The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1875-02-12
bringing sunshine.

Bringing sunshine.
ooh, dear there are the beans to
pick not stalk of corn can be cut until
the beans are off,
(Which beans, mother Z"
4 "The beans in the cornfeld, of
\ course, child Barbary is away and Tim
has famed his hand, and it's sorry bit
of beans can get picked with the house
tending"
Don't you think l could pick them,
mother Z"
"Tut, tut, child, don't talk to me, I'm
too busy to be answering. Don't you
know yourself you are too little to carry
more'n a pint Z"
Beniie rocked himself backward and
forward on the stool at the back door, his
thoughts rs busy as bees.
81 have it l have it now -
"What have you got I" asked father,
: lifting the pump-handle.
"Why, I've got an answer to what you
said mt noon" gathering himself up i'll II
Misunderstanding little bunch on the
grass.
"Oh, yes, about the birthday present.
Well, what is it you want Z"
"Why, n wagon, father real 'owl
express like Jeems Perkins had over at
his aunt's,
eli hi a wagon is it you want it's
IA big wish for small boy.
- Not too big, is it, father 2"
"Well, well, it's big-rather big
however, | guess my bank will stand it /;
you deserve 1t.
The last words seemed the best part of
the sentence, for Beniies face was a
study in sunshine as he sat punched up
on the grass looking off Mt the cornfield.
"I'm small boy, am /, and l cannot
carry more'n pint of beans; we will
see," he whispered to himself, as lie
capered the next minute over the grass,
a perfect whirligig, bobbing hither and
thither.
"What are you going to do with it 2"
said the mother, as Benjie tugged i'll the
"owl express the next day. "What
possessed him to buy you thatl" and she
rubbed her hands free of the dough she
had been molding, and stood thinking
about the money men wasted, and the
hitler children gathered under foot.
"Tm going to do all sorts of things
with it, said Benjie climbing into it to
begin with. You'll see some time"
where's that Bonjiet" called the
mother every once III while all that day
and the next day, and for some days
after.
ooh, he's about somewhere" was the
usual answer.
He's done deal of racing, seems to
me, since that owl express came home,
and she would soon forget him again
over the cleaning and baking and brew
ing
"There are oil the beans to pick that
bothering field of beans, she sighed one
day again, the tears starting to her eyes
with very weariness-the push of work,
the shortness of hands. " L can manage
the garden and the indoor work, but
how can pick the beans =
She was sobbing before she knew it,
great strong woman that she was, worn
and weary and alone. She was sobbing
up by the cupboard door, and nobody
would have known it only Benjie came
in with his bare, brown feet quite silently
up behind her.
"Mother, mother, said Benjie, speak
ing softly, seeing her face pressed up to
the door and how sadly she was crying.
"Go along, child; go along" she said,
but put her arm around him.
Mother, come to the threshing- floor
have something there to show you. :"
"I'm tired, Benjie, and busy I'm
going now to pick some beans, but I've
power of other work to DO and I'm
worried out and weary"
But she let him lead her along to the
threshing- floor, and he hoped, skipped,
and jumped every step of the way sc
she sighed.
"That is the way with the children. y
Beans !" she exclaimed, as she stood
before the bean mountain in the corner
ready to be spread and dried for the
threshing.
Oceans, said Benjie; "evcry single
bean from the corntield. / picked EN-
myself and hauled 'em in the 'owl ex.
press, every single bit of a bean "-and
never was there merrier laugh in the
world than the laugh that rung over the
thrashing-hoor as he saw the mothers
face pass from shadow to sunshine, ant
felt the happiness of giving her, instead
of WEAKNESS, rest.