt; hit wus sort of a habit tu take him intu the
celler to skur him but hit nevur done him a mite uf good, he jus laffed
an' made fun uf hit. Ye kin do more with reasonin' with Alfurd."

Cousin Charley agreed with Lin and declared that he always took Alfred's
part. "I told his father Alfred would go off some day and then they'd
all be dog-goned sorry they hadn't handled him different."

"Well, Alfurd's not goin' off eny more till he goes rite; he's gettin'
more sot in his ways every day, he's mos' like a man."

Alfred's family were greatly elated that he had settled down. Staid old
Brownsville was stirred from center to sandy hollow. Peter Hunt,
philosopher and photographer, leased Krepp's Bottom for the announced
purpose of converting it into a skating park or rink. Alfred was one of
Peter's right hand men. The creeks and rivers had furnished ample fields
for the skaters of Brownsville heretofore, but Peter felt the time had
come when the society people of the town, who did not care to skate with
the common herd, should have a more exclusive place in which to enjoy
this wholesome recreation.

Therefore Krepp's Bottom was selected. The proposed park was the talk of
the town. Dunlap's Creek flowed in a circle, skirting three sides of the
bottom land. Levees three feet high were thrown up along the banks of
the creek, a rope stretched along the west side. An opening in the levee
admitted the water. Two feet of water covered the bottom. The weather
turned cold, ice formed, the park was opened, and three-fourths of the
public walked in free. Alfred felt that Spaff was about right in his
estimate of the public.

The creek fell, the dry, clay land absorbed the water, the ice sunk and
cracked in places. The waters of the creek flowed six feet below an