The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-08-27
OLD DIGGLYBoNEs
BY CLARA G. Dou11vER

/ BLOAuy VIII uEeaQIuliY cunning
b wicked face; but he isn't at all. Hi
Q cheeks are round and soft and downy,
t and pink like peaches; and ne has suoI
# bright, innocent look that he walks
t into your heart at once without knock.
b ing
g We call him Digglybones because he
: is so fond of the play IN which dread
q full wicked old man steals all the Iady's
= children and turns them into pies; the
r poor lady, heartbroken for her loss, goes
e to the bakers to console herself with a
D pie. She calls for gooseberfy bat no
, sooner has she received it than she ex-
4 claims
5 "Mercy me | This is my daughter
5 AmeIial" Then old Digglybones cries
? out " Pie, pie, pie" and chases her
l home. IF he catches her he gets Amelia
3 back, and the poor mother has TO go pie
buying again
4 You would never think that our little
: round-cheeked boy would be able to
: run fast enough TO make a successful
Digglybones, his legs are 50 fat and so
short, but he can catch the mother and
} get Amelia back four times out of five.
He has big sister named Rose he
, calls her Wosie with his little unman-
! ageable tongue, and thinks she is the
most wonderfully wise, perfectly beau
tiful, dearest and best sister in the wide
world.
Wosie is eighteen and still goes to
school, where her anxious teachers
haven't half such high opinion of her
as Digglybonss has though they can't
help liking her after knowing her a
little.
There is a tall young fellow with
black eyes and great mustache who
comes to see her sometimes, and real
. " hal hn
Digglybones in his high opinion of Wo-
sic; at least the little boy put bis Eaugh-
ty eye up to the keyhole of the parbor
door one day and saw the black mus
tache as near wosie's mouth as his own
sweet lips ever got.
One fine summer morning while Dig
glyboues was building an Indian fort
with his blocks on the dinning-room
! table, there came a terrific peal at the
| door-bell.
"Land p cried grandmother, nearly
| leaping out of her seat. 90 What do peo-
| pie want to ring that bell in that style
! for? It's set me all in hutter. Run
| to the door, pet.
Grandmother doesn't call him Diggly- /
| bones she thinks it is dreadful name. /
When, after no small amount of tug /
ging, he succeeded in opening the door, |
he found the postman there, not looking |
so very pleasant as he might, because he
had been kept waiting so long. Here,
bub, he said, "here's letter for you
and don't let the grass grow under your
feet another time"
Digglybones was so astonished about
the grass that he let the letter fall out
of his hand, and did not shut his mouth
or pick the letter up until the postmAn
had disappeared, and might have stood
there longer if his mother had not
called out to him to shut the door
quick, before the house was full of flies.
When he took the letter into grand
mother the good old lady read the di-
rections out loud
Miss Rose Stilingheet. City"
Landi' she said, 81 guess that's
from Mr.. Afford. 1 wouldn't wonder If
Rosie would give the best two bits she
ever saw to get this letter. Wen, put it
on the table in her own room, dear.
DiggIybones trudged of up stairs
with it, thinking all the time, as hard
as he could think with his busy lit
tie brain; he had never breathed
word of his putting his eye up to the
keyhole, for he had strong suspicion
that everybody, from grandmother
down, would strongly disapprove of
such performance on his part but he
hadn't forgotten it all, and he 'tguessed" 4
that Mr.. Afford, the owner of the black
mustache, was the most dangerous rival {
he had; and he thought to himself that /
Wosie 1Ooetyd give two bits TO get the
letter.
After a while Digglybones knocked
down his Indian fort and went out of /
doors to play he knocked at Jimmy 6
Lees back door and asked Mrs. Lee, in
his sweet voice, Gould pease Jimmy
come out doors and play soldier ?" {
But Mrs. Lee said Jimmy had gone in
town with his auntie, and wouldn't be
back until lunch-time so Digglybones'i i
played soldier by himself for little
while.
But he found it exceedingly dull to be I
captain, lieutenant, company and every /
thing, and began to wish he had some '
candy, or somebody to play with, he I
didn't care which. {
" Grandma" he said, straying into q
the house, 'I wish you would dive me
five cents"
d" What for, pet ?" said grandmother, $
who had been reduced to the verge of /
bankruptcy by Digglybones already.
"I want some tandy."
cit isn't good for you, replied grand i
mother. ''Some of these days some Y
dady will say, why hasn't that nice
little boy any teeth p and somebody q
will have to answer, Because his naugh-
ty grandma gave him so much candy.
"Then can buy teeth like yours, " {
answered Digglybones " / want some 2
tandy anyway" e
But grandmother shook her head, and
that day she was proof against teasing, c
Digglybones teased his Lest.
He found his mother equally untract- {
able, and then his busy little brain be-
gan to think; and he tho ught, among
ether things, that Wosie had some Give '
centses," and if he gave her that letter
she would give him some of them. I
Grandma had said that she would give i
two bits to get that letter, and he was G
sure there was a good many ''fve q
centses" in two bits; and visions of an
unlimited amount of candy passed be-
fore him.
He knew the school where Wosie went,
and was sure he could find it; he had
watched her go down street so many
times. a--
So, without saying word TO anybody,
he put the letter in his little jacket
pocket and started of. The letterstuck
up so high that it scraped his soft skin,
so he doubled it up and crowded it
down. He walked along very compla-
Gently, with his ragged straw hat on one
side, totally unconscious that his face
was dirty and his hair in his eyes; IN
laCbs 10 ASAb neeeA1AADA WIN AAA~- I ,
self.
By and by it occurred to him that he
was pretty hungry, and it was queer
that he did not find the high school.
' Ny dacious Z" he thought to himself, |
1 wonder If Wosie doesn't get awful
tired going to school" He thought "a
little rest would do him no harm, so he
found nice, shady doorstep, and sat
down
When he put Mr.. Affords letter into
his pocket he had felt something hard in
it, and now, being reduced to great ne
cessity, he much wondered If that some
thing hard wasn't something to eat
Perhaps" thought Digglybones to
himself, "a it is five cents. ] dess it is
and dess Wosis would just as heve
dive il to me as not.
He could not imagine q tenderer mark
of affection ON Mr.. Affords part than
his inclOsing five cents 20 WOsie.
He opened the letter as carefully as
his clumsy little fingers could do u, aud