The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-01-18

and it comforted the living.
And when morning dawned the friend
less boy went back to his little room
across the road, and there he poured out
his heart in farewell strain to his dear
companion who had thus suddenly been
snatched from him.
There was nomore now to be done but
to fulfil her last command to go out
into the world, and to make himself
famous.
Did he do so?
Ask those who love music, and hold
dear all great names in its roll OF fame,
if they ever heard of Nicolo Paganini;
for it is of his boyhood that l write.
| Bobby.
Have I ever told you about Bobby
Brown-my Bobby BROWNE She is one
of the eccentricities of the farm, and
made herself pet in way and maner as
follows:
AT twilight one evening last June, a
full hour after all the fowl, little and big,
had gone to roost, was sitting just in
side the back door, when what should
come toddling along 80 late but little,
brown, fluffy, one-day-old chicken. 1t
sidled up the broad steps as best it could
and, piping quite dolefully, stopped at
my feet and asked to be taken up as
plainly as chicken could. SO take it up
1 did, and as it nestled in my closed hand
the pitiful piping became the softest,
most satisfied "tweeting."
Taking it back to its coop beneath the
cottonwood group about three rods away,
I tucked it under it's mothers wing, but
on getting back to the door, there was
the little thing at my heels. So what
could do but consider it a founding
and settle it safe for the night in bit of
old shawl in basket to carry il with me
later to my bedroom.
Four times I presented Bobby
though it had not been named then-to
a different mother, hoping it might at
last find guardian congenial to its
tastes. But whether its little brothers
and sisters had told it horrible stories in
the darkness of how, night after night,
big, long-tailed rats came to the coops
and carried off little chickens from their
dear mammals, or whether it had some
clairvoyant sense of danger, do not
know. At all events stay with me it
would, and / had to be its auntie. 1t
lived altogether in the farmhouse, never
venturing into the cottage; was never
under foot, but just trudged about from
morning till night picking up what
kitchen delicacies it could. 1t snapped
at flies the livelong day, and had a crop
like an Alderman's. 1t caught more
mice than the cats, and killed them by
humping them on the floor. 1t had a
CHEEKY spirit that commended itself to
bipeds without feathers, and sang and
chirped necessarily always the same
notes, though no doubt they meant a
great many different things.
During the day it never paid any one
the least attention, and always SHE'D of
if tried to take it up.
But as roosting time came on, it fol-
lowed me about like child, whimpering
and crying most earnestly to be put to
bed. Then when took it up it would
"tweet, tweet" in a most comfortable
tone, and nestle down in its old shawl
until morning. Occasionally 1 would
let it pick from my mouth, and once il
was so very funny that had to laugh,
when the little thing walked right In
legs and all, to see what was behind the
laugh, perhaps, was quite alarmed, fol
I was afraid should have to swallow it
| Sometimes, evenings. would be sc
busy running around from coop to coop
erecting barricades against rats, tina
, poor Bobby's sleepy cries were unheed
ed. But it kept at my heels all over the
place, and then if dusk had come on i
would trudge off into the farmhouse
/ where would find it with it's head un
) der its wing roosting on the lower roun(
of a kitchen chair.
Bobby is now half-grown chicken
/; but, though it no longer likes to be pat
l ronized, it keeps mostly about the hous
and has very little to say to the othe
9 fowls. So they don't like it.
One night, a month or 30 ago, it wa
3 missing. Where should 1 find il but Of
a lower bough of cottonwood tree be
e fore the farmhouse door, where twent
or thirty hens and their chickens roasted
{ 1t had struck out for itself and woul
e have got on very we'll if it hadn't within
pered so. For the old hens and bi
r chickens that roasted near it saw what
s baby it was and picked it, sometime
r even reaching over from another bong
to give it peck. AS stood below,
Il looked wistfully down at me 80 1 pu
l. up my hand, when it raised its rigl
r foot and clasped it around my finger
II but then, as if gritting its teeth, 80
speak, with firm resolve, ga pull,
J. now or never !" it suddenly drew back
IS and there Bobby has roasted ever sine,
Y For as her comb did not grow, an
n her tail did not lengthen, we wei
e forced to consider her q pullet, yet "
y still call her Bobby, short for Bobinett,
if you please, for she wouldn't answer
n anything else even if her name wei
y changed by special act of Legislator,
N Tho Crook ed Nosed Philoaonher