The New Bloomfield, Pa. times. (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1877-188?, 1877-05-15


to his shirt, and was understood to mean
either cotton or linen).
Then Dummy stripped his left arm
and showed cross in India ink, and he
exhibited scars like those of the lost boy
Conductor Tolhurst wrote to Postmaster
Goodrich that he would like to know
what kind of mill it is that is close to
the Hurley's. He added that he feared
there might be no need of asking any
further questions, as, instead of being
light complexioned, Dummy was very
dark skinned and had almost black hair.
To this the Postmaster at Fitchburg re-
piled satisfactorily that the mill where
the Hurley boy had worked is cotton
mill and that as both Mr. and Mrs. Hur-
ley are dark complexioned, it might east
ly be that the lost boys hair had altered
in color, as the hair of children does as
they grow up.
By this time, the railroad employees
and the Fitchburg people were deeply
interested. They considered the identi-
fication almost complete. Dummy him
self was delighted with the prospect of
finding his home, and was anxious to
start at once for Fitchburg. AS last
precaution, Conductor Tolhurst had
Dummy's picture taken by Babylon
photographer, and it was sent to Post
master Goodrich. In a few days word
came that Dummy's people, father,
! mother, brother, and Mr.. Oliver Ellis,
the proprietor of the cotton mill, identi-
fled the picture as beyond question a
likeness of the lost child.
So on Tuesday week ago, Dummy
was sent to Fitchburg with his letter to
the conductors of the roads he would
travel on, asking them to pass him, and
telling them his story. He arrived at
| Fitchburg sooner than the Postmaster
expected, and no onemet him. But, ac-
customed to act for himself, he made his
way from place to place until he ran
across some of the many persons who
were interested in him, and they took
him at once to the home of the Hur-
leys.
iAS lOOhCu Big eiO Wis. IIuIlGy anu
shook his head. "No," she was not his
mother. She made the same motion of
non-recognition, and then both cried
like children.
Mr.. Goodrich, the Postmaster, then
took Dummy in his carriage to all the
points of interest in Fitchburg, especial
ly such places as the missing boy would
have been likely to remember. But Dum-
my shook his head at the mill, the creek
by its side, the railway, and the pond
that the missing boy was wont to bathe
in when child. Dummy knew none
of these places, but grew sick at heart,
and desirous of returning to his old post
as speedily as possible. The Postmaster
telegraphed, therefore:
Keep Dummy's place open for him !;
he is not the right boy"
Then having put Dummy on re-
turning train, he sat down and wrote
the facts that have been narrated.
Dummy took his papers and basket
on Friday last, and resumed his old oc-
cupation, though with very heavy
heart. On Wednesday last he sold only
ten cents worth of candy and fruit, and
with tear-dimmed eyes, he told Con
ductor Tolhurst that he believed none of
his old friends knew him they all sup
posed he had gone to Fitchburg. To
Sun reporter, with the help of Conduc-
tor Tolhurst, as interpreter, Dummy told
all he could remember of his wander
ings.
fused to work in mill as bobbin-
boy" said he, "but it was not such a
mill as the one at Fitchburg. There was
no railroad near it. | remember that
we had to drive five miles to the rail-
road depot. The Fitehburg boy didn't
have five sisters. My family had turn
up noses the Fitohburg people hadlong
oses'-(explained by u gesture indiea-
tive of absurdly long and pointed nosesl.
+" Near where lived were many high
mountains, and in another direction to-
bacco was grown, and much maple sugar
was made.pg
Postmaster Goodrich infers from the
mountains and the maple sugar that
Dummy came ffom Vermont. But Con-
ductor Tolhurst is equally certain that
he came from Connecticut, and he bases
that hypothesis on the tobacco deserip-
ton. .m9HI ~ aasl 1l 9A e 2 \
80 got on the cars one day p Dummy
continued in pantomime, 'and as had
no ticket or money, the conductor put