Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1857-07-10
Chances and Changes.
by FRANCES D. GAGE.

next express train 60 out to St. LouisE'
eleven o'clock and thirty minutes TO-
night, sir" was the gent!emanly reply to
the rough query.
"Eleven o'clock and thirty minutes :!
Go to Texas! Why, it's ten this very
minute, I'll bet my boots against . jack
knife the morning express is off,
"Yes, sir, it has been gone half an
hour"
"Why in nature didn't you get US
here sooner? Fourteen hours in Chicager
is enough to break fellow all to smash.
Fourteen hours in Chicager, putting and
blowing! I've been told they keep
regular six hundred boss steam power all
the while running, to blow themselves
up with, and pick the pockets Of every
traveller to pay the 6remeu and engiueersl
Wal, 1 guess can stand it; I've tweu-
ty that's never been broke, l think that
will put me through. Why didn't you
Ere up, old brag-give your old boss
another peck Of oats7 tell ye, this
fourteen hours will knock my calculations
all into the middle of next week"
avery sorry, sir-we've done our best;
but as we are not clerks of the weather, l
hope you will not lay your misfortuues to
our account. Snow drifts and the ther-
mometer sixteen below zero, are enemies
we can not readily overcome"
"That's SO" said the first speaker, with
broad emphasis, and good natured, for
giving smile. "Fourteen hours in Chic
sger!"
The stentorian voice, sounding like
trumpet, had aroused every sleeper from
elysian dreams into which be might have
fallen after bis long. tedious, cold nights
travel. Every head was turned, every
eye was fixed on the man who had broken
the silence. He was standing BY the
stove, warming his boots. To have warm
ed his feet through such . mass of cow
hide and sole leather, would have been
fourteen hours operation. Six feet four
or five inches be stood in those boots, with
shoulders Ceased in q fur coat that looked
more like bearing up q world than you
His head Websterian, his shaggy hair
black as jet, his whiskers to match, his
dark, piel cling eye, and his jaws eterually
moving, with a rousiDg quid between
them, while smile Of cheerful good hu-
NOR, Notwithstanding bis seeming impa-
tieuce, attracted every ones attention.
"Fourteen hours in Chicager, eh ?
Wal, can stand it, if the rest can; if
twenty dollars won't carry me through,
I'll borry Of my friends, I've got the
things that'll bring 'em. That's So"
Aud be thrust his hand, little less in
size than common spade, down into the
cavernous depths Of broad striped, fashy
pair of pants, and brought up that great
red hand, full as it could hold, of shining
twenty dollar gold pieces.
"Don't yer think can stand these ere
Chicagers for one fourteen hours"
A nod of assent from three or four, and
a smile of curiosity from the rest, answer
ed his question in the affirmative.
"You must have been in luck, strang-
er," said an envious looking little man,
"you've more than your share Of gold"
81 have, eh7 Well, reckon not. l
came honestly by it. That's 50. And
there's them living who can remember
this child when be went round the p'ra-
ries trapping p'rarry hens and the like, to
get him a night lodging, or a pair of shoes,
to keep the Massasaugers from biting my
toes; I've hung myself up more nor one
night in the timber, to keep out Of the
way of the wild varmints best sleeping
in tho world, in the crotch of tree top!
Now, reckon you wouldn't believe it,
but I've gone all winter without shoe to
my foot; and lived on wild game, when l
could ketch it. That's so."
"Didn't stunt your growth" said q
voice.
"Not bit Of it. 1t brought me up
right. These p'rarries are wonderful roo.
my. thought one spell I would let my
self out entirely, but mother and me held
a corcus, and decided that she was getting
old, and blind like, it tux too long, and
cost too much time to sew up the legs Of
my trousers, and SO I put stop to it, and
concluded that six foot five would do for .
feller that couldn't afford the expensive
luxury of wife to make his breeches. 1t
was only my love for my mother that
stopped my growth. 1fPd = had an idea
Of sewing machine, there's no telling
what might DONE"
"You have 50 many gold pieces in your
pocket, you can afford to get your trousers
made now. Why don't you and your
mother caucus, and see what you can do!
If she would let you expand yourself, you