The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-12-24


in a sudden wind, and the grave began
To omen. Jedd could look no longer; and
he shut out the strange sight by placing
lank, bony hands over his eyes.
"Merry Christmas, sir, said hest
tating voice at his side.
Jedd started.
"Merry Christmas, sir" repeated the
voice, dolefully.
And then Jedd turned his eyes ON the
speaker. 1t was very shabbily- dressed
lad. He had on a felt hat of no color
whatever, roundabout jacket, and
pair of white duck trousers, much too well
ventilated for the season. His physique
was as delicate az q girls; and If it had
not been 80 dark Jedd could have seen
face in which there was a strange mix
expression of boyhood conteuding, and
a sad experience written all over it.
But the snow was falling heavily, and
he only saw a very little fellow sur
mounted by a very shocking hat.
eff you please, sir, said the boy,
pleadingiy.
Humph -
And jedi was about to bid him go his
way, when it struck jedi that, after
what he had seen, not even the love OF
charming collins could tempt him to
turn off the gas again in his shop; and to
leave it burning until morning was bit
of extravaganza not to be thought of.
1t occurred to him to hire this promis-
cuous wisher of merry Christmases to sit
in the shop till he should have returned
from the Spuyten Duyvels; so he
changed his brusque manner, and in
quired, in tone which was intended to
be extremely conciliatory:
"What's your name, bub2"
"The last one, sirG" asked bub, look
ing up.
"The last one, sir?" repeated jedi,
mimicking the lad. Chow many have
you9"
"a good many, sir. In Nantucket
they used to call me Poor Tommy, and
Orphan Tom, and Tomtit. But on
board ship the sailors called me Nan
tuck-and they called Nantuck very
often, and made him work good deal. "
And the boy shivered with cold, as the
keen north wind swept around the cor
ner with evident predatory designs on his
tattered jacket.
"Nantuck ?" said his interrogation,
turning up his pinched nose with disap-
probation, as if the name filed his ven
cradle nostrils with very ancient and
! fish-like smell.
"Well, Tomtit-I like that best, you
know-if you will keep shop for me an
hour or so, I'll give you n shilling"
l.,
is, said Tomtit, alias Nantuck, eagerly,
"but I'll do it thankfully"
"The key is under the mat. Unlock
the door, and don't touch anything.
Don't jar those lovely collins they
might fall on you, and kill you, you
know" jedi never once looked toward
the shop. eff you see a grave in the
middle of the floor you mustn't be
frightened, you know. I'm not.
And Jedd shuddered.
81 don't see any grave, said Tomtit,
throwing open the door.
The undertaken summoned all his
courage, and glanced into the room ;
but the mound, with its daisies and the
weeping willow, had vanished.
"Dev'lish strange" he muttered. cit
tCas there" Then facing his clerk pro
tenn: "You won't steal anything, be-
cause there isn't anything to steal, you
know"
The boy looked YEARLY around him,
and seemed to think that the temptation
wasn't very strong.
But he might take lid, though"
thought Jedd.
However, there was no alternative but
TO trust him. Somehow or other, and
God wills it so, the most suspicious are
obliged to place confidence in a fellow
mortal. Not you and 1, gentle reader (;
we would do it willingly, for it is good
to believe in humanity. Among other
things, the old man of three-score had
not learned this.
Tomtit glanced over the apartment.
There was only the ghost of fire in a
small stove all sorts eff grotesque
shadows peopled the room, and the dim,
blue light, which fell like an imitation
of moon-rise on the long, narrow houses
of the dead, made them look frightful.
A coffin is an ugly-loeking thing any
way one can fix it, and twenty collins
are, of course, twenty times uglier.
"Queer place." soliloquized Tomtit.
81 rather like it, though" And the
boy smiled sickly smile: He thought
I'd be afraid. A man who has been on
whaling voyage"-here little thirteen
years-old drew himself up to his full
height" isn't likely to be scared by
two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, four
teen, sixteen, eighteen, twenty empty
boxes. guess not !"
The child must have been exceedingly
weary, for he had no sooner located him
self on one of the tall black stools than
he sank into profound slumber. His
body swayed to and fro in very unde-
cided manner. AT last it gave an extra
curve, and Tom fell He broke neither
his slumber nor his neck-heroes never
break their necks, believe. The critics,
however, sometimes do for them. L
know an instance.
Tomtit lay at the foot of his perpen-
dicular bed, AID there we will leave him
leave him sleeping with one of his thin
brown hands grasping the leg of the
stool, and one foot in a coffin T; the first
time, / think, that such fact has been
recorded of any body, though we often
hear of people having =" one foot in the
grave.
But while L whisper in your ear, let
him o1aap