American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-02-12
WIG GOT THE slITTEN !

WIG GOT THE MITTEN!
| "DEER ANT RoxY,-Ive he'd consider bic
many calls for mittins along back this winter
time. It's come into NV head that mabbe Yon =,
| Jest as lives make a leetie slthin TO buy snun
an, handkereheEs with. odd times. and rex
| lectin you used to be master hand to knit
this is for to say that eff you'd fall to and knI
| lot of them two-threaded mittins we boys sci
sion. Eff you re 'agreebie why drop me a line
| to III Blank st st Joscphs. you see its mostly
| "Yours to command, JOHN JACKSON"
| The lands sakesr' calculated Miss
Roxy Blair, as she laid down her spec
| tacles after reading this letter. "John
was alters the beateree for gumption.
alters said he'd make spoon Or Spite a
horn, an do b'lieve it's the spoon.
| Well said! I've got full twenty run o.
blue yarn spun last year, an some
red: guess there. won't be no white
wanted in them parts. I'll set to an
get lot more red over to Miss Billins'
Wonder eff she'd git wind ont, and GO
| to maxim mittins herself?-she beats
all to question folks up. I'll tell her
Pm a-goin' to teach Nance to knit; and
SO be: 'ta'n't no lie. l will teach her
to knit an help on the mittins. 1t IL
be suthin for her to do nights, stead OF
readin' all the newspaper scraps she
can pick up" 81
Nancy Peck was Miss Roxy's bound
girl; the old lady lived alone in small
brown house on a hillside far above
Bassett; a grass-grown track ran by the
the hilltop, over and away into the
heart of the Green Mountains.
Little Nancy had been bound out to
Miss Roxana only about year when
John Jackson's letter reached Bassett
Miss Roxy was getting old; rheumatism
had laid hold of her, and she could not
hobble up and down hill to the village
any longer: so she resolved to take a
young girl into her house to wait on her.
"'Twon't cost great deal, y she said
to herself. There's the gardin a. n t
half planted; she can drop potaters as
well as man. and hill 'em up, too; and
can set more beans outside the fence;
when Isr'el comes up to spade the
gardin, he can fix up place. 5r more
d 5ssii G ma 1 f meals cheap. Fact
is, anyway, I durstn't be up here alone
no longer, and hirin' some Teller or
mother to do arrands would cost more'n
it come to. There's mas old gownds
can be cut over for her, sech as is too
ragged for me.''
Having made up her mind, the old
lady persuaded a neighbor who some
times drove by her house to mill to
take her in, and leave her at the poor
house. which was on his way, until he
came back with his grist. When he re-
turned he found two passengers, for
Miss Roxy had fixed on Nancy for an
experiment.
"'Twas Hobson's choice" she ex-
pla ned to Mr.. Tucker. as they drove
along; "there want no other gal there
She's real small, but Miss Simons says
she's spry an handy, and she ha' MT got
nobody belongin' to her. so's't shafn't
be pestered with folks a-comin' round"
In six months little Nancy had be-
come so useful that she was formally
bound out to the old lady, and now she /
went to school in summer half day,
and had learned to read and write toll
erably. She was very lonesome in that
solitary house. There were children at
the poor house whom she played with,
tended and loved, but Miss Roxy had
not eyen.a cat, and when Nancy, in the
longing of her loving little heart, took |
a crook-necked squash out of the shed, |
tied. calico rag about its neck, and |
made dolly of it to be company for |
her in the little garnet where she slept,
Miss Roxy hunted. it up-for' she kept
count of everything she had--boxed
Nancy's ears soundly, and cut up poor
little yellow Mary Ann, and boiled her
in a pot for pies.
Until the mitten business began, Miss
Roxy found it hard to find enough work
for tie child's active fingers to do; but
after that she had no trouble in keeping
the little girl busy, as poor Nancy found
out to her Sorrow. The evenings of
spring, when she used to love to Sit on
the doorstep with her apron over her
head and listen to the frogs peeping in
a swamp far below, were .ow spent in
winding hanks of yarn, or sOrupplinp.
with stiff little fingers, to slip tie looms
off ono needle and onto another, her
eyes tirea witlrthe dull light of a talow
candle, and her head aching with the
effort to learn anstIne slips her dullness
earned from Miss Roxy hard hands
1t was worse as summer caNe on ana
she had to knit, knit, all the mo with
not minute to get new posies ~ har
garden. Only by early dawn di, sbe
get her chance to watch the blue Ii ~
wort open its sunny cup; the white ega /.
of blood-root buds come suddenly ouG
of the black ground; the tiny rows of
small flowers that children call dutch
man DTecCucS vi
their red stems; the azure sand-violet,
dancing columbine, purple crane's-bill,
lilac orchis, and queer moccasin flower
make that hidden corner gay and
sweet.
Even when school began, she had to
work still. Miss Roxy was determined
to send big box of double-knit mittens
to John Jackson before winter set in;
and as fast as they were finished they
were dampened, pressed and laid away
in the old hair trunk in the garnet wh""e
Nancy slept.
Poor little girl! she hated the sight OF
and this summer wild wish |
came into her head, that grew and !
grew, as she sat alone at her knitting, |
until it quite filed head and heart, too.
A child from the city, spending the
summer near Bassett, came now and
then to school as Il sort of pastime. and
brought with her doll that really went
to sleep when you laid it down: shut its
bright blue eyes, and never opened them
until it was taken up!
1t seemed to lonely little Nancy that
such a doll would be all anybody could !
want in the world. If only Nancy had |