Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-01-14
From Our Young FoIksl
POLLY sYLVEsTER,s DREAM.

. on her cot bed in Mrs. Tarbox's garref
1t was cold, dreary place, where the
rats seampered about, and the mice
seufhed and sqUeaked in every corner
there were broken panes in the win
dow, that let in the bitter November
wind, and all about hung streaming
cobwebs, bundles of dry herbs. hanks
, OF yam, and wisps of fax, till you
could hardly see that there was a win
dow but through its dingy glass what
, little light there was on that gray
morning, fell across the bed and rested
: on Polly. She lay very still the
tangled mass of deep chestnut curls
was brushed away from her pale, deli
cate face, the great eyes were shut
( tight, and their heavy fringe of dark
IaShes never quivered f; but there was
smile on her parted lips sweet as
summers own sunshine, and so visit
ful 1t would have made anybody with
a heart ache to see it.
But Mrs. Tarbox hadn't any heart,
or If she had, and ever felt it throb in
her breast, it had IT'S ears boxed long
ago, and was now hard and silent.
she came numbering up the stairs
this morning with Fish in her arms. in
a great passion.
''Get up, you little carrot-head! get
up, l say You're lazier than a snail.
Ef 1 git at ye guess you'u move pret-
ty consider ble spryi"
Dit up, tallOw- head, else I'll bang
90 ~ echoed Fish, who was almost
three years old, but baby still, and a
horrid one.
The smile on Sany's tender little
mouth changed to piteous culver as
she flung aside the bedclothes, and
| with a shiver jumped out of bed. Il
was dreamin'," she said, in such sad
| voice
''Dreamin'! I'll be bound you're al
lus dreamin', day in and day out! but
you've got to dream out O bed earlier'n
I n ms T ell 7
up md come down There, he's most
ready for his breakfast, md I've had to
/ lug this great feller all round, and Vi
oh-ly she wants her shoes tied md her
/ things hooked up"
! '"Hum along tick, fore me kick 90 .
| shouted Fish and Polly, having hud-
] died on her thin and ragged clothes
| slipped into her shoes,-an old pair of
Mrs. Tarbox's,-and scuttled down
stairs as fast as she could. She didn't
/ stop to comb her hair or to wash her
face, but took Fish in her arms and
/ went into the bedroom to dress ViohlY,
| (whose name was Viola y a scrawny
girl some eight years old, with thin
light hair, weak blue eyes, and a sallow
complexion; fretfuI and sickly, but,
after all, kinder to Polly than any
body else in the house, and loved ac-
cordlngIy- Master Fish was set down
on the floor while his sisters boots
were laced, her hair brushed, her
clothes fastened, and the rent in her
pink calico frOck basted up and he
amused himself by overturning his
mothers mending- basket, which Polly
must set to rights; then she spread up |
the bed, and shouldering Fish, went |
into the kitchen. There at the break |
fast-tabIe sat the rest of the family
JehleI TarboX, the father. a rough, /
st1ngy, coarse farmer, whose loose lips
red eyes, and stupid expression told I
the road he had taken at once. S-VioAly,
her mother, and two big boys, Jackson4
and Everett, The terror and torment of /
Polly's Hfe,-two youngz brutes who |
thought a poor trembling child fair /
game, and took pleasure in her shrieks
and supplications. Now Mrs. Tarbox |
took Fish on her lap and fed him with |
fried pork, cold cabbage, and hot bis |
cult yellow with soda, while Polly fried /
cakes over the kissing stove,-not fast /
enough by any means to suit the boys i
or their father, H-a
Hurry up your cakes, Silly Poll p /
shouted one, Cor I'll let the old bull /
out into the barn-yard md set you to /
catchin' chickens there"
'tCome on, Polly SyI - chimed the /
other; fetch along your slaPjacks, or
I'll come md stir you Up,"-a process
Polly had experienced before, and i
stood in mortal fear of.
But when breakfast, was scrambled
through, and Polly allowed to eat her
scraps of food standing at one end of
the table, and, because she had slept /
too late, denied the one thing that
could have made her scanty meal toler-
able to her,-a cup of the hot drink
they called eofee,-Mrs. Tarbox began
Ito map out her days work.
"Come don't be a-standin' there all
day; sWaller your vittlss quick md fly
round. There's heaps md heaps to do.
After you've fed the chickens, md
emptied the swill-paiI, md drove the
caows, md got Fish to sleep, md right
ed things ginerally, there's two barrels /
o. red apples thet's got to be fixed for
dryin'; Viohly she can string 'em, I
guess"
''say. Mar! can't I go down to the
pastur' lot, long of Polly" whined
Viohly.
'Yes, if you're a mind ter, only don't
hang round there all day; get home
quick"
So when Polly had done her first
t'chores, - and established Fish safely
in dry goods box with a heap of sand;
an ear of corn, and string of thread
spoOls to play with, in which primitive
nursery he was used to content him
self for, an hour at a time, perhaps,
the two girls put on their hoods and
shawls, such as they were, and set off.
Polly opened the coW-shed door and
let the mild-eyed, friendly creatures
out into the lane, saying a word or two
to each of the three as they passed,
quite DIS II LuEE uaQ DG6u AEIGuQSs Z
Tt is time now to introduce our little
girl. Her father had been a flourish
ing young carpenter in a Vermont vii
lage, that hid itself among vast and
verdant hills like a nest in the crotches
of fir-tree. Sam Sylvester loved his E
sweet little wife so much, that, when
one day she died and left him, he want.
ed to die too /; and nobody could COM
fort him,-nOt even the tiny baby that
lay and walled in an old cradle as If 1T
4a-nA -h,HrE Il l. l.
sorrows of a motherless child. Thered
was no one in HillVale in any way re-
lated to Sam; he was an orphan, like
his wife, and any relatives he might
have in the seaboard New England
town here his father had lived he had
never seen or heard from so that when
he made up bis mind to try his fortune
in California, because Hillvale was so
desolate to him now, he put little Paul
inc, who was named for her mother,
under the care of his next door neigh
Dor, a Mrs. Moore, leaving money
enough to pay her for a year, and prom
ising to send on more. He went away
with a sad heart but when he got to
California, the voyage and the change
had taken his thoughts off quite sue
eessful. In the mean time Polly grew
up under kind and motherly Mrs. |.
Moore's care into a fat and happy
baby. Ee
one day, about year after he left
home, a couple of his mining mates,
who had been down to San Francisco
for stores, stepped into his tent, and
after standing ahOut uneasily for a /
moment. one of them spoke. ~ -
'iSay, Sylvester you didn't come
from Hillvale, Vermont, did ye ?''
"Yes did, to be sure" .ai t.
The two men exchanged glance,
and the one who had not spoken saun-
tered out. Bill Decker went on
anybody there related to ye any
ways ~
"Nobody but my little girl"
Names Mary, amt it 2"
"No, Pauline.H
"Good JupiterW
''What are you asking for, Bill Deck
90 nothin', nothin', only suthin' or
other turned up queer down in Frisco"
t"Eell me what it was, quick Z" said
sam, rising to his feet with pale face
and angry eyes.
''Wel1, my mate and we went into
a saloon like to get drink, md there
xpaa VNar,ay a lSyffa1 vsOrr4H f0ouu, ~ tkg !