Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-02-09
THE STORY JENNY TOLD.

Jenny Purvis is the youngest member
of our Club, but you can't always tell
about peoples smartness by their big
| ness. Her stories are the right kind for
telling. You know, there difference.
Some stories are sort of juicy, like pip
pins and redstreaks, and some are more
like dried apples sliced up and hung on
4 string, though Susan says the best
kind of dried apples aren't strung.
Dried apples are good enough when you
can get fresh ones, but of course any
body would rather have one out of a
barrel
Well, when it came time for the story,
the President of the Club said Jenny
must sit in a chair at the table; and SO
she did, but she couldn't tell worth q
cent. She tried and tried, and by and
by she said if we would let her sit by
Dora, and just tell the story to her, she
knew she could do it. We voted to let
her, and she turned her chair so she
couldn't see the rest of us at all, and just
begun: -
..This is a real true story, Dora, but
YOU needn't feel bad about the bad parts,
because it all happened years and years
ago. and the people that had the trouble
have had so many good times that l
don't suppose they care now. / am
sorry it happened, but if it had to hap
pen I'm glad [ know it. because some
times it does seem as if grown-up people
never were little. but just were born big
and proper, and never wanted to be
naughty.
1T is mostly a boys story, though
there was girl in it, too, a girl named
Meli>sy, and two BOYS, named Ebenezer
al Thar. fotb
tain Ezekiel Lanman; don't know what
they called him Captain for, but in those
days most everybody you hear about
was either Captain or Deacon, and |
s'pose he had to be something SOS to be
the winter he used to draw wood from
his farm, loads and loads of it, down the
river road to Waterbury, and he sold
hay and cattle, and lots of things; but
he didn't seem to get rich very fast.
One reason was that the boys didn't
help him much; of course they worked
because they had to, but they didn't
like to be farmers; they wanted to go to
college and learn to be lawyers or doc
tors or something; so their father work
ed all the harder, and let them study
with the minister Melissy didn't like
to be farmer either; she just hated to
churn butter and wash and cook, and
thought her mother might have a girl
to help her. She didn't want to be
doctor or a lawyer, because she never
heard of such thing in all her born
days, but she wanted to teach school;
and so she studied with the minister.
too, and her mother worked harder and
harder, and got tireder and tireder, and
Melissv never even noticed it, Now the
bad part of the story is coming and l
shall tell it just as quick as / can; but
don t you cry, Dora, because everybody
is all over it now. One day when the
boys and Melissy were all at the minis
ter's. man came and said that Captain
Ezekiel Lanman had fallen off from
load of wood and was killed, and he
didn't see what was going to become of
his family for they hadn't anything be-
forehand, and the boys weren't worth
their salt. He didn't know that they
could hear it, but they did; and how do
YOU s'pose they felt when they remem-
bered that their father wanted them to
90 with the wood and they were cross
about it?
.sWell. of course, they had to have
funeral, but | sha' MT talk about that,
and the mother was so worn out she
was sick in bed but l sha MT talk about
that either. Only one evening when
she was just beginning to sit up there
came knock at the door, and the Sc
lectmen came in. Jonathan was read
ing in his history, but Ebenezer was
leaning his elbows on his knees and just
staring into the fire, and Melissy was
thinking about a fairy story she had
read, and wishing some good little
brownie would pop out of the chimney
and bring them pot of gold, just as
YOU and do sometimes, Dora.
'.One Selectman was big and fat; his
name was Squire Hawkins, and the
other Selectman was little and kind of