The Happy Years

Mr. Stover.

This little story

about your son.

I gave you the facts

and told you

to write it honestly.

But this isn't the way

i wrote it, sir.

Please listen.

"John h. Stover, younger

son of samuel stover sr.,

"last night left for miss

wandell's select academy

"for young ladies

and gentlemen.

"John was last monday

expelled

"from the public schools

of chester county

by unanimous vote

of the school board."

That's the way

i rewrote what you wrote.

Bert, mrs. Stover and i

are ashamed and humiliated.

We wish it could have been hushed up,

but everybody would

find out,

and i don't want

them saying

i kept it out

of the papers

because it was

my own son.

Bert:
Hello.

Oh, yes.

Mrs. Stover

calling you, sir.

Hello, maude.

Samuel, come home

right away.

It's mrs. Cameron.

She's going to

put john in prison.

All right, maude.

I'll come at once.

Samuel stover, your son has robbed me

of a blue ribbon in

next week's horse show.

Please, mrs. Cameron,

if someone has been

surreptitiously riding

any of your prize horses-

my beautiful, white,

five-gaited gelding bucephalus.

Well, what's the matter

with b-b-bucephalus?

Look.

Well, why do you suspect

john of this?

The jones hardware store will tell you

that yesterday

at 3:
30,

john purchased two

quarts of green paint,

which he charged

to my account.

Bert:
Hello.

Oh, yes.

Mr. Stover, your little

girl is on the phone.

Hello, tootsie.

I love you, darling,

but i'm awfully busy

right now, so you-

but mom wants you.

Hurry.

John's been expelled

from miss wandell's academy,

and sambo's come home

from yale about it.

Hello, sambo.

What is it, and how did the

news reach yale university?

There was an explosion

at the academy,

and it blew out

the sides of the building,

and it could have

killed everybody.

The police say

that john did it.

Sambo:

I brought him home.

Dad, we'll never have a moment's peace

unless you do

something drastic

about that young

heathen right now.

In the last two years, we've

lost half our friends and...

well-

oh, no, samuel.

Not reform school, please.

Why not

reform school?

Of course, there is one

private school i know of,

a school with a fine

tradition among its students

that manages to turn pretty

nearly any young heathen

into a good christian.

It did

when i went there.

Lawrenceville, dad?

Oh, no.

I won't stand

for that.

Lawrenceville has

a fine curriculum,

an understanding

faculty-

we went all through that a year ago.

I've got a reputation at lawrenceville.

Maude, what do you say?

Sam, your father means

what he says

about reform school.

All right.

Lawrenceville...

but i'll bet

the faculty

won't let him stay there long enough

for the splendid tradition

to do him any good.

That we'll find out.

Bring john here.

This isn't

your fault, dear.

Maybe i've failed

with john.

You've had

the patience of job.

Well, if lawrenceville doesn't work,

i'll have

job's boils, too.

Samuel:
Great godfrey, maude!

Look at that child's

clothes.

And all the money

i spent on him.

Samuel stover, 5 minutes

after he puts on a new suit,

it looks like something out of a ragbag.

This isn't

a new suit.

This is the coat

of one suit

and the pants

of another.

The other coat and pants

were burnt in the explosion.

Did you deliberately

set off that explosion

and blow out the wall

of the academy building?

It could have happened

to anybody.

What could have

happened to anybody?

One of the boys

in chemistry class

said you couldn't

make dynamite

without using

special machinery.

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