New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-09-05
LITTLE DICK.
A Story Of War Times
BY MONTGOMERY NJ. ROBSON,

Poor old Widow Loring! A hard
time she had of it. Her husband, a
.rowdy and the bully fthe settlement,
had given up the ghost some years
prior to the breaking out of the war,
and left her with five sons and one
trail daughter, to the mercies of a
cold and cruel world.
"Aunt Mima," we were taught to
call her, was agaunt and grizzled spec
linen of a cracker woman, uncouth in
dress, uncultured in speech, but a
truer, Drawer heart never upheld the
honest dignity OF motherhood than
the scared and oft grief -stricken heart
of Aunt Nina Loring.
She had had trouble when her hus-
band was alive. She had spent many
a,sleepless night when her neglectful
lord was INDUCING in the wild orgies
OF the crossroads grocery's biggest
carousal. Every time the owl would
boot from his perch in the great pine
tree in the lonely woods her heart
would leap and she would expect to
hear the rough "hello!" at the gate
from some drunken companion come
to tell her that Ebenezer was killed or
badly hurt.
Not unfrequently she would be
greeted instead with, q kick at the rough
shutter, and demand to open it,
coupled with muttered curses, when the
old man came home drunk.
1t was almosta betterment to Aunt
Nina when Ebenezer fell sick, and
laid down III his bed and died, while
she near to minister to his wants.
1t was q partial relief to her to feel
that she had the poor consolation of
closing those bleared eyes when the
ashen pallor of death smoothed out
the scars and splotches on that
bearded face, and the snowy pinion
OF the spirit of peace at last touched
those features SO long scanned and
turrowed by warning passions.
OF the boys, there was young Eben,
hale and hearty, the image of his
father, when first Aunt Nina danced
with him at the party after the quilt
ing and log rolling day, so long ago.
Mack came next, a. stout comely lad,
very much reserved, and almost in
dustrious. Riley was tall and slen.
der, like his mother in form, but like
his father, a wild sort of fellow in dis
position. Hamp came fourth among
the boys, but Betty was older than
he. Hamp was a blockheaded, stupid
sort OF lad, fond of trapping for birds
and fishing i'll Grand bay, as the big
black swamp, back of the little plan-
tation, was called. And then, there
was Little Dick.
Ineed not tell you that the hog
weeds and the fennels and the black
berry briars covered the greater part
OF the little clearing among the swamps
and barrens. Elbenezer had started
out with a big heart, and had fenced In
farm OF forty acres, and he had culti-
waited it several years in the slovenly,
ranger fashion. but after he whipped
the Irish ditcher, who challenged him
for fisticuff muster day, he began to
feel his Importance, and the neglect OF
the farm and the running about with
shiftless and brawling companions
soon proved disastrous to the farm
interests.
Aunt Nina and the boys tried to
cultivate the ground IAN make a.
crap" as they said. but their efforts.
were rendered abortive by the frequen-
cy with which the old man snapped
horses. Sometimes he would swap
for spawned horse in pillow time,
and then there was moth
ing for it but the hoe. Poor
womanl The drops of sweat with
which she watered that barren soil,
and the tears with which she watered
her dreary life!
When the war come Eben, Mack and
Riley had all grown up to manhood,
and might have supported their moth
er handsomely, but their fathers shit
less career seemed to initiate against
them, and they generally came out at
the end Of the year with scarce nub-
bin corn enough for bread, and
the yellow COW peas, and the
stringy potatoes were hardly equal to
the emergency Of Strengthening out the
lean TANKS OF the Jew bundles of bone
and bristle, known as spiney woods
rooters, and sometimes mistaken
for hogs.
Nevertheless, by the aid OF the good
mother, and the scrawny looking slip
ola sister, they managed to live. Then.
came q war. Aunt Nina and Betty
spun and wove the cloth from which
Eben's first uniform of gray mixed;
cloth was made, and the strong. stur-
dy fellow was not sorry that he had a.
chance Of 'Gittin' out O. henscratch
o. the house." as he expressed it. Ri
ley and Mack soon followed, and the
beams Of the old loom trembled as
the shuttle flew back and forth turn
ing its strokes to the rythmic drones
OF the busy spinning wheel. They were
busy. Aunt Nina and Betty, weaving
g suit for Hamp. and all too soon the.
call came. The hungry call for more