The Red Cloud chief., 1880-07-08
EIER0NYMUs Pep AND THE BABY

NV OA1AlS foP. Sald the
mother Of that gentle boy, you jes
take keer o dis chile while I'm gone
ter de hangin'. An don't you leave
dis house on no account; not if De
skies fall an de earth opens ter swalleI
yer"
Lleronymus grunted clOomily. He
thought il a burning shame that be
should not 60 TO the hanging; but never
had his mother been willing that he
shonld have the least pleasure in life.
1t was either to tend the baby. or mix
the COW : food. or to card wool, or cut
wood or 10 pick a chicken. or wash
up the floor, or to draw water, or ia
sprinkle down the clothes-alwavs
something. When everything else
failed. she had a way. that seemed Ia
her son simply demOniac. of setting
him al the alphabet. To be sure. she
did not know the letters herself. but
her teaching was none the less vigor-
~
What's dat. 'Onymus?n She would
say, pointing 1T random with her snuff
brush 4 a letter.
'Q'-with a sniff.
lis yqI sh0' .En--in a hollow voice.
Woe be unto young Pop if be fall
tered. and said it might be a Il. Moth
er Pop kept a rod ready, and used it as
if she was born for nothing else. Nat
urallv he soon learned to stick brazen-
IL TO his first guess. But unfortunate
" he could not remember from one dav
To another what he had said: and his
mother learned, after 4 time. 10 distin-
guish the forms of the letters. and to
know that a curly letter called 5 on
TUESDAY could not possibly be a square
shaped + on Thursday. Herfaith once
shattered, 'Onymus had TO suffer in the
usual WAY.
The lad had been taught at spasmodic
intervals by his sister Savapnah-com-
monty called SisSy-who went TO school,
put on airs. and was ALWAYS clean.
Therefore Hieronymus hated her.
Mother Pop herself was a little in awe
of her accomplished daughter, and
would ask her no questions, even when
most IN doubt as to which was which of
the letters G and G.
a pretty thing she would mutter
TO herself. III 1 must be a-learnin'
things from nv own chile. dat wuz de
mos cOlicky baby | eve had, an COS
me- Unheerd-of miSeries i'll de time of
her ioeihin'.h
II seemed to HieronymuS that the
climax of his impoSitions had come,
when he was forced 10 stay AZ home
and mind The baby, while his mother
and the rest of them tTotted of, gay as
laris. 20 see 2 man hanged.
1t was a hot afternoon, and the I'M
willing Purse suffered. The baby
wouldn't 90 To sleep. He put il on the
bed-a feather bed-and why it didn't
drop Of to sleep, Is a proper baby
should, was more than the tired soul of
Hieronymus could tell. He did every
thing TO soothe Tiddlekins. CThe in
FAINT had not been named as Vet. and by
WAN of affection they addressed it as
TiddlekinS.) He even went so far as
10 wave the flies away from it with a
mulberry branch for the space of five or
ten minutes. But As il still fretted and
Tossed. he let il severely alone, and the
flies settled on the little black thing as
if Il had been q licorice stick.
After awhile Tiddlekins grew az
cressive, and began to veil. Hierony-
mus. who had almost found consolation
In the contemplation Of q bloody picture
pasted on the wall, cut from the weekly
paper of a wicked city. was deprived
even of this solace. He picked up ..de
miserbul little screech-owl,'' as he
called it il his wrath. He trotted it.
He sang 10 it the soothing ditty Of
~rTain,t never gwine 70 rain no mo-;
sun shines down on rich and po.-"
But all was vain. Finally. in despair,
he undressed T~iddlekins. He had
heard his mother say, "Ofen and of en-
when a chile is a-screamin' ITS bref
away, faint nothin' ais it 'cep'n
pins"
But there were no pins. Plenty of
strings and hard knots; but n a pin to
account for the antics of the unhappy
Tiddlekins.
How it did scream! 1t Law on the
stifffv-braced knees of H~ieronylnus. and
puckered up its face SO tightly that it
looked as if ii had come fresh from a
wrinkle mold. There were no tears,
but sharp regular wells. and rollings of
is head. and 4 distracting monotony in
its performances.
IBIS here chile looks s if it's got de
measles" muttered Hi. gazing on the
souirming atom with calm eyes of de-
spair. Then, running his fingers over
-sbe neck and breast Of the small lid
dIekins, he cried, with the sir Of one
who makes q discovery. Its got de
heat, Dafs what ais Tiddlekins,"
There was really a little breaking ont
on the child's body that might account
for his restlessness and squalls. And
II was such a hot day! Precipitation
streamed down his back. while his
head was dry. There was not a CULVER
in the tree leaves. and the silver-Poplars
showed only their leaden side. The
sunfowers were dropping their big
heads; the flies seemed to stick to the
|. window-panes, and were too languid to
crawl.
Hieronymus had in him the materi-
ais of which philosophers are made. Es
ss;d q himself. "FTs:n's nssaiE' bun