The Portland daily press., 1875-10-21
POETRY.
A Narrow ESCape---A True
Story.
BY ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS.

a gentlemah's family in England a pretty
housemaid and an honest young coachman
And in course of time-how much time or
how little cannot say, for this is matter in
which it is not easy to judge of time-the
housemaid and the coachman fell in love. II
was very foolish thing to do, OF course; but
people do foolish things in this world occa-
sionally, even so foolish as that, and don't
know any better way than for wise people.
like you and me to look on and say, 81 am so
glad it was not I!' and then walk off.
The coachman's name, by the way, was
John, and the housema;d they called Susan.
So one day, when Susan was standing in
the garden door with clean white apron on,
and cruel pink ribbon in her hair, John
came by with the silver-handled whip in his
hand, which he was just going to polish up.
Said he, "Susan, don't like these goings on
with the butler, and that's the truth"
Said Susan, just turning her head so that
the unkindest bow in that merciess little
pink ribbon shone like star in her beautiful
hair. ''And what ii do take walk with
the butler of an evening when l like? 1t
amt any mans business. John Jacobs ?"
don't know as it is" said John, reflect
lively; it had never struck him in that light
before. He wished it were his business with
all his heart, bot he wouldn't say so; and
Susan wished the same, you may be sure, but
sue COuluu \ Say GU, So uc Wcut away W Iuc
great coach-honse with his whip, and Susan
sat down on the steps with her thoughts.
And so, pretty soon, when the honest coach
man came back, the pretty housemaid was
crying.
Said John; ''Why, Susanr'
Said Susan, '-G-go away!'
Said John, "You don't mean as you cared
because was cross to you?"
Sobbed Susan, 81 d-d.don't know-oww
Said John, Susan, will you have me?''
''Said Susan, ''Yes, will.''
Now, Pm not going to write you a love-
story, because l don't believe the editor
would think that was proper; but had to
tell you about John and Susan, because that
was the beginning of everything; and as a
loye-story always is the beginning of every
thing, perhaps the editor will excuse us this
time.
The long and short of 1t is, that the hon-
est coachman and the pretty housemaid were
married.
At least, that's the short of it; that gener-
ally is the short of it; the long of it came af-
wards.
The long of it came to John and Susan
when their children came. Two at a time,
TO begin with; twin boys; 'beautifuP' boys,
their mother said; "bouncing" boys, their
father said-and their names were Titus and
Tam O'Shanter And before Titus anG Tam
were able to Walk across the kitchen floor to
the molasses,jug on their own feet, dear me !!
bless it. there was another!
''Bat she's GIRL" said John. Sand won't
cost much"
For John has Just reached that desperate
point of a young mans life when he first
begins to suspect that it costs five times as
much to support five people as it does to sup
port one. This is great discovery in do
nestle science, which you will observe, as
you grow older, people seldom do make till
they have five people to support.
But then, you see, when the little girl q
think her name was Betty, but cannot be
quite sure) was beginning to talk, she had
little sister to talk to; and that was serious.
Said John, decidedly, ''My dear, we never
can manage it in the world. How's one
coachman's wages to do all this ?'
Said Susan, dejectedly flor the baby and
one twin had cried all night,) 81 don't know,
John. Can't we 60 to America ?'
sand what should we do in American"
said John.
'Livev' said Susan; and her tired black
eyes snapped.
Well, the long and short of that was, they
came to Nebraska; and here, perhaps, my
story should properly begin.
So long ago as it takes for little boys 10
grow great men, it was not so easy to live in
Nebraska as it is now, when the great land
commissioners of the great railroads hang a
buffalo's head in every depot in Boston, to
show the world how much more delightful is
the society of buffaloes than the society of
Bostonians.
When John, and Susan, and Tim, and
Tam O'Shanter, and Betty, and the new
baby came to Nebraska, that plucky young
state was, for the most part, an ugly, bowling
wilderness.
In the thick of the wilderness Mr.. and Mrs.
John Jacobs dug out for themselves home.
Literally, they dug it out with their own
hands. Susan was tough little woman,
with stout hands and stout heart, and she
dug too. think, if the truth must be told,
she rather enjoyed leaving Titus aud Tam
with the other babies,-there's no guessing
how much care one baby will take of another
till you've tried,-and taking an AK to help
her husband fell trees and cut underbrush, or
take hce to hoe her row in the darling little
garden, out of which they meant to make
living, if they died for it.
1t was only because they meant to, SO very
hard, l fancy, that they made living with
out dying for it. It was almost worse, at
first, than on coachman's wages in Mother
England. There was the newness, and there
was the inconsistencies, and there was the
distance from the market, and there was the
bitter cold, and there was the binding heat,
sides, there were the indians.
Yes, an Indian story. ''Truly, honestly"
as my little friend Trotty would say, a live
Indian story; and though it isn't very long
one it is every word a true one. Most true
things are not very long, in this world, unless
you expect the moral law or the multiplied
ton table, or few such things as that.
John, and Susan, and Tam, and Titus, and
Betty, and the new baby, and the newest new
baby (when it camel got along pretty well
well with every thing else; but it wasn't
with tomahawk just as you were quietly sit
ting down to supper; and they got little
tired of sleeping with one ear open, listening
for the awful, echoing sound of the cruel H.
dian war-cry; and whatever might be urged
against life as a coachman in England, at
least it was life in which ones attention
wasn't called SO frequently to the top of ones
head.
''Mine is fairly sore," laughed Susan,
with thinking how it would feel to be
scalped."
But Susan was such brave little woman! !
And if there is anything very much needed
in this world, it is brave women.
"'ll have gup," she said. So she had a
gun. ''I'll be good shot," she said. Aud
quickly she became as good a shot as John.
And when John was at work in the woods
OF the garden, Susan gathered her brood
about her in the house, and, lynx eyed as a
sentry, and fine-eared as a mother, mounted
guard.
Now, there came time when nobody
had seen an Indian for so long while,
that even the wise heart of the mother for
got TO lael keenlv about anything in this
world, if we do not see it,-an absent duty,
or an absent friend, or an absent terror
all alike they grow trife dull.
And one day, when Titus and Tam said
"Just one gallop on the prairie, mother, with
old Jerusalem" their mother said, "well,
don't know" and their father said, 81 guess
I'd let 'em;'' and the lynx eyes, and the
keen ears, and the wise head of the mother
said her not nay-and so it happened.
Old Jerusalem was The big white horse;
the faithful, ugly, grand old horse, that
took steps almost as long as a kangaroo's
and was more afraid of an Indian than II
tus and Tam.
So Susan kissed Titus goodbye tenderiy-
Tor he was the good boy of those remarka-
bic Withstand that was why they called him
Titus. and kissed Tam little more tenderly
still, because he wasn't SO good as Titus and
so had got called Tam and she said ssHop
on tightW and John came out and said.
.'Come home pretty soon:'' and Tam got on
first,o nd Titus got on behind him. and Jeru-
salem gave one great bound, and away thew
Il, alt, ,c;p oh,