The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1882-03-16
FULL OF GRIT.
<ITHE stage has gone, sir, but
there's a wilder lives here
60 and she's got boy, and
"a he'll drive YOU over. He's

| cnIrS HS IL OI1Fe you over. lie
a nice little fellow, and Deacon Bal
lets him have his team for a trife
and we like to get him a job when
ever we cam
1t was hot day in July. Ava,
up among the hills that make tn
lower slopes of the Monadnocl
mountains, friend lay very i'll. Il
order to reach his temporary home
one must take an early train for tn,
nearest station, and trust to tn,
numbering old dusty coach, tina
made daily trip to K-n. Th,
train was late, the stage after wait
ing a while was gone. The4andlorC
of the little white hotel appeared il
his shirt sleeves, and, leaning his ell
bow on the balcony rail, dropped
down on the hot and thirsty traveiei
what comfort could be extracted
from the opening sentence OF my
sketch.
"Would he not come in and take
some dinner?" Eyes" "Would he
send round for the deacon's team -
eyes" "And the boy?" eyes"
And the dinner was eaten, and
the ''team' came round-an open
buggy and an old white horse, and
just as we were seated, the door OF
the little house over the way opened,
and out rushed the "widder's boy"
In his mouth was the last morsel
of his dinner; he had learned
evidently how to "eat and run +"
His feet were clad in last winters
much worn boots, whose wrinkled
yellow legs refused to stay modest
ly within the limits of his narrow
and faded trousers. As his legs flew
forward, his arms few backward
in an Intellectual struggle to get
himself inside of a jacket much too
short in the sleeves.
"There he is" said the hostler;
"that's Wilder Beebe boy l told
him I'd hold the deacon's horse
while he went home to get bite"
The horse did not look as if he
needed to be held, but the hostler
got his dinner and the boy APP
preached in time to relieve my mind
as to whether he would conquer
him, and turn him wrong side out
He was sun-browned and freckled,
large mouthed and red-haired, a
homely, plain, patched little yankee
boy; and yet, as we rode along
through the deep summer bloom
and fragrance of shaded road wind
ing up the long hills in the glow of
the afternoon sun, learned such
lesson from that little fellow at my
side as | shall not soon forget. He
did not look much like a preacher,
as he sat STOPPING forward a little,
whisking the flies from the deacon's
horse, but his sermon was one which
1 wish might have been heard by
all the boys in the land. He did
not know he was preaching, or he
would have stopped, 1 think. As it
was, had to spur him on now and
then by questions, to get him to tell
me all about himself.
"My father died, you see, and left
mother the little brown house OPP
posite the tavern. You saw it,
didn't you, sir-the one with lilac
bushes under the window? Father
was sick long time, and when he
could not work he had to raise
money on the house. Deacon Ball
let him have it, little at a time,
and when father was gone, mother
found the money owed was almost
three hundred dollars. At first she
thought she would have to give up
the house, but the deacon said: Let
it wait awhile and he turned to
me, and patted me on the head, and
said: When Johnny gets big enough
to earn something, l shall expect
him to pay it. 1 was only nine
years old then, but now 1 am thir-
teen; 1 remember it, and remember
how mother cried, and said: Yes,
deacon Johnny's my only hope now;
and 1 wondered what L could do. l
really felt as if 1 ought to begin at
once, and yet 1 could not think Of
anything could do"
"Wen what did you do? asked,
quickly, for was afraid he would
stop, and wanted to hear the rest.
"Well, at first 1 did very funny
things for boy. Mother used to
knit socks to sell, and she sewed
the rags to make rag carpets, and
helped"
allow? What could you DOR
"Well, the people who would like
a rag carpet could not always get
time to make it. So / went from
house to house among the farmers,
and took home their rags, old coats,
and everything they had, and out in
the wood shed ripped and cut them
up. Then mother sewed them, and
sometimes 1 sewed some, too, and
then / rolled them into balls and
took them back to the owners, all
ready to be woven into carpets"
''But did that pay you for your
workY'
"Oh, yes;we got so much a pound
and 1 used to feel quite like q
merchant when | weighed them out
myself with one of our steelyards,
But that was only one way; we have
two or three old apple trees out il
the backyard by the wall, and we
dried the apples and sold them
Then some of the farmers who hac
good many apples began to senC
them to US to dry, and we paid then
so many pounds all dried, and ther
had the rest to sell"
"But you surely could not dc
much in ways like thisY'
"No, not much, but something
and then we had the knitting"
"Not at first, but after awhil
mother began to have rheumatism
in her hands, and the joints becam
swollen and the fingers twisted, ant
it hurt her to move them. Then
learned to knit; before that l Away
wound the yarn for her. l had t
learn to sew little, too, for mothe
did not like to see holes withou
patches"
And he looked half smiling at th
specimens on his own knees.
"You did not mend thosef"
asked.
Yes sir, but 1 was in a hurr
and mother said it was not done 8