The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1885-09-24
A ARK.
How the Bum Family Moved Into
the Country.

The Bum family lived in a small house,
in a low and unhealthy quarter of New
Lowell. In a small house, and the family
was large, as poor families are apt to be.
MI. Bum, who was wonderfully good-na-
tured under all his trials, would facetious-
ly call the aroll every night to make sure
that none of the children were missing,
and sometimes he would purposely forget
~two-year-old Baby Bum, who would
shout Indignantly from his mothers lap:
rs here! rs here! why don't 90 call Dirty
Bunn!" And then Mr.. Bum would say in
a puzzled voice: "Dicky Bunn-who is
he? o, yes, to be sure! Dicky Bum is
the name of the last one, amt it? Well,
then-DICKY BUNN!" and the baby would
answer with a pleased giggle-"Herew
Although the bill of fare was plain, and
the slothes well patched, the Bum family
maaaged to extract a good deal of happi-
ness from life. When Mr.. Bum found a
good job and they had, in consequence, a
"hot supper'-which meant plenty of
becfsteak and vegetables all around, and
some red checked apples, or a can of
peaches for dessert-aud the fire burned
brightly, and the children were every one
well, life seemed actually OVERLOOKING with
blessings; and Mr.. Bum would whittle
bindings for the morning fire, and Mrs.
DULL WOulu duu duOUu6T layer TO GQ6
patches, and neither thought of envying
the rich people in the grand houses Of
Upper New Lowell.
But often the children were not veil, In
fact there were SO many of them that about
half the time the old lounge was the rest
ing place for some ailing one; and the
Observation-Disclosures they could afford to call
one-vould always say more or less about
the location being a unhealthy one. Their
drainage was bad, and they didn't have
enough sunlight, and they all ought to
sleep upstairs, for a ground floor as damp
as theirs was a standing invitation to sick
ness to come n stay the year round.
In the early days Mrs. Bum had lived
In the country, and as her family increased,
the little house, and the still smaller yard,
formed a painful contrast to the roomy
farmhouse, the big, wide-doored barn,
and the broad fields that she used to know,
and she often expressed a desire to move
into the country. But Mr.. Bum, born and
lander in believing that no place could be
better than that in which he lived. For
forty years he had trotted up and down
this unlovely quarter, and the more shan
ties that were built and the filthier the
streets and alleys became, the more he
seemed to enjoy his place of residence.
The Flats is growin' fast" he would
proudly remark. tits gettin, to be down.
right lively here" The poor man! With
the exception of a rare glimpse of the
al hy VI 5Olu0 TlCn mans nQe
grounds, he knew of nothing better than
his low rooms and the struggling, home
sick ilacs and tiger-lilies which Mrs.
Bum tried to grow in the sloppy back
yard.
To lave a long, "fat, Job of hod-carry-
ing, and to know that the children were
not Gerry sick, was all the happiness Mr..
Bum could comprehend, and he ALWAYS
laughed at Mrs. Bunn's absurd wish to
move into the country, where there could
be no chance to shoulder brick and mortar
up a ffty-foot ladder.
A desire for the country always smoul-
dered, however, in Mrs. Bunn's heart, and
she never gave up the hope that some time
they might live on a whole acre of ground,
and have three or four trees, and NAV be a
glimpse of a brook, like the one she used to
wade in when she was a girl. 1t was this
hope that sustained her through all these
years, and led her to toll bravely on, and
make the best of the cramped and dismal
house-that was one comfort-and had
none of that wretched breaking-up and
packing about from one rented place to
another, which they observed in their less
fortunate neighbors. l suspect that the
Bunns had great affection for even the
leaky kitchen roof, and the rickety pump,
because of the dear fact that they owned
them.
And yet, although these shabby premises
were their own, it seemed as if in this
cPiihS u iccf bHc itOuso udu never SEEMED
quite so small and quite SO sickly. Both
Tom and Annie were down with low fevers.
Baby Bum was Grossly cutting some
double teeth, and a series of long, hard
rains had interfered with bod carrying to
such an extent that Mr.. Bum, in a battered
rubber coat, bad taken to looking for jobs
Of wood-sawing. Dismal, indeed, was the
outlook, and it required all the Bum forti-
tude to eat suppers of corn-meal cakes and
complainingly to breakfasts of corn-meal
mush and sky-blue milk.
'If We lived in tb4 country" began Mrs,