The Sierra citizen., 1854-03-11
The Orange Pedler.

The Orange Pedler.
The following extract from the Pioneer,
is touching and beautiful. How often have
, we watched the shadow fitting across
those coarse hard features, and the restless
wandering of the eye that had become
bIeared and vacant with looking upon
misery.
"He visits the theautres and saloons; sees
beauty, wealth and fashion; bitterly con-
trasts them again with his soul-harrowing
poverty; and. with but slight accumula-
tion to gains, returns weary and splrtless
to his wretched home. His fellow-boarders
are seated round the stove, for the night
is chilly Some as he enters, shrug their
shoulders in dersion and pass a heartless
gibe upon the poor pedler. Others, with
more kindly feelings. ask about his days
success, and purchase portions of his stock.
| Then in retired corner he listens to their
conversation. Most of them are strong
and stalwart men, rejoicing in robust
health. With envious heart he hears
them tell of labors in which they have
earned dollars where he has b!ts; and he
feels how incompetent he is, through loss
of health and strength to equal their sue
cess. At length the hour for bed arrives,
and with many others he chambers up the
creaking stairs to the common sleeping
room. It is wretched looking place
on each side are shelves Of hunks, and,
ranged here and there a row of cots. whose
dirty mattresses and ragged blankets sug-
gest more of wakeful hours and restless
nights than peaceful sleep or pleasant
dreams, while through many cr.vice of
its peaked roofth dark blue sky of heaven,
with its myriad of bright stars, is seen.
He counts over his oranges, and is
grieyed to find that their number has but
| little diminished since morning. His
money, too, he counts, and deposits it in
a purse, which he draws from his bosom.
That purse! 1t is woven with crimson and
purple and gold. 1t was the parting gift
| of his sister, who, doubtless, while her fair
fingers were busy upon its meshes, wrought
in fancy many a dream Of her dear
brothers future, as golden and bright
hued as they! He remembers her words
when she gave it him;-"This George, is
for the big lumps-may it always be full. !"
He remembers how he pressed it to his
lip. and vowed he would fill it with the
richest specimens solely for her. He sighs
as he thinks how poorly that promise has
been kept; and sees that the once beauti-
full gift is soiled and faded faded like his
own bright hopes! Then the forms Of
those whom he never can forget with their
kind loving faces come to him in his loneli-
ness: he pictures their luxurious home
which he so foolishly left; surveys with a
shudder his cherries quarters, and re-
members, like the prodigal son, that the
meanest servant of his fathers house fares
better than he. its heir and pride. Then
he wonders what that dear mother and
sister are doing; whether they are thinking
of him-and whether. if they knew how
he was situated and that he was but a
poor orange vender. they would love him
as much as ever"
A Goose Story.
Willis is much disturbed by the geese
| which hiss at him as he passes along the
road near his home at Idlewild, and he
proposes that they be muzzled by law!-
| One would suppose that Willis had receiv-
ed too many shafts from the critics to be
troubled by hiss! However. he has his
revenge upon the geese in the following
incident:
but l had laugh at a goose yesterday,
with lesson in it too. Coming home,
toward evening. with my wagon-full Of
children, the air over our head was sud-
denly darkened by the wings Of a very big
bird-my neighbor's fat waddler, who
chased by dog, had concluded to up
feathers, fly over the barn and take refuge
in the ever-reliable and long tried bosom of
the river. But it was after the first
sharp frost, and the stream, though as
clear rs crystal, was oficy smoothness, and
as impenetrable as rock. Down came
the goose, with full faith in it for long tried
water-and the way she slid over and
brought up at the frozen bank opposite.
after that heavy bump upon her astonished
egg-basket, was boundlessly delightful to
the children. Besides the instruction in
it. as to winter-trial of summer friends.
It was q comfort with pleasant spirit
in it, to have one good laugh at goose
that wabbles and screams after me every
tins / tsot past my neighbers bern-yard-" /"