Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-09-21
"She's looking that lovely. Caleb,

she isl said brown old woman of sixty
with handkerchief tied over her head.
"Lord, for this once !" pleaded Caleb,
lifting his hands high above his head
"For one moment only let my eyes be
opened, that they may see the face [
have loved and never known" The
poor people stood back, as they heard
his prayer, with their breath drawn in.
Almost they expected a miracle to be
performed they not heard of such
things in the churches ?-and for mo-
ment the film to be lifted from Caleb's
eyes, that they might rest on the face
he had loved so well before the cold
earth shut it in for evermore.
All in vain. No answering Ephphatha
was breathed down from the silent ever
lasting heavens. Caleb's hands fell
down helplessly to his side, and Jack
crept out of a corner and licked them,
and then the parish people sent their
undertakers to carry Matte away to the
same big cemetery where her mother
was sleeping.
All gone but Jack Well, dog is
something, after all, to have left one;
and when one is old and blind and
poor, one doesn't expect great deal in
life, you know, but is just thankful for a
crust of bread to eat, some straw or old
clothes to lie down on at night, and
sunshiny wall to lean against in the day
time; SO the dog was altogether some
thing extra in the way of mercies
Chow he do live on is a marvel" one
to another would wonder, watching the
old man creeping down stairs day after
day to take his stand in the streets; and
the dog is like child to him now,"
they would say, as they noted Jack sit
ting on his stump OF q tail, waiting for
a gap in the crush of carts and carriages
before he would venture to lead his
master across the busy high-road.
It was in those days that Jack first
began to "fend for himself" AS long
as the two Matties lived, there was al-
ways plate of odds and ends of some
sort-scrape it together how they might
waiting for him inside the door when
he came in from his mornings work; but
after they were gone, things were differ
ent. 1t was hard work enough for Caleb
to get his own daily bread and collect
the eighteen pennies which paid for his
miserable little cupboard (attic it was
supposed to be- at the top of the house;
SO when he come In at 4 o'clock in the
winters twilight with loaf of bread
and few pence, the cord was unknotted
from Jacks neck and the poor animal
set free to forage for himself in the alleys
and cutters. Jack in this way became
very punctual in his habits. At 4
o'clock he was released from duty; it
took him about an hour to find his din
ner in the streets, ard punctually at 5
| no n Inf no GnOolyInn o1n11pr
| by-street with bone in his mouth or
some remnants of some fish, lodging
skillfully between passers-by till he.
reached home, where, at his masters
feet, he would finish in calm enjoyment
his hardly earned meal-to which, be it
noted, Caleb never failed to add some
portion of his own, however scanty ithad
| been.
This winter of 1881 tried Jack and
Caleb sorely. In the summer things
had been little better with them; peo-
pie had little more money to spend,
and few more half-pence would find
their way into Caleb's hat; and Jack
also would sometimes get pat on the
head and biscuit or two thrown to him;
but in the winter things began to go
very hardly with them. Not that the
people of the house were ever unkind to
them. Poor souls they were kind
enough, as far as they had wherewithal
to be kind; and one, who remembered
the old man's'wife would come in and
clean up his room for him; and another,
who remembered the blue-eyed Matties,
would patch up his old clothes for him;
and all would give kind word OF pat
to the faithful Jack, now the old mans
sole companion and protector. More
than this they couldn't do. You see,
when people have hard work to keep
their own and their children's bodies and
souls together. they can't be expected to
go about distributing loaves of bread, Or
have many remnants of meals to put
down in their cutters to feed stray dogs
and cats.
When the long frost set in in January,
many and many a night did Jack and
Caleb go dinnerless and supperless to
bed. Chimes are a little rough, Just
now, but we'll see them out together, eh,
old friend?" Caleb would say when Jack
came to lick his hand by way of good
night and to testify his opinion that,
whatever happened, his master was in no
sense to blame. Then they would turn
|
tress had gone the way of his bedstead
now, with his head on an old box for a
pillow, and the faithful Jack huddled IL p
on his feet.
Would the frost never come to an end =?
1t was all very well for ladies wrappedin
their warm sealskins and velvets to say
what healthy winter it was, and for
young people with rosy cheeks, as they
looked out their skates and pulled on
their thick gau1tlets, to discant on the
glories of a ''fne frost ;" Caleb and Jack
taking their stand against the wall-srln-
shiny, alas! no longer would have told
a different story. All, surely never did
the east wind sweep down SO ruthlessly
before, never before did snowstorms last
SO long, never before were streets so for
lorn and empty Of passers-by. Caleb
and Jack went home one terrible dav at