The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-03-03
NANCY'S LETTER.

~, NANCY'S LETTER. evif
DEER ANT RoxY,-Iye he'd considerable
many calls for mittins along back this winter:
mostly they're wOve goods, tibet don't last no
time. Its come into my head that mabbe you'd
jest as lives make a leetle slthin to buy snuff
an haadkerchers with, odd times, and rex
this Is for to say that eff you'd fall to and KNIT
q lot of them twO-threaded mittins we boys set
by SO, Why could sell 'em for ye-on commits
to III Blank st St,Josephs. you see its mostly
drovers and sech wants 'em. 3 a-ssj993 t5ss Ia
"Yours to command, JOHN JACKSON"
"The lands sakesr' calculated Miss
Roxy Blair. as she laid down her spec
tacles after reading this letter. 80 John
was alters the beateree for gumption.
alters said he'd make a, spoon or Spite a
horn, an 1 do b'lieve it's the spoon
Well said! Eve got full twenty run o.
blue yarn l spun last year, an some
red: guess there won't gbe no white
wanted in them parts. Iii set to an
get lot more red over to Miss Billins'.
Wonder eff she d git wind IT, and 90
to maxim mittins herselfp- she beats
all to question. folks, up. I'll s,teD her
I'm argoin' to teach Nance to knit; and
so be: TIA MT no lie.a will teach her
to knit an help on the mittins.s 1t I'll
be suthin for her to do nights, stead of
readin' all the newspaper scraps she
can pick up. III ia .xglzs,,5f Ia .tsir-.i -
Nancy Peck was Miss Roxy's bound
girl; the old lady lived alone in small
brown house on q. hillside far. above
Bassett; a grass1grown track ran by the
house, through4the woods that clothed
the hill-top, over and away into the
heart of the Green Mountains. aa, d'gea
~ Little. Nancy had been bound out to
Miss Roxana only, about. a 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.
Il ..Twon't cost a great deal, she said
to herself. !" There's the gardin an t
half planted; she can drop potaters- as
well as a 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 a. place for more
beans. and lngin meals cheap. Fact
is, anyway, Idurstn'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 aownds
can be cut over for her, sech as is too
ragged for mel fass l.ss 4-fsailt, |
Having made up her mind, the old
lady persuaded q 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. 4 II q9ss..is
Twas Hobson's choice,o she ex-
planned to Mr.. Tucker. as they drove
along; I" there want no other gal there.
She's real small, but Miss Simons saws
she's spry an handy. and she ha' n tgot
nobody belongin' to her. so s'tf sila n t
be pestered with folks a-comin' round
In six months little .Nancvs had be-
come so useful that she was formally
bound out TO the old lady, and now she
went to school in summer half a 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 sheAplavedw with,
tended and loved, but Miss Roxy had
not even cat, and when Nancy, in the
longing of her loving little heart, took
a crook-necked squash out of the shed,
tied a calico rag about its neck, aud
made a 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 ND poor
little yellow Mary Ann, aud boiled her
in pot for pies. s,.ss 49, h $3.50 49,, . ~
Until the mittcn business began, Miss
Roxy found it hard to find enough work
Tor the child 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 sitson
the doorstep with her apron over her
head, and listen to the frogs peeping in,
swamp far below, were now spent in
winding hanks Of yarn, or struggling. ]
with stiffIlittle fingers, to slip the loops
off one needle and onto another. her.
eyes tired with the duh light of a. tallow;
candle, and her head aching with the
effort to learn and the siaps her dullness
earned from Miss Roxy's hard hands.
It was worse as summer came on, and
she had to knit, knit, all the time, with,
not minute to; get new posies for her
garden. Only by early dawn did she
get her chance to watch the. blue liver
wort open its sunny cup; the white eggs
OF hiood-root buds come suddenly out
OF the black ground; the tiny rows of
small flowers that children c - Dutch
mans breeches'' hang and iiutter1 on
their red stems; the azure sand-vioIet,
dancing columbine, purple crane s-bill, !
lilac orchis, and queer moccasin flower
make that hidden corner gay and
sweet. fa a@s s4l sHos.sd
Even when school began. she had to,
work still Miss Roxy was determined
to send q 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 where
Nancy slept. T - 7 a5I 81 z I
Poor little grill she hated the sight of
and this summer wild wish
came into her head. that grew and