Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1867-08-21
srIrrt Gale.
TILE OLD sICKER

sir was the gcntIemanly reply to he rough ques-
ton
q" Eleven o'clock and thirty minutes! Go to
Texasl Why It's ten this very minute. I'll bet
is of SO
" Yes, sir, it has been gone half an hour
" Why ia natur' didn't YOU get us here sooner
Fourteen hours in Chicager, putin and BLOWN
I've been told they keep a regular six hundred
hoss steam power all the while running, 10 blow
themselves up with, and pick the pockets Of every
traveller TO pay the tiremen and engineers Wal,
guess can stand it; I've a twenty that's never
been broke and guess that will put me through.
Why didn't you fire up, old hrig-give your old
hos another peck Of oatsY tell ye, this fourteen
hours will knock my calculations all into the mid
die of next week.
" Very sorry. sir,--we've done our best, but as
we're not clerks Of the weather; | hope you will
not lay your mislortunes to our account. Snow
drifts and the thermometer sixteen below zero are
enemies we cant readily overcome
q" That's 4 fact said the first speaker with a
broad emphasis, and good-natured, forgving
smile. " Fourteen hours in Chcager.n
The stentorian voice, sounding like a trumpet,
had aroused every sleeper from cysian dreams in
10 which he might have fallen after his long tedi-
Gus cold nights travel. Every head was turned,
every eye was fixed on the man vino had broken
the silence. He was standing by the stove warm
ing bis boots. To have warmed his feet through
such mass Of cowhidc and sole-leather would
have been fourteen hours operation Six feet
four or five inches he stood in those boots, with
shoulders cased in fur coat, that looked more
like bearing up a world than you will meet with
ordinarily IN half life time His head Webster
ian, his shaggy hair black as Jet, his whissers to
match, his dark piercing eye, and his jaws eter-
aly rowing with rousing quld between them,
with a smile OF good humor, notwithstanding his
seeming impatience, attracted every ones atten-
ton.
" Fourteen hours in Chcager, Ell Wal, | can
stand it if the rest can if twenty dollars won't
carry me through, I'll borrow Of friends. I've got
the things that'll bring 'emn
He thrust his hand, a little less in size than a
common spade down into the cavernous depths
OF his pockets. aud brought it up full it could
hold Of twenty dollar pieces
" Don't yer think can stand these ere Chica-
gers, for one fourteen hours 2n
A nod of assent from three or four, and a smile
Of curiosity from the rest, answered his question in
the affirmative.
" You must have been in luck, stranger said
an envious looking little man " You have more
than your share Of god.n
II have, Ell? Wal, | reckon not. | came hon
estly by il. That a fact. And there's them liv-
ing who can remember this child when he went
round the praires trapping prairie hens and the
like TO get him pair of shoes to keep the massas-
augers from biting nv toes I've hung myself up
the ways Of the wild vsrments; best sleeping in
the world in the crotch Of a tree-topl Now,
reckon you wouldn't believe it, but Eve gone all
winter without a shoe to my foot; and lived on
wild game when | could catch it. That's
fact"
Didn't stunt your growth said a voice
near.
Not bit of it. It brought me up right
These praries are so wonderfully roomy. |
thought one spell would let out entirely, but me
and mother held caucus, and decided that she
getting old and blind like, and it took too
long aud cost too much TO sew up the legs OF my
trow.ers. so put stop to it, and concluded that
six feet five would do for feller that couldn't af
ford the expensive luxury Of a wife to make bree-
chcs for him 1t was only the love of my mother
that stopped my growth. If I'll had an idea of
sewing machine, there's no telling what | might
have done"
You have so many gold pieces in your rocket
you afford to get your trowsers made now.
Why don't YOU and your mother hold another eau
Gus and see what YOU can do? If she would let
YOU expand yourself, you might sell out 20 Barn
um, and make fortune travelling with Tom
Thumb, and take the old woman along.
Stranger said the rough great man, and his
whole face looncd up with a mingled expression
OF pain and pride " stranger spoke a word here
didn't mean to slightly word, like, about my
mother. | would give all the gold in my pocket
TO bring her back for one hour, to look upon this
country as IL is now She had her cabin here when
Chicager was nowhere here she raised her boys
she couldn't give them larnin', but she taught us
better things than books can give: 10 be honest,
useful and industrious. She taught us to be faith
ful and true 10 stand by friend and be gener-
Gus To an enemy. It's thirty years since we dug
her grave by the lake side with our own hands
and with many a tear and sob turned ourselves
away from the cabin where we had been raised
the Indians had killed our father long before, and
= q. ant -.
our fortunes My brother, he took down there to
st. Louis, aud got married down there sume'ers
aud Just went where the wind blowed, aud when
| scraped money enough together, | came back
aud bought few acres OF land around my moth
er's old cabin, for the place where I'd laid my
mothers bones sacred like Wal, ia the
course of time it turned right up in the middle OF
Chicager. couldn't stand that--I loved my old
mother too well to let omnibusses rattle over her
grave, SO l come back about fifteen years ago, and
quietly moved her away to the burying ground,
and then | went back to Texas, and wrote to an
agent afterwards to sell my land. What cost
few hundred to begin on, sold for over forty
thousand--and if I'd kept it till now 'twould have
been worth ten times lhat--but got enough for
il. | soon turned that forty thousand into eighty
thousand, and that into twice as much, and so on,
till / don't know don't what Tn worth.
l work hard, am the rough customer; remem-
Der every day of my life what my mother taught
me never uflnk nor hghl--Nlsh uluA sHedF VI
chew, but them's got to be kind o'second nature
like. The only thing that troubles me is my mon
ey-haven't got no wife nor children and am go
ing now to hunt up my brother and his folks II
his boys is clever and industrious. and amt asham-
ed of my big boots and old fashioned ways, and
his gals is young women and not ladies'; il they
heed their mother, aud don't put on more'n two
frocks a day, I'll make EN- rich, every one on
EN-
Nov, gentlemen, 'taint often I'm led to tell
on myself after this fashion But these old pla-
ces where trapped when | was boy, made me
feel like child again--and just ielI like telling
these youngsters here about the changes and chan
ces a teller may meet in life. If he only triese 20
make the most of himself"
:" But, boys said he, turning to party of
young men, " there's something better than mon
ey Get education and mind your mother. Fol-
Ter out her oounsels; never do anything that will
make you ashamed to meet her in heaven
All this passed while waiting to wood just out
of Chicago The great nan was swelling with
emotions called up from the dark shadows Of the
past. His big rough form heayed like a great
billow upon the ocean. Tears sprung TO his deep
set and earnest eyes-lhey sweed up to the hrm
aud swan round asking to be let fall tributes
to his mothers mrmory-lrbutes to the love Of
the past But he chokod them down, aud hum
ming u snatch OF an old ballad, he thrust his hands
down into his pockets, walked back to the end OF
the car. pulled the gigantic collar OF his shaggy
coat up around his ears, buttoned il close, and
leaned back against the window IN silence.