Irvin Cobb never writes a story until he has worked it over in his own mind for a couple of months. At the same time, a hundred new ideas are developing; and as he himself says he will not live long enough to write all his stories. A year before he wrote “The Belled Buzzard” he was visiting with Mrs. Cobb at her old home in Georgia. They were sitting on a front porch one morning when a huge buzzard flew past. Mr. Cobb recalled a Southern story about a belled buzzard, and remarked that he guessed he would weave a plot round it. Just one year later, he finished the developing and wrote the story.
BOYS WILL BE BOYS
Setting. A town in Kentucky, with emphasis on Judge Priest’s office and the court-room. Time: in recent years, not the immediate present.
Plot.
Initial Incident: Judge Priest sends for Peep O’Day and informs him that he has inherited eight thousand pounds sterling.
Steps to the Dramatic Climax: Peep takes a silver dollar in advance from the Judge; he invests it in fruit, cake, and candy. He invites the boys to eat with him. The news of his fortune spreads, and eventually reaches Percy Dwyer in the workhouse at Evansville, Indiana (this is the hint at an opposing force, the first suggestion of a struggle). O’Day begins to “betray the vagaries of a disordered intellect.” He buys a child’s wagon, soda-pop, etc. With the youngsters he spends a day in Bradshaw’s woods, playing games. The day and his behavior are repeated.
Dramatic Climax: The apogee “came at the end of two months.” It consists of three definite things:
a. The arrival of the legacy,
b. The arrival of the one-ring circus,
c. The arrival of Nephew Dwyer.
Steps to the Climax of Action: Peep invests two hundred dollars and takes the youngsters to the circus. His nephew greets him at night; O’Day bids him a quick good-bye. The nephew goes to an attorney. Sublette addresses a petition to the Circuit Judge setting forth that O’Day is of unsound mind and that his nephew prays for the appointment of a curator over the estate. Judge Priest comes back from Reelfoot Lake. He talks with O’Day, and says that he may tell on the witness stand why he has spent the money as he has.
Climax of Action: Pages 120-124. O’Day’s speech. The climax of action is extended here, as was the dramatic climax in “The Great Auk.”