Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1877-12-28
Simon Pettingill's New Year.

can't see it and you can't feel it, yet it is
the first thing you strike when YOU are
born. The very minute you came into the
world you bounced right into the middle
of year, or the end, as the case may be.
When you have ten of them you care no
more for them than the marbles in your
pockets, but when you have sixty of them,
if your marbles were all diamonds you
would give them all rather than lose one.
And still funnier thing about it is that
people are ashamed to have 'em. Do you
know, children, that people tell awful
stories about them. I reckon more souls
have been lost about telling peoples ages
than anything else in the world, Even
people that pass for good people; people
that have prayers regular in the morning,
and 60 to church and sit quiet all through
the sermon, and don't laugh or make the
least noise, will 60 right out after the SER
mon, and tell a story about how old they
are, if anybody gives them the opportunity.
Why, even the old gentleman who writes
you this, in a moment of weakness has
said he didn't have many years about him!
And, do you know, your own dear Pa and
Ma would do it if-sh-h-h, don't make
noise about it, but it's so-your own dear
Pa, when he brushes the thin hair from be-
hind his ears over the top of his head, is
just getting ready to do that very thing.
And your dear Ma will not only tell 'em
about how many years she has got, but
about how many you have got. And as
for your Aunts! dear me! it makes my
very blood run cold to Think how many
stories they will tell abodt it. Not that I
want yon to stop speaking to your dear
parents or your Aunts, because they do
these things, but 1 am just telling you
this to show you what queer thing year
is. 1 wouldn't have you to punish your
parents for this, because there is a place
set apart for all such, where they will be
settled with.
What will strike you as strangest, chill
dren, when you get older, is how people
treat every new year they get. You'd
think they had never seen one before. They
make thousand good resolutions and
then wrap them up in New Years Day,
and put them away, and never think of
them afterwards. 1 have known people to
die. and when their trunks were opened
there were five hundred thousand good
resolutions, as good as new, having never
been used. And 1 have even known chill
dren, who are much better than grown
people, to do almost as bad, and one of
them want to tell you about.
You may not have known little Simon
Pettingill, who lived on New Court
House street, because 1 don't suppose
your Ma ever let you play with him,
but that boy would have been as
good a child as you are to-day, and per-
haps better (if you haven't got an extra
rilt shine of goodness on YOU if he had
kept his god, rvsasIaaiAlnA You mav rot
think there are fairies, dear children in
Augusta county but there are great many
Of them, though you can't always see them.
A fairy is thing that is very good when
he is good but when he is bad he is awful.
1t was just seven weeks ago, Il want you
to notice the day particularly children so
if you don't believe it you can go and ask
Simon Pettingill's mother herself,) when
this boy went on Bessy Bell-that's a
mountain you know, to hunt chestnuts.
He was by himself, for his mother had
told him he shouldn't go and he had to
sneak off without any other boy. 1t was
very late in the evening and the stars had
begun to start out very bright for the
night, and very thin slice OF the moon
yellow and slender, for all the world like
the slice of an orange that you give your
little sister when you have one to divide
was hanging, head-down in the west and
Simon sat down to look at it.; for the
moon is a thing that belongs to everybody
and that no cruel councilman can keep a
boy from looking at, if he was to pass
ever so many laws. Presently he heard a
snort, something, children, like you hear
your Pa make when he falls off asleep in the
parlor chair, and turning around he saw
what he knew was a fairy, for boy can
tell fairy as quick as he can fishing
worm when he sees 'em. This one was as
high as your parlor ceiling and his legs
were not bigger than a fishing pole, and he
was dressed in red which was a sure sign
| olldo lio Wfto pdu' 1Ao H6 SdG Ou u IOCk
munching Simon's chestnuts, just as if he
had gathered 'em himself, he looked dread
full savage and greedy and very much as il
he would eat Simon, also, for much.
"You don't roast your chestnuts,' he
said to Simon, whipping his legs up under
him. for the rock was very hard, 'sRaw
chestnuts amt healthy.''
II am going to cook 'em when 1 get
home," said Simon.
''That's like your good resolutions that
you made last year," he remarked as he
got hold Of a chestnut with worm in it
and SHE'D it at Simons head, "where are
those resolutions now ?''
II amt got 'em,' said Simon feeling
about in his pockets.
perhaps you've got 'em behind your
ear" said the fairy, grinning spttefully, be-
cause, you know, he knew as we'll as any,
body that Simon didn't have any resoIu-
lions behind his ear. you'd better look.''
Simon reached his shaking hands up be-
hind his ears in a helpless way.
''Where did you put 'em,'' screamed the
red fairy at him. "What did you make 'em
for if you didn' intend to keep 'em ?''
II did intend to keep 'em, but-but-
but I've lost 'em," sobbed poor little ST.
mon.
"No you didn't" said the man with the
red legs, ''no you didn't, you broke 'ena, bro
coke 'em," and he screamed so you might
have heard him mile. s'You said last
new year that you were going to be a good
boy and mind what was said to you and
not steal off when you are told not, and to
know your lessons. And you didn't keep
your promises week. Now what are