The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-05-07
A Little Missionary.


Merry. It was slight alteration to be
sure-so slight that only the quick ear
noticed the difference-but it suited the
wee, winsome lsssie so well that it babe
fair to cling to her with the burr-like
tenacity of all pet names.
Mr.. Morton, Merry's papa, declared, in
protesting against it, that ait was with
pet names as with some tedious guests
once let them into your house, and it was
the hardest thing in the world to get rid
of them" And Mrs. Morton added, with
her gentle voice, that "papa was right,
and that, like the Pussies, the Pinkies,
the Brides and the sDotties,' which
seem SO silly when the household darlings
grow to dignifed womanhood, Merry ,
was well enough for baby days, but it was
time to stop, or the child would be Merry ,
to the end of her days."
"And why shouldn't she be Merry to
the end of her days? If everybody was
as merry as she, this would be heaven
upon EARTH" muttered the cook, who, in
taking orders for breakfast, had over
heard Mrs. Morton's remark.
So they began calling the child /" Mary,
Mary" accenting carefully the first syl.
III,
as she tied the strings of the close little
bonnet under the roguish face, would
murmur "There, go now, Merry dear,
and stay in the sunshine, or you will take
cold"
And papa, when he came home at
night, weary and worn with business
cares, finding his easy chair wheeled
before the blazing fire and his slippers
placed by the fender, would say, softly
Merry again God bless the thoughtful
little fairy /"
Merry had heart in her little body
large enough to take the whole world in
its keeping. If there was anything
human or brute, which was especially
forlorn, or afflicted, or suffering, she at
once appointed herself its guardian saint,
its ministering angel. The day when she
had gathered around her little regiment
which, like Falstaff's, had hardly "a shirt
and half to the whole company" Mrs.
Morton called her husband to the win
dow, and asked in despair, GLOW shall
we ever put stop to these low tastes of
Merry's ?"
But that gentleman, when he saw his
daughter sharing her dessert of nuts and
raisins with the forlorn little waits, re-
piled, "Let the child alone. Merry is like
some fine, silken fabric: no dust ever
clings to her, and the good she will do
these friendless children is incalculable."
More than once the family physician,
hearing the pattering of little feet in the
hall, and opening the Office door, would
find the sweet-faced child holding in her
arms dog who had come out Of fight
with torn ear, or perhaps manned and
bruised kitten. And the good man, smi-
ling. would try to relieve these brute ills,
the sympathetic little nurse standing by
all the while, cooling like dove in her
low, sweet voice. Once he could hardly
still the tempest of her grief when he
told her that all his skill could not bring
back to life the little bird whose Joyous
warbling some wanton sportsman had
silenced forever.
Many time the neat American girl in
the kitchen had threatened to "give warn
ing" on account of Merry's raids on the
larder in behalf of street beggars. az
don't object to giving poor man bit
now and them" said Lizzie, l." but can't
be cooking all the time for a lot of lazy
tramps. If the child would only give me
a chance to prepare myself abit; but be-
fore / know it, in she comes with dirty
harp-player or ragged beggar, and asks
me to give 'em something to eat. 1t kind
OF confuses me like, it comes 80 sudden
and how can body say No. with all
those hungry eyes a-looking 80 greedy at
the cooking victuals? So my pantry gets
emptied, and my clean floor has to be
scrubbed all over again, just because /
hadn't the spunk to say No."
The last straw was added when Merry
one day ushered into the kitchen an or
gan-grinder, his wife, with sickly baby
in her arms, and ragged urchin of ten
years, and insisted on dining the whole
family-the monkey included. Lizzie
founced up stairs to her mistress, and
Mrs. Morton, thinking the time had come
to put an end to these impromptu lunches,
followed the exasperated girl to the
kitchen. But when they found the whole
party, at Merry's invitation, seated around
the table in expectation of the good
things to come, and the monkey, at sig
nal from his master, walked up to Lizzie
and CALAMITY dotted his cap, and stood
looking at her with his great, beseeching
half-human eyes, mistress and maid Joined
in hearty laugh, and the monkey had 9
good share of the forthcoming dinner.
1t was very much with the city in
which this little girl lived as it is with
all large cities. Only few blocks from
the fine rows of stately houses and the
clean, broad sidewalks over which trippec
scores of rosy-cheeked, happy children
and black-eyed French 6onnes trundline
carriages freighted with plump babies
were other streets filled with dingy tene
menthouses, and swarming with shrill
voiced, slatternly women and half-clat
children streets where the days ant
nights were hideous with harsh world
and oaths; streets where the only thing
that bore the stamp of divinity were tn,
faces of the little children and the blessed
sunshine, which, creeping into forlorn
shabby rooms, made them seem for mo
ment as if an angel had suddenly stepped
across the threshold.
Among the children of "Mud Alley
was dark-eyed little Italian boy, whos'
parents were among the first victims O
one of those malignant fevers so common
to crowded and ill-kept tenements. Thel
the homeless little waif drifted into tn,
keeping of a rough, drunken couple
who took the child solely for the purpose
OF learning him the beggar's trade. Blu