The Beaufort tribune and Port Royal commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1877-1879, 1877-06-21

abled him to approve, nodded sagely. ThSn
he said:
"Good enough Here goes The first
know, was little codger, bein' mostly jerked
by the arm to get sme ont Of the way Of hoss
cars in New York. Pears to ME, looked at it
then as if most of the world was made Of hoss
cars and all a-comin' straight fer me. l had
a father and mother then, but didn't have
much time for TO get acquainted with him,
cause, as / understood after got bigger, he
belonged to circus, and / never see him only
in the dead of winter. and then mostly at
night when [ was sleepy. My mother, she
danced at q theater, and I tell you she looked
as pretty as picture when she was fixed up
for dance. But sometimes she didn't have
no chance to dance, when they was doin
stupid plays that hadn't 10 dancin' into them.
By-and-5ye my little sister here, Eva, was born,
and then had steady job a-loOkin' ont for
her, ana a-jerkin her out of the way Of the
hoss cars when she got old enough to toddle.
All that time We had pretty good luck, but all
of q sudden we struck q bad streak. Father,
he broke his leg in some fur-of place, that
don't know the name of, and the circus he d
been with busted up, SO the circus folks couldn't
help him out, as they mostly does when one Of
'em gets hurted. Then mamma was out of an
engagement to dance, cause they don't do
much in the theaters in the summer time, and
when a feller did come along for to do piece
that had dancin' in it, he was a snide sort OF
chap, and used for to dock her pay for most
every little thing, 'cordin' to rules he'd made
for to catch the dancers foul, and what he
didn't dock off he didn't pay, no how, toward
the end Then, just as the winter come on,
she was too sick with rheumaticS and a cough
in orful. She cotched the first of it a-goin'
out one mighty bad day, a-tryin' for to get
from that snide chap what he owed her. Id
Jest like to burst his head You see she had
4 little money into sayins bank, but she
didn't want for to burst in on that, not know
in how soon things might get rougher yet.
But she might just as well spent it for candy,
for the bank broke. and she couldn't get
cent. People said the bosses of the bank stole
the money, and shouldn't wonder if tn Y did.
Anyhow, it was all gone. She was afesred to
write to father and tell him about it, KNOWN
it would make him feel orful, and afore she
could make up her mind to it, she got letter
that he'd got able to join a circus that was goin'
off for three years to South America, and some
other fur-off countries that don't know the
name of. Then times got rough with us, tell
you. used to earn a little, shiniu' boots and
selling papers, and sometimes the theater used
10 give Eva quarter of dollar for bein' q
fairy, but all we could do wasn't enough to pay
the rent and get coal and things. And mamma,
she got sort of out of her head think. Shed
lie on the straw tickin' in the basement where
we lived, down in an alley, and cough and
cough, and cry, and then she'd talk some
foreign lingo that we didn't understand,
French guess it was, and augh, and so on.
Well, at last, one day. when she wasn't light IN
her head, she took off her weddin' ring that
she'd always kept till then, and sent it by
neighbor woman to the pawn shop, for to put
n an advertisement i'll the paper tor to find
cur Uncle Ben cause she said she hadn't
long to live, and it was the last thing she could
DO for us. Sure enough, somebody showed 1t
to Uncle Ben, him as is my fathers brother,
and he come for us and brought us home here.
but he didn't find us until poor mamma had
died. Don't cry, Eva; mammals heap hap
bier where she is now, than where she was a.
iviu', the last three years, anyhow, cause
Uncle Ben says SO, and he ought to know.
And do You know what lie did2 Why, he
found ont that our father had been a-sendin'
letters to mamma With moneyin EN-, most two
thousand dollars, and what with lis a-movin'
round when landlords bounced US, and her
gettin' out of her head and not a-knowin' what
to do. we never got none of EN- till, after she
was dead, he finded 'em all in place they call
the dead letter Office, cause they never give
the letters out Of it till the folks theys ad-
dressed to is dead. Poor mamma II shed
got one of them letters, even without a cent Ill
IT, it might have saved her life, for she just
broke her heart thlnklD' father had gone Dack
on her-which he never had"
"No, no, my boy" replied the stranger.
wiping his eyes and speaking in voice full of
emotion she never did Many weary months
passed in which, travelling as he was, from
place to place in strange foreign lands, he
could not hope to hear from his wife and little
childrerO but when he got back to his own
country he soon learned all. And now l should
not be at all surprised if, before many days,
You would see him coming to Uncle Ben's to
r,aim his brave boy Tom and his darling little
daughter Eva"
He has come" cried the girl, sprinSins to
her feet and rushing into his arms. "You are
our papa"
"Yes, my children" answered the man,
pressing them to his heart II am papa, home
at last tr'
"Ah, papa?" said Tom, "my story was the
longest, but yours is lots the best, and now,
Eva. I'm sure, at last, that we're in luck -
The voices of the three, as they talked hap
PLY together that brightest of summer otter
moons, were so full OF kindness and love that
the blue bird, not wit afraid of their COM
panionship, perched close beside them to sing
his merrieSt song; the inquisitive chipmunk
came out with sparkling eyes and flirting tail.
as if to invite them to q friendly romp. and
even the timid minnows left their covert in
the pool above, to play nearer those who must
have seemed to them as happy as their friends,
tho wafer elves