The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1871-06-24
A MAY BLOSSOM.

for though not bound to the chariot
wheels of that lumlnary, and wont on
most occasions to disregard his sum-
mons most comfortably, this was not an
ordinary occasion with the worthy
dame A habit of annual Cor semi
ANNUALLY removal teaches irresisibly the
value of an early rise; and the 1st of
May, if no other day in the calendar,
always found the O'Rooney family
awake and stirring.
For many years had the O'Rooneys
pervaded this seventh district of the
busy town. Now a garnet, now Gel
lar received them. The top stories Of
tue poorest buildings knew them well !;
in most they had dwelt; the rest felt
them coming. They were a reckless,
merry, multitudinous race. There
were big little O'Rooneys, and little
little O'Rooneys, the least of all sell
dom attaining greater age than one
year before lesser yet appeared to
claim his place. But big and little,
they were all alike good humored,
broadly Irish, and improvident The
wee-est of all the wee ones would take
the bread from his mouth to feed a
hungry playmate or astarvlng cat : and
the parental O'Rooneys content to
fling themselves and their progency on
the general public for support in every
tight pinch, never hesitated for a mo-
ment to unlatch their door and share
their crust with any more forlorn than
themselves. "Sure, what's enough for
nine is enough for ten, y was their phil
osophy. " Wen get through some
how And they always did
Their departure from any given quar-
ter was usually accelerated by notice
to quit from some long suffering land
lord. With each removal they might
be said to burn their bridge behind
them, and to be presumably certain
not to turn up again in that particular
spot. This was no grief to them.
Life would have seemed dull without
this gentle perennial excitement.
1.-The crather is afther his rint
again." Mrs. O'Rooney would tell her
husband, cheerfully; "'Pay or clare
out, he seq, small blame to him.
And where'll we go next, Tim ~
well, J" Tim would perhaps reply,
there's a fure in Godfrey street
we've niver thried at all at all We
might go there. It's two dollars a
we k, and pump handy"
. Is it opposite the bake-house, YOU
manel" Mrs O'Rooney would rejoin,
with a Joyous Irish scream, "Think of
the cow aniance of that, now! It's
like they'll give credit for a month or
more"
Fired by this delightful prospect,
the family duds and belongings would
be hastily collected. Cheerful and
chany as a flock of crows, the O'Roon-
eys would rise en- ndSSe, fit half
mile or SO, and settle in a new nest.
which twenty four hours would make
as disorderly, as shiftless, and as
cherries as the one they had just
quilted
1t was from Godfrey street that they
were now preparing to move The
" bake-house having long since recog-
nlzed and shut its doors against them
there was the less to regret in dep art
IRE.
Now, boys, tumble up, and on wild
your clothes, "cried mother. "There's
wurrld 70 do this day. See there,
now, Norry shames you She's dressed
afore you ALL
Norry, aged four, was the only girl
among the nine This fact Mrs. O'Roon-
ey was wont to lament on occasions of
hurry and pressure. g BOYS is we'll
enough, she would aver, "but they're
all tear and no mend, and all soil and
no scour. Girls for my money F." But
this muniticent offer Notwithstanding.
Norry remained the only one. On this
particular May morning, however, the
lack was felt less than usual, for little
Mary O'Rourke was ''to the fore, y and
1T would have been hard to light any
where upon a handler or more helpful
little maid than Mary.
IhlS small stranger within the
ORooney gates had come to them
straight from hospital, where she had
half died of ship-fever. Homesick,
feeble, friendless, the poor girl would
not have known where to Law her six
teen-y ear-old head except for the attic
IN Godfrey street which opened its
kindly door to take her in The debt
thus incurred she repaid with the
whole devotion of her warm heart and
helpful hand. Night and day she la
bored in the service of these friends
IN need She scrubbed, she cobbled,
she swept, she busted she polished
the stove and the boys faces. The
domlclle was never SO clean or the fam
lily so comfortable before Her pres
ence had grown necessary to them, and,
hard as 1t sometimes was to find food
for this additional mouth, no one ever
thought of sending Mary away to shift
for herself. No, indeed THEY'D pull
through somehow, Mrs. O'Roonev
said; they always did; and anyhow
" there'd be no living without Mary at
ALL"
She was pretty, tidy looking
creature, this ''angel unawares " of the
O'Rooneys, with the blue eyes and
glossy black hair of her native Ireland,
and lips SO bright and blooming as to
truly suggest the poets image of
:. Strawberries smothered in crane"
Beauty probably bore its share in
the influences she exerted over the |
, 9ys. who, according to their mother
we're "good boys as boys go, but OBJ
stinate as pigs when they'd mindto.
Certain it wss that Teddy was never SO
amenable, or Pat-second In slze-so
to any one before; that linn