Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-08-30
1 LITTLE RROHN DON.

4 little BROH'N DOG
He was a poor little fellow, errand-boy in
the large grocery of Rice, Cloves q Co Il
don't mean the brown dog, but Harry Jack
low, 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 week she received from the cloak
factory where she worked, supported herself,
her children Harry, twelve years of age,
Eddie, seven, and Jennie two-and Mr.. Jack
low
Mr.. Jacklow was her husband and the
less said about him, the better. I'll merely
state that he could sit in a rocking-chair and
smoke and think longer than any man l ever
knew.
But besides tins two dollars n week, Harry,
who was brght-eyed, willing, whistling
young chap, sometimes got two or five cent
piece, or, more rarely, II dime from his en-
ployers' customers when the grocers' wagons
being overloaded or the customers i'll great
hurry, he carried home their purchase for
them. And it was this money he had been
saving ever since the lst Of January, for the
purpose of having good time on the next
holiday.
On Christmas-day they had had real nice
time at his house His boss" had given
him two dollars, and the superintendent of
the place where his mother worked had Civ
en- her one, and somebody (they had never
found out who) had sent them large turkey,
and the dress-maker down stairs had put
box of tools in Eddie's stockng-dear me
what am l saying? she couldn't have done
that l meant to say she had given Ned
box of tools, and Jennie doll, in the name
4 l,al l.,
mamma with a new colIee-pot, and his NAM
ma presented him with n wooden comforter
aud pair of wooden gloves, and Mr.. Jacklow
had bought himself Il new pipe; and when
Harry saw how happy they all were, he quick
ly made up his mind to give them party on
the very next holiday, which would be the
Fourth of July.
1t was the third of July when my story
commences and Harry had kept his resolu-
ton of saving every penny outside of his
wages He had to pass many "A heap of rosy
apples without glaucing at them. run away
from many peanut stands force himself not
to look into the tempting windows of the can
dy stores. and go 10y on the other side when
he knew himself near well-kuown bakery,
| to do so but he hdd done so, and now his
reward was near.
The house in which he lived was an old
fashioned one inan uptown street. A quarter
of a century ago it had been a small farm
| house surrounded by meadows, but now it
had Il large tenement-house on each side
| and whole -ow of brick buildings in front Of
| it. But one splendid oak-tree still stood be-
fore the "l}ully to tack pin-w wheels on, -
said Harry to himself, and there was any
number of children around to cry oh" and
''Ah." as the fireworks went oil. | have al
ways noticed that when boy is setting off
fireworks, the more ah-ing and oh-ing there
| is, the brighter the frey works look to that
boy Well, Harry had laid out the supper in
| his mind rs follows ice-cream. a whole
quart, twelye-cent sponge cake, five sticks of
molasses candy, pitcher of lemonade, apple
| pie, half q pound of cheese, and some baked
potatoes-MIr. 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
Mt 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! 1t would be
almost as good as the circus. Harry had been
there once, and had never forgotten how de-
lightful it was. And then after the supper
was over, and they thought the entertain
lltlll MtS NJ ui tLtlr MohleAlA ~ bo Ahh hBAiil
to see their faces when he invited them down
on the front stoop to see the pyrotechnic
(look in your dictionares) display
SO Harry had been saving, and saving, and
saving until he found himself, on the even.
ing of the 3d 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 dol
lar will get the feast, and the rest will buy al
least a dozen nice fireworks"
He got home from the store onthat evening
too late and too tired to go out for the things
he wanted but the next morning he was VI
before the sun rose-and the sun rises pretty
early during the summer mOnths-and dressed
and out in the street as the first sunbeami
told the eastern sky morning had come. The
streets We're almost deserted, and no fire
crackers or pistol-shots yet broke the silence
But before he had walked block some can
mons doomed in the distance, and peal o.
bells nearer by began ringing yankee Doc
die" very merrily. Whistling, and jinglinl
the coins in his pockets in tune and time will
the music of the bells, and wishing the store
where he meant to buy the material for hi
party would open, he sauntered slowly along
until he reached the dog pound-a plac'
where all stray dogs are taken in hot weathe
and kept day or two, SO that their owner
may. if they choose, seek and reclaim them
If found to be friendless at the end of tina
time, the poor things are put in a large tanl
prepared for that purpose, and drowned.
Harry heard the imprisoned dogs barking
and yelping; and stopping a moment to lis
ten to them with pitying look on his face
for, like all kind-hearted boys, he dearl
, loved animals-he saw sitting upon the door
step, a very pretty little girl She wore