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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Times, 1906-12-27, Page 71 iY......w.wel•11» W.-.••M..•.n.w�.MM. w wMh i• 1 DONALD 7 DONALDSO A t °s I Al By HOWARD FIELDING i.......w....'..'...,—...,...h....1........-../N..MM..-.....Y........ W..•.n.w.nM.N............N..N..4 Copyright, roe, by Charles W. Hooke *motion choked him as be tried to :speak her name. He struggled with it for an instant and then answered me by throwing out his right arm so that be pointed to the window and across the broad lawn and nearly the whole town beyond it, half a mile or more in µii, to the house where Dorothy lived. I undertttood him perfectly. "You couldn't please me better than that," said I. "With all my heart I !wish you well." Some days later Dorothy told me that she was much more encouraged about the school and that she had quite given up the idea of going away. She was devoted to the wofk, and yet I knew that it was mot her success there- in which had so lightened her heart. When Hackett learned how matters stood, he insisted that my theory about a natural antipathy between psychics lovas overthrown, but I preferred to re - They were mrtrrted in my house. igard the case as merely exceptional. !Obviously the rule cannot be ironclad, for if such were the fact occult powers &would disappear from the world. At any rate, this was a true love match if ever there was one. Their happiness brought out the noblest quai- Sties of their hearts. They did wonder- ful work that winter, both of them, justifying my best hopes and winning my warmest good will. It was to be a long engagement. Dorothy had mentioned two years, I believe. But in the late spring we planned to send Donaldson abroad, with the result that Dorothy decided to goo too. So they were married in my bonne, which was rose bedecked for the occasion. There were festivities !which lasted until sundown, and then iwhile some of the younger guests were tying telltale ribbons to the carriage that waited before my door the two lovers escaped by another way and ran hand in band like children across the fields through the sweet June even- ing. it appeared that they had secret- ly sent all their baggage to the railroad (station earlier in the day. CHAPTER V. IrtE 1t sTERT OL' TEE =rearm nOnfEn. ONALD DONALDSON, JR., was born May 2, 1881. He was the healthiest and alto- gether the finest child that lever came into the world, the most de - Sired, the best loved. And whimsical *nature exacted the smallest possible {price of pain for hits. Yet permit me to re"onsider that (statement in the light of a better phi- losophy. There are those who say that in adversity one need not shout for the awakening of the gods nor in the clay bf superabundance dread it; that noth- ing comes which is not earned. It may be that a young mother reaped no more ban the just reward of consistent right wing from her earliest girlhood. Hove- r that may be, the fact remains ' . ealtiav well. old Inds ' k Spot t what form a lay be sure it aiest organ. rrhal nature )ally; with and there ehest t the 'eve with se's .1 ins ant' tely cep the Ad and Henkel, to. that all things went mert:u,.,.,, . Behold Dorothy, as pretty as ever and not a day older, tripping about the house with a song; behold the boy, healthy as a young lion and roaring, when he roared, for his own good pleasure and not for any i11. Hackett prophesied great things of him, believing that bis exploits would some day necessitate a revised edition of our "Psychic Pacts," a work that was then complete except for the last section, which Hackett wished to en- title "The Real Facts" despite the imputation upon the accuracy of the preceding portions. As to his hopes of young Donald my partner spoke only once in the pres- ence of the boy's parents. "You'd have thought 1 bad accused him of being cross eyed," said be to me in describing the incident, and there- after we discussed the subject strictly to private. Our book eventually went to the printer, but Hackett never saw it in a binding. He was stricken with an ill- ness which rushed to a fatal ter- mination in that it seemed all over in a day, and was standing by the grave of my oldest friend. After- ward I could hardly bear to look at the book upon which we bad labored to- gether. I left everything to others. It had z small success and was soon for- gotten, though recent events have led the publishers to print some thousands of copies from the old plates. The work