Dodge City times., 1884-07-10
SANS STORY.

Rob thinks [ had better tell this story.
l suppose because he teelS sort of bash
full: and Uncle Rufc SAWS hero ne, er
ought to tell his own story. Rob pre-
tends that il wasn't null of ANYTHING
that he did, but we all think it was
pretty smart. Rob is smart, l. he is my
brother. He can puzzle the school
master asking arithmetic questions, and
he ism afraid of the minister. If any,
body i'll this town ever gets to be Presi-
dent, ] know pretty well who it will
be. Bat Bob says to 90 on telling the
story if m going to, and not put in so
many iouri hes
We live at White Oak Farm, with
Uncle Rufe and Aunt Penelope, and
Dolly. There are three OF us-Rob and
Philly and |. am Sam. Rob is twelve
and Philly is eight. an | am great
deal older than fhilly, but not quite so
old as Rob. We haven't any father or
mother, but Aunt Penelope and Uncle
Ruie think just rs much of us as they
do OF Dolly; anyway none of rs can see
any difference. Dolly is eight, but she
is girl, ard she seems kind of small
and young. We take care of Dolly.
White Oak Farm is splendid big
farm, but Uncle Rufe has been growing
poor lately. A bad man cheated him
out OF a great deal OF money. and then
it was a bad year for crops, and it costs
ever so much to take care of us, Rob
thinks. He is in IN awful hurry to grow
up on that account, and lie tries to learn
everything. He knows almost as much
about farming as Uncle Rufe does, and
he can handle tooS like carpenter |
don't see OF what use those things are
when he says he's going TO be Il civil
engineer, or an architect, but he says
he wants tore ready 70: anything.
Well. as l was saying, Uncle Rufe has
grown poor, SO poor that he had to
mortgage the farm, and then he could
moi pay the interest on the mortgage
when it came due. He fei, pretty badly,
/ can tell you, that day when he went
over TO Easton to tell the man that he
couldn't pay him. He didn't know but
the man would foreclose, and take the
farm right away. and then we should
be homeless. We loved every inch of
White Oak Fa m. and to think of its be-
longing to anybody else was awful. It
was December day, and there was
snow in the air. Aunt Penelope went
with Uncle Rufe because she wanted to
sec her sister, Aunt Maria, who lived in
Easton. and they were not coming home
until the next day. 'Lisha, the hired
man. and keziah. the hired girl, were
left to keep house and take care of us.
OF course we could take care of our
selves, but Aunt Penelope used not to
think so; perhaps she thinks differently
now.
They went away in the forenoon. and
that afternoon keziah got message
that her sister, over 1T Oxford Mills,
was very sick, and wanted her. Of
course 'Lisha had to harness old Pegasus,
and carry her over there. Ee made
great fuss about leaving us alone, and
so did keziah, though She was awfully
worried about her sister, but we were
not afraid.
White Oak farm was mile and half
from the village, and in a pretty lone
some place, but tramps didn't often
come around at that time of year, and
we couldn't think of anything that
could trouble us. keziah could, though
She's awfuliy nervous. She said we
should let Dolly's apron get on fire and
she would be burned to death, or we
should tumble over Beelzebub. the old
black cat, who always would sit on the
stairs, and break our neeks. or 60 out
to the barn and drop lighted match
on the hay, and burn everything up. or
put kerosene on the stove, and blow
everything up, or choke ourselves. or
eat the rat poison on the top shelf of
the closet. can begin to tell you all
the things that keziah propheSied would
happen TO US, but she didn't once think
CT what did happen! That's always the
way with people that worry. Rob says
it's never any use.
1t had begun to snow in the middle of
the afternoon, and it was very bust |
ness-like snow-storm.
Il don't know about getting back on
wheels tonight said 'Lisha, .'but |
shall have tc tryit, for can't get along
on runners now"
We told him not to try to get back |
that night, for we shouldn't be q bit
afraid to stay alone all night, but he
shook his head. When l saw him do |
shat knew he'd come back if he had |
to walk 'Lisha is like that; you can
depend upon him.
As he was driving out of the yard he
called to Rob 10 he sure not TO let any !
stranger into the house, The bank IN |