Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-09-26
The Leisure Hour.
THE TICTO.U DEFICIT.

1t was Mr.. Jerry Tictom's delight to sit
before brisk hardwood fire with pair of
heavy brass-headed tongs in his hand.
Whenever he saw the brands about to fall, ,
he prevented 1t by laying them tenderly
one upon another
The andirons often reflected his thin del
icate features, making them round a: d full
with a merry laugh upon them. 1t was an
old trick of the androns, and the wonder
of it 10 Tictom had ceased long ago.
The fire was wife and family to Jerry
comfort and company. The care of it had
grown upon him like passion. The flames
painted his thoughts and in return requir-
ed of him something, he knew not what to
name it, if 'twere not reverence.
Mrs. Holm, his longtime landady, hu-
mored his ways. She gave over to his
keeping the fire upon the old-fashioned
hearth in the old-fashioned parlor as trust
fully as though Jerry were later Prone
theus.
Filled with happy consciousness of his
responsibility, Jerry's care went step fur
ther. The wood whereof the fire was made
he ordered himself of the dealer. Many a
cargo did he examine before he ordered
the winter supply. He knew better than
the dealer the individual merits of the diff
ferent kinds of wood. He revelled in the
sweet sayor of the silvery birch he glo-
ried in the red heart of the oak, brave to
the core but it was for the sweet -breathed,
rifted pine that he reserved his love, and
for which, as it fell to ashes, he sorrowed
in the chimney corner. Perhaps he imag-
ined day when it may have hidden some
sweet soul of dryad
Each year, for the whole month of Sep
tember, he hired Tommy Teet the wood
saver, who would make no other engage
ments. Certain as September came Ton
ny, a self-conceited, active little old man
with a wooden leg, who seldom confessed
his ignorance of anything, but who was
easily put down, for all that.
How wholly Jerry gave himself up to
enjoyment of an afternoon, when with
Tommy on the spot and the days saving
begun. he sat upon throne of logs, snuff.
box in hand, his gold-headed cane Asn
his arm, his autumn surtout buttoned about
his wisp of body, and watched the dust
fall damp and odorous to the music of the
saw.
Then Jerry would dream and murmur
"My life, how like tree it is The Springs
give and the Autumns take away ; bird
songs and winds from many ways and
summer memories are woven into every
fiber of it, and yet the cutter comes, and
the saver like Tommy Teet here, and the
heart is cut in twain; the dust, sweet
smelling falls, the fire gladdens and all be-
comes ashes, ashes, ashes" But as Thack-
cray says, "what an old, old simile that is,
between man and timber r.
He was fond of comedy, though, TO his
knowledge, he had never been within 4
thousand miles of a theatre, and Mr.. Teet,
the woedsawer, was a comedian of the
first water, little as he knew 1t.
Over and over again Teet had played &
play, and Mr.. Jerry had witnessed II, and
both called it the "Story of taking the frig-
ate."
Any less conceited soul than Tommy
would have quailed before this undertak,
ing.
In his little person lie was to represent
lin war-time) what was supposed TO be
great merchant-ship of the enemy, lying
nearly becalmed of Thatchers Island. He
was also to personate pinkey of about fif,
ty tons, hurriedly manned and armed
creeping out as Yankee prvateer to sur
prise and capture her. The pinkey was tc
approach within gun shot of the merchant
man and call upon her to surrender or bt
sunk without quarter. The ship was then
TO throw off disguise and bear down as
frigale upon the pinkey, while the latter
continued the combat undismayed.
Whoever has played character at all
may appreciate the difficulties besettinl