is full or unfounded belief and equally unfounded doubt. I am proud only ot the romper, which was mostly gecko etre, a. natural, honest. seemingly baeetess belief' is probably founded up- on pew knowledge of the ages and the soul's sympathy with infinite wisdom, but your doubt is likely to be your own, and you should he the more mod- est in the expression of it. Pardon this digression about "Psy- chic Facts." The psychic fact with whieh this present record principally "oncerns itself le Domed I)onaidson, Jr., and from this point onward I elan stiek closely to him. I have given a view of his parents because that was absolutely necessary to an understand- ing of his nature and of the events in which he took part, I shall now very briefly sketch his youth, which was unmarked by any incident out of the ordinary. He was a healthy baby and a sturdy, active schoolboy when the years bad brought him onward to that stage of life. Mentally he was too quick to re- quire diligence. The tasks in the Tun- bridge schools were easy for him, and he led his classes without effort. It must be remembered, however, that no other pupil had equally good home training. His mother was a teacher, both by nature and by instruction. He might have advanced more rapidly un- der her care alone, but the public school is a part of our creed in Tunbridge. If any school in the town had not been a good place for Donald, we should not have taken him away. We .phould have made the school better. While upon this subject I will quoto a curious remark that I once heard a little girl mako to another in Don's hearing and somewhat in the way of a taunt: "Don Donaldson always knows what the teacher's going to ask him. He guesses it before recitation and hunts it up in his book." I questioned the little girl, but could not learn that she had any basis for her belief except Donald's proficiency in his studies and a vague tradition that he "could guess things." It was Impossible to discover any specific in. stance worth mentioning. In the sports of boys he was very successful, but any boy will be so who grows up ahead of his years. Prom the time when he reached school age be was al- ways growing more rapidly in height and weight than the average, More- over, he played with tremendous ener- gy and conceutratlon. He was fond of rough games, but neither suffered inju- ry nor inflicted it. Indeed he presently began to be known as "lucky," and if I were to select one attribute of his which never deserted him and seemed always to make its impression upon his associates I would choose his "luck." For luck is a personal quality. It means, as a rule, no more than an in- stinctive aecuraey of judgment, the power that makes a bird fly south in the fall, though he knows nothing of the danger which he is escaping, hav- ing never seen a reinter. If you tell me that it is rational supe- riority which enables a boy to thrust his head into a football scrimmage in a place where it will not eneoutiter au• • 1 "his feet his skull of • 1 fist or s �l I. UI s # bey 's tend <i, : cep on doing this all through a cltee en of the gone, 1 shall laugh at sot', lett it is well known that injuries met not equally distributed; that nei- ther the strong nor the prudent es - tee a them; that the boy 'who doesn't ee tltutt is the one wile has the faculty, rice textural gift, the instinctive t;uid- :'„'e, the hick. And the world is a k,ilt football faille, full of t'iying fs't8 i feet. SO when I naythatl)onald was lucky I decline to be aeeused of superstition or of fa t al 'cm 1➢ at which all of t c be- lieve in, though same of us afieet to doubt it, the thins eaiied luck us a per- tenal asset, is neither ortlimil•y' goad autigtlient nor the laver of hear en. it THE WING110 TIMES, DECEMBER 27 1906 is the faculty of relying upon it deep t seated, guiding power resident it the individual and nearly If not quite in. fallible. This power is not limited by the fineness of the physical senses. It will <' help you to dodge an invisible microbe just as a more obvious instinct will help you to dodge a snowball. It is natural to step out of the snowball'' path, but if you hesitate and try to reason about it you will get hit. And the same thing is true of that mysteri- ous force within you which is absolute- ly at ono with nature. In Donald there appeared a singular combination of spontaneous judgment and deliberate action. As a child ho would respond to questions slowly and with care. even when the expression of