The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-04-14
LITTLE SPRIGGINS' BROTHER.


Little Spriggins dumped black Dinah
head-tirst into the wood-boX and scam
pered out at the back-door. She was
always ready to call people to dinner,
especially when she knew they were to
have fish and cream gravy and raspberry
pudding.
so dear! if she has walked the baby
l am discouraged, sighed Mrs. Morrow
YEARLY, jogging the cradle with one foot,
while she went on peeling potatoes.
" Seems to me that Charley and Sprig-
gins are the noisest children a woman
ever had"
Certainly Mrs Morrow did have her
hands full with the care of them and the
baby-anybody could see that. They
were so nearly of an age that sometimes
in sport strangers would ask Charley
which was the oldest, and he would al
ways answer briskly:
I'm the oldest of Spriggins, and
Spriggins is the oldest of the baby"
OF course her real name wasn't Sprig-
gins, though it might Just as well have
been, for nobody ever thought of calling
her Fanny. .....
"Tan't find farley, mamma, shouted
she, presently, peoping in at the door,
with her plump, rosy chin resting on the
upper step. "Tan't find farley, mamma,
not at all"
And that ended the baby's nap.
Mrs. Morrow set the potatoes in the
warming-oven with a sigh, and took the
child with another.
" You must find him, Spriggins, said
she, " for papa'll be home in a minute.
Look down by the brook"
Off stubbed little Spriggins in high
glee, chewing the hem of her pink calico
apron. 1t wasn't often the clumsy wee
body got leave to 90 to the brook, and
to be actually sent there! why, that was
as nice as paper dolls.
"Dess Tarley's bakin' mud pies"
thought the little witch. "Dess Pll
bake some, too, if Tarley'll only wait
for me-"
Sprggins always made up her mind in
twinkling, it was such very small
mind to make up But when she came
to the shallow place in the brook, just
below the alders, where Charley was al
lowed to play, ne was not there baking
mud pies, or building dams, or wading
knee deep in the water. He was no.
where to be seen, though upon the bank
lay his clothes in tumbled heap.
"Tarley! Tarleyw called Spriggins,
standing still in wonder.
A squirrel chartered in the butternut-
tree above her golden head, and from
the topmost bough of the willow robin
answered his mate, but no reply came
from Charley.
With low cry of fear Spriggins
seized the clothes, and, trailing them be-
hind her, ran back to her mother.
See, mamma, they've tookened away
farley! They've tookened him away all
but thesem
Mrs. Morrow turned white to her very
lips.
my boy is drowned! my boy is
drowned!" she shrieked, rushing by Sprig-
gins with the baby in her arms. "Help!
help! Won't somebody help?"
A short bridge spanned the brook sew
eral rods below, and at this moment there
CHANGED to be several men crossing it on
their way from the mill to dinner. Hear
ing Mrs. Morrow's piercing cry they hur-
ried after her to the waters edge.
There's where he went in! don't you
see?" she walled, throwing up her arms
wildly. "That's his little footprint. o
Charley! Charley
so farley! farley" echoed Spriggins,
sobbing into the skirt of her mothers
dress, and greatly terrified by the tragic
scene which she only only half compre,
hended
mo use in looking up stream" she
heard one man say, the current would
carry him down"
Unless the little man has sunk among
the alder snags," suggested another, in "a
lower tone.
Let's drag the brook both ways; it
may be satisfaction to her," said a
third, with jerk of his thumb toward
Mrs. Morrow. "The child must be suf-
located before this, but who's the heart
to tell her SOP"
A part followed the brook to the cas-.
cade above; a part searched it below
fully half mile to the dam, feeling eau
tiously with poles in the dark hooks
where the pebbly bed could not be seen;
and still no trace of Charley.
But we'll try again" said the men to
Mr.. Morrow, who had now arrived, 1--WE
won't rest till we find him"
Mr.. Morrow could not speak, but,
silently handing mis- wife Charley's small,
worn shoe, that had lain sole upward on
a rock, he, too, joined in the quest
| Meanwhile, at his house, the neighbors
had been hastily getting ready hot
water, and blankets, and soapstones,
and everything else they could think of
which might aid in restoring to life the
drowned boy; but, as minute after min
ute passed without his being rescued
from the cruel water, they shook their
heads sadly, and whispered to one an
other that it must be too late now to
save him-he could not be alive. Yet,
for all that, they ran eagerly out when
they saw the party returning from
dragging the stream IA second time.
Alas! no need of asking the question
They could see they were not bringing
Charley.
Mr.. Morrow went up to his fearless
wife, still standing beneath the willow,
with Spriggins clinging to her. Some.
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