Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1877-12-31
jim.

it. The big world into which we came
was crowded to overfowing. with just
such puny, unwashed, ill-fed little
wretches as We were; but we didn't
know it, and so we came unconscious
into the sunless, teeming alley where
countless others like ourselves herded.
We didn't know we were problems,
Jim and we didn't know that we and
our kind were battling the wisdom of
statesmen, Jim and / but If we had
known all about it, doubt if we could
have occupied the situation more philos-
cphically. We slept as quietly III the
underground cellar, down whose Oozy
steps the rain and ruin of years made
slippery passage, or bestowed ourselves
as naturally, if need be, under some
stranded wayside cart, as it were pre-
cisely the thing Heaven had adapted US
for from the beginning.
Jim was older and bigger than
tall, likely lad; fifteen of these hard
and toughening years had made him
keen and sharp as terrier, and just
the lad to look after a forlorn waif of
little girl like myself. And Jim, after
he had blacked boots all day, or sold
newspapers of an afternoon, was sure to
look after me, and we took supper to-
gether out of the same bowl of porridge.
Jim wasn't my brother. oh, no l
used to wish he was my brother, though,
sometimes, just because was so proud
of him.
The old man that kept the cellar,
you see. had picked Jim up from some
where when his folks died. and picked
me up from somewhere when my folks
died, and so we had somehow fallen TO-
gether all alone.
Just down beyond the jog of our alley
where it turned sort of gray corner,
and was darker and dirtier than ever
just there stood an old, gray church,
with clock in the tower-an old, old
messy church. and an old, old clock that
had passed its withered hands over its
wizened face, and looked sleepily through
them down into our alley on one side,
and into busy, noisy thoroughfare on
the other. The old clock had dozed
there till its head was all one side, and
you could not be sure whether it told
the right story or not; but of summer
afternoon, when it was getting quite
dusk down in our alley, red ray from
the setting sun used to settle for min
ute right down on the face of the sleepy
old clock then it would seem to rouse
up out of pleasant dream. and strike
the hour as sharp as need be, and then
| knew it was time to look out for Jim.
I'd see him turn the corner with his old
straw hat on, and his patched shoes, or
barefoot, may be, for that matter, and
we'd set off for stroll together
stroll to the wharves.
We generally hunted the wharves,
Jim and l. when we went pleasuring..
They were grand. the wharves, so busy !;
so altogether different from our alley-
with the ships crowded round them, and
the Auttering flags here and there on
the masts, and the busy sailors getting
in freights. Sometimes Jim would get
a job for half an hour, and leave me
lurking among the cotton bales, or sit
ting solitary in some safe corner till he
came back. He always came back.
And then sometimes we would linger
about there till nightfall. Then the
wharf was solemn and silent, and you
could hear the water rushing up against
the beams underneath, and see here and
there light cleaning from some lone
lantern among the shreds, and the gray
water stretching beyond, we knew not
whether; and if Jim and l owned 1t all,
we could not have loved it better.
But, one day, Jim got a job that last
ed longer than usual, and / grew scared
and uneasy as night came on, and he
didn't come back. Wandering from the
place where he had set me, shy and
fearsome as a water-rat, but as deter
mined, looked for him everywhere, but
in vain; then went back to nv post,
for hadn't he said, as he always said.
Don't be afraid, Jenny I'll come hack
for sure, you know" And then l waited
and waited, till finally l fell ASLEEP
among the bales and barrels and forgot
my troubles.
In the morning, a forlong and desc
late little creature enough, learned
from some compassionate 'longshore
men that the ship where Jim had beer
at work had sailed away with hin
aboard. A wild and passionate burst
of weeping greeted this news, and a pit.
iful thrOng of people gathered about me
-freightmen and sailors mostly, but
among them suddenly appeared the quie
face of a Quaker lady, who was distrib
uting books among the sailors. They
told her my tale. and, seeing me utterl.
) friendless. she wiped my tear-staiDet
face with her white handkerchief, an,
, took me away. had no friends.