his eyes showed that the correct answer had flashed through his mind instantly. His greatest and most ob- stinate fault was secretiveness. Though his nature was very affectionate and his sympathy most tender, he lacked the natural tendency to confide his troubles, his joys or his hopes to those he loved, even to his mother. IIe bad no slyness. He was at no pains to keep a secret. He simply said nothing about it and gave no sign of its ex- istence. We were often grieved to find that he had Ieft us in ignorance of some in- cident of his daily life, some act nei- ther praiseworthy nor blamable or one perhaps involving a moral question be- yond the appreciation of his years. When reproved for such an omission, his customary—and, I believe, sincere— reply would be: "Why, it never occurred to me that you didn't know." It was frequently necessary to give hila quite an elaborate explanation be - Nese he seemed to realize that we had had no means of knowing. By all this I do not apish to give the impression that he was a markedly phenomenal boy, but it is important, of course, that I should point out all par - hinters in which he differed from the average. I have therefore with great rare selected these three peculiarities: IIe thought very quickly and spoke very slowly. He had an unconquerable habit of I. keeping his own affairs to himself. IIe enjoyed remarkably good fortune, including a notable immunity from ill- ness and injury, in which connection I may record the fact that he never had one of the so called diseases of child- lio0dl. in other respect, he was the typical American boy. He payed as much as possible and studio when his con- science or his elders compelled him to do so. He bad his friendships end his childish loves. He romped gayly in the long summer evenings and come matted clever and amusing mischief once in awhile, in regard to which I think that even the recording angel always waited for Donald's confes- sion and never, attempted to know the facts in advance of it. ' At the age of sixteen he was ready for college. He was then six feet in height and weighed 170 pounds. He resembled both his parents, but was generally called his mother's boy, for he had her red gold bair and bright blue eyes. His father's nature lay the deeper in him. It came to the surface most plainly in moments of excitement, and at such times, even during his childhood, young Donald would exhibit the solemn, superficial calm and ex- treme precision of speech which had al- ways characterized the "deacon" when in a high state of nervous tension. If be had during his youth such psychic experiences as are not the com- mon lot of humanity, I was not able to observe them. A few vague hints of no more importance than the school- girl's remark which I have quoted would have been the best evidence that I could have adduced previous to the month of June in the year 1899. We were expecting him home from college in a week or two when we were surprised by receiving this telegram: Last exam. today. Leave immediately. You will see me tomerrow. We knew that he had intended to stay beyond class day and that the' varsity baseball nine, of which he was a member, had not closed its season, so the message puzzled us and' gave rise to considerable anxiety. His mother telegraphed for an explanation, but no answer came, On the morrow, how- ever, came Donald himself, hale and happy, and handsome beyond the dreams of romance. When we assailed him with questions, he stared at us. "Why, there's no particular reason for my coming,'f said he. "I merely felt like it; that's all." Teams Kidneys W'enit Kidneys. surely point to weak 1.zudney Nerves. The Kidneys, like the Hurt, and the Stomach, find their weakness, not in the organ itself. but in tho nerves that control and guide and strengthen them. Dr. Shoop's Restorative is 1 a to o,iiefale specifically prepared to reach these controlling nerves. To doctor the Kidneys alone. is futile. It is a. waste of time, and of money as Weil. I1 our bacir aches or is weak, if the urine scald:. or is dark and strong. if you have symptoms of Nights or other distressing or dangerous kid. ney disease, try Dr. *hoop's Restorative a month— . Tablets or Liquid --and see what it can and will do :or you. Druggist recommend and sell • Suffered Terrible Ago►Ly FROM PAIN ACROSS HIS KIDNEYS. el AN'S ;1 iONEV PILE. CULS�� II H �.., . �Y VF G41i fa 'Read tl.e words of prate, 'dr.11. A.1'.'