Wisconsin herald, and Grant County advertiser. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1844-1845, 1845-02-22


Toby, it would suddenly wheel round
again, as if it cried, 'Why, here he is"
Incontinently his little white apron
would be caught over his head like
naughty boys garments, and his feeble
little cane would be seen to wrestle and
struggle unavailingly in his hand, and
his legs would undergo tremendous ag-
itation, and Toby himself all aslant,
and facing now in this direction, now
in that, would be so banged and buffet
ted, and touzled, and worried, and hus-
tied, and lifted off his feet, as to rem
der it state of things but one degree
removed from a positive miracle, that
he was not carried off bodily into the
air, as body of frogs or snails or 9th
err portable creatures sometimes are,
and rained down again, to the great as
constituent of the natives on some
strange corner ofthe world where tick
ct-porters are unknown.
| But windy weather, in spite of its
using him so roughly, was, after all, a
sort of holiday for Toby. That's the
fact. He didn't seem to wait so long
for sixpencc in the wind, as at other
times for the having to fight with that
boisterous clement took off his atten-
ton and quite freshened him up, when
he was getting hungry and low spirit
ed. A hard frost, too, or fall of snow
was an Event and it seemed to do him
good, somehow or other--it would have
been hard to say in what respect tho,
Toby! So wind and frost, and snow,
and perhaps a good stiff storm of hail,
were Toby Weeks red-lettcr days.
Wet weather was the worst: the cold,
damp, damp clammy wet, that wrap
ped him up like a moist great coat );
the only kind of great coat Toby own
ed, or could have added to his comfort
by dispensing with. Wet days, when
the rain came slowly, thickly, obstin-
ately down when the streets throat
like his own, was choked with mist
when smoking umbrellas passed and
rcpasscd spinning round and round
like so many teetotums. as they knock
cd against each other on the crowded
footway, throwing off little whirlpool
Of uncomfortable spriklings when gut
tiers brawled, and water spouts were
full and noisy when the wet from the
projecting stones, and lodges of the
church fell drip, drip, drip, on Toby,
making the wisp of straw on which he
stood mere mud in no time; those we're
the days that tried him. Then, indeed,
you might see Toby looking anxiously
out from his shelter in an angle Of the
church wall--such meagre shelter
that in summer time it never cast a
shadow thicker than good sized walk
ing stick upon the sunny pavement
with discousolatc and heightened face.
But coming out minnie afterward, to
warm himself by exercise, and trotting
up and down some dozen times, he wo'd
brighten even then, and go back more
brightly TO his niche.
They called him Trotty from his
pace, which meant speed if he didn't
makeit He could walk faster perhaps;
most likely; but rob him of his trot,
and Toby would have taken to his bed
and died. II despatched him with
mud in dirty weather it cost him
world of trouble he could have walk
ed with infinitely greater case but that
was one reason for his clinging to it so
tenaciously. A weak, small, spare old
man, he was a very Hercules, this To-
by in his good intentions. He loved to
earn bis money. He delighted to be-
lleve that he was very poor and couldn't
we'll afford to part with delight-that
he was worth bis salt. With shilling
or eighteen-penny message, or small
parcel in his hand, his courage, always
high, rose higher.
As he trottcd on, he would call out to
fast Postmen ahead Of him, to get out
of the way; devoutly believing that in
the natural course of things he must in
eyitably overtake and run them down;
and he had perfect faith-not often
tes.ed-in bis being able to carry any
thing that man could lift.
Thus, even when he came out OF his
nook to warm himself on a wet day,
Toby trotted.
| Making, with bis lcaky shoes, a crook
ed line Of slushy foot prints in the mlre;
and blowing on his chilly hands and
rubbing them against each other. poor
w defended from the searching cold by
thrcadbare muffiers of grey worsted,