The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1879-09-19
JACK.

\ JACks
NsA mornin' like this, with the sun
inin'. and the birds singin', and the
osies blossoming in those beds down
xAaere seems to chirk one up nightly,
aid Mrs. lib, flirting her dust rag Wig
orously. cts pity you amt able to
be up and get a peak at it. It'd do you
more good than medicine, 'cording to
NV notion. There's lots of folks gone
by already, the kind that has little to do.
Well. if / ever!'' 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 lnqu1sl-
lively eager in her inspection of some
passer by.
u1nfIt's that Hoke boy she said pres
Withdrawing her head and pro-
10 to set in order the walls on the
ST declare he's shaver to be
his own pony, black one with
r. nall face and a-what do you call it
dog cart; don't see why there's any
need of giving decent wagon such an
outlandish name. He amt more than
eight years old I'm sure, and is about as
sassy as they make 'em; but then some
folks are able to make all sorts OF fol-de-
rolls for their children, and others are
put to their wits end to get bread for
theirs, and you can't help feelin' that
lots is various. Some do seem to get all
the pIums in the pudding, and others
cant even get a whiff at the crust. It's
queer, but I 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 hui
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
meditatively; s'not that he is anything
out of the ordinary run, either, as l can
see, Lut somehow you seem to think he
is wonderful. Sposing, now, you had
ielt 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, or
all the rest of 'em ?"
''Mrs. lib, please hand me that baby
right away. I want to kiss him"
ssI amt going to do any such thing" !"
said the nurse peremptorily. 'He's just
been fooled with enough this morning!
All them big girls in the family had to
have their foolishness over him before
they went to school, and hain't counted
how many times you've kissed him.
He'll take it easy enough on my lap for
awhile. Yellerr, amt he? Well. that's
the jaunders; it makes 'em sleepy, too.
once saw baby just as likely for his
age as this one; but laws, he was blinkin'
and winkin' away in a miserable sort of
q shanty, and nobody seemed to want
him in the world very much. He was
one of them kind that never gets Whit
at the pudding. He belonged to the
Briggs, Dan1 and Melindy, and the be-
longing to them wa mt much of bless
ing, for they were two of the shiftless,
slack, always behind hand sort of people
who never seem to know how to take
care of themselves rightly. Their folks
had been Just so, too, q workln' a little
on other folks land, doing an odd job
now and then, keepin' in vittels and
shabby clothes somehow, the women
gettin' cold vittfes when they washed for
Nthe farmers wives, and some of the old
Clothes 1t want no use to make over.
RDan1, however, was the very cream of
Ehe hull so far as slackhandedness and
Downright laziness was concerned. 1t
Want no trouble for him to do nothin',
and never troubled his conscience
neither, though perhaps he didn't have
one to trouble. Sometimes he got job
in harvest or plantin' time, but gener-
ally folks were shy about hiring him;
, nobody likes to pay a man for settin'
drummin' his heels agin the fence, or
stoppin' to talk to everybody who hap
pens to go by. The women folks said he
was heavy hand, too, on the butter and
the meat. He was great one to go
cunning. You'd see him slouching
along regular, two NANCY, ribby hounds
followin' after; such folks must keep q
dog, you know, even if they hain't
nothin' for themselves.
eMelindy used to say sometimes that
she wished Dan1 was little steadier at
his work, but If you went to blaming
him she always had some excuse for
him. Squire wanted him to work too
hard, or he had to take care of the baby
''There was always a baby in the
house, a little, half-dressed, generally
miserable creetur, for they never got the
right kind of fare, and want made the
least of, though Danl and Melindy liked
them in their way. I can't even say it
was curious the little things died off
after one another, but it did seem to me
fortunate, for there want no gainsaying
but what they were better off out of the
world than in it. Jack, though, he
TOUCHED it out, though he had all the
uIdW DttChS bue Obll6IS ldu, anu grew 10
be little black-eyed youngster, hang
ing to Melindy's skirts, trottin' round
after Dan1, or lyin' in the sun and sand
alongside them miserable dogs.
Melindy went when the seventh baby
come, 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 wa'n mt that forlorn little
Jack walkin' round and round it and
pipin', Nanny, mammyp
'sMisfortunes never come single, they
say, and I believe it, and to prove it
Ran'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 through the heart. Af-
ter 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. I
remember he sat out on big stone in
the yard, hiding his face from every
body in his torn jacket sleeve, and cry
ing for the dog that Squire Jones had
took away cause he said he was good
bird dog, and somebody or other had
hushed him up quite sharp when he
called for spappy.
aO1d Mrs. Fox asked me If I didn't