St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1882-04-29
NAOMI AND THE BOG.

| Many years ago, in a far-aWav vii
lage, there stood the strangest-lookin
house you ever saw-a one-story house,
rather small, very broad on the ground,
and sloping up to no breadth at all at
the top. And besides sloping up toward
the top, it curved toward each end.
And somehow the chimney looked as if
| it had been built outside and then
pushed down through the roof, instead
of growing up from within in the ortho-
dox way. The upper part of the house
had once been green, and the lower part
had once been white If you had seen
it, you would certainly have cried out:
"Why, it looks just like boat turned
upside down. And in fact, that was
just what it was-a real boat that had
been tossed about on the waves all
through its youth; had carried out the
fishermen full of hope to their work on
the dim horizon, and had borne them
back merrily singing in the late evening.
And here it was in its old age, clear up
on dry land, with its chimney and win
dows and doors, trying to get off its
sea-legs-so to speak-and look like
real, genuine house. But it had not
settled very far from the shore. ALI
around it were wide sandy plains, with
here and there growth of oak and pine;
and on a windy day you could hear the
beating of the waves mingle with the
signing of the pines.
One afternoon in the early spring.
time, the little door stood open wide.
What pleasant little room to enter!
though, to be sure, it gives you sort of
"capsized' feeling to look up at the
keel overhead, and see the ribs curving
up to it from either side. A pretty,
quaint, cheerful, homelike room, for all
its rough table and chairs and lack of
ornament.
On this particular day, then, little Ma
omi-lame Naomi-and her father, were
having very earnest conversation.
Father cried she, "you will surely be
back before tomorrow night. You know
the moths mi ght settle any night now"
You don't know what that means, do
you? Well, Naomi's father-her mother
had been dead more than a year-was
poor, very poor; but by great
care and hard work he had saved
enough to lay out little cranberry
bog, about mile from their house,
right by the running brook. 1t costs a
good deal to lay out a bog-to haul on
the clean sand, to set the straight rows
of vines. To watch their growth, too,
is a matter Of no small moment, for in
the spring, just when the vines are in
flower, there come swarms of little flies
or moths, settling all over the bog, and
laying their tiny eggs in the heart of
hfoCSn7,N. fhnCn
worms later on, and spoil the berries.
There is one way to cheat the little
creatures; for all the Dogs are made be-
side running brooks, and as soon as the
moths appear the man who is watching
turns the course of the stream right in
to the bog, which is thus soon flooded,
and the little moths are drowned. Then
the brook is allowed to run on its old
channel, for the berries are saved.
Now you know what Naomi meant
when she said the moths might come. -,
:. Yes, child" her father said, Eve
could i'll afford that loss. lshall only be
away during the day; never fear.''
Early the next morning the father
plodded down the footpath toward the
river, little Naomi hobbling along beside
him with the aid of her crutch. In a
moment he was in the boat, padding
slowly, first on one side, then on the
other.
"Be sure to come home early. father
cried Naomi; and he had just time to
nod and smile, when bend in the river
shut him out of sight. (,
All day long Naomi sat by the door
way in her little rocking-chair-one her
father had made for her-sewing away
and singing away just as happy as if she
had been a Princess.
To be sure she was very lame-always
had been; so lame that she was obliged
to sit still most of the time: 'tbut then,
said she, "no one has everything, and |
am SO much better off than most folks"
At last it began to grow dark-just a
little-so that Naomi could not see to
sew very well, and she laid her work by to
watch the red clouds sailing by, and see
the young leaves just rustling in the
faint puffs of air. Then it became dark
er and darker, and a little chilly, too;
SO she shut the door, and stirred up the
embers on the hearth, and threw on
more wood, so that the little room fairly
glowed with light. and all the pans on
the wall flashed like diamonds. Then
she drew out the table, and put on the
pretty red cover and the heavy crock
cry, and hung the kettle on the crane.
And the heart of the old boat must nave
reioiced at the warmth and light, when
it remembered that it would never again
face the stormy sea-