The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-12-14
DREDGlTT'S POOL.
CHAPTER ].

Why Dredgitt'S, and why pool, / don't
know, for 1t is as ornamental a piece of
water as know anywhere. 1t is beautiful
~ kept, and the swans on 1t are the talk Of
the country round for their tameness and
beauty, The master is very proud of his
swans, and the lake, and indeed OF all about
his park: and well he may be, for he has
made it as near perfection as can well be
under an English sky. "
And heflmi yname isn't Dredgitt either
but Nonli,ho.me, and there's never been
Ore l-i,t' that know Of anywher' about
the pace, But that's what the country peo-
pie call il, and nave done for generations.
My father, and he was an Old mn when he
diet, said he had never known tcaled any
thing else. and it is called the same in some
old family parchments that have seen up
at the house,
But all this has nothing 10 do with what |
am going to tell, only it is odd how queer
names will stick to things and places, that
no one knows the meaning Of.
have been in Squire Monksholme's SER
vice man and boy for over fifty years and
good service it has been, and married my
wife out of the house, and good wife she
has BEEN as any one might expect from her
bringing up She was taken there from the
village school, as | was and she came to be
undertook at st, and then / stopped her
service indoors by marrying her. Some peo-
ME said she might have done better by stay
ing and taking the Coaclman, who was
sweet upon her, and setting up in a public
IN London with him: hut don't think she
would somehow, for he took to drink and
died of the horrors and Cherry would not
have been much the better Of the match.
Her name was Charity, bgt they always
called her Cherry about the house, and l
called her So too, Of course.
When we grew old, Cherry and |, the
master put us into the north lodge, and gave
us the poultry yard as well, and my wife
makes q capital htnwiie and sends more
fowls and eggs up TO the house than anyone
they have ever had, the housekeeper says.
But al this isn't what am coming to; 1t is
only Just to show who we are and where we
live. It isn't about myself nor Cherry that
am going to tell, except nasmuch as 1t
concerns us parity; II Is about our boy, our
RI phi, that we loved 50 dearly
Ralph was not our own boy; we never
reared a chi d; we had trea, and they all
went away to the Good Shepherd before we
had had time TO realize our great JOY in pos
scssirg them. / suppose it was not good
for us to be TOO happy, We had everything
that heart cou wish for except that, and
maybe it sntright forpaopie to have every
thing In thi, world at once.
But ii was q dreadful grief when they
came and went like that, and after the last
one was laid In the grave, Cherry almost
gave up,
"My heart win break Dick she said, ut
Is empt-so empty"
And so was mine but men don't say as
much about such things as women do; they
don't seem 10 gricve so much, but they get
short-trmprrcd and downhearted; il must
come out somehow, you know. SO when
the last of our little one, had been laid in
the grave, 1t seemed as If Cherry would be
III, she grleyed SO; and then there came a
story Of how some poor eliure had died in
The wOrkhouse and left her little baby 10 be
brought up by the parish, or to die If IL
couldn't stand the trnatm mt and itsrather
rough on tender babies; nothing would do
bul Cherry must go and beg that child for
her own and bring II up as II it had been
the very one we had lost
The parish made as much fuss about Civ
Ing it up to us rs If 1t was worth thou.
sand-a.ycar to them, and they went to the
master about It, and he talked to me.
"CIn you affDId to do this tlinl, GrayeS|
he said, 1T means money you know, as
well rs Chory's trouble
1--WE could have afforded 20 keep our own
Sir" said III il had pleased Heaven to let
Us have them, aud wen do it for this one.
never fear" Aud then told him that
was afraid Cherry would 20 into bad way
II she didn't have it. She was that down
east and gricyng,
so It was settlrd aud the master made
me quite uncomfortable with all the fine
thing, he said to the parlShpcop about me,
! and how god Cherry and me would be to
! tn pool little enid H. was proud to have
srch man ana woman on his estate, he
said; but that Is neither here nor there, and
the end of I was Tat the baby was given to
ms, and 1t filled up an emptiness in our