The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1883-11-23
ssThe n Walks.''

Luke Sharp in Detroit Free Pr&ss.
I received q very important letter
this week. 1t contained the announce
ment that ''the baby walks" 1t is with
no desire to pun that l say that this Is
great step forward for the baby.
OF course this event has not been en-
tirely unexpected in u family.
have been looking every day for the
news for some time past. Our baby has
been q remarkable baby from the first,
and a large numoer of his immediate
relatives have been waiting with bated
breath for the tidings that his long jour
ney had commenced. The particulars
of this suspicious event are not at hand,
but I can see in my minds eye Just how
the wonderful occurrence took place.
The baby is out in the country staying
with his SISTERS and his cousins and
his aunts," and I suppose if they had
been near enough to a telegraph ONCE
they would have sent me a DIS
patch about the supreme event. AL
though the baby's fat legs are ridicu-
lousy sturdy. he has had all along a
great difidence in trusting, TO- them.
Now, last Sunday | held and still main.
tain that the taby took M distinct
StCp UoWolN5 1llo oONSfSu A"SAAS
news was increduloIsly received as be-
ing too good to be true, and the whole
family from his grandmother to the
kitchen girl, collected around to see if
he would take another, but the little ras-
cal seemed to think it was the biggest
kind OF a joke to bring his fathers rep
utation for veracity into question by
laughing and holding on to a chair, but
refusing all the while to move away
from it. 1t was all in vain that | held
out my hands and all the endearing in
ducements l could to get him to take the
necessary steps to come to me. He would
keep one hand on the chair and reach
out with the other; but not until he had
clenched his pudgy hand around my fin
ger would he let go the chair. Once l
had enticed him in this mannertoquit the
chair and then suddenly withdrew my
hands from his, leaving him standing
alone. He lowered a moment in waver-
ing indecision, and then instead of step.
ping forward sat emphatically down and
resumed his favorite style oflocomotion.
tie never crept as an ordinary baby
would have done, but sort OF hltcned
along. He would sit down, and, putting
again on the other, his fat little body
swaying this way and that, would hitch
along with his little dumplings of feet
ahead Of him, like q railway cowcat cher,
and in this way he moved over the floor
in a sitting posture at a speed that was
wonderful. Practice had made him so
perfect at this sort of movement that he
evidently came to look on walking as an
ornamental superhuity. 1t was almost
comical to see him forge ahead, rs the
boat racers call it, with both hands full.
holding them up from the floor and
swaying forward without any help from
them. He occasionally TOOK to his feet,
and with breathless haste would work
his way along the wall in a hand-over-
hand fashion until getting too elated at
his new excitement, would upset and
roll helplessly over on the carpet. These
accidents shook his confidence for the
time being in the stability of things, but
happily a baby's memory is short as a
baby, and the perils of professionalism
were braved again and again. Often the
| poor little fellow looked like a battle
scared veteran after his tumbles, but it
is a lucky thing that babies are exceed
ingly elastic, otherwise the population
of the country would not be Us great as
it is now. Anyhow, another competitor
has entered into tie great walking
match: 1.-THE baby walks"