The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-04-17
KON'S HELPING HAND.

"That is little beauty, said Grandpa
Sin Mu, and round and round he turned
the pot that held the tree he was admir-
ing. 1t was actually tree of the plum
family, for Grandpa Sin Mu was one of
those famous Japanese gardeners who
have such wonderful success in dwarfing
trees, till they grow in pots that one can
carry in his hands. This dwarf was
about two feet high and thick with bios
SONS.
GA beauty, beauty exclaimed
Grandpa Sin Mu again and again, ''and
all for my grandson Kon. Let me look
at it on this side, and on that side, and
now on this again.
So on every side of the tree-pigmy
Grandpa Sin MUS round, ruddy face
beamed as the sun.
As his features were small, but his
face big, broad and jolly; as he wore no
beard and was very bald, his face resem-
bled the sun all the more fully.
my grandson Kon deserves plum
tree said the devoted grandpa. "As
fine a boy of twelve as ever saw. l
wonder what he is doing now?'
What .Kon was doing then l don't
know, bdt do know what he was doing
the next day.
"Mother, 1 think will give my drag
on an airing. | will take him out of
his stall and give him a mouthful of
fresh air."
Giving the dragon an airing!
What American boy would venture to
do it?
'You think good deal of your drag
on, Kon."
"Of course l do. 1t is all I've got"
Kon's dragon was harmless kite 1t
had very comical head, two wings,
pair of claws, and a long tail. The tail
was old (no older, though, than the rest
of the dragon) and was on the point of
forsaking the body.
81 am just as afraid" said Kon to
his mother, ''that my dragons tail will
60 sailing off sometime when it is up in
the sky"
wriggling up toward the sun? That
would make me laugh" said his mother.
''And make me cry" thought Kon.
You are getting DID, said Kon to
his beloved dragon, as he let him out of
the corner where he kept him and that
he called his ''stall.'' Getting old,
getting weak, and don't know where l
shall get another What is the matter
with that bamboo?'
This was little slit of bamboo
stretched across the kite-frame, and as
the wind swept over it the little bamboo
slit hummed away as if a humble bee had
hnno in, hn a 70 al
in its Imprisonment made a constant
musical protest. ......-..
80, if am not happy" said Kon to
his mother, "when | am on top of high
hill, and my dragon is in the air, and |
can hear the bamboo humming! 1t is
the happiest place in the world y
"Sure of it, Kon?'
"Why, yes, mother"
Happier when you are pleasing
yourself than when you are making
somebody else happy?'
Sc There, mother, l should know you
were Grandpa Sin MUS daughter. He
is always saying, make somebody hap
Ply. Help some one.
" Your grandpa is a very good man."
g So he is, mother. If he had not been
| should not have had so nice a mother.
l should not have had this dragon. There
is my name which he put on it. Isn't it
in funny place, on the dragons chimp
There it was in large letters: K-O-N."
Goodbye, mother"
" Goodbye"
The dragon sailed about in the air UNI
usually well that day, and Kon heard
the bamboo humming some distance up.
Then all was still, and, sitting on the
hilltop, Kon watched his beloved dragon
as it hung motionless in the air.
Z" How happy am r. thought Kon.
Yes, he was happy. He felt that he
could stay there hours enjoying that rest
which is always grateful to fat boy,
and enjoying, too, the sense of power
which one has who controls the move
ments of dragon.
g There's old Itsi," he suddenly ex-
claimed. g He don't know me, but
know him."
1t was an old man coming across the
pasture carrying dwarf plum-tree all in
Is this the way to the big village
street,"
"Yes, sir. Follow this path. Nice
plum-tree you have there. May | see itp''
Old Itsi suddenly seemed very gruff.
+" Strangers must not be meddlers," he
muttered, and moved off.
In few moments Kon's dreamy ease
was interrupted by loud cry:
"Help1sp-pr'
Kon TURNED, and there was Itsi cling
ing to the side of ledge. The path
across the field, one that was safe enough
ordinarily, ran over ledge of rocks.
Itsi wanted, though, to improve on this.
and attempted to find a shorter way over
the rocks, and there the ledge was steep
and slippery. He made misstep and
down the face of the ledge he went slid
ing. Luckily, his fall was arrested bv a
projecting shelf of rock, but somehow he
sprained his foot. He dared not drop
lower, and with his sprained foot he could
hardly work his way up the rock without
dropninO the dwarf trea