The Red Cloud chief., 1881-01-13
DEAR BOY.

DSh "SA
FATHER had gone over TO the nexi
township to a committee meeting, and
had taken mother with him, so Dorcas
and l had the whole care of Mabel, q
pleasure that did not often fall to us.
She was sitting in her little rocker, with
the white kitten in her lap and N lit.
tie red cheek pressed against my knee,
as she looked in my face while | read.
Dorcas was sewing as usual, but more
interested in the reading than Mabel.
who could not understand a word.
Dorcas was twelve, and had never read
Jane Eyre, and l was tired of telling
her the story in snatches. We were
half through the book. and as l read
to the passage where she comes TO ST.
Johns door, Dorcas laid her work
down to listen. had reached the eli
max where the old servant closes the
door upon her, and st. John appears
on the scene and speaks as one having
authority.
At this supreme moment there came
Q sudden, loud and peculiar knock at
the door, so close TO me that | ~involun-
tarily caught Mabel, while Dorcas
seized a chair and stood in a pugilistic
attitude, with q face as white as snow.
for l felt that the home was left in
my care, so l reused up old Susan, who
was asleep in the kitchen, and we
asked cautiously through the panels
who was there, but received no answer
but q low moan, and l felt sure it was
some one in distress, SO L opened the
door. a little bit at a time, and at last
looked out but could see nothing.
''Who or what speaks?" l asked. ter
rifed at the unexpected sound, and
incapable now of deriving from any
occurrence a hope OF aid. A form was
near-what form, the pitch-dark night
and my enfeebled vision prevented
me from distinguishing. With a loud.
long knock the newcomer appealed to
the door.
The whirled the dead leaves in
great heaps and sifted them over the
door. step; there was a mound of them
lying there, and under it something
stirred: My heart gave a great bound.
"Bring the light, Susanr'
Old Susan brought the light, shading
1t with her hand. 1 stopped. trembling
all over, and touched something; it
gave a moan and sat up!
1t was only a boy, after all; a poor,
sick, wasted, small boy. that seemed to
be starving. We carried him into the
house, and tried to make him talk, but
he did not seem to understand what
we said, and moaned and cried as if in
great pain.
"What shall we do with him?" l
asked, in despair. ~ do wish father
would come, he will have to stay all
night now, so you may as well put him
in the little room, Susan, and make him
comfortable, poor little fellow!'
He was such a pretty boy, wen in
rags and sickness; he was so thin that
, his bones actually seemed worn
through, and his great black eyes stared
frightfully; he was o sick to hold his
head up, and Susan carried him into
the little corner DON and undressed
him as she would a babv. while Mabel
stood by the door and said ''pitty boy"
in her small bird-like voice.
When father and mother came home
We met them at the door. and Dorcas
and | both tried to tell the story at the
same time.
'Well," said father, sternly, "a /
understand it you have taken in a lazy
tramp, who. when we are all fast asleep,
will get up and let his friends in to rob
and murder.
Mother had disappeared in the bed
room. Now she came out and said:
"He is very ill. indeed, Jephtha. 1t
would not surprise me il he died be-
fore morning. He is burning up with
fever"
Smallpox. most likely" observed
Maybe its diphtheria," cried moth
er, in alarm. ''Oh, girls! how couldyou?
Just think of Mabel."
Should We have left him out there
to die?" asked Dorcas.
"Tain't nothing but a cold" said old
Susan. Hes only starved to death;
besides. you hain't no need to fear.
Some yarb tea and a nights rest ill
fetch him round all right"
He had the .yarb' tea and many a
long nights rest, but he never was any
better; a. Susan would say, .Nothin'
but starvin' did it." but he had starved
q little too long. Nature did not reas-
sert herself. and ''Boy," as we all called
him. could not take hold again of the
life he had so nearly dropped.
lit amt in him. said old Susan,
"'pears like he gets whittier and whittier
every day"
At first, while he seemed like a sick
boy-tramp, we all kept away from him,
except mother, who took the best of
care OF him; then one by one we drift
ed in to see how he was getting along,
and at last the little corner bedroom
was general rendezvous, and Bow
sitting up. white and wasted, its center
of attraction. We knew from the first !
he would never get well, and we tried
to find his friends. but he seemed to be
alone in the world. This much we
could see for ourselves, he was OF gen.
tie blood, and had been used to home |
care, but he spoke a foreign tongue and
but little of that. ALI day he would sit
bolstered up. and play with wan fingers
with Mabels toys. and when we found
his sickness was notcontagious we used
60 put our darling On the little bed,
where she would sit and talk to him in
her baby lingo by the hour. She is
such ahappy child, it seemed as if she
charmed pain away with her cooling ba-
By fondness. The first thing in the
morning it was .'boy" or "pitty boy"
and the last hour of her bedtime when
she would kneel with his thin hand in
her soft curls and say her little make
believe prayer that we taught her, she
would lisp "dear boy"
But there came a night when Boy
seemed 10th to have her 60 and chung
to the little dimpled hand. and kissed
1t with pale, cold lips. and then she
threw both little arms about his neck.
and in her pretty, ~beseeching tone,
said. "By-by, dear boy"
1t was her first whole sentence, and
we were so proud, and she wa to say
IA - L. ~ Cd <ls~- ~ thu i