St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-08-26
The Wise Father.

Milne uOll KNOW , perhaps because
his brown, short -nOsed face was little
like dog's-perhaps because he was
bold and resOlute, good fighter, and
tough defender of his rights and opin-
ions. l hardly think it was this last
reason, however. Boys are not much
given to analyzing character, and are
apt to judge things and people by a
happy gO-lucky instinct which some
times leads them right and sometimes
wrong. But whatever the reason may
have been, TOwser was Toms school
name, and stuck to him through life.
Even his wife called him so-when he
grew up and had wife-and the last
time | saw him, his little girl was
strOking his hair and saying, "Papa
Towser," in imitation of her mother.
TOwser isn't pretty name, but it
sounded pretty from baby Mays lips,
and | never heard that Tom objected
to the title, either as man or boy.
But to return to the time when he
was a boy.
"Why mustn't ?" he said again.
"All the fellows are going except me,
and I'd like to, ever so much"
at isn't question of like" answer
ed his father rather grimly. "Its a
question of can and can't. All the
other boys have rich fathers or, if
not rich, they are not poor like me.
It's well enough that their sons should
go off on camping parties. Twenty
five dollars here and twenty there isn't
much to any of 'em, but it's great
deal for you. And what's more, Tom,
there's this that if they'd take you
| fnr N For
you, any way You fix it. | pay for
your schooling, and | paid for those
boxing lessons, and may be, another
year, III manage the subscription to
the boat, for | want you to grow up
strong and ready with your fists, and
your mind, and all parts of you. You'll
have to fight your way, my boy, and |
want you to turn ont true grit when
the tussle comes. But when it's IA case
of camping out a week, or extra holi-
days, or spending money for circuses
and minstrels and such trash, shut
down. You'll be all the better off in
the end without this fun and idling and
getting your head full of the idea of
always having IA good time Work s
what you're meant for, and if you don't
thank me now for bringing you up
tough, you will when you're man,
with may be boy of your own"
| Mr.. Kane was silent, gruff, long
headed man, who never wasted words,
and this, the longest speech he had
ever been known to make, impressed
| Towser not a little. He did say to
himself, in a grumbling tone, 'Pretty
hard, think, to be cut off so at every
turn" but he said it softly, and only
once, and before long his face cleared,
and taking his hat, he went to tell the
boys that he couldn't join the camping
party.
"Well, say it's a confounded shamer'
declared Tom White.
~ call your pa real mean," joined in
Archie Berkley.
"You'd better not call him anything
of the kind while Pm around" said
| TOwser, with an angry look in his
eyes, and Archie shrank and said no
more. Tom was veXed and sore
to let any boy speak disrespectfully of
his father.
81 say, though" whispered Harry
neck, and leading him away from the
others, 'I'm real disappointed, old
fellow. Couldn't it be managed I'd
lend you half the money"
| Harry's mother was widow, well
off, and very indulgent, and he had
more pocket-money ut command than
any one else in the school.
TOwser shook his head.
"NO USE" he said. "Father don't
want me to go, for more reasons than
the money. He says Pve got to work
hard all my life, and I'd better not get
into the way of having good times
it'd soften me, and I'd not do so well
by-and-by."
"How horrid :" cried Harry, with a
shudder. 'I'm glad mother doesn't
talk that way"
Harry Blake was fair and slender,
with auburn hair, which waved natu-
rally, and delicate throat as white as
girls.
Tom looked at him with sort of
rough, pitying tenderness.
"Fm glad, too" he said. "You'd die
if you had to rough it much, Harry.
I'm tougher, you see. 1t won't hurt
men
A sturdy satisfaction came with these
words that almost made up for the
disappointment about the camping out.
Still, it was pretty hard to see the
boys start without him. Ten days
later they returned. The mosquitoes
were very thick, they said, and they
hadn't caught so many fish as they ex-
pected. Joe Bryce had hurt his hand
with gun-lock, and Harry Blake was
half sick with cold. Still, they had
had pretty good time on the whole.
Mr.. Kane listened to this report with "A
dry twinkle in his eyes.
"TwO hundred dollars gone in giving
twenty young fellows pretty good
time" he said. "Well, all the fools
aren't dead yet You stick to what
you're about, TOwser, my bOy.n
And Towser did stick, not only then,
but again and again as they went on,
and first this scheme and then that was
started for the amusement of the boys.
Now it was an excursion to Boston
next, the formation of an amateur rifle
company after that a voyage to the
fishing banks. Every few months
something was proposed which fired
Towser's imagination and made him
want to join, but always his father
held firm, and he had no share in the
frOlics. 1t seemed hard enough, but
Mr.. Kane was kind as well as strict /;
he treated his son as if he were already
a man, and argued with him from a
mans point of view so, in spite of an
occasional Outburst OF grnmble, Tow
ser did not rebel, and his life and ideas
gradually moulded themselves to his
fathers wish.
At sixteen, while most of the other