The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-10-03
NEW SHOES.

81 wonder if there can be pair of
shoes in it?"
Little Tim sat ON the ground close
beside very ugly, dark-colored stone
jug. He eyed it sharply, but finding it
quite impossible to see through its sides,
pulled out the cork and peered anxious
ly IN.
"Can't see nothin', but it's so dark in
there | couldn't see if there was any
thing. I've great mind to break the
hateful old thing
He sat tor awhile thinking how badly
he wanted a pair of shoes to wear to the
Sunday-school picnic. His mother had
promised to wash and mend his clothes
SO that he might GO looking very neat
indeed, but the old shoes were lar past
all mending, and how could he 90 bare
foot? Then he began counting the
chances of his father being very angry
when he should find his bottle broken.
He did not like the idea of getting a
whipping for it, as was very likely, but
how could he resist the temptation of
making sure about those shoes? The
more he thought OF them the more he
couldn't. He sprang up and hunted
around until he found a good-sized
brick-bat, which he hung with such
vigorous hand and correct aim that the
next moment the old bottle lay in
pieces before his eyes. How eagerly he
bent over them in the hope of finding
not only what he was so longing for,
but, erhaps, other treasures. But his
poor little heart sank as he turned over
the fragments with trembling fingers.
Nothing could be found among the
broken bits wet on tie inside with a
bad-smelling liquid.
Tim sat down again and sobbed as
he had never sobbcd before; so hard
that lie did not hear q step beside him
until voice said:
"Well! what is all this?''
He sprang up in great alarm. It was
his father, who always slept late in the
morning and was very seldom awake so
early rs this.
"Who broke my bottle?" he asked.
Il did," said Tim, catching his
breath half in terror and half between
his sobs.
''Why did you?" Tim looked up.
The voice did not sound quite so terri
be as he had expec ed. The truth was
his father had been touched at sight of
the forlorn figure, so very small and so
sorrowful which had bent over the
broken bottle.
"Why," he said, 81 was lookin' for a
pair of new shoes. I want pair of
shoes awful bad to wear to the picnic.
All the other little chaps wear shoes"
"How came you to think you'd find
shoes in bottle?'
"Why. mamma said so. | asked her
for some new shoes and she said they
had gone into that black bottle. and
that lots of other things had gone into
it, too-coats and hats, and bread and
meat and things-and | thought if l
broke it I'd find 'em all, and there amt
a thing in it-and mamma never said
what wasn't so beforehand l thought
'twould be so-sure.
And Tim, hardly able to sob out the
words, feeling how keenly his trust in
mothers word had added to his disap-
pointment, sat down again and cried
harder than ever.
His father seated himself on box in
the disorderly yard and remained quiet
for so long time that Tim at last
looked tinidlyup.
I'm real sorry broke your bottle,
father. I'll never do it again"
''No, l guess you won IT, he said,
laying q hand on the rough little head
as he went away, leaving Tim over
come with astonishment that father had
not been angry with him.
TWO days alter, on the very evening
before the picnic, he handed Tim q
parcel, telling him to open it.
New shoes! new shoes!' he
shouted. "Oh. father, did you get a
new bottle and were they in it?''
"No, my boy, there isn't going to be
new bottle. Your mother was right
all the time-the things all went into
the Lottle, but you see getting them
out is no easy matter, so Pm going to
keep them out after this. IN. y CD
SerUer.