The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-09-04
A LITTLE BROWN DOG,

He was a poor little fellow, errand boy
in the large grocery of Rice, Gloves &
Go. q don't mean the brown dog, but
Harry Jacklow), and he earned just two
dollars a week.
Sixty cents Of this went for car fare
he lived so far from the store that he
was obliged to ride to and from it-and
the rest to his mother, who, with that
and the eight dollars a week she received
from the cloak factory where she worked,
supported herself, her children-Harry,
twelve years of age, Eddie, seven, and
Jennie, twu-and Mr.. Jacklow.
MI. Jacklow was her husband, and
the less said about him the better. I'll
merely state that he could sit in a rock
ing-chair and smoke and think longer
than any man I ever knew.
But besides this two dollars q week,
Harry, who was a br%ight-eyed, willing,
whistling young chap, sometimes got a
two OF five cent piece, or, more rarely,
a dime, from his employers customers
when, the grocers' wagons being over
loaded or the customers in a great hurry,
he carried home their purchases for
them. And it was this money ne had
been saving ever since the LIST Of Janu-
airy, for the purpose Of having a good
time on the next holiday.
On Christmas day they had q real nice
time at his house. His "boss" had
given him.two dollars, and the superin.
tendent of the place where his mother
worked had given her one, and some
body (they had never found out who)
had sent them a large turkey, and the
dressmaker down stairs had put a box of
tools in Eddie's stocking-dear mel
what am I saying she couldn't have
done that; I meant to say she had given
Ned a box of tools, and Jennie a doll, in
the name OF Santa Claus-and Harry
had presented his mamma with q new
~co6ee-pot, and his mamma presented
him with q wooden comforter and a pair
Of wooden gloves, and Mr.. Jacklow had
bought himself a new pipe; and when
Harry saw how happy they all were, he
quickly made up his mind to give them,
q party on the very next holiday, which
would be the Fourth of July.
It was the Sd of July when my story
commences, and Harry had kept his res
olution of saving every penny outside OF
his wages. Ee had had to pass many a
heap of rosy apples without glancing at
them, run away from many peanut
stands, force himself not to look into
the tempting windows of the candy
stores. and 60 byron the other side when
he knew himself near a ~well-known
bakery% do so: but he had done Sc,
and row his reward was near.
usDsfhe house in which he lived was an
old-fashioned n in an uptown street.
A quarter OF a century ago it had been a
small farmhouse surrounded by mead
ows, but now it had a large tenement
bouse on each side, and a whole row Of
brick buildings in front Of it. But one
splendid old oak tree still stood before
the door-"Bu Bully to tack pin-wheels
on" said Harry to himself, and there
was any number of children around to
cry cob" and "Ah |" as the fireworks
went off. 7 have always noticed that
when q boy is setting off fireworks, the
more ah-ing and ching there is, the
brighter the fireworks look to that boy.
Well, Harry had laid out the supper in
his mind as follows: ice cream, a whole
quart, twelve cent sponge cake, five
sticks of molasses candy, pitcher of lem
onade, apple pie, half a pound OF cheese
and some baked potatoes-Mr. Jacklow
liked baked potatoes. And he meant to
get his mother and the rest OF them
out of the room (send them down to
visit the dress-maker, who at the last
moment was to be let into the secret),
set the table himself. and then. when
all was ready, call them up again.
Wouldn't it be fun to look at their faces
when they saw the ice cream, and the
sponge cake, and the molasses candy,
and the lemonade and the apple pie, and
the cheese, and the baked potatoes! It
would be almost as good as the circus.
Harry had been there once, and had
never forgotten how delightful it was.
And then after the supper wal over, and
they thought the entertainment at an
end, wouldn't it be fun again to see
their faces when he invited them down
on the front stoop to see the pyrotech-
mic (look in your dictionaries) display {!
SO Harry had been saving, and saw
ing, and saving, until he found himself
on the evening of the 3rd of July with
one dollar and eighty-two cents in his
right-hand trousers pocket. Times had
been hard, very hard, since the new
year began, and people had looked very
sharply after their small change, or it is
likely he would have had double that
amount. "But," he said to himself,
"a dollar will get the feast, and the rest
viii buy at least a dozen nice fire.