The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1871-06-22
A GOOD ACT IS NEVER LOST.

A GOOD ACT IS NEVER LOST.
|Trom the New York News.
Old Farmer Kingston's wife raised
Iher hands In breathless wonder, and
her cap frills shook excitedly.
"Laud o. massy, Reuben, what
have you got there?''
IA baby, num-" said Reuben
Kingston, quietly.
"A baby! Wa.al, of all the world!
ia baby! Did / ever? What are you 60
ling to do with it?"
"Keep it?"
"Now, Reuben, you know'd better.
I've raised my seven children"
'Then you'll know better how to
care for this one mother. Besides,
Asince Jane married and went away
from home, it's very lonely here"
The farmers voice was quivering,
and for moment his wife seemed
thinking of som ething far away. The
baby's cooinS soon recalled her.
"And did dreally hope that I should
git Q leetle naow they are gone" she
said, finishing her sentence as II there
had not been an interruption.
"Well, mother, you are lonesome
arter all-'specialTy when Pm away;
now, aint you?" Farmer Kingston
asked, persuasively.
"Sposin' I am-it's MATERIAL"
IT know 1t, and the baby will be
company" he cried, triumphantly.
"Wa-a1, / never! I s'pose you think
that settles it," said Mrs. Kingston,
seeing now the trap prepared for her.
Precious company a baby'd be, must
say-crying all the time, and"
'"Then I'll take it to the wOrk-house
will II" asked the farmer, with a
twinkle in his eye.
mo, you won't! I am not quite q
heathen, Reuben Kingston; an If you
don't shet up about the house,
I'll-Tll-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 a dog away from my door like
that-let alone a 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
prises all that could be meant by q
good home for it. The baby was pret-
ty, eyes of blue, and rosebud lips and
pretty little cheeks, just pink enough
for beauty. And more than all the
sweetest temper that ever baDy 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 a boy hater, went into rap
lures.
"Sich baby-I never seed the beat
on'tv' she exclaimed. "Putteier than
posies, and good natered as the day is
long. I wish my children had been
half so good when they was leetle.
'twould ha' saved me world o. trou-
ble."
"Why, wasn't your children good
enough, mother?" asked farmer King
ston, ruefully.
"Yes, they was pretty good, but
that 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 name came up at last,
and Farmer Kingston, who had been
contented with the homely name of
Jane and Betsey for his own daugh-
ters, now grew romantic, and insisted
it should be known as Cora.
"Wa'al, never!" said his wife. "We
did not give our darters highfalutin
names; but Cora's putty, an 1 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 vii.
lage usurer, had got a mortgage on his
place, and quick to grasp the property
Of all who let him once get hold, ht
found flaw at some point in TIE
document which gave him opportuni
ty for foreclosure. Farmer King.
ston was Notified at once, and toIC
that he could have a month to pay II
in. Unless he raised the money IL
that time he might prepare to vacate
"What shall we do?' he groanet
carelessly, after he had told his wifi
his story.
"Why, make the best Of it, s'pose
We're used to work, Reuben; ant
though we're gettin' ruther old, Z.
guess We'll make our livin' yet. Hop,
always for the best, an not the wust-
the wust comes fast enough withou
lopin'."
II know il, mother; but little Cora, ,
said Farmer Kingston, with sob.
20, little Cora? Why, she'll 60 t.
the work.house, of course" said Mrs
Kingston, coldly.
The farmer gasped, but the mex
instant his wife had stopped and takel
little Cora from the floor, and wa
hugging and kissing her, and saying.
mo they shan't either, shall, shal