The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-07-26
THE CHAIR MENDER,
New ofleans Times-Democra,.l

New Orleans Times-Demccrai.
 Twas called about three months ago. lsaid the doctoT) to attend the old woman who was dying. She had come 10 the town only the evening before, in the little uaveling-wagon which served her for a house, drawn by an old brokes.down horse, and accompanied by two great black dogs, who were her friends and guardians. The priest was already there when l arrived. She appointed US her sole executors, and in order that we might comprehend the full purport of her las. wishes, she told us the whole story of her life. lnever heard anything stranger or more poignant.
 Her father and mother had both been travelling chair menders, renders of old straw chairs. She never had fixed resi- dence in her whole life.
 When she was very small child she used to run about, ragged, sordid, 1o,- cred with vesmin. The wagon used gen. orally to halt in the neighborhood of villages, beside the ditches then the horse would be unharnessed and turned loose to graze the Sog would go to sleep resting his nose upon his paws and the child would amuse herself rolling in the grass, while the father and mother set to work, under the shadow of the roadside elms, re-bottoming all the old chairs in the parish. There was scarcely word of of conversation in the travelling wagon. When they had halted, the parents never spoke except to decioe who should take the first turn at making a round of the village with the familiar cry: Ckaiys k0 M<nd.. And then they would sit down in silence, face to face, and commence to twist the straw. But when the child wan dered little too far away, or tried 10 make friends with some village urchin, forthwith the fathers furious voice would thunder out Come back here al once. you sinking pood-for-nothing Those were the only affectionate words she ever heard.
 When she grew little older, they used 10 send her to buy material for the bot toms of worn out chairs. In this way she managed to make the shadow of an ao- quaintance with. the little boys of the Eeighborhood but 1t was on such occa- sions the parents of her new friends who would brutally cali their children indoors. Here. come in al once, you little black guard. Let me catch you again talking to vagabonds and tramps ]"
 Often the little boys used to throw stones at her.
 Sometimes ladies gave her few cents :; and these she used to hide away care fully.
 One day (she was then eleven years old) while she was passing through this part of the country, she happened to see little Chouquet behind the cemetery wall, crying as if his heart would break, because bigger boy had stolen two cop per coins from him. Those tears-the tears of the little 6osygeois-tears of one of those well-to-do-people's children whom she had always pictured to herself, in that weak, foolish, unhappy little brain of hers, as ever happy and joyful-com- pleteiy upset her. She approached him, and when she had learned the reason of his grief, she poured into his hands all her savings-seven cents, which he ac- cepted quite naturally--at the same time wiping his tears away. Then, feeling almost crazy with Joy, she had the pre- sumption to kiss him. As he was stiii carefully inspecting his money, Re al- lowed her to do it. Finding that she was neither repulsed nor beaten, she did 1t again She hugged him with all her little strength. pressed him to her child-heart. Then she ran away.
 What had taken place in that unhappy little head of hers? Did she love the little urchin only because she had had the de- light of sacrificing her whole vagabond fortune for him, or because she had given him her first loving kiss? The mystery of affection is as deep in children as in adults.
 For months she dreamed of that cem- etefy corner and that little boy. In the expectation of seeing him again, she stole from her parents, filching cent here and cent there, misappropriaiing sriaes in her purchases of straw, or pocketing an odd coin when sent to the market to buy provisions.
 When they returned 10 the village, she had thus managed to accumulate two francs and hall, but she vas not able to do more than catch glimpse of the little boy, very neatly dressed, In his ather's drug store, between glass jar filled with red water and a bottled tapeworm.
 She only loved him all the more, ~s-AA osSAsS SAs>AA4nSS8f S~S<4aI8Aky 4S- lighted with that glory of colored water, that apotheosis of shining crystal.
 She kept that inedaceahae memory to herself; and when she met him again the next year, playing at ten-pins with his comrades, she threw herseh upon him, caught him h her arms, and kissed him % violsntiy dat hs fairly yelled wish sezros. Thea, just to ksep him quies, she gave him all her mooey, Aree francs and twenty confines, . veFitahle treasure, a3 which he gased with eyes made big by uondex.
 He took it, ard lG her eaEess him to her hearts content.
 For fDu yeaSs more she poured all her resezve-funds Into his hands and he al- ways conscientiousay pockeeed them in exchange of kisses endured One time