McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1883-11-01

pdttcu tuc SlTl Ou tuo ucetu, duu cdi'
for Ler to keep stiff upper lip, ant
when the funeral came off pa and three
other old buffers that are pas chums
they acted as bearers. / had tried
couple of ministers to get them to g
along and say grace, but l guess the.
couldn't see any more money or glOr,
in it, for they turned me away with ;
soft answer, and I had about closed ;
contract with asort of amateur preache
thatgoes around to country school house
preaching for his board, but pa h
kicked on that, and said we should hav'
the best there was, and he sent word t.
our minister that he had got use fol
him, and he was on deck, and did hi!
duty just as well as though million
aire was dead. Well, rode with thu
little girl as assistant mourner, ant
tried to keep her from crying, but wher
we passed the house of correction
where her father is working out a sen.
tence for being drunk and disorderly
she broke down, and l told her l would
be her father and mother, and grand.
mother, and the whole family, and she
put her hand on mine and said how
good I was, and that broke me up, and
I had to heller. I don't want to be
called good. If people will keep on
considering me bad, and let me do
what good want to on the sly, it is all
right. But when she put that little
hand on mine, and it was so clean and
plump, something went all over me,
like when you step ON carpet tack, or
hit your funny bone against a gas
bracket, and felt as. though would
stay by that girl till she got
big enough to wear long
dresses. Everything passed off SPLEEN
did, and as a pauper funeral passed us
on the road, the driver smoking a clay
pipe, and the coffin jumping around, I
couldn't help noticing the difference.
[ was proud that pawned my bicycle
and got up a funeral that mo person
need be ashamed of, and when I
arranged with the washwoman to take
the girl home with her and be her
mother till 1 could make different
I felt what a great re-
sponsibillty rests on a family boy, and
when dismissed the hearse and car
riages and went nome, and pa took me
in his arms and said he wouldn't take a
million dollars for me, and that this
lays experience had shown him that
vas worth my weight in solid gold, and
hat he had stopped at the pawn shop
md got my watch and bicycle, never
elt SO happy in my life. Say, don't
'ou think there is heap of solid COM
ort in doing something kind of unex-
'ected, to make other people happy, or
[idn't you ever try it?''
sol course thereis," said the grocery
nan, as he passed the boy glass of
ider. 81 remember once [ gave poor
7oman mackerel, and the look of
ratitude she gave me, as she asked me
} trust her for half peck of potatoes,
ept me awake two nights just thinking
ow much happiness man can cause
trough one rusty mackerel. But she
ever came oack to pay for the pota-
,es. I suppose you will be marrying
lat apple peddler, won't youp"
'sWell, l hadn't thought of that"
lid the boy, as he looked red in the
zee, "but if it would make her feel half
J contented as it did for me to fix her
, for the funeral, and go along with
er, 1 would marry her quicker than I
at, when we get big enough. But I
ust 60 and pay the undertaken. He
ucK me for two dollars extra on the s
:iver's wearing a black suit, but I
less 1 can stand it," and the boy went :
it whistling. AS he passed out the +
'or without taking any fruit, the gro {
g off some plug tobacco to smoke, S
That boy is going to turn out all right, c
he doesn't have any pull back"