Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-11-24
LITTLE RALPH.
BY CHARLES DICKENS.

Down through the clear October air
the shafts OF light stole silently and
rested tenderly upon the pillow. The
pale, pinched face was toward the glow
Of the afternoon, and the little hand
opened and closed as ii grasping the i'm
mortality that flows through hands often
clasped in prayer. The busy whirr of
life was famed through the window by
the wings of death, and mingled with
the sunshine that swept the walls of the
chamber, and the world rolled on, and
more loudly, for mortality is but little
book, pointing to the appendix, immor-
tality, to make its lessons clear
Old Gouge bent. over the pillow and
watched the tracery upon the little face
as it became more and more distinct.
Watched it until it had formed a perfect
web, now scarcely stirred by the timid
breath of the child. Watched it until
it stirred no longer, and then recognized
the map of that life which begins with
death and ends with eternity.
81 don't know whether we ought to
have plumes on the hearse or not,
sobbed old Gouge to Alexander Selkirk,
and the four-legged namesake of that
imaginative surveyor answered the i'm
piled question with a sudden and I'M
compromising erection of the tail which
might be construed into one incorrtpti-
BILE vote for plumes. Not that Alex
ander Selkirk (the younger) had ever in
dulged in wide funeral experience. In
fact, his participation in such melancholy
festivities had been limited to mourning
over series of brothers and sisters who
were disposed of simultaneously and eff
fectively through the medium of water
butt, at an early period in a career of
usefulness. But he regarded grief in
the light of burglar who breaks in on
Happiness with jimmy, and the sudden
expression of opinion, emphasized by the
tail as an exclamation point, was in fact
show of resistance to old Gouge's sor-
row, rather than the result of a scientific
consideration of pllmes.
You NAV have plumes or you may
not have plumes, Mr.. Gouge," remon-
strated the nurse, Indignantly, "but if
you'd rather put your money in plumes
than paying your debts, and helping q
poor CONAN which her husband has not
earned days work for six weeks on ac-
count of cold in his head which is so
pad that his nose won't draw, you can
please yourself, but l won't" With
which logical conclusion of pathetic
plea for wages, Mrs. Hedge Withdrew in
umbrage.
"Perhaps [ had better not have
plumes, F." soliloquized old Gouge, reaIiz-
ing that three and six ha'penny was the
extent of his Identification with the
financial world. "But [ can have the
beadle,' and with this compromise be-
tween luxurious mourning Gnanimate)
end portentous disinteresteduess in the
proceedings (animate), old Gouge took
his hat, and closing the door softly upon
the dead child, went out to console his
system with three penn'or of shrub
and a purely orthodox, grief burdened
snifffe between each swallow.
"Drat that Gouge," observed Mrs.
Hedge to the sharer of her coughs and
vituals. "He'd only two pound 'orth of
clothes to his name, and they won't fit
We. | brought 'em along in 'opes as how
you'd mend your ways and be some good
and fit for sJlthin, sometime, though
heaven knows you amt what a husband
should be, along with your pipes and
POI ter and worretin' a soul by never
comm home till your sent for, and then
wishin' as how you'd stayed longer on ac-
count of not bein' able to stand your
waxenish breath" All Of which created
deep impression on the object of the
discourse, who snuffed laboriously and
murmured something ABOUT 'tthe dood
bod provided for them as suffered per-
secution," and then lapsed into tears.
garnished with spasms ard struggles for
breath.
The beadle agreed to attend to the
funeral, demanding as the only condition
precedent enough gin and water to work
III him a proper appreciation of the
solemnities.
"Some takes brandy, Mr.. Gouge," he
remarked to the applicant for his massive
attendance, "but I finds it too infamin'.
Then there IS n1ourners who takes wine
and SIGH. But none o. them can last
funeral all through, specially If young
parson is doing the berryin'. [ alters
takes gin, because / find it makes the
grief iiow quicker and keeps it steadier.
Ii you watch me you'll see that / put up
as good an article at the benediction as [
do at the house, and that's because
takes gin. Your brandy mournin' is too
Jerky, and your wine mournin' gets fat.
What you want, Mr. Gouge, is good,
solid GIN grief, and 1t IL cost you ten
pence"
Old Gouge agreed, and the funeral
took place. There were but two mourn
ers (besides the beadle), old Gouge and
Alexander Selkirk. Old Gouge was bent
with sorrow. Alex. Selkirk appeared TO
regard the entertainment as in a measure
incomplete without fireworks, which de-
ficiency he supplied by converting him
self into pin-wheel, and barking indus