Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1878-12-04
A Bear story.

"Twenty years ago | was little girl
living in farm house on one of the
slopes of the "Laurel hill" in Penn
sylvania. II was wild place, though
pleasant. and we had no near neighbors,
for the houses though not 81 few, were
far between. But when yoI went to
the school-house that stood in small
square clearing on the mountain-side,
you would have found large number
of boys and girls gathered there; and
most likely you'd have said, Where
under the sun do all these children
livey" There they were though, from
six to sixteen, and there was |, de-
mure little thing of eight, so grave and
sober that when the girls played keep
house, they always set me up for
grandmother of the family. And there
was my hero, Ned. Wilson, boy of
sixteen, who had elected himself my
protector, and whom adored; we had
promised to marry each other after
twenty or thirty years, and we felt very
solemn and important about it. j be-
lieve all the boys aud girls liked each
other pretty well; we had TO, in fact,
for we were shut up there on the noun
tain side, and the children must like
some body, you know.
''The boys had built the girls a play
house out of hemlock boughs, down by
the spring not far from the schOolhouse; ;
sometimes we would spend the noon
time there, and at others we would climb
on the coal shed and play house The
ground was slantIng where this build
ing stood, and ut the back VIC could
easily jump up on the roof; We had
fixed it up with blocks and boards so
that our house keeping was very conve-
nient and grand indeed.
zone day we had great difficulty in
deciding where TO spend our nooning;
some said go to the spring. others
wanted above all "A family gathering on
the roof; finally the spring folks gave
in, and We tumbled up in great good
humOr. L was planted in block with
white handkerchief tied on my head
for cap and another one folded across
my chest for cape All L had to do
do was to pretend To knit with four
sticks, and every now and then say
less noise, chil'n.' The boys were
little ways off, busy at a game of ball.
"The housekeeping was getting OH
famously; the more accidents. the more
fun the bread was burned to cinder,
and the cook was dismissed with
dreadful threat Of having her head Ia
ken of if she ever dared 'darken those
doors with the light of her countenance.'
Then 'Tagrag,' the youngest child,
created out of chaos, and an old duster,
was quietly dropped over the front of
the house, and a terrible wall arose that
'the baby was in the well y all the fam
lily except grandmother at once jumped
off to save the dear infant; and having
got her and dipped her in the water
bucket, they scrambled back again, all
excitement, and great was the ito do
over the drowned darling. The 'fa-
ther' of the family was distinguished
from the others by wearing her paste
board sun-bonnet perched up on her
head like a stove pipe hat; the strings
tightly tied before putting it on making
it stand very upright and manly in
deed. The chief business of this parent
was to whip the children and order
meals about once in five minutes, and
pretend to smoke corn-cob pipe. OF
course we hadn't great while for our