Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1866-12-21
From the Little Corporal
hny's Slippers
a CHRISTMAS STORY

/ One sweet spring morning, long be-
fore sunrise, though there was a yel-
low flush IN the east, some one ran
along the quiet road in CedarbroOk,
shouting Fire fire ~ The farmers
hurried out Of their beds, and ran out
In the first gray light, and sure enough.
just over the clump Of hickories on the
hill, a dense cloud of smoke, streaked
with flame, was rising Then away
rushed the farmers and their sons in
that direction, while their excited
wives and daughters stood at their
gates, shivering In the chill, morning
air, and watched the smoke and listen
ed at the shouts.
By and by the flame all died down,
and by sunrise the men came home,
I and said that old John Peters was
/ burned out of house and home. How
/ it happened no one ever knew, and no
one thought much about long, for old
/ j ohm was only village shoemaker, and
/ his house not much of a house, But
/ for the two inmates Of the old, rough,
/ weather r-beaten abode which the fire
/ had eaten, / can assure you it was
great event. In the first place they
were left without a shelter in the wide
/
1 without money! That was very puz-
zling question, indeed, and I will make
! haste aud tell you how they answered
it.
Old John sold the strip of land, on
which his house had stood, for small
sum Of money, with which he bought
boards and hired a carpenter, and then
set about building again. And where
do you think he put his house? Why,
right in the edge of farmer Halls
huckleberry pasture on land that
could not be used for anything except
bushes; and when the wee bit of a
dwelling was quite finished, he moved
his family, consisting of himself and
Tiny. into the new abode. which every
body but the owner, laughed at
But for all that, they were just the
the two happiest people you ever saw F!
There we're only two little rooms, but
Tiny, who was rightly named, hugged
her old father, and declared that she
would not change for even Farmer
Halls great house For, could not
any one see how much pleasanter this
was, with the coy rooms and the two
windows where the huckleberries
grew right up to the very lodges ! And,
If she we're hungry in the night, she
had but to turn on her little bed, put
her hand out of the window, and take
a luncheon of the jetty berries, Then
Tiny had to hug aud kiss her father
again, while both laughed at the little
cOneeit, and old John declared that
she was the dearest, darlingest little
daughter that ever a poor shoemaker
had; which made Tiny suddenly re-
member that the fire wasn't kindled
| in the little; old stove, nor the tea-ket-
/ tie filled for boiling. Then, while her
father was bringing In his tools and
| work bench, she kindled fire of the
blocks which the carpenter had left,
ran out, as Of old, to FIJI the tea kettle;
/ but, 10 and behold there was no
we'll there. Tiny ran In with a very
/ blank face, thin king that the new house
! was not very perfect, after all ; but
/ when old John took her a little way
along a path that ran through the
4 huckleberries, and showed her the lit
! tie spring that nestled like a drop of
I crystal under the bank, and then
/ wasted its sweet life among the green
4 est of ferns and MOSES, she was tain
/ to cry out that it was better than all
| the wells in Cedarbrook So, you see,
/ it was, after all, one of the most per-
feet habitations IN the world, for, in
/ the eyes of the inmates, the little
abode was faultless.
IF you could have looked in, of a
fair summer evening, and seen the old
shoemaker and his little daughter eat
ing their supper from the little. old,
round table, you would have said that
/ Peace and Contentment had taken up
their abode In the quaint bit of a
Z fhoro rrFoe MT vuuah
generally, but bread, butter and water
cress for supper but, then, what did
it matter no one says that Peace and
Content are very particular what they
have to eat.
But when the midst of the huckle-
berry season came, that was the hap
piest time of all Everybody in Ce-
darbrook seemed to find it a great deal
pleasanter to go hucklebeTrying, now
that the little house stood at the bar
way There, when one entered the
pasture, was old John, pounding away
at his soles, and humming to himself
as blithely as a bird. There, on the
knoll, where the blackest berries grew
sat Tiny, picking away as for dear life
) while every now and then she raised
her little, curly head to catch her faith.
er's smile. that was sure to be ready
for her, and to hear the old, hat-head.
ed hammer echo, as it drove the pegs
{ one, two one, two one, two AnC
when the fruit gatherers we're tired
and thirsty, there hung the brightest
of tin ndippers on the old bar-pOst, viii
which they might dip water that wa
< as cold and pure as if born in tht
: heart of an iceberg. And last, bu
= not least, by any means, If one was 81
a unfortunate as to tear a shoe or gaiter
Z In rambling the old pasture over, th'
{ shoemaker and a remedy lay in The
: very path homeWar6, so that every
3 body was accommodated, and the con.
, tents of old Johns purse someWha
multiplied thereby. And, before the
!. huekleberries were half gone, every
body in Cedarbrook that went buckle
berTying were wondering how they
ever managed before that droll, funny
but accommodating little house wa
= built. So, in the course of time, boil
. shoemaker and little daughter grew
into s4aFghodg' affections, which / an