Petty, Robert

English

Digital Commons @ Butler University

MANUSCRIPTS§vern~ayed, "boy meets z irl" routine. This combination has.. J (l 1) i-r ._,.fYhPi orced upon movie patrons for so long that they no longerse6.'~11ything wrong with it and never bother to analyze it to's~~~hbw silly are some of the pictures produced by Hollywood.~l~'sl·:tongas the profits keep coming in, the producers will not_l;j~k making cultural pictures, in which there is a chance off'fJ) loss.. . .~>f' The movies have great educational and cultural POSS,I-ibilities. They should make people more clearly aware of man S"real needs and should not exclude man's inner life. If peoplewould not attend cheap pictures, Hollywood would be forcedto raise its standards and maybe realize that culture is notjust a form of entertainment but that it is a way of life.:1. ~: t :1: :j:"Thou Scorner of the Ground"I/Robert PettyMany people seem to go about their lives in a shell ofcold, insensiriv- hardness. They would believe that such!lardness IS a necessary part of beins- mature.. 1he ph.rase by Shelley, "thou scol~ler of the ground,"brings to mmc! an incident which shattered the shell of hard-ness of one person ". It \~as a bleak, cold day in late December.(I- boy, somewhere 111 I:IS teens, stood on a hilltop, ankle-deep111 week-old snow. In hIS hands was a new .22-caliber rifle. Hestood a few moments, looked about him, took several steps,then .stopped. abruptly. He gazed far out and down across acornfield which hac! been reduced to a withered brown stubbleby the cold December wind. He saw three crows scratchingthrough the snow, searching for overlooked corn. Suddenlythere was a sharp crack and whine as an ounce of lead whistledclown riflings, and. sped ?n its de~dly errand. Simultaneously,angry caws and defiant crres echoed back. Down amidst the cornst~lbbJes ~n old crow hobbled along dragging a badly crippledwrng, while a few feet above him two other crows cawed andcawed, trying their best to help him fly. He managed to reacha small tree at the edge of the field, and climbed to the highestbranch. As the boy came toward him, he saw the other crowsflyaway, leaving the injured one to the mercy of the stranger.The boy stopped and watched the frightened bird make onelast bid for freedom. As he saw the crow wheel and clamor toMANUSCRIPTS 39~he ground, fn.litlessly flapping the broken wing, trying pathet-ically to fly, It was as if the boy heard a voice whisperitlO"from afar; "Even as ye clo it unto the least of these, my brethrel~ye clo it unto me." A sharp pang of remorse sprang from whattenderness and sympathy lay within him, and all false senseof hardness and coldness vanished. Should that boy outliveMethusaleh, he will not forget what he saw .:!: ~: •L-r- :!: :j:My BrotherMarjorie McDowellEveryone should meet my brother, Barry. He IS thirteen, and_:_J he is the typical little pest that so many big sisters complainof. Bang! The slam of the front door announced the ar-rival of my brother. Even if this noise did not mean Barry'sentrance, I would soon have krio wn that he was home; for heshouted. "Mother, where are you? I'm home." Then, in his noisyclodhoppers, which he insisted on having, he stomped out tothe kitchen to find something to eat. After rummaging aroundin all of the cabinets and drawers -i n the room, in the pantry,and in the icebox, he at last emerzerl with a jar of peanut but-ter, some jelly, and a piece of b~·ead. When he had finishedspreading the peanut butter and jelly all over the bread andall over the table, he left by way of the back c1oor, leaving itwiele open. I knew where he was going--to the vacant. lotbehind our house to dig- foxholes and to have a mudball flghtwith the other boys i11 the rieizhborhood. In the afternoonwhen I was studying, he turned on "Captain Midnight" asloud as possible. During dinner we suffered through "Super-man," "Jack Armstrong," and other such radio serials. WhileI was studying for a history test that night, he ran in andout of my room asking me to give him his spelling words andto help him write a story for English class. Later that eve-ning he went clown to his workshop in the basement, v,:herehe was trying to make a toy motor. He had oft.en come 111 t?ask Mother or me if we knew where he could find some B. S.gauge magnet wire, or if we knew where he could find someolel liquid cement or scrap iron lying around the house. Hehad finally acquired all of the needed equipment and was work-ing diligently in the basement. After au hour or so of hardlabor, during which time he had followed explicitly the direc-

Thou Scorner of the Ground

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Thou Scorner of the Ground

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