The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1878-09-18

TENSIONS BET.

money at all only. a small, stony
farm in Noppit, that had been her
fathers. and two wild boys Of ten
and twelve years growth. Jack and
Dan were hard subjects for a step
father to rule, and Jason Carter found
his hands full. Naturally he was q
quiet, gentle, but persistent man ; in
his youth be had run away to sea,
and for fifteen years had been a com
mon sailor, which had pretty well
knocked the quiet out Of aud persist
ence into him. In this time he had
learned to swear, as a matter OF
course, though be had been strictly
brought up, and went to church and
Sunday school always. His mother
would have cried her eyes cut to
hear him talk 10 this fashion, but she
never did: his father would have
used the rod, but be also was spared
the trouble, for both father end
mother died before Jason come back T;
and wien be found they were gone
be never went back to Tolland, but
after be got tired Of sea-doing took to
peddling notions about the country,
and at last married the Widow Coe
ard settled down in Noppit.
He had stopped swearing long ago;
for under dear Father Taylor's preach
ing be had been converted between
his two last voyages, and, though
profanity had become a habit with
him, he had conquered it at last.
after years Of patient ~endeavor, and
now wes so gentle aud pleasant, and
pious that Phoebe Coe thought her
last DAYS would lie her best days.
he had come to know the Widow
Coe from being an old shipmate of her
brother, John Wires who bad also
left ~seafaring because be had injured
a knee. and became too lame TO
climb rigging; so he set up a small
shop in Boston, where be sold to-
bacco, Irvine and other odd ends /;
but be had been married and had one
one sou, called Jenison. This boy
was about the age Of Widow Goes
Youngest son, for her brother had
married soo1 after she had, while be
was slill a sailor aud when Jason
Carter began the peddiing business
John wires had told him TO stop when
he went through Scranton and see
his sister. The children were small,
and their father living, when Jason
first saw them, aud they learned to
look tor Uncle Jase" every spring
and fall with delight, for he always
brought them marbles, tops, eaEdy,
string, and made them bows and
kites, sure passports to a boys heart,
so when their poor drunken father
died and the widow found herself
without a penny, she moved over to
Noppit, 10 live with her father, and
wben be died too, leaving her oil be
had, the farm from which he had
scratched . scanty living, and she
found herself alone and helpless, she
listened favorahly to Jason Carter's
proposal, for he was tired of his wan
dering life as she was Of her loneli-
ness. and married him.
The boys were glad, for they loved
him, and they never had loved their
own father and Jason was as good
to them as if they were his own,
thaugh a certain thrill of emotion
shook him when his baby daughter
came, that never had troubled that
worn old heart in any emergency of
Jack or Dan. But then Celia was
a girl; of course that made it differ
ent! Jason, when compared with his
predecessor, was as mild and pleas
ant about the house as a spring day
after stormy weather. Ho became a
useful and prominent member in the
Noppit church, and never was heard
to utter a profane or impatient word.
Jack and Dan loved him as much as
healthy boys ever love anything but
mischief and meals, and Phoebe was
entirely happy.
True, they were poor; Jason had
a few Hundred dollars laid by, but
the Noppit farm was too sterile to
produce crops enough to support the
family, 50 be laid out his little capt.
tai, or part of it, in a good breed of
sheep, which found abundant living
among mullens, hard hack, and buck
leberry bushes, and proved ia due
time a profitable investment. For ip
those days dogs. the curse Of New
England. were by no meal common
10 the country there was no reascn
for keeping them, and farmers had
money and mutton Instead Of hydro
, phobia and horrors. The wool sold
/, well always and kept the family in
stockings, for Jason's wife could spin
and knit with wonderful rapidly /;
the lambs he had not room to raise
were Sent to Hartford and sold to the
/ butchers, and now and then q fat old
wether went TO the meat.man's cart
, in the shape of juicy quarters. But
the glory of the flock was a big black
faced ram, who terrified marauding
boys and intrudiDg ~vagabonds, and
, asked no better fun than TO send
|, somebody heels over head whenever
! be had a chance. Jack and Dan had
| brought him up from lambhood, but
t he was no longer a lamb, aud of bis
painstaking education only one trait
stayed by him, e distinct and angry
/. recollection OF the rod that had hot
been spared on his early and some
what stupid youth. To the dev Of
Billy's death a little stick, shaken be-
fore anything, would send him,
"fead on,n at that luekless object ;
and the boys often amused them
selves by climbing the pine rail fence
and dangling q small switch full 10
, Billy's sight against e big post the
result was sudden and severe to Bill
ly, and be might have seriously in
jured himself if daddy, as the boys
called Jason, had be not found them
at this sport one day and strictly for
hidden it. Cruelty to animals was
one of the few things that reused his
choler and made him imperative.
0ae summer Mrs. Carter received
a letter from Der brother asking her
to take his boy for a few months /;
his wife was 80 feeble that she was
going home TO her fathers with the
baby and q young child, and Jenison
could not go with her for want Of
room. Mr.. Wires did not want him
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