The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1871-06-23
A GOOD ACT is NEVER LOST.

A baby! Did I ever? What are you go
ing to do with it?''
F'Keep it?'
''NoW, Reuben, you kn0W'd better
I've raised my seven childTen-n
"Then you'll know better how tC
care for this one mother. Besides
| since Jane married and went away
from home, it's very lonely here"
The farmers voice was quivering,
and for a monc cent his wife seemed
thinking of SON ething far away. The
baby's cooling soon recalled her.
"And did really hope thai should
| git leetle naOW they are GOne," she
| said, finishing her sentence as if there
had not been an interruption.
s"Well, mother, you are lonesome
now, aint yOu?" Farmer Kingston
asked, persuasively.
"SpOsin' / am-it's MATERIAL"
''I know it, and the baby will be
company" he cried, triumphantIy.
"Wa-al, I meyer! s'pose you think
that settles it," said Mrs. Kingston,
! seeing now the trap prepared for her.
Precious company baby'd be, / must
say-crying all the time, and"
'"Then I'll take it to the work-house
will I?'' asked the farmer, with a
twinkle in his eye.
mo, you won't! 1 am not quite a
heather, Reuben Kingston; an if you
don't shet up about the Work-house,
pll-pl-I don't know what I'll do,
| you monster.n
The farmer laughed; he understood
the moods and lenses.
'Then you'll keep it?"
'Sartainly I will. You've lived
with me nigh forty years, and ought
to know by this time that I wouldn't
turn dog away from my door like
that-let alone human bein'."
So it was all settled; the baby had
found a home. Mrs. Kingston was a
mOtherly body, and the moment she
decided to adopt the little warf, she
went to work to make it comfortable
according to her ideas, and that COM
prlses all that could be meant by a
good home for it. The baby was pret-
ty, eyes of blue, and rosebud lips and
pretty little cheeks, just pink enough
Tor beauty. And more than all tie
sweetest temper that ever BABY had
the Veriest baby hator in the world
could not have failed to fall in love
with it at sight. Mrs. Kingston, who
was not boy hater, went into rap
lures.
''Sich baby-I never seed the Leaf
on't!' she exclaimed. "Putteier than
pOsies, and good natered as the day is
long. wish my children had been
half so good when they was IeetIe.
'tWouid ha' saved me a world o. trou-
bIe."
"Why, wasn't your children good
enough, mOtheT?'' asked farmer King
stOn, ruefully.
Yes, they was pretty good, but
thet aint it. "They warn't like this
one, and ] don't believe there ever was
one like it."
The farmer smiled and said no more.
OF course it was a girl, or else it
never could have been so very good.
The subject Of a name came up at last,
and Farmer Kingston, who had been
contented with the hOmely name of
Jane and Betsey for his own daugh-
tiers, now grew romantic, and insisted
it should be known as Cora.
- "Wa al, neveT!" said his wife. 1--WE
did not give our daTters highfalutin
names; but COra's putty, an I spOse|
you'll have to have your way"
The baby grew and thrived. Day
by day it grew more beautiful, and
when it got to run alone and talk, and
all that, they almost WOrshiped it.
The little Cora was in danger of being
fairly spoiled.
Then came an evil day for Farmer
Kingston. Some way, he never could
tell how, old Jonas Nichols, the viii
lage usUrer, had got mortgage on his
place, and quick to grasp the property
of ell who let him once get hold, he
found a flaw at some point in the
document which gave him opportuni-
- FCy
stOn was notified at once, and told
that he could have a month to pay 1t
in. Unless he raised the money in
that time he might prepare to vacate.
"What shall we dO?1 he groaned
carelessly, after he had told his wife
his stOlY.
''Why, make the best of it, s'pOse.
We're used to work, Reuben; and
though we're gettini ruther old, I
guess We'll make our livin' yet. Hope
always for the best, an not the wust-
the wust comes fast enough without
hopin'."
"I know it, mother; but little Cora"
said Farmer Kingston, with a sob.
80, little Cora? Why, she'll go to
the WUrk-hOuse, of cOUrse,n said Mrs.
Kingston, coIdly.
The farmer gasped, but the next
instant his wife had stopped and taken
little Cora from the floor, and was
huggingand kissing her, and saying.
mo they sEan't either, shall, shall
the ', poor deG :? They wouldn't send
Eer to the wO'k-house for a ton of
gold; and while they have n roof to
shelter them, the blessed darling
shares it with 'em."
Don't ty, danma," lisped the child,
m l., IN A.r
TO8 loves co."
But Mrs. Kingston only cried the
harder, and with a choking sensation
in his throat, the farmer hurried out
to the barn to "do the chores" Meth
er alluded to that question again.
By-and-by the month Of grace had
slipped away, and then the mortgage
was foreclosed, and they n ere warned
TO leave. The farmer succeeded in
finding a little cottage just about a
mile away, and, after sad and pain
full leave-taking, the kind old couple
left their home; expecting never to
return.
Cora, the little waif, went with them
and by her winning ways and baby
prattle did much toward the aIlevia-
ton of their sorrow. And then as
though the measure of their anguish
was not yet complete, the days grew
darker still The farmer cut his foot
SO seriously, while chOpping in the
woods, that he was laid up for the
winter.
"What can we do?" he said, as he
lay helplessly upon the pillow. 81
can not work for months, and you
and Cora He turned his face
away from those he loved, and closed
his eyes. Perhaps he prayed.
"God isgood," said Mrs. Kingston,
soleLInly. ''There will be some way
yet; we amt a goin' to starve."
But it looked very dark. They had
neither food nor fuel stored, nor money
to purchase with, and bleak Decem-
ber's cutting winds were filled with
La--n-.L.L.- NJ 49,.