Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-01-09
lust then the baby began to cry in |

Just then the baby began to cry il
good earnest. What it had done before
was a mere trifie to the screams which
now filed the woods. The hermit die
not know what in the world to do. HI
swing thestocking vigorously around, but
the baby kept on with steadily increasing
violence
"Ive heard 'em go on worse than that, u
cried the boy, shouting as if he were in a
storm at sea. ''YOu ought to warm some
milk and feed it."
Haven't got any!" yelled the hermit
| back. "Would corn-meal dos"
Glow do you mean2" shouted the boy.
''In ash cakess'
"Yesn howled the hermit.
"No" screamed the boy. 4.
Nothing was now heard for minute or
two but the wild clamor of the baby, and
it up to our house, if l were you, and get
it stopped /"
can rightr' called out the hermit
"but how shall carry it,"
Hold fast to the stocking-top, and let
it dangle," replied the boy, and away
they went
On the way the baby lulled little, and
the boy, despite his nuts and candy, be-
gan to feel hungry. Hermit" said he,
was there an apple in your stocking be
sides the baby ~ The Hermit stopped
and carefully Felt the stocking all around
the baby.
"No," saiu he, "there was no apple"
Never mind" said the boy, al can
get one at home," and they kept on their
way
The boy reached the house first and told
about the wonderful thing the hermit had
found in his stocking, and when the good
man arrived, he and his baby had one of
the Warmest welcomes that ever was
seen. The house was full of company, and
everybody seemed wild with a desire to
do something for either the baby or the
hermit. Ever so many ladies seized on
the big stocking, and the sweet little
cherub was quickly pulled out and ten
derby cared for. All the people in the
halls and parlors crowded around the
hermit, and he had to tell his
story over and over again, and
everybody who heard it, wanted him
to warm himself and have something to
eat and drink. The children too pressed
around him, and he had to tell every
thing to them, while they chartered all
the time like so manyblrds, and they took
him to see the Christmas tree, and he had
to examine every present. When the
odby " DIS iulCt anu cOIl1lOltdDiC anu Idu
been dressed nicely, the hermit went up
stairs to look at it, and be carried it
down, cradle and all, and walked proud
ly around with it so that everybody
could see what he had found in his Christ
mas stocking. He had to stay to dinner,
and then he staid to see the games atnight,
and he never spent such a delightful
Christmas in all his life.
The hermit never went back to his
cave. He would not hear of such thing
as giving up his baby, and it would never
do to keep such a tender little child in
cold hole in hill. So he took a frame
house in the village, and had cook-stove
and things, and good woman to take
care of him and the child, and there he
lived as happy as king. On any bright
morning, in those days, you might have
seen him walking slowly up and down
his garden, the baby on one arm, and his
heavy old book open on the other. He
always said that the best thing he ever
did in his life was to hang up his stock
ing on that blessed Christmas eve