Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-07-11
JACK.

down there does seem to chirk one up
nightly" said Mrs. lib, flirting her
dust-rag vigorously. ats a pity now
you amt able to be up and get a peek
at it. It'd do you more good than
medicine, 'cording to my notion.
There's lots of folks gone by already,
the kind that has little to do. Well, If
everr' and Mrs. Zib's poke bonnet
and the edge of her sharp nose seemed
in imminent danger of going through
the shutter, she was so inquisitively
eager in her inspection of some passer-
by.
IT'S that Hoke boy" she said, pres
entity, Withdrawing her head and pro-
ceeding to set in order the Visls on the
stand. 'I declare he is q shaver to be
driving his own pony, black one with
ball face and a-what do you call it
-dog-cart; 1 don't see why there's
any need of giving a decent wagon
such an outlsndish namel He amt
more than eight years old, Pm sure,
and as sassy as they make 'em, but
then, some folks are able to buy all
sorts of fol-de-rols for their children,
and others are put to their wits ends
to git bread for theirs, and you can't
help feelin' that lots is various. Some
do seem to git all the plums in the
pudding, and others can't even git
Whit at the crust It's queer, but 1
suppose it's right"
She gave me an interrogative glance
as she spoke, then spying some uneasi-
ness in the little week-old morsel of hu-
manity who was cuddled in my arms,
she took him away and sat down with
him in the low rocker. You folks
make an awful fuss over him." she
said, meditatiYely, "not that he is any
thing out of the ordinary run either, as
l can see, but somehow you seem to
think he is wonderful. S'posing now
you had felt bad about his coming, not
knowing how he could be fed or
clothed, and s'posing nobody kissed or
cuddled him and wondered whether he
looked like you or his father or his
grandmother and the rest of 'em?h
MRS. lib, please give me that baby
right away. I want to kiss him."
g amt going to do any such thing"
said nurse, peremptorily. "He's Just
been fooled with enough this morning!
All them big girls in the family had to
they went to school, and amt count
ed how many times you've kissed him.
He'll take it easy enough on my lap
awhile. Yeller, amt hep Well, that's
the jaunders; it makes 'em sleepy, too.
I once saw baby just as likely for his
age as this one, but laws, he was blink
in and winkin' away in a miserable
sert of shanty, and nobody seemed to
want him in the world very much; he
was one of them kind that never gifts
the Whit at the pudding. He belonged
to the Briggs, Dan'l and Melindy, and
the belOngn' to them want much of
blessin' for they were two of the shift
less, slack, always behindhand sort of
people who never seem to know how to
take care of themselves rightly. Their
folks had always been Just so, too, a
WOrkin' little on other folks land, do
ing an odd job now and then, keepin'
in victuals and shabby clothes some
how, the women getting cold Wit
ties when they washed for the
farmers wives and some of the
old clothes it want no use to
make over. Dan'l. however, was the
very cream OF the hull, SO far as slack
handedness and downrightlaziness was
concerned. It want no trouble for
him to do nothin' and never troubled
his conscience neither, though perhaps
he didn't have one to trouble. Some
times he'd git a job in harvest or
plantin' time, but generally folks were
shy about hirin' him; nobody likes to
pay man for settin and drummin his
heels agin the fence, or stoppin' to talk
to everybody who happens to go by.
The women folks said he was a heavy
hand, too, on the butter and meat. He
was great one TO go cunning; you'd
see him slouchin' along regular, two
NANCY, ribby hounds folloWin' after;
such folks must keep dog, you know,
even if they hain't nothin' for them
selves.
'.Melindy used to say sometimes
that she wished Dan'l was q little
steadier at his work, but if you went to
blaming him she always had some ex-
cuse for him. He had a pain in his
side. or the Squire wanted him to
work too hard, or he had to take care
of the baby.
''There always was baby in the
house; 8 little, half dressed, generally
miserable creature, for they never got
the right kind of care, and want made
the least mite of, though Dan'l and
Melindy liked them in their way. I
can't even say that it was curious the
little things died off one after another,
but it did seem to me fortunate, for
there WANT no gainsaying but what
they were better out of the world than
in it. Jack, though, he TOUCHED it out,
though he had al the drawbacks the
others had, and grew 10 be a little |
black-eyed yOungster, hanging on to |
Melindy's torn skirts, trottinf round
after Dan'l, or lying in the sun and |
sand alongside them miserable dogs.
''Melindy went when the seventh |
baby came, and she and the child were |
buried together, and you wouldn't |
hardly think it, but one day when one |
of my boys went past the place where |
she was buried, if there want that |
foriorn ittle Jack walking round and /
round it, and piping NANNY, man.
myr
" Misfortunes never come single, they |
say, and believe it, and to prove it |
Dan'Ps gun went off all of sudden |
one day when he was climbing fence,
and somebody found him the same day |
lying there clean shot thro' the heart. |
After he was decently buried no one
knew what to do with Jack. It wa MT |
to be thought Of that anybody around |
should want him, and the only way !
seemed to be to send him to the Poor |
House. remember he sat out ona big
stone in the yard, hiding his face from |
everybody in his torn Jacket sleeve,
and crying for the dog that Squire
Jones had took away cause he said it
was good bird-dog, and somebody or
other hushed him up quite sharp when
he called for Pappy.'
cold Mrs. Fox asked me If didn't
feel to take him, but didn't mean to
fly In the face of Providence by taking
that child when / had tough work to
keep my own. So Jack went to the
Poor-House. I'm sure we have TO pay
taxes to keep it going, and its fair
somebody should be sent there once in
q while.
"Do you know the BronesP MOP
Well that's curious for they live only
matter of four miles away. Likely as |
not you've heard enough Of them to
know they are awful close, but I'm free
to say that of all stingy, scraping, rich
creatures they are the very beat. I
was sent for to come and nurse Toms
wife when she had her baby couple of
years ago. Tom came over beforehand
to strike bargain with me, tried to
tell me the work would be light with