The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1873-12-19
Mist&llaneons Selections
BOBBIT'S HOTEL.
eTotty's Wedding Tour" by Elizabeth stuar

''TOtty's Wedding Tour by Elizabeth Stuart
Phelps.l
A little fellow, not much higher
than a yard stick, stunted and stub
bed like dwarf pear tree, as dirty
as the mud under his feet, as rag
ged as the Coliseum after the great
gale, with little, restless swapping
eyes; with a little, hungry mouth; ;
bare feet or nearly-he wore some
holes with q little shoe to them J.,
bare hands, bare knees sticking
through his trowsers, a hat without
a rim, a boy without a bed-that
was Bobbit.
1t was six o'clock of January
night, and storming to. Bobbit was
standing-never mind the name of
the street-but he was standing at
the foot Of it lit was in Boston }, in
little snoW-drift, up to his knees.
The sleet went down his neck and
| up his sleaves, and into the holes in
his trowsers. and into the holes with
little shoe on them it hung in q
fringe on his hat, and swung to and
fro like the fringe which ladies wear
headed with guipure lace, upon their
clOaks. Bobbit thought of that,
looking out from behind the little
icicles. He had seen a great many
handsome cloaks that day; it was
what he called "handsome day."
something was going on at the Mu-
sic Hall, l believe, and the street
had been as full Of pretty things as
the sky was of sunlight, till the
clouds and the sleet came up. For
there is a greater difference in the
streets than you would ever suspect
unless you should belong to them
and have nothing to do but watch
them, like Bobbit. They have their
SCRUB days" and their dress-days,
like you or me or anybody else, but
Bobblt, whose life had been a "scrub
day" from beginning to end; and
neither you nor 1 nor anybody else
but just Bobbit himself can know, 1
suppose, what that may mean.
dts brick of a night to have sup
per-" said Bobbit, standing in the
snow drift "a brick"
Bobbit talked slang, to be sure,
never having enjoyed the benefit of
what we call a "iberal education !"
yet am not sure, after all, that a
Harvard graduate would have under
stood Bobbit if he had stood in the
snow-drift and heard what he said.
In fact, you would have to know
that Bobbit did not have q supper
every night to understand it alto
gether; and even then l do not think
you would understand it, unless you
were to go without your supper two
or three nights, or even one yourself
Tuesday Bobbit had a dinner,
Monday he pic'Ied up quite a break
fast; to-day he would have dinner
and a supper, too, it had been SO
stormy. There had been a good
many gentlemen afraid to leave
their horses. Bobbit had learned
from long experience to tell by the
color Of a horse, or by his hoof or
his ears, whether he would be rest
less in d sleet storm. He had earned
ten cents since noon holding cream
colored horses with black names land
five for little mouse -cOlored mare,
just shaved.
Bobbit carried half his snoW-drift
linto a bakers shop with him. His
eyes twinkled a little, like the feath-
ers of a shuttlecock when you play
fast. Was it not enough to justify
any one in feeling like shuttlecock
to have three days living in his
lpocket? For you see five cents
would buy you two little rolls and a
idoughnut; and to live for two days
on ten cents worth of baked beans,
why, nothing could be easier; espec-
tally if you saved your ten cents and
took your beans hot tomorrow
moon.
/ Now when Bobbit had got into
the bakers shop and bought his
Idoughnut, he saw two little Irish
boys looking in at the window.
''That's a pity~ said Bobbit; fol-
the two little boys stood quite still,
flattening their noses on the glass.
They had ragged hats and holes in
their shoes, and they stood in snow
drift, as Bobbit had done. Now
when two little boys will stand still
in the throat of sleet-storm to look
in at a bakers window, it generally
means that they do it for good rea
sons; and Bobbit had done it sc
many times himself that he looked
very wise when he said: That's ;
pity" He looked at his doughnut
too, then at the window, then at tn
doughnut; SO, back and forth, as h