The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1883-01-05
TEDDY.
BY REBEcoA HARDING DAVIS.

In 1853 we lived in one of the hilitowns on
the upper Ohio. It was a dingy. dishearten-
ing place. The streets along the river were
lined with glass and steel mills, and the hills
wsling in the back of the town were honey
combed with coal mines. The air was
heavy with tho rolling bituminous smoke,
aid the low brick houses were stresked with
SCOT
II was as commonplace and ignoble a spot,
perhaps, as any in which men work and
live. Yet there, as everywhere else, heroic
deeds were simply and unconsciously done.
"Epaminondas did not need Olympus to
help him tn die. nor the Syrian sunshine"
One little incident of our life there may be
worth telling
Honor Neal was a plump, merry little
Irish widow who worked early and late as a
washer woman to support herself and her
son.
One day Mrs. Sprout, one Of her employ
ers-a lady who controlled he5 own family
30 well that she had time to manage the af-
fairs Of all her eighbors-stopped at her
gate.
"Honor, It is high time that great boy of
yours was put to some regular employment
He cannot spend all his life carrying baskets
OF clothes"
"Indade. an that's thrue An he's got
the foine head on him. Teddy has But he
seems to be dull In the use Of his hands,
mem"
lazy, Ell? Has he had any schooling p"
"Och, he has that snne. Father Ryan, he
saw the foIne head he had, an tux him In
the parish school, to make q praste OF him
/ inf bA Anil Y
home"
Hes good for nothing, then 2"
"Indade, mem, an it's he has the great
taste for spiders an bugs. He has a big
| collection"
| 'Send him here, tonight I'll get my
| husband to put him to work in the store
He ought to be earning something instead Of
spending his time In the fields gathering
/ bugs"
But Teddy proved as dull at weighing su-
gar and measuring molasses as he was at
/ Latin. he knew every Granny and hiding
! place In the hills within ten miles but be
never could find the starch and tape-meas-
ure In the shop. he could tell you the color
and habits of every bird, hsh OF moth In the
woods. but be stared yacantly at the custom
erS across the counter when they asked for
! Lone Jack, )" or ''Nigger head"
| In fortnight he had an empty corner of
the shop filed with his bottles of snakes. or
sheets Of beetles or butter flies. Did an old
woman want balm, OF . ba lsam apple, Ted
| dy was eager to run to the hills if his en-
! piOyer would allow him to 60. He was the
guide for many of the berrying parties
which the young folks started during the
summer. Everybody, in fact, liked the slow
spoken, gentle lad, whose big gray eyes
stared absently at them everywhere but In
the woods, where he became boy, keen and
! alert.
But in September Mr.. Sprout DISCHARGED
him as utterly worthless for shop-work. A
week later met his mother.
us It Teddy? Och an he's fixed for life.
now Mrs. Sprout she got the boss av the
Fenton coal mine to take him on thrial. It's
foine place, she says, an he'll make good
wages"
Poor Ted, shut up In g coal-pitl He
seemed to me to be born for q life in the
woods, as much rs . deer, or fox, or any
| other wild creature.
When the fall came we used to beg for
Teddy to Do free from his grimy black pris.
on for day, to 20 with US to the woods
but to no purpose. His mother said be had
'got down to stiddy work, an was done
wild runnin' wild like ground squirrel"
l met him once at nigbtfalI, creeping
home-thin and stopped, his eyes looking
big and wild in the black mass of coal. dust
that covered his face and clothes.
There had recently been some accidents In
the neighboring mines from the cavibG in of
| shaft
Take care Of yourself, Teddy, +" said
II wish you were out Of that pit"
Teddy's eyes twinkled in the black. 81
kin git out av that pit any minute 1 plaze, -
he said. lowering his voice. "I found q
crack back Of Presslsy's Hills a year ago. -
It's hole ladin' into the mine, Nothin'
kin happen to me in there"
The very next day there was an alarm
through the town. There bad been an ex
plosion In Fenton's mine, and thirty man
were buried. Whether they were living OF
dead nobody knew.
The church bells rang furiously. Every.
BODY left their dinners-it was about one
o'clock-and ran to the strests, Tha crowd
e~Fesss nsssf fsvu H.e ssK svu-> en-