American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-02-12

| CARDS, PAMPHLETS, 'OsIEls, EIt
win be promptly attended to at the
CITIZEN JOB FFIC II
such a dear lovely creature to sleep in
her bed at night, and sit up. in the door
beside her while she knit. she knew she
would be perfectly happy; but that
could never be. However, after much
dreaming. wishing and planning, one
day bright and desperate idea came
across her. That night she asked a
great many questions of Miss Roxy,
who at last gave her a sharp answer,
and told her to hold her tongue; but
the child had found out all she wanted
to know. and did not mind the crossness.
Next morning she got up very early.
and, stealing across the garnet, took an
old book from a dusty pile on shelf.
then with q pair of scissors she had
brought up overnight she cut out q
blank leaf, and pinned it, carefully fold
ed, into the pocket of her dress.
She did not go out-of-doors at the
school recess, but took the pen with
which she had been writing her copy,
and, smoothing the paper out, wrote this
queer little letter:
deer GENrII.MAN: am poor little CURL
| Il
out and haven't got no folks of my own. not
| SO much as very small baby. | W sh had
dol am real ionesnm vii you SEND i,v nee &c
Mis- Roxy Blair's house in Basel Vermonte
nit t ani mttn when am big viii pS pay for
| The letter once written, and waved
up and down under the desk to dry
the paper was pinned into her pockeS
again, and when the next pair of nit
! tens she knit were done, pressed.
caught together with a bit of yarn, and
sent up by her to the trunk. the daring
and odd little note was slipped safely
| inside one of them and lay there sew
eral months undiscovered.
One bitter cold day, at the end of the
next November, a young man. came
hastily into John Jackson's shop in st.
Joseph.
Hullor' he said 81 want a pair
of those knit mittens of yours. I'm
ordered off to the Denver station, and
they do say it's colder'n blazes there.
Handling express packages amt real
warm work, anyhow
And so, while little Nancy, washing
potatoes for dinner, wondered who had
got her mitten with the letter in it. Joe
Harris, Adams Express Agent for Den
yer. was examining the pair into his
with gale and half of wind swOoped
down ON Denver with all fury, and the
new agents teeth chartered and his
hands smarted as he stood waiting for
the train that had just whistled; he
pulled the heavy mittens out of his
overcoat pocket, twitched them apart,
and, sticking his left hand into one of
them, found the note. He had no time
to look at it then, for there was work
on hand; but that evening, in, the bare
little room at the hotel, he took the
letter out of his pocket, and, big, strong
man that he was, two great tears
hoped out of his eyes onto the eager,
anxious little letter.
''By jinksi she shall have her dollyr'
he exclaimed, fetching his fist down on
the rickety table, where his lamp stood,
with n thump that almost sent lamp
and all to the floor. But how to get il?
Denver was no place then, whatever it
is now, to buy dolls, and Joe was much
disturbed at it; but it happened that
the very next week he was recalled to
st. Louis on some business which must
be seen to in person; SO, Just as soon as
his errand was done, he went about to
al thg tii ID n 3 ND
1t last with doll. And welb-he might
be! the dolly was Of bisnno, with aaoVer
Bile eyes and real gold ...ir, Joints in
her arms and legs, ana & face almost as
lovely as real baby; for baby doll it
was, in long clothes, with little corals
to tie up its sleeves, and tiny socks on
its feet. Joe had it boxed up. carefully,
directed to Miss Nancy Peck, at Bassett.
Vermont, and then stepped into the
express Office, told the story, and read
the letter. The Superintendent had
little girls of his own.
alt shall go free all the way there.n
he said, and wrote ON the outside:
there by Christmas, sure. Free. X.
Y. H." -t ~. -. .a,,
So the doll-baby began its journey;
and the story Joe Harris told at St.
Louis was told and retold from one
to another and many
smile did it rouse on the tired faces;
and here one man tied on a gold dollar
wrapped in paper and tucked it. under
the box lid. and there another added a,
box of candy, and another a bundle Of
gay calico for a .cl1ild's dress, and one i.
q picture-book. each labeled "Merry
Christmas for Nancy" till the. agent at
The last large town had to put all the
things into big box, and pack the =
corners with oranges.
Can any words tell what Nancy
thought when that box climbed up to
Ter from Bassett on Mr.. fuckers wao-.
,n-the very same wagon that brought
her from the poor house? Luckily for
Ter, Miss Roxy could not leave her
bed, where she had lain month now ,
With acute rheumatism; for when she
heard Nancy's story she was angry
enough to box her ears well, and did
cold furiously, and call the poor child
many a bad name for her "brazen i'm
,udence," as she called it. But what
lid Nancy care when at last. with an
Id hatchet, she had pried off the box
id, and discovered its hidden treasures!
Hiss Roxy was glad enough of sweet
ipe orange, and stopped seolding-to
at it at once; but Nancy could not look
t another thing when the doll box was
pened at last, and the lovely sleeping
ably discovered. The child could not
peak. She threw her apron over her
cad and ran into the garnet. Miss
,oxy smiled grimly under her orange.
Little foolr' said she; "what upon
irth does she want to cry forp"
But all the expressmen smiled when
ach enc read a quaint little letter
ropped soon after into the Bassett
ost-office, and directed ITO all the
llams express Gentlemen betwenc Bas-
1t and st louis Miss" 1t was duly for
arded along the line, and ran thus:
ii; DERE GENTLEMEN.-I know by the Laybels
xoogood everybody was. and the dolly il
s'harft of All, but everything is good l.
the Thou ten thowsand times. am SO glad