Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-08-03
A Daft Hero.


man who insisted that telescope was
mounted on his head, through which
wonderful objects were sometimes
visible. Down through the long street
as out of vista in a dream, behold
him slowly advance, stopping betimes
to beat about him with broom or
folded blanket, in order, as he aver
red, to dispel the mists that settled
upon him and prevented him from
discerning through his glass the bright
face of his lost Louvan among the
stars.
Thoughtless boys often made sport
of Hugh's vagaries, and took delight
in mimicking his uncouth gestures
and laughing ct his incoherent NUT
terings; but to others who knew his
sad history, those words meant some
thing more than the murmurs of a
chaotic brain. 1t was a vivid and
terrible fact with which he linked his
mad CALCULATIONS, repeating with mo-
notonous rapidity:
"Are ye thought-rapid? Can ye fly as far,
As instant thought from star to STAR"
"More light! More light"
ssTouch me, immortal mother and fy!''
Sometimes after Hugh had been
standing motionless for long while,
a CLEAN of intelligence would seem
to over-spread his face, look of
passionate though unavsiling longing
would light up his lustreless orbs !;
and when he turned as if adjusting
his eye to the telescope, it was diff
cult to believe that it was only pur-
poseless fancy that caused him to ex.
claim:
"Ah! yes, / knew her sweet face
was there No, no, no, l will not
weep while those bright eyes are
watching me!''
Uncle Ben, who was an awful GUS
todian, not only of Hugh Danielson,
but of all the friendless paupers sup
ported in the poor house at public
expense, paid no attention to these
poetic vagaries, and cared very little
for his unfortunate ward, except to
get as much work as possible when
there was any to be done.
He was a rough man, this Uncle
Ben, not bad at heart, but destitute
of the finer sensibilities that soften
the ferocity of the savage into some
thing humanely loveable. No one
was attracted towards him; even the
craziest of the poor-house inmates
shrank at his approach, and dreaded
to come in contact with him, and
Hugh, on his part, cordially hated
this austere warden and ran away
whenever he got chance.
These fugitive habits caused Un-
Gle Ben no end of annoyance for,
having but little reliable help, he de-
pended on Hugh, who was physically
robust, to assist in the labor of at
tending the crops and doing other
farm work. 1t vexed him, therefore,
beyond measure to find that his best
helper had slipped away when his at
tention was directed elsewhere, and
in no very amiable mood would he
harness his horse into a wagon and
pursue the absconding pauper, whom
he usually found on a narrow strip of
common land in front of the village
burial ground, sweeping away the va
pors that interfered with the use of
his telescope and preparing to re-
sumo his celestial researches.
At such times Uncle Ben would
drive up to the runaway, stop his
horse with a jerk, alight whip in hand,
and in gruff voice order him to get
into the wagon and there was usu-
ally quite a parley, before Hugh
would submit, and smart cut with
the lash was sometimes administered
to induce him to obey.
"Here, git into the wagon !" Uncle
Ben would say:
"Ah! yes-I know that sweet
face," the daft man would exclaim,
edging off: "'Are ye thought-rapid ?
Can ye' >
"Git in there, 1 tell ye, or PIP
and the poor-house keeper would |
swing his whip threatenlngly to illus
trate what he meant.
"But don't you see her sweet face ?"
Hugh would ask pathetically, still sid
ling farther away. so, those bright
eyes! How pure they shine p
''Git into the wagon, I tell ye, if
ye know what's good for YOURSELF"
and the menacing lash would begin
to curl with a keen bite around the
thin-clad legs of the reluctant run
away. "Git in there, you fool!" and
a second application would bring
Hugh to realizing sense of the tenn
poral power of his master and cause
him to Chamber in and suffer himself
70 be driven back to the farm.
Reciting incoherent poetry, brush
ng the mists from his telescope, rum
ming away and getting whipped for
t or shut up in Uncle Ben's dungeon,
formed the chief incidents in Hugh
Danielson's forlorn experience. Yet
n spite of the hallucinations that
'warmed in his confused brain and
made him incapable of caring for
Hugh was no common pau
,er. His face often wore a sweet ex-
preston that the tortures and the va
.uity of years of madness could not
wholly obllterae /; there was unmis-