The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-04-04

"Well, you fool |" growled his neigh
by thar and sees the old man doin' a
mans work at eighty, and slouches like
you and me lying round drunk, and that
chap, feelin' kinder bumped, goes up
some dark night and heaves load of Gu.
pine over his fence, who's got anything
TO say about it? Saya" Certainly not
the speaker, who had done the act sug
gested, nor the penitent and remorseful
hearer, who repeated it next day.
The pies and cakes made by the old
woman were, think, remarkable rather
for their inducing the same loyal and
generous spirit than for their intrinsic
excellence, and it may be said appealed
more strongly to the nobler aspirations
of humanity than its vulgar appetite.
Howbeit, everybody ate Nanny Dow
ney's pies, and thought of his childhood.
"Take 'em, dear boys" the old lady
would say "it does me good to see
you eat 'em reminds me kinder of poor
Sammy, that, of he'd lived, would hev
been ez strong and big ez you be, but
was taken down with lung fever at Sweet
water, kin see him yet that's forty
year ago, dear comm out O. the lot to
the bake-house, and smilin' such beau
tiful smile, like yours, dear boy, as I
handed him nince or lemming turn
over. Dear, dear, how do run on
and those days is past but I seems to
live in you again p The wife of the
hotel-keeper, actuated by low ieal-
ousy, had suggested that she "seemed
to live off them" but rs that person tried
to demonstrate the truth of her state
ment by reference to the cost of the ~
material used by thp<old lady, it was
considered by the camp as too practical
and economical for consideration. "Be-
sides" added Cy Perkins, eff old Nam
my wants to turn an honest penny in
her old age, let her do it. How would
you like your old mother to make pies
on grub wages, eh ?" A suggestion that
so affected his hearer (who had no moth
cry that he bought three on the spot
The quality of these pies had never been
discussed but once. 1t is related that o
young lawyer from San Francisco,
dining at the Palmetto restaurant,
pushed away one of Nanny Downey's
pies with every expression of disgust
and dissatisfaction. At this iuncture,
Whisky Dick, considerably affected by
his favorite stimulant, approached the
strangers table, and, drawing up chair,
sat unlimited before him.
Mebbce, young man," he began
gravely, eye don't like Nanny Dow
ney's pies? ?"
The stranger replied curtly, and in
some astonishment, that he did not rs a
rule, seat pie"
"Young man." continued Dick with
drunken gravity, "mebbee you're ac-
customed to Charlotte rusks and blue
mango; mebbee We can't eat unless your
grub is got up by one O. them French
cooks? Yet aUe-us boys var in this
camp-calls that pie-a good-a com-pe-
tent pic p
The stranger again disclaimed any
of pastry.
"Young man," continued Dick, utter.
ly unheeding the explanation, -" young
man, mebbee you onct had an ole-a
very ole mother, who, tottering down
the vale o. years, made pies. Mebbee,
and it's like your blank epicurean soul,
ye turned up your nose on the ole wo-
man, and went back on the pies, and on
her She that handled We when We woz
baby,-a little baby Mebbee ye went
back on her, and shook her, and played
off ON her, and gave her away-dead
away! And now, mebbee, young man
: I wouldn't hurt ye for the world, but
mebbee, afore We leave this var table,
YELL EAT THAT PIEi".
The stranger rose to his feet, but the
muzzle of dragoon revolver in the un-
steady hands of Whisky Dick, caused
him to sit down again. He ate the pie,
and lost his case likewise, before q
Rough-and- Ready jury.
Indeed, far from exhibiting the Gym
ical doubts and distrusts of age, Daddy
Downey received always with child-like.
delight the progress of modern improve
ment and energy. In my day, long
back in the twenties. it took us nigh o
week a week, boys-to get up barn,
and all the young ones-I was one then
for miles round at the raisin' and
yer's you boys-rascals ye are, too
runs up this yer shanty for Nanny and
me 'twixt sun-up and dark Eb, eh,
you're teachin' the old folks new tricks,
are ye? All, get along, You !' and in
playful stimulation of anger he would
shake his white hair and his hickory
staff at the rascals." The only indica-
| biOu VI Iuo COlSCI NutANO ttuuSuCltS VI
age was visible in his continual protest
against the extravaganza of the boys.
"Why," he would say, ga family, a
hull family-leavin' alone me and the
old woman,-might be supported ON
what you young rascals throw away in a
single SPREE"
There was little doubt that the old
couple We're saving, if not avaricious.
But when it was known, through the in
discreet volubility of Nanny Downey,
that Pappy Downey sent the bulk OF
their savings, gratuities, and gifts to a
dissipated and prodigal son in the East
whose photograph the old man always
carried with him-it rather elevated him
in their regard. "When ye write to
that gay and festive son O. yourn,
Daddy" said Joe Robinson, "send him
this yer specimen. Give him my COM
pliments, and tell him, if he kin spend
money faster than / can, I call him |
In vain would the old man continue to
protest against the spirit of the gift /;
the miner generally returned with his
pockets that much the lighter, and it is
not improbable little less intoxicated
than he otherwise might have been. 1t
may be promised that Daddy Downey
was strictly temperate. The only way
he managed to avoid hurting the feelings
of the camp was 10y accepting the fre-
quent donations of whisky to be used
for the purposes of liniment.
"Next to snake-oil, my son, he would