The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1874-08-06
see you playing with those ragamuf:

see you playing with those ragamuf-
fins %
eyes, ma, I played'eml I polished
'em-that's the play I didl Said 1,
Put down that poor little pup; amt
you ashamed of yourself, Patsy Gro
gan? I guess you don't know who
l am" says he. That's the way they
always say, Uncle Teddy, to make a
fellow think they're some awful great
fighters. So says again, well, you
put down that dog, or I'll show you
who lam and when he held on, l
let him have. Then he dropped the
pup, and as I stopped to pick it up he
gave me one on the bugle.'
"Bugle! Oh! oh! oh!'
"The rest pitched in to help him; ;
but l grabbed the pup, and while I
was trying to give as good as I GOT
only fellow can't do it we'll with on
ly one hand, Uncle Teddy-up came
a policeman. and the whole crowd
ran away. So l got Aa dog safe. and
here he is!''
With that Billy set down his "ki-
oodle," bid farewell to every fear, and
wiped his bleeding nose. The un-
happy beast skunk between the legs of
his preserver and followed him out q
the room, as Lu, with an expression
Of maternal despair, bore him away
for the correction of his dilapidated
raiment and depraved associations.
I felt such sincere pride in this young
Mazzini of the dog-nation that I was
vexed at Lu for bestowing on him re-
proof instead of congratulation; but
she was not the only conservative
who fails to see good cause and a
heroic heart under bloody nose and
torn jacket. I resolved that if Billy
was punished he should have his rec
ompense before long in an extra hol-
iday at Barnum's or the Hipothea-
tron.
You already have some idea Of my
other nephew you have noticed that
none of us, not even that habitual dis
respector Of dignities, Billy, ever
called him Dan. 1t would have
seemed as incongruous as to call Billy
William. He was one of those
youths who never gave their parents
a moments uneasiness; who never
had to have their wills broken, and
never forgot to put on their rubbers
or take an umbrella. In boyhood he
was intended for a missionary. Had
it been possible for him to 60 to
Greenland's icy mountains without
catching cold, or 1ndia's coral strand
without getting bilious, his parents
would have carried out their pleasing
dream Of contributing him to the
worlds evangelization. Lu and Mr..
Lovegrove had no doubt that he
would have been greatly blessed if he
could have stood it. They brought
him up in the most careful manner,
and I cannot recollect the time when
he was not president, secretary, or
something in some society Of small
yet good children. He was not only
an exemplar to whom all LUIS friends
pointed their own nursery as the lit
tie boy who could say most hymns
and sit stillest in church, but he was
a reproof even unto his elders. One
Sunday afternoon, in the Connecticut
village where my brother-in-law used
to spend his summers, when half the
congregation were slumbering under
the combined effect Of the heat, a
lunch of cheese and apples, and the
sermon, my nephew, then aged five,
sat bolt upright in his pew, winkless
as deacon hearing a new candidate
suspected of shakiness on "card'na
pint" and mortified almost to death
poor old Mrs. Pringle, who, compass
sionating his years, had handed him a
sprig of her "meetin' seed" over the
back of the seat, by saying, in loud
and stern voice:
Il don't eat things in church"
I should have spanked the boy
when got home, but Lu with tears
in her eyes quoted something about
the mouths of babes and sucklings.
Both she and his father always en-
couraged old manners in him. I
think they took such pride in raising
q peculiarly pale boy as gardener
does in getting q nice blanch on bis
celery, and so long as he was not alb
solutely sick the graver he was the
better. He was a sensitive plant, a
violet by a messy stone, and all that
sort of thing. But when in bis tenth
year he had the measles, and was
narrowly carried through, Lu got a
scare about him. During his conval.
escence, reading, reading aloud a life
Of Henry Martyr to amuse him, she
found in it a picture Of that young
apostle preaching to a crowd of Hin.
docs without any boots on. An
American mothers association ot
such behavior with Group and ipecae
was too strong to be counteracted by
known climatic facts; and from that
hour, as she never had before, Lu re-
allied that being missionary might
involve going to carry the gospel tc
the heather in your stocking feet.
When they had decided that such 8
life would not do for him, his training
had almost entirely untitled him fo1
any other active calling. The strict
propriety with which he had beer
BROUGHT up had resulted in weak