Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-09-11
The Story Jeller.
NORA'S OIL-WELL.
BY SOPHIE SWEET.
GSt. Nicholas for SepteInber.1


[St. Nicholas for September.]
eff ye'd only consint to sell the place t.
Patsy Flanagan, an buy share in the big
oil-weIl, we'd be like the king an queen OIL
their thrones you wild trailin' silk gowr
an raale gold chain, an me wild a gole
watch an fine span O horses For there's
niver an end O the oil is in that we'll, so they
all says"
20, Teddy, there may be niver drop o1
oil there at all, at all Just look at the three
derricks forninst the river, all in a row, a
towerin' up so grand in the air, an it's
pumpin' an pumpin' away they was, an niv'
er so much as drap! What if this one
would be the same, an our money would all
be gone, and the place that farther an moth.
er worked so hard for, an that's SO snug an
comfortable for Patsy, and the baby, and the
pigs and hins, and US all Jist look how
plisant it do be, Teddy, wild baby maxim
dirt pies in the sunshine, and the chicks fight,
in so quare over the worms, an the dear lit
=. tie pigs squealin' so musical! 0, Teddy, l
couldn't niver do it-niver!"
And Nora shook her red head so decidedly
that Teddy was almost convinced that 1t was
of. no use to tease her.
Teddy, and Nora, and Patsy. and the baby,
and the pigs. and chickens, lived in little
town on the Allegheny River, away out in
Western Pennsylvania. You might find the
town ON the map-if I should tell you its
name. 1t lies in little hollow that seems to
have been scooped out of the high hills, and
the hills shut out the sun rays, so that it
seems almost dreary, and gray, and cloudy,
there; and then there is the smoke from the
great iron mills to make the air thick.
The hills are full of treasures; vast stores
of iron and coal which they kept, fast locked
up, for nobody knows how many years, be.
fore mans curious skill burrowed in, and
found them. Now, queer little avenues Just
tall enough for a man to stand upright IN,
and wide enough for drays, drawn by patient
donkeys, to travel in-lead into, and some
times hrough-the hills. And men with
pickaxes and spades dig away there, in the
hearts of the hills, in darkness and CRIME,
sometimes all their lives long; and with the
little lamps which they wear in their caps,
casting faint, weird light over their black
ened faces and figures, they make one think
of gnomes, in fairy-tale, who wait upon
some Prince of Darkness. The mines have
drawn together little colony of people from
the old couutries-English and Welsh, and
Irish they are, principally, though there, is
sprinkling of Germans and Belgians. They
live, for the most part, in little houses of log
and plaster, provided by the iron company,
or the coal company; but now and then, one,
with more means or more enterprise than the
Others, has bought a little lot of land and
built himself frame house. Terence Con-
ely had been one of the enterprisiDg ones.
He had bought two acres Of land on the hill.
side, above Sugar Creek, and built comfort
able little house, and pig sty and hen
house as well, and had garden, with 'pra
ties" and cabbages. The land was very ster-
lie, and the vegetables never amounted to
much but Still it was pleasure to Terence,
when he came out of the darkness and gloom
of the mine, to see "green things growing"
But there came day when poor Terence
did not come out of the mine. A mass OF
rock and ore had fallen in and killed him.
His wife was heart broken, and went into a
rapid decline, living less than year after her
husbands death. --sf'-..
Teddy, Nora, Patsy, and the baby were all
alone, on the little place, which their father
and mother had worked so hard for, and
taken such pleasure and pride in. Teddy
was fourteen, and Nora little more than
year younger; Patsy was ten, and the baby
three. The Conelly children were regarded
as especially intelligent by their neghbors,
and Nora, in particular. was always said to
be "far wiser than her years" They had al
ways been sent carefully to school, and though
neither of them ''took to books" particular
ly-unless Teddy's great liking for pirate
stories might be regarded as indicative of
literary turn-and never had "got the burr
out from under their tongues" and their ma
tive shrewdness had probably been somewhat
.sharpened.
At all events they had shouldered their
responsibilities. and managed their affairs,
without aid from any body. Small affairs
they were, to be sure When the expenses
of their mothers illness and burial were paid,
the last cent of Terence Connellys little
hoard of savings was gone; and as they had
been obliged to scrimp and save, for long
time, to buy the little comforts necessary for
their mother in her illness, the children were
almost entirely destitute of clothing the home
was their own !; but in some way they must
be fed and clothed. Teddy found situation
in the mill, but the pay was so small, and
there were intervals when he had no work.
Nora took in washing and ironing, and, now
and then she found days work at cleaning
and sweeping. 1t was too hard for her, of
course, but she never complained. At first,
people gave them something, but when it
began to be seen how selfhelpful they were,
the aid was gradually transferred to the more
destitute,-and they were plenty. Moreover,
the Conellys tried to hide their want, as much
as others displayed theirs. Nora had stur-
dy little pride about her, inherited from both
father and mother. And they had been
taught to be scrupulously neat; so there nev-
er was the look of poverty about their house
which filth and squalor give. They did not
keep their pig under the bed, nor the hens
in the sitting room, like many of their country
men, And people said: "How we'll those
Conelly children do take care of themselves
They don't seem to want anything"
But many time Nora went to bed hun
cry, after her hard days work, and she patch
ed the children's clothes and her own until it
was hard to tell which was the original fab
ric and which the patch but patches did not
matter much if they were only comfortable,
and mere not obliged to ask charity of any
body; so Nora thought.
Neither did she mind the hard work, nor
the hunger, if she could only keep the little
home, and the little flock together, and be
independent-just as her father and mother
would have wished. Nora's only fear was
that her strength would fail her; she had a
sharp pain in her side, sometimes, and her
face, that had always been chubby and rosy