Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1873-10-15
Johns Promise.

buul IViulNf.
Sumner was mushroom city which had
sprung up on the banks Of raviue that
cut through the western bluffs Of the Mis-.
souri,. In a thicket Of oak saplings, high
up on the side Of one of those bluffs, stood
A hastily built house, sided with rough. up.
right, cottonwood hoards-as arc many OF
It's western neighbors--a rusty stove.pipc
sticking through the roof a small window.
curtained by a scalloped-cdge newspaper.
and a white door taken from sunkcn
steamboat, whose nicely finished panels con-
trastcd strangely with It's surroundings,
completing the exterior.
One pleasant May evening, just as the
shrill whistle of steamboat echoed among
the hills, this door was opened by a pleas
ant young woman, who was followed by a
crying child.
"Ob, Sammy, q1it your noise that's
.parpys little man; see the great big boat
way yonder,' lifting him up don't you
see look right sharp now, close agin' the
bank. Does Sammy want to 90 down town
md see the big boat, and see pappy ?"
The willing feet toddled down the path
but the mother called, " Wait bit, and
nammy u pack Sammy" and tying on a
pink sunbonuei, she took him in her arms
and started down the steep, crooked path
Ii was picturesque scene that lay be.
fore her. The sunlight, sitting through
the trees that covered the western hills.
glinted the windows here and there and
reached, like golden bar, Just across
the top Of the forest on the low eastern
shore. Scattered through the hollow and
up the sides Of the bluffs, we're divers
houses, from the pretentious Gothic dwell
ing on the northern hill and brick business
houses down street, to log cabins aud cot.
tonwood shanties; while the road that
wound up the bed of the raviDe was lined
with long, white train Of Denver.bound
freight-wagons
She reached the steep main street to find
it filed with wagons that had been turned
cross-wise Of the street, TO rest the teams
But edging her way close to the clay bank
she reached the river just as the steamer
was leaving the wharf, The snorting Of
the engine and the shouting of the deck
hands, together With the putting of the
mill near by, was too much for baby-bra-
very, and Sammy's lip began to quiver.
Catching him in her arms, his mother sat
down on a ssw-log, saying, There, there,
honey, don't be aieared, be pappy's man
now"
The tide-waves Of the receding boat sank
lower and lower on the sand the gay
crowd that leaned over the guards grew iu-
distinct, and she peered more and more ea-
gerly in among the tall cottonwood trees on
the opposite shore At length four men
came out of the woods, and entering skif,
started across the river. She watched the
skih anxiously, for it frequently dsap-
peared between the waves which were
raised by the strong south wind-such winds
belonging as proyerbially to Kansas springs,
Is whoopng-cough to children, or gapes to
chickens.
-Four rough looking men, in rcd wooden
shirts-for lumbcrmen did not pretend to
wear coats, except in the coolest weather.
jumped out Of the ski, and with bolster.
Gus laughter and rude tests, entered the
mill Presently one Of them spied her
., IN uoo.ah - f." "e' say '"T '''SVI'ous'S Vn.,'S
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