The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-11-09


clear and frosty; bat the fire on grand.
mas foot-worn hearth burned high and
bright. Uncle Roland was there in his
"navy blue and bright buttons. Papa
was there in his farmers jeans; and his
two motherless little darlings, Gussie
and Bette, were there in their new Rob
Roy plaids," neat, white aprons, and
snowy yarn stockings, which were
stretched over their plump, shapely
legs, as neat and close as the linen bag
over grandma's Thanksgiving pudding.
Uncle Roland, "the lion of the day"
in that dear old homestead, had but just
arrived from long, weary cruise, and
had fastened to his Western home to
spend Thanksgiving day with his aged
mother" perhaps for the last time"
her fond heart suggested, for he was
ordered to the South Pacific coast, and
was to sail in the ship Fredonia,
which was to leave port in few days.
Gussie and Betty had watched for their
Unola Roland's arrival for hours, with
their fair, plump faces pressed close
against the panes of the parlor window.
He came at last, hale, handsome, and
hght-hearted as boy.
The first greeting was over. Grand
ma, flushed and happy, hastenedto COM
plete her preparations for the forthcom-
ing feast; and vibrated between kitchen
and parlor, like pendulum, stopping
now and then in her busy flight to brush
her fair, withered hand over the brown
ripples of her proud, handsome boys
hair. Papa sat and conversed with I'M
81 Il IT, he, do. .tx,1,f 10
sic and Betty fell timidly back into the
corner of the room, and enjoyed him
from a distance, giving him all the
sweet, heartfelt admiration of their fresh
young hearts.
Uncle Roland, though apparently
deeply absorbed in conversation with
papa, kept one eye, and one ear, on his
little nieces, whom he loved dearly.
They were his dead sisters children, and
he felt the deepest, tenderest solicitude
for them. They were simple little
country girls, unused to the follies and
fashions of the gay world. They were
free from guile-pure-hearted, and
stainless as the white lilies that bloom
at the window by their side. They
were his little innocent darlings. He
was a merry, mischievous fellow, and
loved to tease them, always sure of his
makeup kiss at the end.
The little girls sat looking at Uncle
Roland in mute admiration. Amt he
sweet ?" whispered Gussie at last, be-
hind her little hand.
"And amt he pretty9" whispered
Betty.
"S-u-c-h coat" ssid Gussie.
"And such buttonsl" said Betty.
Uncle Roland turned about suddenly
and cried:
"Hallo! over there! What are you
whispering about?" Thepoor little girls
blushed scarlet, and looked guilty and
confused. "Tel1 it out!" cried Uncle
Roland. "Out with it!'
eve were just talking about man, 7"
said brave Betty, demurely.
"Well, Whist about the nadn?" said
Uncle Roland.
"We said he was sweet" said Betty.
"What else ?" urged Uncle Roland.
"And pretty" said Betty.
"What kind of coat did the man
wear?" said Uncle Roland.
"Blue coat and brass buttons!" said
Betty.
81 thought sol" said Uncle Roland,
laughing. "And his name isis
"Uncle Rolandl!" cried the little girls
in one voice.
Uncle Roland went over to his admir-
ing little friends, and crowded himself
down between them on the little lounge;
then, winding an arm about each, began
telling them funny little stories which
they found difficnlt to believe, but felt
in their loving little hearts bound to
believe, because he was so sweet" and
$50 pretty" and their own dear Uncle
Roland"
Uncle Roland had zen for years a
paymaster in the United States navy,
and had been in many foreign lands, and
had seen many strange people and scenes.
His stories we're always peculiar, original
and most marvellous; but foolish and
trivial as they may have sounded to the
ear of stranger, they always contained
a keen little blade of moral, pointed at
some fault he may have observed in his
sweet but erring young nieces; and they
never forgot the lessons these little fool
ish stories we're intended to convey.
In the great city of Pekin, China, some
wears ago, there lived two little Chinese
BOYS named XXI and Poo-Poo (said
Uncle Roland, as he sat squeezed in be-
tween his precious little nieces, on the
old lounge). They had little, black, bias
eyes. curlicued eyebrows, coarse, raven
hued hair, braided down their backs III
spindling pig-tails; very long, dirty
finger-nails; clean, white teeth; clay-col.
ored compilations, and little dumps o.
noses. "The handsomest boys in al
Pekinl" their good old dim-eyed mother
bought.
One day when the poppy fields were
crimson, and gold, and purple, and blue
with bloom, XXI ind Poo-Poo wan
dered off for beetle and butterfly hunt
After roaming up to their funny little
eyes in poppy blossoms the greater par
OF the day, they returned home Just al
the sun was sloping over the great CHI
nese wall, to the west. The straw bas
kets and silken ganze nets We're hllet
with the spoils of the day-beetles ant
butterflies, who beat the cruel prisor
bars with their splendid wings, and thu