The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-10-24

SNSh bshLl IuiONCh MIC IthJ VI l4Ln
Uncle Solomon whom Johnny was Wis
iting, and half through Grandfather
Earle's lifetime. Such COSY old tool
room IN the corner, in whose stove a
glowing fire would be kindIed on days
when cold rain from the sea beat II
dismal tune on the dusty window panes.
and there Uncle Solomon would mend
his tools and his boat, and at the same
time, perhaps, tell Johnny some story
of his school-days on land and his fish
lng-days at sea. Then the hay-mows!
Were ever such mOws, SO bulky. known
to rise anywhere else? They took you
so high that you could reach up to the
rafters where bat might be clinging
for dear life, and the hooks where
swallow might be hiding away, and
and out . ey fly with a whir-r-r-r, and
down you would 60 in terror, Oh,
how many generations of Mr.. and Mrs.
Bat family, also Mr. and Mrs SwaI-
lows, had lived in that old barn!
when am grown up | am going
to build me an old barn." declared
Johnny. ''None of your new ones for
me-
1t was on Uncle Solomon's hay-mows
that Johnny and his cousin Sam were
playing.
Sam, ri stump your
To do WHAT"
I'm take one hay-mow and you the
other. Wen start away back at this
end of the barn and then walk-mind
you, aOGib-to the o'her side and let's
see who will get there first Pound
when you get there
Come onn'
The boys climbed the mows, and
amid growing and laughing, began
their walk. 1t was now up-up, then
downtown, perhaps into some nest
from which an old hen would fly
squawking, then up again to bump
ones head against rafter, then down,
yet always on; when, suddenly, Johnny
looked across the deep gulf that sep
arated the moWs and saw Cousin Sam
running! Johnny was abou! to vigor-
ously object when he heard loud -
bang!
i've struck the other side! No
doubt of that! Feels so anyway"
shouted Sam.
Johnny was indignant and screamed
out: 'You mean Old --' He stopped.
Somebody was speaking. CHANGING
over the edge of the NOV, he saw a
sweet-faced lady looking up from the
barn-hoor. 1t was Miss Mary Carr.
who was boarding in the neighborhood
that summer.
"What did you say?" he asked.
81 thought YOU were saying some
thing 10 Sam, and | said: Bite it of,
Johnny bite it Off meant those
I1-O,-1z 70, I,;t, thor,,
"Ohm
Johnny blushed and dropped his
head.
''Sam run when he ought not to- Miss
Carr"
''Well, Johnny" explained Sam, ca
gerly. and looking down from his hay
NOV, "I-I-couldn't help it. This
NOW fell off all of a sudden and | had
to run, and | went bang against the
wall. wasn't going to count it, and |
don't feel like doing any counting for
week My head has either driven
shingle-nail into the wall, or else the
nail has been driven into my headn'
TOO bad, Sam. I'll take back what
l said.
And I'll put some plaster on your
head" said the plying Miss Carr
such nice loooing lady" thought
Sam, 81 wish had another head to Tx
up"
Miss Carr proved an excellent doctor
and sam 5 small wound was soon cared
for.
May l say a word to you, johnny"
asked Miss Carr, for johnny, after the
young lady rcbuke, looked as if he had
a hnoI +bat y,ao,lal +, ;,+o a.
hands of the doctor. They went into
the fields sweet with the breath of wild
flowers and with the fragrance blown
out OF grove of pines beyond.
johnny, } know you will let me say
it to you"
''Oh, yes"
1T is about biting want you to
get into the habit of 'biting.''
Johnny looked up in surprise and ex-
claimed: "Ohn' Then he remembered
her words in the barn and said nothing
This is the biting that doesn't do
harm, word biting. 1t means not to
say everything we feel like SAYING
There is a good deal in habit, and if we
accustom ourselves, when stirred up, to
stop and think a moment, it will come
easier to throw away the hard words,
to bite them off as | advised you in the
barn. When we are vexed it is natural
to say things harsh and unkind and I'M
just, and afterwards we wish we hadn't
said them. Try to get into the habit of
'g your teeth nto some words and
biting them off. Can you?"
I'm try said Johnny, looking up
into the face of his pretty counselor.
TRY hard?"
"Yes'm. PH try hard"
The years went by, and at last
Johnny was q clerk in a dry-goods |
store, that of p. Billings, who was one
of the kind of men who seem to be |
everywhere at the same time, up on the |
second floor watching the mon in the
cloak department, and down in the |
ribbon department on the first floor, |
and in the elevator away at the top of |
the building, and down in the cellar |
looking after the furnace. Johnny was |
about to leave one night when he saw
that the clerk who had assisted at his
counter had failed to do his share of |
the work and had left to Johnny's
hands the rolling up and packing away
of the ribbons