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

Sitting together On the bank of rivulet
padding with their bare feet in its cool, limpid
water. and soaring the curious minnows that
shyly regarded them from beneath the protect
ing shadow of the tall grass, overhanging the
very edge of the stream, were boy and girl,
ne whiting ont rudely shaped boat from a
little block of wood, she twining together a
wreath from mass Of wild flowers piled in her
apron and upon the sward beside her.
"Ain't this Jolly, thought exclaimed the
boy, suSpendipg his whiting, and throwing a
chip in the direction of the minnows, whereat
they He'd in great alarm. ''Ain't it just jolly,
I say? No more rehearsals, no more bein
bossed around by everybody, and hvin' in an
erful smellin' alley, and bein' cold and hun
gry!"
''Yes, Tom, but don't you wish poor mamma
had been able to get here with US? She might
have got we'll and be alive now," replied the
girl speaking low and sadly.
Tom, boy like, was by no means inclined to
mar the full enjoyment of the moment with
unpleasant reflections, if he could avoid them,
and, to do him justice, unhappy thoughts sell
dom came to him. He was kind hearted, and
had loved his mother quite as deeply as his
little sister had, but early hard fortune i'll life
had given him precocious philosophy that
sometimes made him seem much more indlf-
ferent than he really was.
ait wasn't her luck, I suppose" said he, re-
fiectively; :. seemed like it wasn't her way to
strike anything that wasn't rough. ever since
know'd her."
DO You believe in luck, Tom?'
"'Course 1 do. So does everybody that
knows anything. Why?'
because Aunt Martha keeps telling me
there is no such thing as luck"
.'Oh, she does. does she? Well, then, how
does she make it out that one feller can't never
strike nothin' that it don't turn out soft and
rich, Just pure fstness. while another feller will
have lots better chances, and tries every way,
and still fails, Just because it amt his luck to
do ANYTHING else p
ssShe saws it is the will of Providence"
"I.ooks to me like pilin' heap on Provi-
dence Would she go for to say that it was a
square thing for Providence to foller feller
ND that way and knock him every time he
thought he had a good thing? know mamma
believed in Providence, and Ii luck. too, for all
they both went back on her"
siDo YOU believe we are lucky, Tom ?"
'.I can't Just venture to say yet, Eva, but 1t
looks like it. It was bouncin' luck, sure, for
Uncle Ben to find us after mamma died, and
fetch us out in such bully place as this"
..But. for real good luck, he ought TO have
found us before-when the winter was so cod,
and mamma couldn't dance any more, and was
so sick-when all the money we could get was
what you made selling papers, and me going on
for a fairy now and then when we needed fire
and food and clothes, and mamma wanted
medicine and couldn't get it."
ss.Yeu're mixin up her luck and ours, Eva
mammals luck always was bad, as / said afore,
ever since knoT'd her"
"Then, if we're going to be lucky, papa will
come back"
"Of course he will. He may turn up any
minute, with slathers Of money"
..Oh, won't you be glad, Tom 2"
"Yes-if him and me gets along as we'll as
we used to. But travelin' so far away for so
long NAV have changed him some. He said
he'd teach me to ride in the ring when he got
back. If he does, I'll be satisfied that my luck
is just bully"
!.What III YOU do, Tom, if you have all sorts
of good luck as ever was?-just what you'd
want to have, like as if fairy was to give you
your wish-the way they do in plays, though
.'What'Il do? Why, I'll have loads of
money, and I'll have two horses, one for me
and one for you, and we'll ride to France and
China, and everywhere, and see all sorts of
things and I'll have boat and go a-sallln' -;
and III have a big house and lots of woods
about it, like these, with chipmunks and May
blossoms and minnows; and Ill have circus
all to myself"
:'With papa for ringmaster 2
1 SuSsS uOt. IL "OuiN OAAis w sA4S
right thing to let the old man lay by and take q
rest-but, If he wanted to jump in, why, he
should. But what would you do, if YOU had
big luck, sis p
3sOh, I'd have all sorts Of fine dresses and
Jewels and diamonds, and pretty house with
birds and flowers all about it, and I'd marry a
grand gentleman who loved me ever so much.
Tom stared at her and gave long whistle.
followed by the ejaculation:
oil ,-ar1 orao \
"Ha ha! ha - laughed a hearty voice be-
hind the little dreamers, land how many chub-
by children would you have to dabble their
feet in the cold brook water. and lie on the
grass, and catch cold, and get sick?"
Eva gave little scream Of alarm, and Tom,
springing to his feet faced the intruder-a
large, good-natured looking man with bronze
lessly, and very dusty from long tramping over
the country road.
"Come. YOU, now-steer off You amt in
this game" warned Tom, courageously placing
himself in an attitude of defense before his
little sister. But the stranger, instead of
"steering off, laughed again, and leisurely
threw himself upon thegrass near the children,
replying:
sWhy, my little man, you have rough way
of greeting strangers. Can't you imagine that
I've been once boy like you, and had my
dreams Ol lut NOu SouIC, nA
sit down, and let us see which of MS can think
of the incest things he would like to have"
The mans pleasant smile and CHEEKY voice
quickly banished the children's distrust, and
Tom readily accepted his challenge to a wishing
match.
81 know what want" said the boy 81 just
want good luck. If a feller has that, everything
else comes"
"And you, little girl, what would you like
best, if you were woman?"
tive said that already, answered, Eva shy
ly; "but amt woman yet-Im only little
girl"
"And, as little girl, what do you think
would make you happiest?"
"To have all about me that love and who
love me, and to have everybody happy"
"That settles it, interpolated Tom-"covers
the whole ground. Everybody harpyr Why.
that would give every one his wish-for felleI
couldn't be happy if he wished for anything he
couldn't get"
"Yes. can make no better wish than that,
assented the man. Surrounded by love and
happiness surely, all the wisdom in the world
could not think of anything better. And. now
that YOU have beaten me at wishing, let us tel
stories, and see who is best at that. Suppose
we tell our own, and, as before, you begin.
Il hain't got no story to tell, protested
Tom.
"Whv. you can tell the gentleman who vi
are" suggested Eva.
There's nothin' funny about that, and :
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