The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1858-07-08
The Blacksmith's Apprentice.
BIZ JOHN COOPER VAIL.
CHAPTER L.


1t was the darkest hour of the Revo
luton for the American cause. Their,
were traitors in the camp, though thu
great mass of the people remained firm
and determined in the cause of fIndepen
dence. The British army outnumbered
the American forces as three to one
but liberty was the prize to be won, and
brave hearts, led on by Washington
did not despair. What if they were
clad in tattered garments, and theil
feet were shoeless, leaving marks Of
blood upon the frozen ground wherever
they followed their loved commander
so long as they battled for the birth.
right of freedom?
AT the period of our story, there
stood in the vicinity of the village Of
Brunswick log house, of rather large
dimensions, and built in manner that
its proprietor went in more for comfort
than appearance, as regarded his dwell
ing. There was an air of neatness and
taste about the garden that seemed to
prove that it was under the especial
care of woman, even though currant-
bush, honey-sucklc. and hop vine had
been for many days under the SHOWS of
December
The proprietor of the house followed
the double calling of a blacksmith and
farmer. He was hale old man of
about sixty, and his family were COM
posed solely of his wife Dorothy, and
his daughter Mary, a beautiful girl just
budding into womanhood.
In ifs,ye,stais, farmer Jonas II Hutton,
had advocated Quaker principles of
peace, but in his age his sympathies
were secretly enlisted in the cause of
King George. His conduct, however,
had been so circumspect-he appearing
to maintain strict neutrality as re-
garded both the British and American
causes-that, though suspicious were
rife of his extending aid to the form
er, he had thus far escaped actual
proof
The only person hired about his
premises was tall, ungainly youth,
of about twenty years of age who
served as helper in the smithy, when
occasionally a neighbor wished his
horse shod, or his wagon wheel tired.
His name was Malachi Doolittle, and he
hailed from the Bay State, from whence
he had wandered to his present station,
some three years before, binding him
self to Square Hutton till one -and-twen-
ty. He had all the peculiarities of the
race of New England, and,
though, as we have stated, he was tall
and ungainly in his department., warm
heart beat under a.homespun vest, and
ne displayed much genius and tact for
he benefit of his employer.
AS matter of course he had been in
owe a long time with the fair form and
blue eyes ofhis masters daughter Mary,
hough she had always treated his case
o coolly that any one else but genuine
fankee wooer would have left the field
n despair No girl can bear to have
said that her lover is ar, object of rid
cule, and Mary was well aware that
all Malachi-the name by which her
ather's apprentice was generally adj
lressed--was the sport of all the young
iris in the neighborhood. Yet she
night have made a good choice, for he
id fair to become first rate mechanic,
Tas a crack shot with the rifle, and
ould out-run, outjump, as he expressed
himself, anything that stood in two
hoes. He was firm advocate of the
american cause, and when his boss
'as not by, and he could gain lis
sner's ear, he would express his ad-
liration for Washington in the highest
,rms.
twas in the latter part of December,
nd close upon dusk, when a young ,
AN, attired in the uniform of an ensign I
the Continental army, and mounted
pom powerful gray horse, rode up to
luare Hutton's smithy and requested s
lat his animal might be shod immedi- |
ely. 1t
:" Friend, thou seemest to be in some
hat OF a hurry" was Square Hutton's /
ply, glancing at the stranger, and G
Malachi is busy foddering the cattle, /
I'd l have promised to have neighbor a
arker's wheel tired in half an hour,
'rhaps thee had better apply to the /