The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1869-10-29
HUGH, THE HUBCHBACK.
By NARY IRVING.

4 A1A8AA~ ASA - e-~e7s
deformed child so Why can't 20,
look, man.. At that you're treadinl
upon 90
= Such were the calculations poured
out by group of men. on the out
skirts of crowd assembled to wit
ness a grand exhibition of fireworks
on the eve Of the 4th of July. The
speaker had picked up from the dusty
| grass q child, who had accidentally
been knocked down in the general
crowding and iOsiling, and who nov
lay apparently senseless in his arms.
''Wbo is it ?" "What is it ?" in-
quired one and another.
".It's Joe Patterson's little hunch-
back. Hugh" answered the man
''and pity t'is they couldn't have kept
him out of this crowd. He has been
knocked down and banged about until
am not sure whether there is any
life left in him"
"BFing him here. sirI'' exclaimed
an elegantly dressed lady, whose car
riage had bsen driven just outside Of
the ring which encircled the crowd,
sob, mamma he is dead The
poor boy l'' cried the youngest of her
children, with tears in her plying
blue eyes.
"Just as well if he were - exclaim-
ed another lady in the carriage. "It
is cruel kindpess to les such q de-
fdAned child live to grow up"
Hush. Sister !" returned the first
lady; che is coming'to. Remember
that the child probably has mother
to love him, if he is buDchback."
"Aed be has a soul, too, Aunty,"
spoke up little Lila, with reproach-
full look in her half dried eyes.
"You are a strange chlld Lila =
Look at tie fireworks !''
But the blazing rockets had lost
half their attractions for Lills, and
when her mother proposed leaving
them for a few moments, to take the
deformed boy home. as his arm was
very painful, she consented gladly.
'L declare, never will ride with
you again, sister Winston" said the
aunt, disdainfully; "yOu are always
picking up some object of distress to
shock my nerves. shall not get
this creature out of my dreams for a
month -
Lila glanced at the boy. whose
lips and eyelids trembled, though he
lay perftc ctly still on the cushions
Hugh had heard all; but it WAS moth
ing new to the poor deformed child to
hear ridicule and scorn heaped upon
him. Yet it wounded him not less
deeply, for he had a sensitive spirit,
which had grown sore in its harsh
contact with a selfish world. In one
thing Mrs. Winston had guessed
wrong; he had no mother in this
world, but was cared for in some small
measure by a boisterous, drinking
father, and rough, but well-mean-
ing sister.
Dorothy, the sister, came out to
receive him soon after the carriage
stopped at the dwelling-a tumbling
down block in the distiest street in
the suburbs. She lifted him out in
her strong, red arms, thanked the la
dy for her kindness, in loud. shrilI
tone. and then stood to watch the hOr-
sss as they trOtted away.
"Oh, Doll!" moaned the boy.
please carry me up stairs"
"Yes, yes. you silly child ! this is
what you get by going to such pla-
ces ! How long, I wonder, before
you will learn that you are not like
other folks, and cant go amongst
'em?'
"Not like other folks !" repeated
poor little Hugh. when his sister had
tucked him up carefully in his warm
attic, AMI gone down to prepare a
wash for his sprained wrist. He for
got, for q moment, his bodily pain,
in the pain which shot through his
heart at these careless words. "Not
like other folks, indeed, I am not
But how am l to blame for it? I
didn't make myself Why did God
make me so 90
He raised the blanket from his face,
and peered into the darkness with a
kind of superstitious fear at the quss-
ton be had Involuntary asked, for
he had not forgotten what his dead
mother had taught him, that God
was good, and that he did everything
for the best.
81 don't know what we shall do
with Hugh, to keep him out of harms
way" said his father, the next morn
ing. "He has such an intolsrable
curiosity to see ell that is going on
in the world, that he'll get bis neck
broken among the city boys. I'll
send him to my sisters cousin in the
country, to learn the shoemaker's
trade"