Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-07-06

I
father and cared for. kammerick's
poor wife, who was washing her pots
and kettles on deck, looked as if she
inwardly sympathized with the people
on shore; but she trembled, and dared
say nothing.
Jan was in such a dreadful temper
that the cries OF the people on shore
made him more furious still.
Its none of your business he
shouted. how much pound and kick
this brat! He is good for nothing but
whiting and breaking knives. If he
carves any more of his pudding faces
out of my boat rails. I'll send him
adrift. Then you will have what you
want! Then, neighbors, you will have
a pauper on your hands; and when
you feed him in your kitchen, he will
carve doll puppets out of your table
legs"
Then he vanished down the hatch
way, followed by the maledictions Of
1.-THE bystanderS.
eff l were you," cried one of them
to the boy, 81 would run away"
The barge went on through the locks,
and the boy still crouched in his corner.
The tears yet dimmed his eyes, but he
had already forgotten his bruises.
| There was no resentment in his heart
toward his wretched father. His
mind was filled with a thousand beau
tiful and fantastic imageS-delicate
fancieS which he now and then sought
to embody in bits of wood that he
laboriously carved with clumsy knives
or chisels. He longed to be free from
the rude work which he was compelled
to do upon the barge, and to study,
that he might become great sculp-
| tor in wood. When the barge
passed near some of the curiously-
adorned old houses of which there are
so many in Antwerp-houses whose
windows. whose roofs, whose arches,
whose doors were richly and profusely
adorned with carvings of birds and
foliage, of beasts and dragons, of mys-
| teal figures from mytholOgies, or COM
ical transcripts from everyday Dutch
life-he studied them carefully and
with passionate alteration. He had
never been allowed to go into the
| streets, and look at them for hours at
time, as he could have wished to do
for old Jan, who piled to and from a
little village on the banks of the
| Scheldt. at some distance from Ant
werp, would never allow his child to
go on shore during any of their tri-
weekly visits to the city. He yearned
for sight of the grand churches of
which his mother had told him-cathe-
drals in whose solemn stiffness he could
stand undisturbed all the day long,
drinking in beauty at every pore. The
harshness and hardship of his life, the
beatings of his unnatural father, would
have been as nothing to him if he could
have been allowed to learn something
of art. But old Jan not only refused
to allow him to work, but had thrown
into the river many beautiful images
of saints, of birds, of dragons, which
the child had carved by stealth when
the bargeman was not near, and had
then offered to the boor, asking him to
sell them and buy tobacco for himself
with the money.
mo child of mine shall waste his
life over such mummeries,' said old
Jan.
While the boy was musing bitterly
on his lot, his mother who had finished
washing her pots and kettles, came to
him, and while she wrung out her
dishcloth with her lean and blistered
hands, she said, in a low voice:
Jan, boy, you are small and feeble,
but you are now thirteen, and think
you would be brave and resolute. The
| GOOD oo,,l Inwp Of ;rc' Icha al
called Father Jan good soul, because
she knew that he was an old brute)-
"the good soul has made up his mind
that you are to be barge-man, and he
is stern, as you know. Now--do not
speak-we must try new way to get
you launched in the world" GIere
the mothers tears began to fall fast,
and she thought Of the beatings which
shomight receive if she carried out hel
plan.) my child, you must leave us
you must run away
The boys eyes flashed: he rose, and
limped toward his mother.
you. motherkin. Leave you with that
man..
Listen, childr' she said. "Wt
will try little way which the goo,
God has put into my head. You vii
, be a genius, my son-one of those
great people who can express just wha
, they want to say. You will cary,
out your thoughts in wood-il
stone, perhaps. Tonight, when thu
barge stops near the lock, / will make
, an errand for your father on shore.
; out of the sum which we had saved 70
, BeItha's dowry, and YOU shall fly
Your father will not hunt for you; hi