.elna:s elar:uu liriJ,"e, N.S., has for Moan's Kidney Pill,. Ole a...nesus) I'.rthe l•a-tthree ytars 1 bare ruffe:pd ter.1A10 ano:;y f..iaa Fain aeras lov i.i.iseys. I was so bad I c..u1.1 rut ?foals er 1:wAd. I eorc.•u1te,1 anti had reveite 'octets oval tee. but auultl f;: t no relief. tin the advizo If/ africi:.1.1 proeurod all.,? of r rialucide ii`o•Giviart eche ly ;Duan': Iri...,I S l .1'.r, aa.d to aur• furp :•e sad delight.'? iat9, :r: only go wetter. maga op;n' •ah)•.';I::t%ilh_e• i';iishave a..o,ionli.rwee a.aauf 1i.laryIto tie.' l)aari n Sildut y Tills ai 5d cent:, ,air bas or than hosezfia' S1.0. tan to leu, ur"1 at sal i .t.f A,�•a.t,,a t,r :till 1, i,arnl a t , r o.:co t:y ;the 1)t,au Itianey Vol Ca.. Tarasta ill! J! enett c,,IL L is Lai;st:tote but Le tine and *et " Sh op's Ast rain \VALLEY'S DRUG S'fGRE. • Then after a pause he added: "I wonder why the dickens I did come? I can't think, unless it was be- causie I wanted to see my very best girl." Whereupon he put his arni across his mother's shoulders and kissed her tenderly upon the forehead and hair. To all appearances Dorothy might in- deed have been his "very best girl" or perhaps his sister, but surely not his mother. She bad preserved her youth- ful looks to a degree that is beyond the credence of the reader, so that I shall not attempt to state the truth about it. When she was thirty, the Tunbridge people spoke of her with wonder, and she looks younger now than she did then. Donaldson, upon the other hand, bas aged greatly. He is a worrying man, I am afraid, and must always be so. Moreover, he received a peculiar in- jury some years ago, when an old fac- tory building which we bought from the Strobel estate collapsed while a dozen of our workmen were inspect- ing it with a view to ascertaining its needs. Donaldson was the first to per- ceive the peril, and it is said that he sustained a mass of falling timbers in the posture of Atlas long enough to permit several of his companions to crawl out to safety who would other- wise have been shut in. A. maze of tradition bas grown up around this in- cident, but it really involved nothing more than a very ready and brave use of great physical strength. Though he escaped broken bones or any specific hurt to which the best of doctors could give a location or a name, he was never the same man afterward. He began to stoop in the shoulders and to move more slowly, and upon his forty-sec- ond birthday his hair was as white as mine. He was morbidly sensitive about the change in his looks, though be had come by it so honorably, and I have seen tears in his eyes when strangers have spoken of Dorothy as his daugh- ter. I think that he had always held too high an idea of youth. It is a com- mon fault and was exaggerated in Mm by his love of Dorothy, who would not grow old. She seemed to stand still while he was dragged onward in the grip of time. This is the natural sor- row of women, but one which men are rarely called upon to bear. When Donald came home that June day, his father was busy about some matter of immediate importance, and so the boy and I walked down to the of- fice, as we call it, a separate building upon the other side( the street from the factory. I was .witness of a most affectionate greeting. Donaldson was very proud of lits son, as he has every reason to be, and the boy loved him heartily. Afterward Donald paid his respects to the office staff, especially to old Jim Bunn, our cashier, and Iris crippled assistant, Tim Healy, some- times called Tiny Tim, a youth who sat on a very high stool and kept the hand- somest set of books in the state of New Jersey. I lost sight of Donald for a little while and subsequently discovered him in my private office. He was sitting in my chair, with his head throw: n back Mad his clasped hands press[ tl hard across his eyes. I asked him a t.:it was the natter, and he started up end be- gan to walk around the room :_: a pe- culiar, aimless fashion. "Uncle John," said he at last, "every- thing is all right, isn't it? You're not worried or nnfiious?" ""Antlnus?"ts'i l 1. "!'ort: inky not. What should 11 1 e anxious about?" el don't la w: said 1te, with hesita• tion. "I'eth. s 1 oughtn't to have ask- ed you the q1 ,stien." "Aiti The • is ttevt'r you please. his :toy; sold 1. De r.'•-:'au1:'s rt st't ss in't'ri'.at.: tL"'rt . h: at ..a:. 1 . "What is it all a.,"it? 1 don't Ile had a de I ..e'::t slid ttn'nn'utt d air. Red the se .;t et 1t t':+tett d the back ti 41:00 many t Us to the :lay when 1 led tii:d 5.