St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1882-02-11
. JENNYs STORY.

Jenny IurNlS Is LIE OulSpSSG neuiUCI.
of our Club, but you can't always tell
about peoples smartness by their big
ness. Her stories are the right kind Tor
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
string, though Susan says the best
kind Of dried apples aren't strung.
Dried apples are good enough when you
can't 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 a
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' see the rest of us at all, and just
begun:
ssThis is 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 |
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-np people
never were little. but just were born big
and proper, and never wanted to be
naughty.
cit is mostly a boys story, though
there was girl in it, too, a girl named
Melissy, and two boys, named Ebenezer
and Jonathan. Their father was Cap
tain Ezekiel Lanman; / don know what
they called him Captain for, but in those
days most everybody you hear about
was either q Captain Or Deacon, and
s'pose he had to be something SOS to be
heard about. He was farmer, and in
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. es
some 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 girl
to help her. She didn't want to be a
doctor or 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
Melissy never even noticed it. Now the
bad part of the story is coming and I
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 a
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 dc
you s'pose they felt when they .remem-
bered that their father wanted them to
go with the wood and they were cross
aboutit? .asg
.sWall of course. they had to have a