The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1860-09-15
UNCLE JOSH.
II ROSE TERRY.

josh Crane was Yankee born and bred,
. farmer on Piain6eld Hin, aada specineu.
II some strange phrases were on his New
Eosiand vernscular. il vas because for 6f-
teen years OF his yoa,h be had followed the
thereafter followed hlm.
His father old josh Crane, kept the San
bury Sr,st~uili. and vas drnnken, shiftlese
old creature, uho ended his days in a tumble
down red house a mile belaw P!ain6eld
Centre, being stock with the tremens, !" -
black Peter said when he came for the doe
tor-all too late. for she s'tremens," had
indeed taken him OF.
Mrs. Crane, our Josh's mother, was one Of
those calm. meek, patient creatures, by
some inscru,ahle mystery always linked to
such men .smartyrs by the pang without
The PALM" nf whcm y noble army shall vet
rise out OF New highlands desolats valleys
and melancholy hills, to take sheif honor
from the Master's hand. For years this
woman lived alone with her child in the
shattered red house, spinning, knitting.
washing and sew,ny, scrubsing to earn bread
and watrr, sometimes charity-frd; but
never failing at morning and night, with
one red and knotted hand upon her bows
white hair. and the other on her worn Bible.
to pray with an intensity that boy never
forgot, for his we'll being forever and ever !;
for herself she never PRAYED aloud.
Thon came the country's pestiience, con.
sump ion, and, after long struggles, ,reapses,
rallies, all received in the same calm pa
tirnce, letty Crane died 10 summers
night, her little boy asleep beside her and
whppoorwill on the apple-tree by the door
sounding on her hiekering sense the last
minor note of life.
When Josh woke up he knew his mother
was dead he did nor believe in the least like
good little boys in TIE books, and dressed
himself without tear or SOB, and ran for
the nearest nrighhor.
"Sakes aliver" said Mrs. Ranney, al never
did see such u crptur as that are boy in all
my days he never said nothin' to me when
he came 10 our I lks' only jest-Mss Ran
ney, guess you'd better come cross lots to
see mother, she don't seem to BE alive"
"Dew tell.' says |, and so slipt on my
Shaker bonnet jist US quick as | could, but
he WAS of spry's u cricket, an when got
there he was se,tin' the room to rights, he'd
spunk'd up fire, ard hung on the kittle;
SO sed n"thin', slept along inter the bed.
room and turned down the kiver, and gin a
little screech, was so beat, for sure enough
lletty Crane was dead an cold. Josh he
heered me, for was clos't onto me, and new.
er spoke, but he come up to the bed and he
put his head down and laid his head right
along hers, and 'twant no redder'n her'u,
an staid 40 'hout u minut then he cleared
out and niver saw him no more all day,
but Miss uood'in she'n calkerlated 70 set
up all night, and We were just pur tim a mess
OF tea to draw, SOS to keep lively, when in
came Josh drippin' vet, for the dews was
dreadful heavy them August nights, and he
said nothin' MORN just to answer when he
was spoke to, and Miss Good'in was n feel
in woman, she guessed he better be alone;
so he drink't cup Of tea, and then he
started off into the bedroom. and when she
went in there, 'long toward midnight, there
he was, fast asleep on the bed beside Of the
corpse, ~ straight as pin, only holding
on to one Of bis hands. Miss Good'in come
back cryin' and thought should "a boo
hoo right out, but kinder strnngled it
down, and We set to work to fgger it out
" hat was goin' to be ne with the poor
little chap; that house Of theirn that old
Josh had bought OF Mr.. Ranney, hndn't
never been p,,d for, only the interest money
x xheuever Miss Crime could scrape it up, so
that it wou d 60 right back into her hus-
bands hands, an they hadn't got the COW,
or no pig. and we agreed the s'lectmen
would hev to tak- him and bind him out.
81 alters mi-trus,ed that he walked up and
heerd wha, we said, for next morning when
We wen, to call him he was gone an his shirts
an go-tO-meetin's too, and he never come
h. III IN sh, fuonr.1 IL sc,
81 know after iletty was buried and we'd
resolved to sell what things she had to sell
to get her head stone, for Mr.. Ranney
never pu, in for the rest Of his in
Ierest m"ney, took home her old Bible and
kept 1t for Josh, aud the next time saw
him was five and twenty years after, when
b" come back from sea-faring and settled
DOWN to farmrn ont. and he sot bv that Ri
Bile II dreadful sight, expect he 'en our
Sal the brightest r i and waller baDdanner
yea ever see; she used to take it to
neetin'."
''Aliss Ranney was certainly right in her
guess Josh had heard in that miserable
midnight the discussion in his future, and
having II well founded dread cf the select
mems tender mercies. had given Il last 6sress
his dead mother and run away to Boston,
where he shipped for whaling voyage, vas
sast away on tn. Newfoundland she.e after
en years Of sea life, and being at that time
stout youth of twenty, sick of the seaman
'hIp, b.. bad hired himself to work in stone
5ard. and BY the time he was thirty FIVE had
aid up enough to return a thrifty bachelor,
md, buying little farm on Pianfeld Hill
'ettle down to his idea nf life. and become the
amusement Of part Of the village, and the
,racle of the rest.
We boys adored uncle Josh. fer he was
always ready to rig our house. .pin Us yarns
, week long. and n our pockets with apples
'ed and r1s-es As his own face. With the
)-lles Of the village, Uncle Josh hal no
'uch favor b. would wear a pig-tail in
'pit- of SCOT and demonstrate; he would
'm"ke cntfy pipe; and did swear like
'ailpr. from mere hab, and forgetruiness,
'or 10 man not professediy religious, had a
iiviner instinct Of reverence and worship
han he; but it was instructive in him to
wear as it was to breathe and some Of our
, Idly speculative and law -despising Young
'ter. held tina, it was M harm in him, any
more than 'sgosh" and .sthunderv were in
IL, for really he mean, no more.
However. Uncle Josh did not quite recip.
TOcatf tuf Coutctupt oI tueseX UtIDfn long
be began to make Sunday night visits,iops
!, Deacon Stones TO ''brush his hat o.
to step spry, and wear stiff
collar and stock, instead Of the open tie he
had kept with the pig-tail, long after Jack e,
and tarpauiin had been dismissed the ser.
rice; 50 the village directly discovered that
Josh Crane was sourting the school mistress
Euhice," who boarded at Deacon
Stons's". What Miss Eunice' surname
might be never knew, nor did il much
she was the most kindly. iimid and
Ioveable creature that ever tried TO reduce
= district into manners and arithmetic sb !.
live. in my memory still, a tall el,gb, fgp re.
With tender. brown ewes, aDd sad fac !. ia
broad lovely forehead shaded w.t.. .i,kv
light hair, and dress always dim-sinted.
lsaed, perhaps, scrupulously neat and sta.
Bile.
Everybody knew why Mis-. Eunics look ed
50 meekly sad. and Why sbe was slill Mias
Eunice; she had been disappointed; - she
had loved q man better than hs iosed he,