Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1884-09-29
sg1oMlha' Column.
77-777777777
NEW SHOES.

NEW SHOES.
II 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 find
ing it quite impossible to see through
its sides, pulled out the cork and
peered anxiously in.
sCan't see nothin', but it's so dark
IN there that / couldn't see il there
was anything. I've great mind TO
break the hateful old thing"
He sat for awhile thinking how
badly he wanted pair of shoes to
wear TO the Sunday-school picnic.
His mother had promised to wash
and mend his clothes SO that he might
90 locking very neat indeed, but the
old shoes were far past mending and
how could he 90 barefoot?
Then he began counting the chanc-
es of his father being very angry in
deed when he should find his bottle
broken. He did not like the idea of
getting whipping for it, but how
could he resist the temptation of
making sure about those shoes? The
more he thought about them the more
he couldn't. He sprang up and
hunted around until he found good
sized brick-bat, which he flung 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, perhaps,
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 the inside with
bad smelling liquid.
Tim sat down again and sobbed as
he had never sobbed before so hard
that he did nor hear step beside
him until voice SAID:
"Wcll, what's all this %
He sprang up in great alarm. 1t
was his father, who always slept late
in the morning and was seldom awake
so early as this.
"Who broke my bottle z" he asked.
81 did," said Tim, catching his
breath half in terror and half between
sobs.
"Why did you?" Tim looked up.
The voice did not sound quite so ter
rible as he had expected. The truth
was his father had been touched Al
sight of the forlorn figure, so very
small and so sorrowful, which hat
bent over the broken bottle.
"Why," he said, Il was lookin
for pair of new shoes. l want
pair awfully to wear to the picnic
All the other little chaps wear shoes.
Chow came you to think that yo
would find shoes in a bottle?"
"Why, mamma said so. 1 aske
her for some new shoes and she sal
they had gone into that black bottle
and that lots of other things had gon
into it too-coats and hats, ahd brea
and meat and things-and though
if / broke it l would find them al
and there amt thing in tan
mamma never said what wasn't s
beforehand l thought 'twould be 6
sure"
And Tim, hardly able to sob O
the words, feeling how keenly b
trust in mothers words had added
his great disappointment, sat dov
again and cried harder than ever.
His father seated himself on a b.
in the disorderly yard and remain
quiet for so long a time that Tim
last looked timidly up.
''I'm real sorry broke your b.
tie, father. I'll never do it again.
"No, guess you WON'T" he sa
laying hand on the rough little he
as he went away, leaving Tim ov
come with establishment that fail
had not been angry with him.
Two days after, on the very ev'
ing before the picnic, he handed I
parcel, telling him to open it.
New shoes new shoes p
shouted. "Oh, father, did you &C
new bottle, and were they il ""
'No, my boy, there isn't going
be new bottle. Your mother '
right all the time-the things
went into the bottle, but you
getting them out is 10 easy mat
so Pm going TO keep them out a
this"
-&-9S--
BITS OF ADVICE.