Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-10-14
4 TWO-HEADED FAMILY.

Everybody talked, Of COURSE when il was
known that Bob Towne had run away, and
had taken his brother Ned with him, and ev-
erybody said II was a shame. By everybody
l mean all the people in the little Mississippi
town in which Bob's mother lived. They did
not know why Bob had run away, and they
did not know where he had gone but they
talked about it all the same. They said It
was shame for him to leave his widowed
mother, and worse still to take hislittle brother
with him, though not one Of them could have
suggested any possible way in which Bob
could have helped his mother by staying
Bob was ''curious, however, and people new
er think well Of persons whom they do not
understand. Bob was fond Of books, for one
thing, aud because he read great deal, and
did not ''sit around" in the village, they said
he was morose and so when the news spread
that Bob had gone away in the night, and
taken his brother with him, everybody said,
II told you so," in q tone which indicated
that that was the very worst thing they could
say.
Bob's mother had letter, however, which
convinced her that her boy was not heartless
at any rate. She said nothing about this let
ter-found in Bob's room-but she read it
over and over again, and cried over it, and
even kissed it sometimes in secret. The let
ter was brief and simple II said
"MY DEAR MOTHER, Please don't feel bad
ly at my going away it is my duty. When
found. after fathers DEATH that the estate
was worth so little, and that you had almost
nothing except the house you live in, made
up my mind that must be the head Of the
family, although 1 am only fourteen years
old. After good deal of thinking, have
hit upon plan to make some money, think,
and as Ned wants to join me, I'm going to
take him with me. Neither of US can earn
anything here, but believe we can where
we're going. At least you wont have us to
feed We shall work for you and for our lit
tie sisters, and If we make anything, it will
all be yours. II we don't, we will at least
have tried. When we succeed we'll let you
know where we are. We hate to go away
without kissing you and little Kate and Mary
and Susie, but we must, else you will never
let US go. Good-by, and God bless you,
mother"
That was all the trace Bob and Ned left be-
hind them, and nobody could guess where
they had gone.
Two days after their disappearance the
boys presented themselves TO q gentleman
who had been friend of their father, living
fifty miles away, and after e1acting from him
pledge of secrecy, Bob introduced his bust
ness.
"You said last year at our house that you
would let any man who chose to get up your
| Ahho ubo ~ AOh bch 1CaAbf VI
of that sort"
"Yes, 1 said this have ten thousand
acres on the Tallahatchee; part of it was un-
der cultivation before the war but it has
grown up in cane so that it is worth almost
nothing now to sell, and haven't the capital
nor the energy at my time of life TO get it up
again. 1t is superb land. capable of yielding
three bales of cotton to the acre, and If it
was under cultivation again it would sell for
lolIn Tl,aN 4
10 let young Bowling go there and get up as
much as he pleased of it, cut and sell all the
wood he chose, use the land rent free for ten
years, and at the end of that time receive
from me a bonus of five dollars an acre for all
the land brought under cultivation. But
what of it Bowling didn't accept the offer. "
Bob explained his own purpose to accept
it in small way, going into the swamp coun-
try, and making what money he could with
his own hands, for his friend knew he had no
capital.
But my dear boy" said the gentleman,
"a white man can't work in the swamp, and
you have no money to hire negroes with"
"Did any white man ever try n" asked
Bob.
mot that ever heard Of"
Besides" said Bob, we're not white
men we're only white boys, and we wont be
very white either, after we've been at work a
few months"
After a good deal of explanation and dis
cussion, Major Singer consented to let the
boys try their plan, though he had no conf
dence init
'Ill do this, he said. ''You may go into
the swamp, cut and sell all the wood you can
to steamboats, when they come up, and culti-
vate all the land you choose to grub, without
any charge for rent. I'll give you a mule
and cart, and enough bacon and meal TO
last you for a month or two. By that time
you'll be tired of the experiment. and you
can return the mule and cart on your way
home"
Bob asked for the privilege of paying for
the mule and cart out of the proceeds OF his
first crop, and, laughing, the Major consent
ed, naming one hundred dollars as the price.
Five days later the boys ate their supper of
bacon and ash-cake on a log on the banks of
the Tallahatchee river. 1t was lonely, des-
olate swamp region, and the log on which
they sat was twelve miles distant from the
nearest human habitation. They were tri-
he lonely there in the wild woods, but they
had a camp fire and courage, and those go a
long way
The next day they set to work and built a
hut to live in, with rude bunk for a bed.
Then Bob ''prospected." Much of the land
about them had once been cultivated, and
there were no trees of any considerable size
upon the parts which had been fields but
the growth of cane and brush-wood was ap-
palling.
''Never mind" said Bob. 'It is only Sep
tember now, and wen get few acres cleared
! by spring Our first work must be TO cut q
big pile of wood TO sell to the steamboats,
when they come up; If we don't, we can't
buy ploughs or food for our farming opera
tions"
'When will the boats come ?" asked Ned.
IL r
or the river gets high enough 1t isn't navi-
gable now, but when it RISES the steamboats,
come up TO get loads of cotton"
With brave hearts the boys set TO work
ehopping and hauling cord-wood. They made
very little progress the first day, but after
they had practieed for few days they be-
came more expert, and at the end Of a week
they found by measurement that they could
together cut and haul about cord each day.
One grown man would have accomplished
more than this but the boys were satisfied.
They had brought grindstone and some iron
wedges with them, and there was no reason
to doubt that they could maintain their aver
age of cord day. The mule kept in good
condition on swamp grass and young cane.
Bob laid out, next the river, the little field
which he hoped to get ready for cultivation,
and before attacking the timber land he took
care to cut into cord wood all the trees in that
little patch which were big enough for the
purpose Then the young pioneers went in
to the woodlands little further up stream,
and there made rather better progress. The
fall was unusually dry. No rain fell, and
the river got steadily lower. Meantime the
wood pile had grown by the last Of November
to more than sixty oords-enough to pay the
boys well for their work whenever the steam
boats should come. But when could they
Gomez This question was giving Bob good
| IL. =
meal were running low and he had spent all
the money he had for the axes and other i'm
plements. II the river should not rise before
the meat gave out, what should he do Bob
did not know, and the fact troubled him.
In one way the dry season served him we'll