Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1878-04-05

DOI, spOse SOlue CIap happens TO pass
by thar and sees the old man doin' a
mans work at eighty, and slouches like
you and me lying round drunk, and that
chap, feelin' kinder bumped, goes up
some dark night and heaves load of cut
pine over his fence, who's got anything
to say about it? Say9" Certainly not
the speaker, who had done the act sug-
R{feT; R{eareTr,; WHO WYF rec repeated It next day.
The pies and cakes made by the old
woman were, think, remarkable rather
for their inducing the same loyal and
generous spirit than for their intrinsic
excellence, and it mSy be said appealed
more strongly to the nobler aspirations
of humanity than its vulgar appetite.
Howbeit, everybody ate Nanny Dow
ney's pies, and thought of his childhood.
"Take 'en, dear boys" the old lady
would say; sit does me good to see
you eat 'em reminds me kinder of poor
Sammy, that, eff he'd lived, would hev
been ez strong and big ez you be, but
was taken down with lung fever at Sweet
water. kin see him yet that's forty
year ago, dear comm out O. the lot to
bllS UdhO-uOuSS, anu DCdu-
tiful smile, like yours, dear boy, as I
handed him mince or lemming turn
over. Dear, dear, how I do run on
and those days is past but I seems to
live in you again p The wife of the
hotel-keeper, actuated by low jeal-
ousy, had suggested that she seemed
to live of them," but as that person tried
to demonstrate the truth of her state
ment by reference to the cost of the raw
material used by the old lady, it was
considered by the camp as too practical
and economical for consideration. "Be.
sides, added Cy Perkins, "ef old Nam
my wants to turn an honest penny in
her old age, let her do it. How would
you like your old moiier TO make pies
on grub wages, Oh ?" A suggestion that
so affected his bearer (who had no moth
cry that he bought three on the spot
The quality Cf these pies had never beer
discussed but once. 1t is related that O
young lawyer from San Francisco
dining at the Palmetto restaurant
pushed away one of Nanny Downey'i
pies with every expression of DISCUS
and dissatisfaction. At this iuncture
Whisky Dick, considerably affected by
his favorite stimulant, approached thu
strangers table, and, drawing up chair
sat unlimited before him.
" Mebbee, young man," he begar
gravely, eye don't like Nanny Dow
ney's pies p
The stranger replied curtly, and il
some astonishment, that he did not as {
rule, seat pie"
"Young man." continued Dick will
drunken gravity, mebbee you're ac
customed to Charlotte rusks and blue
mango; mebbee ye can't eat unless you
grub is got up by one O. them Frencl
cooks? Yet We-us boys var in thi
camp-calls that pie-a good-a com-pe
tent pic p
The stranger again disclaimed any
thing but general dislike of that form
of pastry.
"Young man," continued Dick, utter
ly unheeding the explanation, -" young
man, mebbee you onct had an OLE
very ole mother, who, tottering dow
the vale O. years, made pies. Mebbee
and it's like your blank epicurean soul,
ye turned up your nose on the ole wo
man, and went back on the pies, and OF
her ! She that handled we when We wo,
a baby,-a little baby Mebbee ye wen
back on her, and shook her, and playeC
off on her, aud gave her away-deat
away And now, mebbee, young NAL
I wouldn't hurt ye for the world, bu
mebbee, afore ye leave this var table
YELL EAT THAT PIE !"
The stranger rose to his feet, but the
muzzle of dragoon revolver in the un
steady hands of Whisky Dick, cause,
him to sit down again. He ate the pie
and lost his case likewise, before
Rough-and- Ready jury.
Indeed, far from exhibiting the Gym
ical doubts and distrusts of age, Dadd,
Downey received always with child-like
delight the progress of modern improve
ment and energy. SIN my day, lon
back in the twenties, it took us nigh
week "a week, boys-to get up barn
and all the young ones-I was one thel
for miles round at the raisin' an,
yer's you boys-rascals ye are, too
runs up this yer shanty for Nanny an
mo 'twixt sun-up and dark Eh, eh
you're teachin' the old folks new tricks
are ye? All, get along, you !" and il
playful stimulation of anger he woul
shake his white hair and his hickor
staff at the rascals." The only indica
tion OF the conservative tendencies @
age was visible in his continual protes
against the extravaganza of the boys
"Why," he would say, ga family,
hull family-leavin' alone me and th
old woman, might be supported o,
what you young rascals throw away in
single SPREE"
There was little doubt that the oil
couple were saving, if not avaricious
But when it was known, through the in
discreet volubility of Nanny Downey
that Pappy Downey sent the bulk Q
their savings, gratuities, and gifts to
dissipated and prodigal son in the Eas
whose photograph the old man alway
carried with hint rather elevated hin
in their regard. "When We write t
that gay and festive son O. yourn
Daddy" said Joe Robinson, "send hir
this yer specimen. Give him my com
pliments, and tell him, if he kin spen
money faster than I can, I call him
In vain would the old man continue t
protest against the spirit of the gift
the miner generally returned with hi
pockets that much the lighter, and it j
not improbable q little less intoxicate
than he otherwise might have been.
may be promised that Daddy Downe
was strictly temperate. The only wa
he managed to avoid hurting the feeling
of the camp was 10y accepting the frt
quent donations of whisky to be use
for the purposes of liniment.
"Next to snake-oil, my son, he woul
say, "and dilberry-juice-and ye don
seem to pro- -duce 'em he treabouts-whii
kv is pnnd for rnhhin, nn,tnn old honaa 1