Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-03-19
IN THE LIGHTHOUSE.

y
and vet it did not seem much like win
ter, though the maple trees were bare
and the flowers all dead. The oaks
were covered thickly with leaves.
True, when the wind blew it rustled
through brown, dry foliage very differ
entsto the living tintS of months back,
but when you looked at the soft, mud
DIV roads, or the clear Blue sky, you
scarcely realized that it was just past
Christmas.
u. John Hudson, keeper of the light
house at Fishing Point, was brushing
his weather beaten coat (once black,
now almost ''sage-green'D, and giving
parting directions toJohn Hudson, Jun
ior-called Jack by his familiars
E'Now mind and don't set the house on
fire while | am gone. [ must fix that
chimney when | get back, or we'll be
burned out yet; and don't take to fool
ing with the oil-therc isn't very much
of it left now. There's that cord of
wood in the yard; | guess you had bet
ter fill the wood boxes, and pick up
bit. / expect the Inspector will be
round before long, and we want to have
everything taut and trim when he
comes. Get your dinner when you're
ready; | may be back in time, and
may not, with all these errands to do in
the village; but, anyhow, [ shall be
home this afternoon. Good-by, SON.
n.y." and he tramped briskly away
through the trees.
'"Stub! Stub! here, sir. You must
stay home with me. Father don't want
you There's rat, sure's [ live! Sick
it, Stub! S-s-s-sick it!''
"NoW," said Jack, after an exciting
chase, i'll which boy and dog had howl
ed and barked most powerful duet,
snow, Stub, wen wash the breakfast
dishes won't we?''
Stub looked a knowing assent, and
sat grayely on a chair (Which he first
knocked the cat Off, while Jack wash
ed and dried the few dishes as deft as a
girl. He had lived here as long as he
could remember. His earliest recolIec-
ton was looking at the bright reflector
upstairs, and seeing in it a sweet, low
ING face, with tender blue eyes, near
his own. His next memory of the face
was in a coffin, pale and still, while his
father held his hand, and the minister
from the village talked in low. sad
LOuC- 1JiU Ills WA y CttlS tl9Os NICu
Jack was Gas he would inform yOu)
E'only little fellow" Now, from his
digniiied age of ten years he felt him
self arrived at man s estate. His faith
CT WAS formerly 4 sailor, but in conse-
quence Of losing one Of his fingers in
the icy regions of the north he had to
accept the position of ighthouse-keep-
er-lOying the sea too well to think for
a moment of any work further inland.
Sucn stories as he used to tell Jack in
the winter days, when they would be
cut off by snOwdrifts from the rest of
the world. Such thrilling adventures
delighted the boy ears in the long,
solitary evenings Stories of the time
on Labrador, when tremendous whale
cap5ized boats crew, and two men
got drowned; OF the mutiny that once
broke ont on the Fair Betsey, and
thc sneaking Italian who got put in
irons for starting it.
Jack would 90 to bed with creepy"
kind OF feeling after these stories, but
the morning light always drove away
the shadows, and he would VOW to HIM
self never to let such ridiculous stories
brighten him again. "Stub, let's plav
Robinson Crusoe in the yard, now that
the dishes are all washed; Jane (to the
cat), you can come, too, if you want, "
said Jack, opening the door. STUB ac-
cepted the invitation for himself and
Jane, by making dart at her as she
lay blinking near the stove, and rush
ing her out doors with scant cere-
mony.
This shed here shall be the cave,
and I'll wear fathers fur cap and be
Robinson Crusoe. You can be Friday,
Stub. You are black and you don t
know much; and Jane shall sit up here
on the woodpile and be the parrot.
Now, Friday, you just stay there while
/ 60 to get some sticks for the wood
box and Jack, making his work into
play, worked with a will, while the
waves romped and tossed about on the
shore like merry children, and a little
gray cloud, no bigger than a mans
hand, rose slowly in the north and
made another dash of color in the brill
liant sky.
why, l declare, if it amt going to
snow! | wish father would hurry up.
How quickly the clouds have come, and
they look heavy, too, as if they were
just bursting with the piles of snow
flakes hid away in them. My! won't
it be Jolly coasting, though! 1t hasn't
been half winter yet-no snow, ex-
cept little that melted right away,
and none of the ponds frozen over. |
guess | had better see if my sled's all
right" and away Jack ran on this hol-
low pretense-this delightful piece Of
self-delusion about the condition of the
'sArtful Dodger,n for had he not ex-
amined it daily for the past two months
and longed impatiently for a chance to
use it? My! there's snowflake, as
sure's the world; and there's another,
and another-swarms of emf ex-
claimed happy Jack to his small but
select audience of Stub and Jane. They
were very amiable, and frisked and
gamboled with as good an appearance
of happy innocence as could be de-
sired.
''It's getting dark very quickly; not
o'clock yet. I guess it's going to be
pretty big fall this time, and-whew!