Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1882-03-24
SAM SPERRYS PENSION.

SAM SPERRY'S PENSION.
For more than two years it was the joke
of Bloomington Centre-that bright hope,
that idle dream, that fond delusive fancy,
known as "Sam Sperry's pension"
The wits who congregated in the bar-room
and grocery Of the Bloomington Centre post
Office sometimes had only a sad conscious
ness of futility in their best efforts the col
umn of facetia in the local newspaper fire.
| quently pallcd ON the senses; but Sam Sper-
| ry's lank and STOPPING figure as he descended
| faithfully, twice every week, from his lone
| home on the distant mountain, to "learn the
news from Washington" bore with it an aro-
ma of never failing interest and diversion.
"Auy fetal dokkerments arrived for me?'
| Sam was accustomed to inquire. on entering
the postofice, with an air of ill-concealed con-
| sequence and on being answered in the neg
ative, the look Of sudden surprise and incre-
| dulity which overspread his features was al
ways as fresh and real as it had been during
the first six months he had undergone the
blow. His recovery was as complete and in
! Simultaneous, when, seated on the counter with
the "boys," he derided the very existence Of
| his proud nations capital in terms of the
most reckless sarcasm, or, in softer mood,
induced by certain grateful potations, pallia-
ted the weakness of official judges with for
bearance which his listeners found even more
| irresistibly entertaining.
They think they're comm it over me,
| down there 10 Washington" Sam observed on
one occasion, rolling his eyes upon his near
neigbbor on the counter with look which
was dark without menace, and at the same
| time forcbly introducing the sharp point OF
his elbow to that gentleman's ribs-"they
think they're comm it over me, down there
to Washington. And all the time they're
hsngin' of about my pension, what's accumu-
| latin what's accumulatin'T' Here Sam 6
companion was actually obliged to move an
inch or two away in order TO escape the too
severe emphasis of that emaciated elbow.
"Back pay!" chuckled Sam; that's what's
accumulatin' back pay. Let 'em hold of
ten or a dozen years longer, and I'll be swim
min in back psy-Tll be fairly wallerin' in
| it,"
With which the deeply confidential aspect
| of Sans face changed to a triumphant sim
per, and, turning to nudge another compan
ion (as he supposed) on his right, he inadver-
tently thrust his elbow through the wrap.
| pings of a large parcel of sugar, the contents
of which we're scattered over the grocery
| floor.
Sans expression of dismay was pitiful.
"Haye it charged to your back pay, Sam, -
cried an uproarious though cheerful voice.
| Sam took up the cue, and ever after that
| his descent from the West Mountain, which
| had before been significant of a small invoice
of skunks' fur, blueberries, and the like, at
| the Bloomington grocery, missed the ham
pering weight of those hardly acquired pro-
| ducts, and Sans business transactions at the
counter-the understanding being good be-
! tween the grocer and those jolly Bloomington
boys-wore rounded by a regslly careless,
"Charge it to pension, Ned-reg'lar pension
| OIL hack I dOY,'f which "
Rarely, very rarely, Sam really did find O
document waiting for him st the postofice,
marked with the mysterious seal of the De
partment of the Interior, and opened it with
| fingers Of trembling expectation, only to tno
| u printed sheet of painfully -worded statistics,
| to the effect that 'besides the two hundred
and ninety thousand filed claims, others were
constantly being entered, but that in due
| time each would receive careful considera
tion," &c. His first heat of desperate indig-
nation yielded later to tears of unaffected
sentiment, as he murmured; Pension!
guess so, boys!-the grass'A be growing ovei
my grave before see any pension" and latei
still to smiles and hope again.
The gunshot wound in his right hand upon
which Sam had based his claim on the ma
tional bounty. was of small account compared
with the harm which he had suffered, both in
body and soul, from the soldiers camp life
! the Southern marshes-above all, the South
ern prisons.
81 don't know what Sam might "a been, ol
what he might not a been" said Judge Hol
comb, prosperous citizen of Bloomington
who had been incarcerated with Sam at An
dersonville. "'Pon my honor, boys, he be-
gan uncommon bright, though he want new
er what ye'd call pertick'ler tough or long
winded. But can tell ye one thing, San
| Sperry want never the same man after be
come out O. that prison"
Even after this asseveration, do not know
that any of the frequenters of the Blooming
ton bazar remarked that the boyish head or
! Sans bent shoulders, with its rings of close
curling light hair, was of Byronic cast, oi
that his eyes, when not flmy from the eff
fects of ague or rum, were of such perfect
and heavenly blue as is seldom seen even il
the undimmed orbs of children Sam was
their Punch, their by-word, their theatre
comque they would have paid twice the
price of his lordly, though prudent, negota
tions at the counter rather than miss the zesi
afforded by his semi-weekly appearance.
With a touch of real pity, too, perhaps, fol
their old comrade, they csioled with him il
his forlOrn hope, encouraged in him at al
times the freest expression OF his sentiments
flattered him, and regaled him. And often
alas the feet which had come shuffing dowI
| ANoesAJ
enough, retraced their steps in still more
desultory and uncertain manner, and chance
passers-by have told how Sam, pausing al
| length by some wayside fence, frequently
nudged the post with his elbow, as though
having Just committed to it some gravely con
fidential or facetious remark.
There was one person whom Sans weak
nesses and dereliotions failed to inspire will
appreciative mirth. In the noighborhood OF
Sans house on the mountain there were two
other homes One was possessed by Isaac
Travers with his belligerent wife and numer
GUS small children; in the other, Mary Ellis
worth dwelt alone with her mother.
Years ago, Sam and Mary had gone down
hand in hand, to the school kept in the little
hamlet at the foot of the mountain. Mary
still keeps the green covered 'speller" il
which she and Sam studied their lessons to
gether And they were at the head of The
class always, the mountain boy and girl-a
ways at the head of the class, aud alway'
irst and most imperious in playi Mary
small brown-eyed, sharp witted, and Sam
handsome and tall, with his cherubic curlI
and sauey, red lips
Then Sans parents died, aud he went oyei
10 help John Ellsworth in his mill, and the
work prospered under his strong blithe hand
And as the days passed by, Sam and Mary
| shrank coyly away from the atfeotlonate init
macy of their childhood, and ended by falling
as deeply in love with each other as though
they had now for the first time exchanged
Rlanoes across the Tapturous bounds of man.
hood and maidenhood Their love, having