(e'ie ,iti tatiae't: It rang itll- 1.6:.;4ii1ie to : la,: c my mine ti'p*t' of ties ane:nery. 'i'➢.e t'ee':,e' of long ago. in fertrinit s +'ntitie le Aust' teeerred with sta:l'tk.5 t t it idnt s,a. 1 ria$Warn t ie St1:Inge :.S:11 that this wils)is•+:t.t;l,>ng t'a;0n fen' ssleeh I boo. bets n:ait4eg- a s.ug teapeeted ve- eua-tt'aee'. 'tl: re (:Buie to use shs0 an indes:t t!b:?htf. Iltt:'s:.:tr_i o1'tpitat nut] Seise. 6ciur f OWL, e t I. "I yt+ jbil 11),, w1"-- I lie'Jti> diet he tat 1 ,e;➢ int' hael:iy that to ask him ave - thing. "This is a queer business, rncle John," said he. "I think, I'In on the point of getting myself into all ldnda of a tangle, and I don't want to do it the very first day I'in bottle. Please let me think it over." "Speak when you are ready, Donald," said I. "It was always a habit ot yours." We were Interrupted by the advent of Dorothy, who bad come down from the house in a pony phaeton. She wore a sober gray gown, but it bad the dain- ty grace of all her raiment. Dorothy never takes any pains to dress either young or old. Her clothes are for Dor- othy. They would not suit anybody else, and they have nothing to do with years. Donald surveyed her with affection- ate admiration. " hly incredible mother!" said he, drawing her close to him and looking down into her face. Then I saw the tears come suddenly into his eyes. He drew a quick, deep breath and stood sharply erect, so that he seemed to grow both in breadth and height, while she looked almost like a frightened child in the embrace of his arm. Be careful!" she cried, with a gasp and a laugh. "You will break my bones t" "Did I hurt you, little mother?" said he, "Well, by the same token, nobody else ever shall." "To what do we owe the honor of this visit?" I asked Dorothy, and she replied that she had come to take my nephew, Carleton Archer, across to the town of Solway, where our other fac- tory was situated. Archer was an able, energetic and ambitious young man who had been brought into my service about two years before to be Donaldson's assistant and lighten his burdens. He lived at my house and was the leading spirit in all our recre- ations. He was blessed with unfailing activity of mind and body. He could both work and play at the same time. Often he has come to me at midnight with business plans that he had thought out during the evening, an evening devoted to ceaseless gayety of the somewhat cbildish sort in which he found his chief delight and relaxa- tion. He was an enthusiast for the gentler forms of athletics, such as wo- men may indulge in, and as a result of his efforts there were tennis courts upon our lawn and golf links on the south slope of the hill. After Dorothy and Carl haul ridden away in the phaeton Donald remained with me until luncheon time, when he and his father and I walked up to the house together. The boy was not quite himself, as any one could see, and I ; was consumed with curiosity to know what lay on his mind, but experience taught me to ignore the subject. Donald spent the afternoon with hi mother, who returned from Solwatr. which was only a matter of five mass distant, in time for luncheon. In the evening he disappeared, and I found l H,A..11f,:a,.,1 ::11.4 L .1. I: VJ. '•1 1'QC:•.".. Y,.:1: .AVege Eab1e Prep arationi'orAs - - similating thereof! andRegttta- 1 tin$tttyheSttllmelisai tBowetsof J � ' MEStrr i ,% ice Promatle s Digestion,Cheert'ut- nessandRest.Containsnatter Opnim,Morptirne roe �+111i1£•"ilk. NoT 1IAu.c oleic. .r JFb„ icect- Afx.,fenna Ji ,d.d(& Sat: - .1n#e Seca + .Rppermrnt - lir' Ca doncihrgd r• Mums iced - 0('11iudSayan. il:nlcor,wateascr. t Ape:feet Remedy for Cotlsiipa- j tion, Sour Stolnach,Diarrhoea. Worms,Convutsaons,Feveristt- ttess and LOSS OF SLEEP. Lac Simile Signature of if , Pi�e`v. NEW YORK. Bears the Signature of In Use dor Over Thirty Years CASTORIA..ti ' �• `�� 714C CCteTAYR COM:IAN,', NEVJ YORK CITY. E.aaii:ur'.. LIILhilliAlbiCdititle ie Jse, liail teal ,itILEIilea ledl I 11.11 ,16.1,10 EXACT COPY OF WRAPPER. thought I wasn't quite— quite right There have been some stories about me:" "Both your parents," said 1, "pos- sessed a power which I once thought myself competent to define and ex- plain, but I have grown more modest." "Once possessed it?" he echoed, with what I might call joyful animation. "Then it's something a person can get rid of, outgrow? You don't always have to have it?" "I think you know more about the subject than I do," was my answer, "and if you don't now you will some day." "I'd like to have you