The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1869-08-19
From the Youths Companion.
THE TOWN PAUPERS.
BY MRS. C. W. FLANDERS.
IN TWO NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. /.

kitchen to ask II you Will please tell me
story. It is so dull up stairs Everybody
reading and sewing"
al can't tell any stories tonight" re-
turned Margie, selling the poker and
making a dash at the GOALS ut is an aw-
full night, miss; there's the wind bowling
out there in way that always sets my
teeth chattering There, there-sit
down, child. What are you staring at ~
81 hope you are not sick, Margie," I
said, gong toward her, and placing my
hand upon her shoulder care you
tired?" Ga
A bitter laugh broke from her lips.
" wish it was tired / AMI wish it
s0as, miss; bat if the day was week
long, and it was all Monday, couldn't
work hard enough to make me so tired
that would sleep on such night as
this"
6 1t is terrible" said, the wind that
comes shrieking down the chimney; and
mamma says there are poor people--little
children such as l. out in the cold
streets. Do you think they can live there
all night, Margie or that we could find
sdch, if we went to look for them?"
| "Ah, ha! wouldn't it be rare sport to
see the rich leaving their warm rooms
and soft carpets, to save the miserables1
who are dying in the sleet and icei OIL
child, the good master knew what he was
saying, when he cried, How hardly shall
rich man enter the kingdom of heaven!' 81
"Please don't Margie it makes me
shiver when you look and talk in that
wild way" 8
"Shiver, indeed, miss It is very COM
Portable shivering here by the red-hot
range, clothed in rose-colored wool and
embroidered aprons. Wait till you find
yourself in the street. without a friend in
the world, frozen through and through,
until every tooth and bone rattles like
castanets: then you'll know what it is to
sh5ger" J2t 3aalss
"But you weren't ever in the streets,
Margie? You never was hungry and
cold?" ESQ .g1fq' mol
az want was L? Well, you were ask
ing for story, miss, and here is one; and
much.good may it do you" M .iW
Margie paused a moment as if dread
ing tor begin; and as L looked at her
more attent1vely, was surprised to see
/ how old she looked@ehoW Wrinkled and
pinched her face had become since the
| last time had come to her for stories ;;
for Margie was generally genial and talk
atiye, and willing to amuse me out of her
store of strange experiences. / was not
old enough to understand what inroaGs
a few hours of anguish can make upon
beauty. 9a 1o4
you see, fniss,YI was born way up
north, almost to the Canada line. We
didn't have nice places for poor folks to-.
go to, as you have here in the city. We
were just bid off, like so many slaves !:
and the man who bid us off calculated to
make the most of u.s.
\ -" There wasn't but two of us-Lucy
and I. was older than she, going on
five years so that when father and moth
Ter were both dead, had the care of her
Iall to myself Our folks were always
poor, and if they had any relations they
kept themselves4out of sight after mother
was dead. And so, as we were small, and
Lucy was delicate and nobody wanted
us; and we had to be bid off with the
towns poor, who were all bid off once a
: year to the lowest bidder Qua 3idtar
= y" 1 think likely I might have Jared
better if l had not stuck to, Lucy in the
way I did; but amt sorry that did. Ri
"There was an old farmer, with a crazy
kind of wife, who bid us all off In a
lump that year,as he had the poor for
several years before; and we want idle
much, 1 tell you. It was work, work,
work, from morning until night; and as
fused tbihelp little Lucy all could,
4 was tired enough when night came. It
4 was, hard enough at, first ;. but when the
cold winter set in, it was awful "a
You see, miss, up there where lived,
the snow would fall three or four feet
deep in a few hours, and cover the fences,
4 sheds and low houses, until every thing
looked like white level plain. Little
things like u3 had to wade pretty deep to
1 get over the roadaIand, as we were the
youngest in the house, all the chores, and
running, and odd jobs fell to our lot. ,r3g
Late one afternoon, after it had been
4 showing, and the wind had come up in a
perfect hurricane, and blown the 4 Light
EsnoW into great heaps, Peter Snikes, VINO,
kalWays had rheumatic when there was q
storm, was taken the very worst way.
u Dear me, missi but you ought to have
heard. o4ou never heard any yelling like
that In your life. As luck would have it,.
there weren't nothing in the house to re-
lleve him; and somebody must Igoto the
store, a mile and half away, for lninent,
Whlch}Was his standing remedy, f. 4 rs
4 The keeper (that was what we called
the master) came into The Kitchen /; and a
lcrosser man I hope lImay never see again
4 Now, whenever the shadows fell upon his
Iface, / tried to keep Lucy in the back
ground J, for he had disliked her from the
} moment he found how helpless and feeble
she was, and that he eeu1dLge no good
, from her little hands, which grew thinner
and smaller with the hupoer and cold So