The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1878-11-29


saw her. he'd whistle brakes and raise a
| rumpus, often bringing the train to dead
stop. But she'd walk off just at the right
time and seemed to understand the joke.
| Our little cabin was in among the noun
taius. a good ways from any other house,
! and | used to sometimes think that Mary
| must be lonely. with me away so much of
the time. Yun see, was alters out three
nights i'm the week. l went up ia the day
| time, passing my house at noon. and down
again tha: night, passing ut midnight
| But was home two or three days in the
week and aliens Sunday. The place where
! we lived was wild region of country, and
the storms used 10 have up there, so
| high in the air. was fearful.
| didn't tell you anything abOut the boy?
No! Well, do You know, | took to him
| the very first moment. An thatS'a very
! curu uus thing about babies. Now ] never
fancied 'em much, but | tell you, stranger.
it makes all the difference in the world
whether it's your baby or whether it be-
longs to somebody else. I've seen great
many of 'em in my time, aud accordin' to
their parents they was the most uncommon
babies but | never could see much Of j..
| / used to laugh n good deal when peOpe
made such fools of themselves over tb5ir
children, but know exactly how it is now,
for | suppose | was the greatest fool over
my Charley as ever lived. Mary named
/
to me thai boy took to a locomotive from
the time he was six months old. Ills
mother would set ont in front of the house
with him in her lap, when was mp at Inon,
and she'd kiss her hand and wave the baby
at me. BY the time he was three years old
he'd got so that | used 10 take hin up to
ride with me. There was a water tank
near the house and wien | stopped to wa
ter he was alters there, and l'd ketch him
up IN ard carry i'm off ten or twenty miles
till | met another train, and some OF the
boys ID carry him back hone. 'Twasn't t
long afOre there was scarce n man on the
road as didn't know Chaaey Latham's
baby. They'd pick i'm III wherever they
could find i'm, and sometimes he'd be gone
nearly all day. bat sOnebodyd set i'm
down afore night IN he'd come toddlin'
home. Sometimes | thi'k it's queer how
the men used to take 20 hat baby. There
was feiiers Just as rOug1 as bears-brake
men that d get drunk 9ld crazy with liquor
and cut or shoot ma, quick IN lightuin' /;
| II section men-up III them mountains
them section men we'e mighty hard cases.
What for fightin' aud QUAR- elm, they'd
beat Sam Hill. Ar, yit there wasn't one
% them chaps as w,'nd speak a cross word
to my baby. Theywas all fond of i'm, and
if anybody went 10 impOsin' on i'm, why
there'd be a muss quicker n the drop of
yer hat.
There was Rn Walker. You didn't
know Bill Walker, did you? No! OF
course You didi't. Dead now. Left a
switch open on i'm and he run off. Never
spoke after they uicked i'm mp. Bill, he
. was n crusty old bachelor-one them fel-
lers wat never sees nothin, If he can help
! II sself lie didn't have no relations, and
he was so sci agin everybody Ihe boys used
to say they didn't believe lie ever had a
father or mother like other folks. He'd
I :.
made i'm wat they call n misen-. Yes!
thaI's it-a mscnthorp. He seemed to
hev particular grudge foI everybody he
had ever seen, and a sorter general disgust
for. everybody be hadn't. Bill picked up
the baby for a ride one day, and when he
stopped at the next station he was going
round oilin' his iugine and the little tyke
was taggin' after, holdin' on to his coat
tail and gettn' hisself all covered with oil
aud grease, jest like reg lar engineer
and there was one Of the STATION men, as
didn. like Bill nohow. aud lie ses ses he,
"IIuno, Bill! is that left-haUder OF
youI ~"
! They say Bill jest tarned ashy. He sets
down his can and reached for that feller-
Jest one, square in the jugular, and he
diln': get out of bed for ten days. One
day there come down from New York d
: rocking horse, and Mary found it at the
[ water tank with piece of paper tied tt
the bride II it said like this elf Bill
Walker could ever wish for baby OF hi,
own it would he little Charley That
rocking horse cost him whole month :
| wages.
One of the first things Charley learned
10 say, when he was beginnin' to talk, wa.
this. You see the men on the road useC
to often call one another "Pard'-shor
for ''parduer." Charley he head it, and
he alters called me "Pard." l don't thini
he ever called me father or papa, like 9th.
er children do but it was alters ''Pard
you and me is pards, isn't we?" he
used 10 say. An that's what we aller:
called one another, and he went by the
name nf Charley Latham's pard'' all ovel
the road.
I'd be goin' by the house on the moor
train, aud leanin' out o the cab watchin
for i'm, IN he be out in front, with q
white rag or something to wave AT me
and I'd see by the motion of his lips
cOal6n't hear for the noise of the cars
that he was sayin', "Ycu aud me is pards
isn't we ?''
AS was tellin', Sundays I laid off; Il
! ! in the morniu, after breakfast, Mary
would fill up basket with some breaC
~ butter N meat III things, and we three
would go off up into the mountains and
stay all day. We used to do this mostly
every Sunday, and SO Charley got to call
in ii his pard's day. You see he got
: notion it was the best day in tie week
COS was alters home with i'm. | didn't
never 90 to church much-it was a long
: ways and then thonght Charley would
2 get as much religion by guin' around il
the woods, aud among the mountains
2 | where the leaves and trees were SO beauti
t ful, and the rocks so grand, any otEe
S way. Ii they don't tell us that the Crea
| tor who made 'em all is powerful and gooC
l too there amt 10 preacher can do it.
You went up to the top of Pixies Peal
the other day. I've been there too, =
S I'd like to know if II chap can go up there
a among those awful precipices and gorges
e aud look over country for a hundred
miles, and see the mountains around, aut
v the plains way off front, that don t seen
TO have no end, and then look at hissel
IS and say whether lie does really amount I
e a row of pins. You see | never was an
1t Christian, and never give Charley no sic
n trainin' and sometimes / think mebbe
} didn't do quite right by him. But. Lor
x love you, Stranger, wen he went anon
= the angels. Pm jest certain there was
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