A vigorous twist of his ship's gigantic "fan" a shout, a roar, a whizz,
a mighty cloud of dust, and amid a tornado of clapping, shouts, and
band music, Branton Hills was put on aviation's map. Way, way up, so
far as to look as small as a toy, Harold put on a show of banking,
rolling and diving, which told Gadsby that, still again, had Branton
Hills found profit in what its Organization of Youth, _and, now, its
small kids_, had to say about improving a town.
During that box-lunch picnic, many of our "big girls" brought so much
food to Marian that Dad and Ma had to stand guard against tummy pains.
And what a glorious, jolly occasion that picnic was! Gay band music,
songs, dancing, oratory; and a grand all-round "howdy" amongst old
inhabitants and arriving tourists soon was transforming that big crowd
into a happy group, such as it is hard to find, today, in any big city;
cold, distant, and with no thought by its politicians for anybody in
it; and Gadsby found, around that big airport, many a man, woman and
child who was as proud of him as was his own family.
IX
I think that now you should know this charming Gadsby family; so I will
bring forth Lady Gadsby, about whom I told you at Gadsby's inauguration
as Mayor; a loyal church woman with a vocal ability for choir work;
and, with good capability on piano or organ, no woman could "fill in"
in so many ways; and no woman was so willing, and quick to do so.
Gadsby had two sons; bright lads and popular with all. Julius was of
a studious turn of mind, always poring through books of information;
caring not what kind of information it was, so long as it was
information, and not fiction. Gadsby had thought of his growing up as a
school instructor, for no work is so worthy as imparting what you know
to any who long to study. But William! Oh, hum!! Our Mayor and Lady
Gadsby didn't know just _what_ to do with him; for all his thoughts
clung around girls and fashions in clothing. Probably our High School
didn't contain a girl who didn't think that, at no distant day, Bill
Gadsby would turn, from a callow youth, into a "big catch" husband; for
a Mayor's son in so important a city as ours was a mark for any girl
to shoot at. But Bill was not of a marrying disposition; loving girls
just _as_ girls, but holding out no hand to any in particular. Always
in first class togs, without missing a solitary fad which a young man
should adopt, Gadsby's Bill was a lion, in his own right, with no girl
in sight who had that tact through which a lasso could land around his
manly throat. Gadsby had many a laugh, looking back at his own boyhood
days, his various flirtations and such wild, throbbing palpitations as
a boy's flirtations can instill; and looking back through just such
ogling groups as now sought his offspring; until a girl, oh, _so_ long
ago, had put a stop to all such flirtations, and got that lasso on
"with a strangling hold," as Gadsby says; and it is still on, today! But
this family was not all boys.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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