Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-09-25
Earth's Lone Children.

| Detroit Free Press.
A boy not over ii years old, whose
pinched face betrayed hunger, and
whose clothing could scarcely be call
ed by the name, dropped into q car
penter shop on Grand River avenue
the other day, and after much hesita-
ton explained to the foreman:
I'VE want to get a grave-board for
ma. She died last winter, and the
graves are so thick that we can't
hardly find her no more. We went
up last Sunday and we come awful
near not finding it. We thought we'd
git a grave-board so we wouldn't
lose the grave. When we thought
we'd lost it Jack he cried, and Bud
she cried, and my chin trembled SO
could hardly talk ~
"Wherc is your father?" asked the
carpenter.
"Oh, he's home, but he never goes
up there with US, and we shan't tell
him about the board. l guess he hat
ed ma, for he wasn't home when she
died, and he wouldn't buy no coffin
nor nothing. Sometimes when we're
sittin' on the doorstep talking abou,
her, and Jack and Bud are cryin', and
I'm remomberin' how she kissed us
all afore she died, he says we'd better
quit that or we'll get what's bad for
us. But we sleep up stairs and we
talk and cry in the dark il we want
to. How much will the board be p
The carpenter selected something
fit for the purpose, and asked:
"Who will put ii up at the grave p
"We'll take it up on our cart" re-
piled the boy, "and Iguess the grave.
yard man will help us pu, it up"
"1ou want the name painted on
don't you?"
eyes, sir, we want the board white
and then we want you to paint on
that che was our ma, that she was
forty lone years old, and that she died
the I'd of November, and that she s
gone to heaven, and that she was one
of the best mothers ever was, and
that we are going to be good all our
lives and go up where che is when
we die. How much will it all cost
sir p
GLOW much have you got?'
"Well," said the boy as he brough,
; out little calico bag and emptied itl
contents on the bench, bud drawed
, the baby for the woman next doc,
and earned twenty cents; Jack, hi
Z welded in the garden and earned
forty cents, and he found FIVE NOR,
in the road; run of crrands and
made kites aud fixed boy $ cart ant
helped carry some apples in n store
) and l earned sixty five cents. All tina
!, makes hundred and thirty cents
sir, and pa don't know we've got ii
Q cause we kept it hid in the GROUND
8 under stone"
The carpenter meant to be liberal
!; but he said:
ga grave board will cost at leas
three dollars"
The lad looked from his little stor,
: Of metals to the carpenter and back
realized how many weary weeks hat
passed since the first penny was earn
cd and saved, and suddenly walled
), out:
"Then we can't never, never bu,
8 one, and mas grave win get lost
But he left the shop with tears o
Q gladness in his eyes, and when he re
) turned yesterday little Bud and Jacl
g were with him and they had car,
!. There was not only headboard, bu
u one for the foot of the grave as wei
Q and painter and carpenter had don
~ their work with full hearts and don
+ it well.
y "Ain't it awful nice-nicer thai
5, rich folks have y whispered the Chi
> lren as the boards were being place
: on the cart; "wont the grave loo
: nice, though, and won't ma be awfu
:, glad!"
8, Ere this the mothers grave ha
l. been marked, and when night come
g, the three motherless ones will cuddl
J. close together and whisper thei
9, gratitude that it cannot be lost t
1t them even in the storms and drifts G
Y winter.