Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1869-11-02
Dolly-A Western Drover's Story,

My name is Anthony Hunt. I am droyer:
and live miles away upon the Western prairie.
There wasn't house in sight when we moved
there, my wife and |, and now we haven't mauy
nelghbors though those We have are good ones.
One day, about ten years ago, l went away
from home to sell some fifty head of cattle
line creatures as ever saw. was to buy some
dry goods and groceries before came back, and
above all, doll for our youngest Dolly; she
had never had a store doll of her own, only the
rag babies her mother made her.
Dolly could talk of nothing else, and went
down to the very gate to call after me to ''buy
a big one." Nobody but parent can under
stand how full my mind was of that toy, and
how. when the cattle were sold, the first thing.
| hurried off to buy Dolly's doll. l found
large one with eyes that would open and shut
when you pulled wire, and had it wrapped up
in paper and tucked it under my arm, while I
had the parcels Of calico and delaine and tea and
sugar put up. Then, late as it was, I started
for home. 1t might have been more prudent
to stay until morning but felt anxious to get
back, and eager to hear Dolly's prattle about
ber doll.
was mounted on steady going old horse of
mine, and pretty we'll loaded. Night set in be-
fore was mile from town, and settled down
dark as pitch while was in the middle of the
darkest bit of road know Of Tcould have felt
my way, though | remembered it so we'll, and
it was almost that when the storm that had
been brewing, broke, and pel;ed the rain tor
rents, FIVE miles, or may be six, from home yet,
too.
[ rode on as fast as [ could, but all of sud
den | heard little cry like chiId's voice I
stopped short and listened-I heard it again.
| called and it answered. couldn see thing:
all was dark as pitch. | got down and felt about
in the grass-called again, and again was an
swered. Then | began to wonder I'm not
timid but was known to he drover and to
have money about me. 1t might be tran to
catch me unawares and rob and murder me.
[ am not superstitious very but how
could real child be out on the prairie in such
a night, at such an hour? 1t might be more
than human.
The bit of coward that hides itself in most
men showed itself to me then, and | was half
inclined to run away, but once more | heard
that cry. and said |:
IF any mans child is hereabouts, Anthony
Hunt is not the man to let it die
I searched again. At last bethought me of
a hollow under the hill, and CROPPED that way.
Sure enough, [ found little dripping thing
that moaned and sobbed as took it in my arms.
[ called my horse, and the beast came to me.
and mounted and tucked the little soaked
thing under my coat as well as [ could promis-
lug to take it home to nanny. 1t seemed tired
to DEATH and pretty soon cried itself to sleep
against my bosom
1t had slept there over an hour when I saw
my own windows There were lights in them,
and I supposed my wife bad lit them for nv
sake, but when got into the door yard I saw
something was The matter, and stood still with
dead fear OF heart five minutes before could
, lift the latch. At last | did it, and saw the
room full of neighbors, and my wife amidst
them weeping.
When she sew me she hid her fact. ''Oh,
don't tell him. she said, 1T will kill him.
"What is it. neighbor?'
And one said, Nothing now, Ihope-what's s
that in your arms!
"a poor lost child, said |. II found it on
the road Take it, will you, We turned faint"
and lifted the sleeping thing and saw the face
of my own child, MY own Dolly.
1t was my darling, and none other, that had
picked up upon the drenched road.
Nv little child had wandered out to meet
;'daddy'' and the doll, while her mother was
at work. and whom they were lamenting as one
dead. thanked Heaven on my knees before
them all. 1t is not much of story, neighbor<,
but think of it often in the nights. and Won
der how could be,r to live now'if [ had not
stopped when | heard the cry for help on the
road, the little baby cry, hardly louder than a
squirrels chirp
That's Dolly yonder with her mother in the
meadow, a girl worth saving-I think (but then
I'm her father, and partial, may be)-the
prettiest and sweetest thing this side of the
Mississippi.
Three consecutive decisions in the Massachu-
setts courts in the same case seem to make the
law pretty clear, that if the owner of horse
with the glaDders permits him to range so as to
infect other horses, the owner OF the diseased
horse is liable for the damage that may ensue.
MY dear" asked John, after observing new
striped hose on his only heir, why have you
made barber's poles of Earnest's legs. BE
cause he little shaver" was the reply.
One of the Salt Lake Saints has for three of
his wives grandmother, mother and daught-
er, in this way avoiding the unpleasantness OF
a mother-in-law.
St. Petersburg doctors says the Empress Of
Russia will die before April.