The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1884-12-24
F. MERRY CHRISTMAS 10 ALL.
A Christmas Story THAT Tells Of Pol
Iy SyI.esrers Hard Lot, aud How
Her Beautiful Dream Was re
allied

garnet. 1t was a cold, dreary place
where the rats scampered about, and
the mice scuff1ed and squeabed IN
every corner. She lay very still
the tangled MAS of deep chestnu
nut curls was brushed away from
her pale, delicate face, the great eye:
were shut tight, and their heavy
fringe of dark lashes never quiverec
but there was a smile on her parted
Inns sweet as summers own sunshine
and SO wistful it would have made
anybody with heart ache to see
it.
But Mrs. Tarhox handn't any
heart.
She came numbering up the stairs
this morning with Fish in her arms
in a great passion.
"Get up, you little carrot head
get up, say You're lazier than q
snail. Ef j git at We | guess you'll
move pretty considerable spry y
"Dit up, tallct-hed, else III bang
oor echoed Fish who was almost
three years old, but baby still. and
horrid one.
The smile ON Polly's tender mouth
changed to o piteous culver as she
flung aside the bedclothes, and with
shiver jumped out OF bed. II was
dreamin'," she said in such a sad
voice.
"Dreaminl III be bound you're
allus dreamin day in and day out
but you've got to dream out o bed
earlier n this. mornin's, now | tell
We. Hurry up nd come down
There. he's most ready for his break
fast. md I've had to lug this feller
all around, and Vi-oh-ly she wants
her shoes tied md her things hooked
up."
"Tum along tick, for me kick 90 !!
shouted Fish and Polly having
huddled on her thin and ragged
clothes. slipped into her shoes.-an
cid pair of Mrs. Tarbox 6, and scut-
tied down stairs as fast as she could, !,
She didn't stop to comb her hair or
to wash her face, but took Fish In
her arms and went into the bedroom
10 dress Viohly, (whose name was
Viola , a scrawny girl some eight
wears old, with thin light hair, weak
blue eyes, and a sallow complexion,
fretful and sickly, but, after all,
kinder to Polly than anybody else
in the house. and loved accordingly.
Master Fisby was set down on the
floor while his sisters boots were
laced. her hair brushed, her clothes
fastened. and the rent in her pink
calico frock basted up; and he
amused himself by overturnlng his
mothers mending-basket, which
Polly must set to rights; then she
spread up the bed, and shouldering
Fish. went into the kitchen. There
at the breakfast-table sat the rest OF
the familv,-Jehiel Tarbox, the faith
er, rough, stingy, coarse farmer,
whose loose lips, red eyes, and stu
pid expression told the road he had
taken at once; Viohly, her mother,
and two big boys, Jackson and Ever
EFT, the terror and torment of Pollys
life,-twe young brutes who thought
a poor trembling child fair game,
and took pleasure in her shrieks and
supplications. Now Mrs. Tarbox
took Fishy on her lap and fed him
with fried pork, cold cabbage, and
hot biscuit yellow with soda, while
Polly fried cakes over the Kissing
stove.-not fast enough by any
means to suit the boys or their IA
ther.
Hurry up your cakes, Silly Pollp
shouted one, "or I'll let the old bull
out into the barn-yard nd set you
TO catchin' chickens there
"Come on, Polly SylP chimed the
other; fetch along your slaplaoks,
or III come md stir you up, Pa
process Polly had experienced before
and stood in mortal fear OF.
When breakfast was scrambled
through, Polly was allowed to eat
her scraps of food standing at one
end of the table, and, because she
had slept too late, denied the one
thing that could have made her
scanty meal tolerable to her,-a cup
of the hot drink they called cGf-
fee.
1t is time now to introduce our
little girl. Her father had been a
ffourishing young carpenter IN a
Vermont village, that hid itself
among vast and verdant hills like
a nest in the crotches of fir tree.
Sam Sylvester loved his little wife
so much, that, when one day she
died and left him, be wanted TO die
too; and nobody could comfort him
not even the tiny baby that lay
and walled in an old cradle as if 1t
felt, what it could not yet know
the sorrows of motherless
child. There was no one in
Hinvale in any way related to Sam;
he was an orphan, like his wife, and
any relatives he might have in the
seaboard New England town where
his father had lived he had meyer
seen or heard from; so that when
he made up his mind to try his for
tune in California he put his little
Pauline, vino was named for
her mother. under the care OF
his next door neighbor, a
Mrs. Moore. leaving money
enough to pay her for year, and
promising to send more. He went
away with sad heart; but when
he got to California the voyage had
taken his thoughts of his own
trouble, and hard work at the mines
did so still more. la the mean
while Polly grew up under kind
and motherly Mrs. Moore's care
into a fat and happy baby.
One day, about year after he leil
home. couple OF his mining mates,
who had been down to San Fran
cisco for stores. stepped into his
tent, and after standing about uE'
easily for a moment, one OF them
spoke:
Say. Sylvester you didn't come
from Hillvale, Vermont, did you p
'.Yes | did, to be sure"
The two men exchanged glance
and the one who had not spoken
sauntered out. Bill Decker went