Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1885-12-31

IOr1ginaLl
NEW YEARS STORY OF FACT WITH BUT
LITTLE FANCY.
One reason why everybody loved Grace
Merton was because she had such a good
heart. She wasn't bit selfish. She never
saw a ragged and uncared for child, a
wretched beggar, or hungry animal, that
she did not express commiseration and in
stantly set about doing something to make
the object OF her pity more comfortable.
Yet she was only child herself.
She lived in one of the county seats" of
northern Indiana, where in summer the level
roads are so deep with white sand that horses
walk as though walking in snow drifts, and
7. in winter the coffee-colored rivers are so
smooth and solid that no other skating rinks
are needed At the time 1 write of Grace
was nine years old, very pretty and very
much liked. She had bright face, big gray
eyes, that had habit of growing very misty
when anything moved her to pity, dark
brown hair, and, as everybody said, 1.-THE
sweetest manners in the world"
The Jewetts, who were poor-superla-
lively poor and very indolent-lived near
enough to the Mertons for Grace to know
them well. Like most of their shiftless class
they divided their poverty with dog, the
most miserable, NANCY, haggard-looking dog
that ever owned empty stomach They
were the kind of people who move often, and
always for the worse.
One day they moved away-took them
selves and their indulgence in the same direc-
ton the star of empire is said to lakeland
left the dog homeless. He was not much
worse off than he had been before. except
that he had no shelter and was lonely. He
was a sad, shrinking tacituTn dog, utterly
without any wholesome doggish why's, and
he was old He knew he was an il+favored
brute, hideous to look upon, and the knowl-
edge embittered his thoughts and took away
his assurance. Any one could see at
glance that he was dog that had always
been under the harrow He had the air of
creature the world cuts, the same air that
shabby, disreputable persons get after
long intimacy with misery. When he saw
a stranger looking at him he shrank to
about half his normal size, and skunk away.
His eyes had a look of hopeless sadness in
human species.
This dog had had too much harsh expert
ence to make any appeals for charity. He
knew the world as well as he knew hunger.
After his owners departed he lurked
around their miserable house in ghost-like
way for day or two, sleeping in corner
of the tumble-down shed at the rear at
night, and sitting mournfully on the rickety
front step in the day time. He resembled an
old human pauper who has outlived kindred
and sympathy At last hunger got the
whip hand of him, and he went out to try
his luck He was as wise as he was miser-
able, and he went 10 Grace Merton.
Prettily dressed, in dark, rich red, and
very happy, sine was raking the leaves of
early autumn from the croquet ground, sing
ing softly to herself. The dog stopped on
the sidewalk and looked at her through the
iron fence She was very busy and very
much interested, and she did not see him. 1t
was a new picture of Beauty and the Beast"
The child, in her beautiful bright clothing,
with her sunny face, represented opulence,
comfort, Joy, all the rich possessions of life
to the starving creature that watched her
silently. Looking up suddenly, she saw two
red, fearful eyes staring at her beseechingly
through the fence Accompanying the eyes
were a fiabby, woe-begone mouth, two
dropping ears, and shapeless, shrunken,
shaggy black body.
Grace was the only human being who could
value the soul of that wretched dog as high
as the soul of king.
''Oh, it's Prince, dear old Princep she
cried ''Poor old fellowl Did they leave
you all aloneF" And running to the gate, she
called him to her, petted, hattered and actu-
ally caressed the bleary, sreputable-looking
creature. Then she fed him, though the task
was an almost endless one, his capacity, after
his long fast, being something phenomenal
The dog began to believe in humanity once
more. His recent hard skepticism faded out
of his mind like dream before the revivify-
ing power of Grace's sympathy and minis
trations. His future lay in the child's
hands, and she accepted the responsibility at
once.
She went to his old quarters with him and
fixed him a comfortable bed out Of scraps of
carpet and old newspapers, talking to him all
the time, telling him how sorry she was for
him, and what good, good old doggy" he
was, and how she wished she had house of
her very own that she might make him 80
comfortable"
Meantime the degenerate Prince stood lis
tening in an attitude of humble gratitude
He was past the days of extravagant delight
and exuberant joy. She explained to him
that his daily bread would be provided. He
understood and gave up all idea of personal
exertion at once After urging him to be
cheerful and promising to see him often she
left him
The question of how to maintain him puz-
zled Grace. She had been taught that when
she dispensed charity she alone must pay the
cost; that it would not be creditable to give
away other peoples food and property. She
revolved the problem over and over in her
mind on her way home without seeing any
solution She sat down on the wide front
balcony of her home with the heaviest heart
she had ever carried 1t never occurred to
her to ask help in her project. She had been
taught self-reliance and she remembered
having been told more than once that she
must not think she could bring home all the
stray dogs and cats that excited her compass
sion. Her mothers fine house could not be
turned into a hospital for unfortunate
animals.
She saw light at last She was in the
habit of carrying her dinner to school, as the
school house was on the other side of the
town across the river. She would manage
to get as large dinner as possible, carry it
to poor Prince, and do without herself. She
decided on this plan, not thinking for mo-
ment that she would be doing wrong to
pursue it. She thought she had a right to
do as she pleased with her own dinner. She
had a very clearly defined opinion that her
mother would object, so she said nothing of
her protege to any one.
This programme Grace carried out for
two weeks. At noon, when the other school
children ate their dinners and had a good
time. she walked back to the old house where