Daily Kennebec journal., 1881-08-08
NO. 1856.
Uncle Tins Talent.

Uncle Tim held up his saw, and squinted
along the teeth to see whether it was closing
its Set" He failed to decide, in his surprise
at finding that he was taking aim at the min-
lister. who stepped in range just at that mo-
ment on the street side of the fence. His eyes
came into gear again As he laid his saw on
the wood pile and stepped up to the fence,
saying, "Well. it is queer. It's only min
ute ago l was thinkin' about you. Twas
thinkin what a good sermon that was you
gave us last Sunday mornin' an how l would
tell you so the first time saw you" Uncle
Tim was the wood-sawyer and day y's-work fac-
totum for the village. Unlearned as he was,
the minister always missed him if he was alb
sent from church--he was such a helpful lis
tener. And TO Uncle Tins compliment he
replied, "You told me that you thought it
was at the time, in the way you listened to il;
though, for that matter, you always seem to
be interested, l don't suppose you know
what a comfort such hearer is to a minister.
If all the congregation were like you,
think it would turn my poor sermons into
good ones" ''rhank you" said Uncle Tim
II don't always get the hang of everything
that's said, but l should get less if l didn't
give attention. An l always say to myself,
The minister, he works hard to write his
sermons, an ii folks don't listen to 'em. it's
pretty discouraging.' An says, sYou can't
put much into the contribution-box, Tim. an
you can't talk in prayer-meetn, but you can
count one in listenin'; you can try to pre-.
cate what other folks do" 1.-The talent for
appreciatng is an excellent one to have" re-
marked the minister. "Well, as look at it,
it's one as isn't denied to anybody" said
Uncle Tim. "An' if it's the only one I've
got. I'll try not to wrap it in a napkin. When
Deacon Mason does me good by one of his
experience talks in prayer-meetin' think it's
| no more than right he should know it.. P'raps
he has times of thinkin' that he can't say any
thing worth while an it stans to reason that he
can talk better if he knows he's doing some-
body some good. An when Widder Hatch
is maxim such a gritty fight to keep her
children together, an give 'em an education,
think mebbe il makes it easier for him to
stand up to it if neighbor drops word of
'preciation once in a while" The minister
said nothing, but there was n look Of "'precia-
ton" on his face, and Uncle Tim continued,
1.-The other day see the young school-ma'am
was lookin' worn out and sober like. l
imagined them big boys from the Holler was
| worryin' the life out of her. An l didn't
know how could help that. But at noon
just went down to the schoolhouse purpose
| to tell her how nice your gran'son was gettin'
along with his 'rthmetic. An she said it
was better than half dozen cups of tea, for
| cheerin' her up-she did An when see
Sanfords boy take little Irish girls part
| that the other boys were tormentin, an they
jeerin' him, l went mp to him an | says,
| Uncle Tins nothn' but wood-sawyer, but
| he knows enough to see that you've got the
stuff of gentleman in you You see old folks
| don't notice young ones enough. An there's
Jim Brady, drinkin', card-playin', shootin'
| match creetur, who goes around good deal
like dog without any owner. He knows
folks despisc him. But Jims right handy
| with tools, and when | take my saw to him
| to have it filed. an tell him he does that job
better'n any other man l know, think it
helps him to have little more respect for him
self, do. You see it's dreadful easy to look
at faulis--at faults in children, at faults in
| hired folks, an faults in tavern-keepers, an
faults in prayer-meetins. But as look at it
we'd do great deal better to think about the
good things in EN-"