Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-01-30
CONFIDENCE.
/ story of the Rebellion

Dear little Janet And you want me
to tell her story? Why, she would say
there IS no story to tell.
''Dear little Janet p For all
t she is a woman grown now and
the last time I saw her there was great
bouncing Donald in her lap. For a
that, and for a that, she will always be
little Janet" to me.
There never was child who showed so
fully what the woman was to prove. The
first time ever saw her was one day
when her father had fallen in with me
ON cross-road in the Piscataquis valley
that is far away, forty miles above Ban
gor IN Maine. He was on his hay-cart :;
[ was sitting on log. We nodded to
each other and he, seeing my KNAPP
sack and stick, asked if l would not
mount with him, which I did and so,
before long, we came up to his cheerful,
rambling, great Single palace Of house,
where had already promised to pass
the night with him. We brought up in
front of the barn, from which we had al
ready shouts of Coop! coop p' Who
should appear at little ree-cornered
window in the gable but little Janet,
daxen cJ1rls flying wild about her head.
Hurrah % said Miss Janet ''Hurrah p
said her father Jump, birdie p and,
before poor cockney I well understood
the order, the child few out of the win
dow down into his arms and they both
rolled over and over in the hay. have
seen many jump into hay-carts- nay,
have made my share but never saw
such fight as that. And even then it
was not the distance which seemed most
surprising it was the absolute prompt
ness, SO perfectly fearless:
''Hers not to make reply,
Hers not to question why"
He said "Jumpl" and she jumped,
not because she calculated the height, or
had done it before, but because he told
her to, and she loved and trusted him.
That was little Janet all over.
Now, steadiness like that and readi-
ness like that breed steadiness and readi-
ness. It seems queer to me that had
never seen Janet before, have seen her
so much and so often since. I had not
seen her long, before 1 found that
trusted her as implicitly as she did me
indeed, there was not man who worked
on the farm who had not absolute con-
fidence in the child, or was not sure OF
her promptness, punctuahty and atfec,
ton. Nor was it men and women alone
who felt So The horses and the COWS
nay, the pigs and the hens-all knew hel
cheerful voice and her ready attendance
and her steady hand. lothian said she
could collar and harness that cross brute
"Mad March = that she would climl
into the manager and put the wretch
collar on and put the bit in his moutl
because she was such lady. know
she could do it and of course Ma,
March let her do it, for he could hav
eaten ller, had he been carnivorous, an
hardly know he had tasted food. But
was not because she was lady, but be
cause her easy confidence, as l say
created the same confidence in all.
Do you remember Miss Yonge's prett
story Of Miss Keble? The little Wren
trusted her so entirely that they came
pick the red berries which were prlnte
on her muslin dress and, when the
found they could not get any of them OF
they flew down and crep up under tt
skirt. thinking they could get at the be
ries on the other side. l have seen tt
little birds do that with Janet-not SUI
wrens as those, because there are no,
in Maine, but some little witches not
much bigger than an English wre
whose name I do not know. Wren
no wren, they knew Janet, even II s
did not know their name, nor they hel
The pretty picture Mr.. Billings b
made of her just represents both sldt
mean she trusted the birds, and t
birds trusted her. In the picture. y
see Just how it was. This little whist
has fascinated her, and she has fasc
.ated him He knows she will not hi
him and it almost seems as If she we
listening to him, and Learning from hi
as in the "Arabian Nights" and In