tell me about my father and mother and the things that they did," said be, "but I mustn't ask you, because I tried to get it out of them long ago, and they didn't want nae to know." I applauded this view, and so we spoke of other subjects as ;lire walked home together. CHAPTER VI. s tiTERY OV THE EXPERTED ROBBER (CONTINUED). BOUT 5 o'clock in the follow- ing ollowing afternoon Donald came to me as I sat alone in my work- room at me omee. "Uncle John," said he, "I have de- cided to make a startling and terrible fool of myself once and for all and have it over with. If I do, you'll for- give me, won't you? 1 wish you'd give me permission to do any idiotic thing that comes into my mind. It's better than getting drunk, as some fellows at college do, and running around with all kinds of people, but their parents forgive them," I told him that it would indeed be a: startling and terrible thing which could make him any less my boy than be had always been. "Then it's all settled," *aid he, " here goes!" IIe strode up to a safe that Was in the room, a small safe compared to those in the outer office, yet of a new: style and very strong. "In that safe," said he, "there are two packages of money. They are in brown paper, with rubber bands around them. One of them is not quite so, thick as a pack of cards, and the other is thicker than two packs. The larger one is on top." (To be continued.) ��'_ rtijfL "Be careful!" she cried. him about 9 o'clock sitting on the steps of the office. I don't know hose ' I happened to go down there and , should be inclined to include it among the mysteries of the affair. • "Uncle John," said he when I sat down beside him, "you told mo that I eould ask you whatever I pleased. Will you tell me whether you are sur- rounded by thoroughly trustworthy people in your business?" This was a rather startling question, and I answered it with another: "Do you know anything to the con- trary?" i"No," he replied. "If I did, I'd tell you, of course. I don't know anything, but I feel a lot! Is Mr. Bunn a good plan?" I replied that old Jim 'Bunn had been 1 with me for thirty years and might be banked upon so long as be lasted, wheat couldn't 1'e very long, pour fel. $ lora, sieve his health rets' so bad. lite then ,taC cd ore a 'similar question in re..ard to every other person holding 9 '\ '1 / 1'1 n .iii II of :my consequence 3 in he ty ill t 3 1 r•::t:lanin+. even including Otis own fa ther, though of course It was not a query in this ease, but a naive and boy- ish espre:sion of t'onfide:VP. I an- swered soberly for thena all that they were good wen mud true and even en- tered into some explanation of my method of judges'„ wen. Denali? seemed nether discouraged than cheered'. "It must be semetiaing Circ,'" rend he. ' "You have ft feeling that all's nut eat here," said I. 'Is that vvhy you came home so ssd&-nig:" "Yes, sir," be replied, and then. with Le s:tntk a: 'Do J'vu 10 410.0 there's eiiytl?ing queer !:boat sae? I've al- ` Ways had an imi:rcesion that sea eL'I fSi • v EN\c 4 o is only another Way of saying " Ambition. " 'tip' :til :rs ambitious ---we all want to reach the trop, but if Lite first few rungs in the ladder of :+needy? are uliseilrg, it's Feeley hard to get a foothold, isn't it ? Begin right and attend tile. Foe: o r Cm. rival:ass & St1ARTfIAND Cotentin. Nothing; is taught that is not needed in business life. The rungs are all in Bret ladder, and wllt'n you graduate you stated atone on a firm tuuudfiiion. Business and Shorthand work our specialty. Write for our catalogue ; it's free. School terns : September till June, inclusive. Forest City Business Co1kkge J. W. WESTERVELT, Pri.CIrel. V. Nal. C. A. t"31ctC3., LOnt$ W. MRION F,eLxAt^441[= , iVKWA1I2G50°- TIE... 7 ,i y y LI j E$TORED rs I 1 Y _au.d � N Y kE GA Ile New iiiettsod Tr—cement cs X. X. has restated ti „ors t6v t. Klit=ia"sed 11,•.C13i' to roust teete.hi. a:U =aatt er bow many Gl tore Mat e farlea to 'aurorae also tee. t (sees lei t a ffear .' l tad yen acid d:.tt a: ;'::t at. 't t: st:; ;., anree cal tea:.: ra v:e net eel l for to atmeat, Not A dollar treed Cue paid iac18 ett�e d for yea eon pay nift:r y as ort: Cir 4i. Drs 1s. Sz a.. t i t,-. iY tJ t i cleat Varicocele. Netreetti4>! eb11- $$y,eatrieture, blecel DDsea cs, leiditte latialcier sad Vs.' nnr;, ! e; . Jr P. t..;. 1).to eci:l, v.ate for «t- a -,, ., 1 See ter Iic>:.e 's1aeutc::". consultation fry*. NOT A DOLLAR t pro 1NE -Alp UNLESS C 'RE•#U. 14!4 3hit1%"4 fhw..t, Ilr'ulgt, lrAr.6 L