The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1883-03-29
TOMMY.

life none is more hopelessly hidden, or
pressed more painfully upon the con-
| sciousness than the fate OF little children
| born to cruel and hopeless conditions.
OF many such pathetic figures none seem
| to be more touching than that of little
| Tommy. Not that he was sad; far
| from it, He was brown, nimble,
| quick-witted scrap of a boy, every ounce
| of flesh hard and wiry; every atom OF
| intelligence alert TO get what he wanted
and to escape that which he had learned
| to dread. Poor little midget he was
| early an expert in the art of dodging.
| | see him again, rustling through the
| chestnut woods. his keen eyes spying
out, and his quick fingers seizing the
| brown, half-hidden nuts. Martha is be-
| hind him,-a year younger, round
| eyed, gentle; not like Minnie, two years
| her senior, burdened with the cares and
the weight of a perpetual baby and two
or three toddling things a little older.
The pocket in Tommy's ragged jacket
would be plump and full while Martha
had scarce half-a-dozen nuts close shut
in her small fist; but though Tommy's
/ teeth were sharp and quick like HIM
self, and his own store went rapidly, he
would divide with her from time TO
time as long as it lasted.
Often, very often in the summer
mornings the two tiny barefoot Great
ures appeared at my kitchen-door, Tom
| my always spokesman, but terse and
chary of words. Pail in hand, it was,
Mother wants some milk" or Mother
wants a little sugar" with the half
wistful upward glancing of the dark
eyes. Attempts at teaching him small
| courtesieS were not very successful,
| though be did learn to say ''Yes, sir"
! dropping it with funny little jerk, in
reply to lady or gentleman alike. Tom
my came sometimes on his own account
and wanted ''to work" He would rake
the gravel, weed in the garden, bring
wood or pick up potatoes, working
nimbly and diligently for several hours
together, and well pleased with the fee
of dinner Cat which he ate but spar
| ingly) and small coin. He soon be-
came in his half-savage way small
wanderer; often from home spending
nights and days, his whereabouts un-
known and nnsought. Poor little stray
away! he was soon to wander on a
! longer and more mysterious journey.
But / have not indicated Tommy S
notion of home. What can the word
mean to such an one? Tommy's father
was vicious and depraved character,
! a Young man still. married in boyhood
to girl of fifteen; an untought ire
! sponsible young animal; strong and
with certain grace of natural impulse,
but with hardly glimpse of moral re-
straint or law The father was thin,
| 1.-THE. active creature himself, never idle,
! but full Of dangerous tendencies. In
! his half-drunken moods. which were
not infrequent, he beat bis wife and
children with swift impartiality, rain
| ing blows and curses indiscriminately
upon whatever came in his pathway.
| His transoressions of the law were bold
| and numerous. To kill sheep upon q
neighboring farm and carry it home
over his shoulders seemed TO him per-
| haps no worse than to carry off, as he
| liked equally well to do, string of trout
that would create envy in every eye
/ that beheld them. He was himself the
/ spawn of war, taught to steal by an IL
reclaimable mother, while his hard
working father was wearing the coun-
! trv's blue Yet his naturally quick
mind soon grew impatient with 50
wretched a life. He hated his own
noisy house, full of unkempt and often
| hungry children. His wife, who did
not fail to receive him with upbraiding,
was answered with the foulest abuse.
/ This was the atmosphere that Tommy
| breathed at home. a cat-like kindness,
a cat-like cruelty alternated in the
mother; in the father brutal Indifference
was only succeeded by brutal injury.
But the poor little waits were taken
into the broad heart of nature. All the
summer days they roamed the flower
| spangled fields, or they rested and
wandered and explored in the dim,
| beautiful woods. Who knows what the
wind told them?-what the birds sang
/ TO them? But winter comes. Winter,
| with these small folk in one small, close,
smoky room, never too clean, where
cooking and sleeping and nursing of
children, drinking and quarrelling, all
went on,-this was not a cheerful time.
| And the harsh New England winter in
! the hill-towns lasts SO long.
The baby fell upon the stove and
burned all one side of her poor little
face 70 the bone. Never mindi what
small thing a SCARED and disfgUred
| face may bc! Winnie, poor, little foster
mother,-Winnie and one of her charges
were sick! They had '.black erysipe-
las, result immediate of bad air and
improper and insufficient food. Winnie
! struggled through, but the baby, the
next to the youngest, died; then Tom
my was taken down Sickness was
foreign to the littlewildling; he scarcely
would succumb, and soon he was up
again. One day he spent in the dear,
free woods, where his father was chop
ping. He watched with eager delight
| the cold, noisy blue-iay as it came with
| shrill cries and carried off the crumbs
/ which he threw it from his dinner. He
studied the tracks of the white hares,
| and his father, who was in an unusual
ly good humor, promised to bring his
gun the next day AID try to get one for
their supper. There's woman to
| Hartsville II give ten cents apiece for
their skins!'' cries Tommy with kindling
eyes. But he came in at night very
weak and chilly, and huddled his small
body close to the stove by which his
mother was frying pork for her hus-
| bands evening meal. He got in her
| way IS- NhV W 90 81 cPly thdb
he seldom ''got clip" She ordered
him roughly out from under my feet ;;
but in !. minute he wasin the same place
again, his thin lips blue, his small face
pinched and heavy. This strong armed
woman did not like repeating her COM
mands; she prided herself upon making
| her young ones take care of their
selves" As she found the small, shiver-
ing morsel again an obstruction in her
way she reached stick of wood that lay
behind the stove and struck him sud-
den and unexpected blow upon the
| head 1t was not the first time,-oh,
/ no! it was not unusual. Tommy made
little reply; he crept rather stupidity
away, and lay down in a corner upon
the floor. When the pork was fried
| and the acrid tea was steaming upon
the table. Winnie went TO him and pull
| led his sleeve. ''Come. Tommy, sup
per's ready" she said. But Tommy
| pould not coyoe Tommy was daadt-