The copy-writers loved the details of the event. They gave the
dialogue of the Thropps in many versions, all emphasizing what
is known as "the human note."
Every one of them gave due emphasis to the historic fact that Kedzie
Thropp had been spanked.
The boarding-house was shaken from attic to basement by the news.
The Thropps read the papers. They were astounded and enraged at
gaining publicity for such a deed. They visited the walrus in his den.
But there was no word of Kedzie Thropp. The sea of people had opened
and swallowed the little girl. Her mother wondered where she had
slept and if she were hungry and into whose hands she had fallen.
But there was no answer from anywhere.
CHAPTER IX
People who call a child in from All Outdoors and make it their infant
owe it to their victim to be rich, brilliant, and generous. Kedzie
Thropp's parents were poor, stupid, and stingy.
They were respectable enough, but not respectful at all. Children
have more dignity than anybody else, because they have not lived
long enough to have their natal dignity knocked out of them.
Kedzie's parents ought to have respected hers, but they subjected her
to odious humiliation. When her father threatened to spank her--and
did--and when her mother aided and abetted him, they forfeited all
claim to her tolerance. The inspiration to run away was forced on
Kedzie, though she would have said that her parents ran away from
her first.
Kedzie had preferred her own life to the security of her valise.
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