Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-07-30
Sammy Snapple.


WHAT INDUCED HIN TO BECOME "s1oRK-KEEPKR."
"There you are again, boy, a-sitting on
them steps, Westinghouse steps, to be sure,
but none the better for that, when it aipt
Sunday, and you amt waiting to go inside.
There you sit with your elbows on your
knees, and your head bowed over, kind O.
discouraged like on your hands, and you
won't get up one peg higher in the world
while you sit there"
I" Have got TO sit somewhere, haven't p
snarled out Sammy Snapple; "might a.
well sit as stand when there amt the first
thing fellow can do, and l might as well sit
on Westinghouse steps as on anything else
| wish had all the money and all the good
clothes that the folks have who 60 inside;
then / wouldn't be sitting here on the steps,"
"They didn't earn their clothes a-sitting
on Westinghouse steps-did they, bub?
reckon il you should ask 'em they wouldn't
tell you 30. Some Of EN- were early birds
can tell you, bub earlier than robins OF
orioles, or than any of them brightbreasted,
bright-winged creatures that are up so early
spring and summer mornings, it seems as II
of these moneyed folks and wel-dressed
folks you are envying had to sit up late
nights to earn their money. They are eat
ing sweet bread now, to be sure, but it amt
the bread of idleness"
al MISREPRESENTATION in the world"
drawled out poor little Sammy Snapple.
| And lots of boys haven't" answered
I Farmer Tubs. Besides, relations ANT al
ways the best thing boy can have. Some
| times the more you have of EN- the worse
you are off. Now, bub, you've got your own
way TO make in the world, and I'd be up
and at it; and then If you want little rest
sometimes, and feel as if you must have it,
why, IL won't hurt you to sit down awhile on
the Westinghouse steps"
| Mr.. Jonathan Tubs, or Farmer Tubs"
as he was generally called, was known as
hard-fsted farmer" but his neighbors said
that his heart, unlike his fists, was as ten
der as a spring chicken" And this was
true, or he wouldn't have hitched his horses
in front of the Westinghouse and let his
wagon-load of beets and turnips stand half
an hour or more while he talked to Sammy
Snapple. Though the hands were brown
and hard with toll, the man who owned
them had in his heart the tenderest human
feelings for all poor waits and wanderers
who came in his way, and Sammy Snapple
was certainly waif and a wanderer.
"I'm sorry for you, Sammy, so / am"
continued MIR. Tubs. "I'm kind of tum-
bled-up-farmer, but folks that expect to see
my heart turned into stone will have to wait
awhile. want to help you, and I'll do
what can. I'd take you right home and
keep you for my own, but you know how it
is. Almost everything is harvested; and,
besides, I've got whole army of boys of
my own, and the danger is that they'll die
of lazness before the long winter is over,
and the spring work is ready. So you see,
, there's no good place for you, bub, on my
| e.. - - D,,k raf.
place for you somewhere; for there amt
any living thing, from grasshopper to a
giant, that hasn't place, though it may
take good eyes to tell, at the first look, just
exactly where the place is"
al haven't relation in the world" again
sighed Sammy.
al know it, bub; but, as Just told you,
: there's good, as well as bad, side to that.
know your story well. You had as first
rate a father and mother as ever boy had
but, somehow, when the folks down here
were wanting 'em TO stay and expecting
they would, the Lord was making different
o calculations and all of sudden, they
slipped away, first one and then the other
only few weeks apart. Then that poor
= old widow took you and folks all thought
! she'd be kind, but she wasn't. She took to
drink, and wretched life she led you, my
boy and now she's gone-the Lord have
mercy on her soul but it's a good thing for
you she's gone, though you are all alone
% now in that little shanty Of hers. l won't
} call it sbanty, though, for it's tight little
: frame house. The wind may whistle around
!. as much as it chooses, but it can't get in
nor the snow, either. And my advice to
you is to stay right there, seeing the pool
creature, who pretended to take care of you
: left the house to you, and seeing you've got
Aunt Tabby next door, so near that you can
!. shake hands from window TO window
. There's a good stove there, and the same
furniture-such as it is-that has Away:
been there IN send you all the wood you'll
need for the winter, and it'll be fine exercise
q for you to saw and split it. III see to it
: too, that the baker leaves you good LOAF
q of bread every day. And I'll do more YET
than this for you, Sammy, III set you up in
business.
Set me up in business p exclaimed
| Sammy, and he stared at Farmer Tubs.
AYES, that's what mean. You can be
gin moderate, you know I'm down two OF
: three times week, and whenever 1 come
ri bring you three or four dozen of those
bright red apples of mine that shine like
mahogany, and you can hang 'em up in the
window and, my word for it, they won't
hang there long, you'll sell EN- so fast And
, YOU can have some peanuts and chestnuts
too. in the window. My wife has got SOME
J idle glass Jars, and III fill three or four Of
/, them with nuts, and you can set em up il
Z the window, and let all the world know tina
! YOU are keeping store for living; so now
"A bub, don't grow to them meeting-houss
!, steps, but stir yourself before you are tel
o minutes older"
And Sammy Snapple did stir himself
He went home-to the little house that wa.
: the only spot he could call home--ant
= when Aunt Tabby came over, as she did, ii
few minutes, to bring him q bowl o.
bread and milk and piece of pie, sh'
found him washing the two front windows
d 10 get ready for keeping store" OF course
she wanted to know what had put it int
his head to wash windows, and then he toll
her all about it and she became so inter
ested in his "store," that she gave him
great many things that she thought woul'
fnd "a ready Market" so that on "openinl
J day." there was quite grand display in tn
two front windows of " Sammy Snapple'
shanty."
OF course Farmer Tubs and Aunt Tabb
were heavy purchasers, on that day, bu
Il trade was pretty brisk all winter.
And who was Aunt Tsbby Some pee
pie called her Sammy Snapple's next-doo
neighbor. Others said, "Oh, she is woma
who has always lived alone--peeuliar, bu
everybody loves her." .ia a.
The months came and went, and one da
Aunt Tabby said to herself, Z" | believe l.
like to do it, Yes, think that Sammy an
/ would get on splendidly under the sam
roof, I've got enough for both Of US an
the fact is I'd like to give him hom'
He's brave little fellow, but he's keE
~ store long enough, and now he and l wi
q keep house together
IA Ii there is any boy in all the world VIII
has a comfortable, snug home, with . swee
!. faced motherly woman by his side 10 con
u. fort and cheer him, that boy is SaInm
81 Snapple. And Aunt Tabby says that Ii
Is way sammy won her heart was by "keel