Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1866-04-07
MIsCELLANY.
sTUcK FAST.

5ant goes home one night, and Mrs.
Rurra-that's our nex'-room neIgh6or
shows me something wrapped up IN
flannel, al pink and creasys and very
snnffiv' as though il wanted its nose
blowing; which couldn't be expected,
for it hadn't got any to signify
.sAin't it little beauty she says.
Well j couldn't see as 1T was; but 1
didn't like to say so, for Iknew my wife
Polly had been rather reckoning on
what shessaid we ought to have had
more n q wear ago; so / didn't like tC
disappoint her, for L knew she lay
hstenin' in the mex room
Polly always said there never was
such baby as that one; and somehow
II ,rgs taking to see how her face used
IN Iiohts m, al over smiles wheD she
fbonoI,t. i xrarII't looking; and / knew
# was al on account of the little 'un.
She never said she felt dull now; and
when at home of a night i used to thluE
how my mates would laugh to see me
a-bandifng the little thing that was
allus being pushed into my face to kiss
when Tn blest il ever / see such vOra-
cious funsin my life; it would hang on
to you-z0se, lip. anywhere-ln min,
tue.
One day, when it was about nine
months old, it was taken all OF sud
den like with a fit. Polly screamed to
me to run for the doctor; for 1t hap
pened that was on the club that week,
and at home with a bad hand run
for hin,r and he soon come; and then
there was warm bath and medicine;
but afterwards. when L s W the little
thing Iringon Polly's lap so still and
ouiet. and with dull film forming over
It's eyes, L felt that something was com
ing, th0nghI dared not tell her; and
about twelve O'Clock the little thug sud
denly started, stared wildly an instant,
and then It was all over.
Nv hand waFl't bad any more tn at
week: for it took all my time to try and
cheer up nv poor heart broken lass.
She did take ON dreadful, night
and daysnight and day, till we buried
it; and then she seemed to take quite
a change, and begged of me to forgive
what she called her selfishness. aud
wiped her ewes once for all, as she said,
and talked ai,out all being for the best.
But she didn't know that L lay awake
of the night, feeling her cry silently
till the pillow was soaked with tears.
We buried the little one on the Sun
day, and on the Monday morning | was
clapped ON to a Job that L didn't much
relish forit was the re-brick-ing of a
sewer that ran down one OF the main
streets, quite fifty feet underground.
ArtertWo yearsrin London I'd seen
some change, but this as my first visit
to the bowels of the earth. I'd worked
on drains down in the country, but n t
In such concern as this; why life
guard might have walked down 1t easy;
so that there was plenty of room to
work. But then, mind you. In amt
pleasant work; there you go down lad
der after ladder past gas-pipes and
water pipes. and down and down, till
you get to the stage stretched across
the part that you are at work on, with
the daylight so high up, sseen through
boards and scaffolds and hdders, that
it's no use fosyou who are working by
the light OF fiaring gas. There in front
of you is the dark. black arch: and
there behind y0ui another; while i'm
der your feet the foul rushing water
hurries along, sending up smell as
turns your silver watch, and every six
pence and shilling you have in your
pocket, black as the water that swirls
bubliDgalong. Every word you speak
sounds hallow and echoing, while it goes
whispering and Tumbling along the
dark arch till you think it has gone,
when all at once you hear it again quite
plain In q way as would make Youj Jump
as muchsas when half brick or a bit O.
hard mortar dropped into the water.
But talk about jumping, nothing
made melump more than when a bit of
soil, or stone, was lOoSened up above.
and came rafting down. I've seen
more than one chap change color; aud
] know it's been from the thought that.
suppose the earth caved in, where
should VERDE? No doubt the first crush
in would do il, and there'd be an end
Of workmen and foreman; but there
seemed something VERY awful in the
idea o. being buried alive. 1865
Big as the opening was, when L went
to work, it made me shudder: there was
the earth thrown out; there was the
rope at the side; there was the board
ing round there 1T was for all the
world like big grave, same as I'd stood
by on a little sealethe day before; and.
feeling . bit fow-spirited, it almost
N~--e&NA@ts@A = W DC QOhn
to my own, never to come up any more.
Very Stupid aud foIish ideas, saws
you. -faf-fetched IDEAS. Very likely,
but that's What / thought; and there
are times when men has VERY strange
ideas; and I'll teli you for a fact that
something struck me when i went down
Inat hole as y shsuld MT come up it
o''ln; and I did1,e neither Why tie
very teelO' the cold, damp plaee.niadel
you think o. being buried, andswhen
lew bits of earth One and ratified down
upon the stage above my head, as. soon
as the first start was over. it seemed to j
me SO like the rafting o. the eart6- but
lew hours befOre-upon little coffin.
that something fell with a pat upon my
bright trowel, which, If it had been
iett. would ha' been spot o. rust.
Nothing like work to put fellow to
rights; and 1 soon found that was
ieelng better, and the strokes o. my
rowel went ringing away down the
sewer as cut the bricks in half; and
after a bit I almost felt enclined to
Fnlstle: but il didn't for 7 KENT nm