Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-05-06

pleasant to lie quite STILL with his
hands folded, while the other boys
marched and shouted and jumped
about him. Patsy was not
very strong, children somehow
did not thrive in Pearl alley,
and he liked to be quiet. Patsy
lived alone with his grandmother
There had been mother once, of
course, and Patsy remembered her
well, too. Occasionally now his frame
trembled as if no still felt the weight
of her heavy hand, which, guided in
drunken fury. had so often rained
blows of crushing force upon him, and
once in awhile it seemed as if he heard
her loud, coarse voice showering oaths
and imprecations after him as he fled
from her terrible presence. But he did
not, for it was quite two years since
the night she and the man who occa-
sionally came to their wretched home
quarreled so fiercely, and when the
brief bitter fight was. over the woman
lay dead on the floor and the man stag
gered sullen and muttering from tn
place. He never came again, and the
wake which followed was another
thing Patsy remembered well. Since
then he and his grandmother had
shared together, unmolested, the
gloomy cellar room which was what he
called home.
"Big Granny" as this ancestral rel
alive of his was called, was at once the
pride and terror of the alley. She was
old, nobody knew how old, but so old
that had she walked she would have
tottered with the weight of years; mas
much, however, as she always stag
gered from the burden of liquor she
was carrying, the infrmity of age was
unnoticed. Her hair was white and
thin, and struggled in neglected dis
order away from her temples, the long
er locks twisted in wispy coil in the
nape of her neck. Summer and Win
ter she went unbonneted, her one outer
garment Gotten wrapper that hung in
shapelcss drapery about her tall, lean
figure. Her face was scanned and
brown and whithered like the skin of a
baked apple, and on her long throat,
which the loose fit of her dress barred
to the collar bone, the wrinkled flesh
hung in fabby folds. There was no
voice in the alley more shrill and
piercing than hers, no speech more
foul, and no ribald wit so quick and
scathing as that which fell from her
toothless lips.
A curious pair they were, the pale,
starved child, weak and puny, and the
gaunt, weather-beaten woman, but in
their way they got on. Big Granny did
not beat Patsy. She let him alone, and
in return his was the one voice of all
the children in the alley which was still
when the old woman shuffled and stag
gered through the street for her daily
portion of stimulant Hoots and jeers,
SCOTS and bowls the other urchins
hurled at her and after her as she
walked, but Patsy never joined this
juvenile mob. He did not take up cud.
gels in her defense; that would have
been useless; he simply responded tC
an intangible sense of family obliga
ton which he felt without recognizing
and refrained from offensive measures
And Big Granny in her sober moments
felt so much affection for the boy a
her capabilities permitted and in he
drunken moments never abused him
So, as has been said, they got on.
In general, that is. On one particu
lar morning, raw, damp day of recen
date, there was not the usual entent
cordiaIe between them. Big Cram
felt the east wind in her old bone
doubtless, and was aversc to the tram
outside for beer. She babe Patsy @
to the corner for her, which the child
covering over the few Goals in tn
stove, refused to do. This aroused tn
, always alert wrath of the old woman
and she poured forth a volley of Bi
! lingsgate and vituperation frightful t
, hear, but which seemed to fall upo
deaf ears, so passive did the child s.
under it. Then she took the broker
nosed pitcher herself and started in
burst of savage anger for the mecca {
, all her pilgrimages.
r Patsy crouchcd closer to the smoldel
! ing fire as the door opened and dre'
his ragged jacket tighter about HI
shivering form. He had felt i'll an
miserable for two or three days, bu
there was neither medicine nor doctor
= in Pearl alley and the healing of tn
sick was not considered in the ethics
the community. This morning h
{ head and throat ached and throbbe
, with pain, his tongue was dry, and h
lips were parched and hot A curior
' fancy possessed him, too. Every ono
2 in while the little rusty stove with i
Z handful of Goals widened into q gre;
Fireplace. blazing with heat, and
saw a long room with rows of whit.
!: downy beds, every one of whic
I seemed to invite his tired and achin
3 frame to rest within it. 1t was an oil
memory, revived in the semi-deliriul
| of the fever which was upon him, of
/ visit long before to hospital, why {
' with whom he could not recall. Viii
2 he pondered the vision faded and til
: dreary reality was before him again
the cold, dark room, the breakfastle.
/. table, and the bundle of rags in tt
' corner which made his uninviting BET
e Suddenly he heard din in the sire,
O and he knew that Big Granny W,
d close at hand. Breeding somehow tt
g clash and clamor of aeT noisy entran.
d he slipped through the dark passag
r way and out into the narrow court
q yard in the rear of the tenement.
v group of children were playing thel
Y and his advent was greeted with
:. shout; Come along wild We, Pats,
# its a wake we're havin'" piped OF
i urchin. Patsy looked at them DUH
n but did not stir from the threshol
near which he stood.
IS Come on wild ye," they cried agail
O "git up, Micky Shannon, and la,
d Patsy be the corpse" Which post
/ honor in the CHASTITY game seemed
e tempt the trembling boy from his plac
n He suffered himself to be drawn anon
Is his companions, and the former corps
| ~, 81 -. L