Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-09-18

SAS~y SNA SooAA6 oAN
Its cheek, Squids vowed that neither moth.
or nor child should leave the house that
The woman watched him with the fret
sign of interest she had shown, and she
said at length: "You are kind, very
kind" " ~
"That airs a cute little beauty" was all
the reply Squids made.
The woman told him an incoherent,
rambling story about missing the stage
ana losing her way, and she begged tina
she might rest there until the next stage
comfortable, and he set milk and bread
before her. Then, with cautions respects
ing the need of thorough drying, Squids
went away to the little loft. He listened
as he lay upon an extemporized bed, but
oil was silent below, and when h was as
sured that the stranger was in comfort he
fell asleep.
In the morning Squids knocked at the
door, but there was no response. "She is
tired; let her Sleep" said Squids to him
Bpt by and by, there being no sound
and stir getting no response opened the
door. The room was vacant.
"She went away before 1 awoke," rea-
soned squids, and he set about getting his
breakfast
Soon he heard that which caused him to
stop n stand in utter amazement. He
did not stir until he heard the sound
again.
Ma! map it came to him once more,
and then, gently raising the bedquilt,
Squads eyes met those of the baby.
The little thing put up its hands,
CHI chuck! ed, and bounced up and down upon
"Mol mop said Squids; ,s.that means
mq2olly, MOLLY. It wants milk"
In an instant Squids was warming q
basin Of milk. II calculate it'll like it
sweet" he meditated. So he put in a
t heaPing spoonful! Of sugar: Then, with
the little one, spoonful by spoonful, till at
last it pushed the spoon away with its
fat little hands, and, reaching up, chung
with gentle yet firm grasp to Squids' long
aud silky beard, and then tugging away,
looked up into his eyes, and laughed and
| crowed.
"Seems as though it knowed me-" said
squids. 81 yum the cute little rascal
thinks it knows me-" aud two tears
dropped from Squids' eyes right down
upon the baby's cheek, and it lifted up
hand, in sport, and as it felt of
other tear OF two with its frolicking. And
Squids held his face down to it and
clucked and clucked, and spoke softly,
with all the instinct Of paternity within
him aroused. At last the little one's hands
relaxed, and its eyelids dropped, and it fell
asleep, and Squids stood there watching
it, how long he knew not.
Thus Squids had q companion brought
to him. lie never knew why the mother,
il such she was, left the baby there, or
where she had gone and as the days
went by he began to have a secret terror
lest she should sometime come and claim
had Squids for the new toll board, only as
he set it before the child for a table where
on were gathered the marvellous toys the at
! Squids whitfield for it with his j~ack-knife.
Squids early discovered that the baby
liked wheels above all things, and that it
rangement of them after he had whitfield
them out.
One day Squids found him gazing WON
deringly ut the Webster's Spelter, and
though fearful of the lawlessness OF those
little hands, squids bound the covers
him to play with the book. Then Squids
called the baby Little Speller, and never
by any other name. The little one tried
hard to say Squids, but could only lisp
"Thid," so that Squids came to like this
diminutive as spoken by the child better
than all other sounds.
"Some day you and me will rastle with
this book, and I calculate Well get the
best of it, won't we, sir" Squids swould
say to the child when it grew old enough
to understand, and the little one would re-
ply: ayes we will, Thid."
Speller content, while Squids-his happi-
ness was a revelation of delight of which
he had had no conception. By and by,
when the little one was older, Squids
would take him on his knee, and with the
| Webster Speller and a new slate brought
from Hartford, they would lake up their
tasks.
"That's A. sir. See how I make it.
One line down, so, and another down, so,
and one across, and that makes A." And
Little Speller, with faltering fingers,
would draw the lines and say: "That's
A, Thid," and Squids would laugh and
say: "We'l have a toll board by and by
| that will be a credit, and no mistake"
One day Squids spelled out horse on the
| slate, and Little Speller took the pencil
and sketched a horse with very rectangu-
lar head and body and very wavy legs,
| and he said: mo, that's horse, Thid."
Squids roared, and got a shingle and
made Little Speller spell horse in that
way on it with crayon. Then Squids
| nailed the single Oh the wall over the
| fireplace, and when anybody came in he
would point proudly to it, sayings: "See
how Little Speller spells horse. He's a
cute onew
But before many months went by Squids
found that the boy and he were exchang-
| ing places, for the teacher was becoming
the taught and the scholar becoming the
teacher. So Squads sent to Hartford and
bought a first reader and an arithmetic,
and great was their delight in bordering
over the mysteries of these books and SOL
wing them.
"Iittle Speller," said Squids, one day,
"you took to spelling natural, but you
takes to arithmetic more natural. Blu it's
beyond me-. After this you'll have to do
the tiggering and the spelling for me-"
That the child had a talent for mathe-
mates and mechanics Squids und rstood
fully, though he could not express it in
any other way than by saying: "He's
mighty sharp at figgers and mighty cute
with the jackxnife."
One morning, as squids was opening the
toll gate, be astonished the traveller who
waited to pass through, by suddenly
| stopping and staring ut the house. The
stranger feared he had gone mad, or was
CARRYING too much New England rum, till
Suuids, with triumphant utterance, said:
sLook at tina air. That's a credit at
last" and he pointed to a new toll board,
neatly painted and accurately lettered.
Then he rushed in the house and brought
forth the lad.
t'This is the boy that lone it," said
Suuids, ''unbeknown to me, and nailed her
up u~nbeknown. Amt that a credit! 1t 10
Little Speller, it is"
tsThen, when little Speller grew older,
he builded, with Squids' help, o marvel
Gus t~oll-gate, hat opened and shut auto
matically by the touching of q lever: and