, 1888-11-21
KEEP right on crytn', Jest the same. Hol

KEEP right o n cryin', Jest the same. Holy
smoked but how that baby did cry.
Now reckoned that the colonel would
be gettin' almighty mad If this thing KEEP
up much longer. A man may raise 1even
children as easy as rollin' off'n a log, nd
yet the twelfth one, that isn't his at all,
may break him. There is ginerally a last
straw, even when it comes to the matter
Nv children.
So when the colonel riz feet foremost
for the third time outern his bunk that
night-or, l should say, mornin', for it
was mighty near mornin' now-we looked
for hail Columby.
Look a-here, my good woman, SEE he
to the young woman with the baby, las |
wuz tellin' you afore, you must do some,
pin to keep that child quiet. It'll. never
do to keep all these folks awake like this.
They've paid for a good nights sleep, nd
it's my duty as a director NV the HANDFUL
md st. 10 to pertest agin this disturbance.
I've raised a family nv leven children nd
l know, as well as l know anythink, that
that child is hungry. No child ever cries
like that when it isn't hungry, so insist
on your nursin' it nd givin' US peace nd
quiet"
Then the young woman begun to sniffle.
Law me, sir" says the young woman,
81 amt the baby's mother-Im only just
tendin' it,"
The colonel got pretty mad then; his
face got red md his voice kind NV trembled
he wuz so mad.
where is its mother?' SEE the colonel.
"Why isn't she here takin' care NV this
hungry md cryin' child like she ought to
be?'
"She's in the front car, sir" SEE the
young woman, chokin' up. She's in the
front car-in a box, dead; we're takin' the
body nd the baby back home"
Now what would you or me have lone
what would any man have done then
nd there2 Jest what the colonel done.
The colonel didn't wait for nc second
thought; he jest reached out his big bony
hands nd he sez, Young woman, gil me
that baby"-sez it SO quiet nd SO gentle
like that seemed like it wuz the baby's
mother that wuz a-speakin'.
The colonel took the baby and-now,
may be you won't believe me-the colonel
held that baby nd rocked it in his arms
nd talked to it like it had been his W
child. And the baby seemed to know that
it lay agin a lovin' heart, for, when it
heerd the Of mans kind voice nd saw his
smilin' face ne felt the soothin' rockin'
Nv his arms, the baby stopped it's g%rievin'
nd cryin' md cuddled up close to the
colonels breast nd begun to COO nd laff.
The colonel called the niger. "Jim,"
seq he, you go ahead nd tell the CON
ductor to stop the train at the first farm
house. We've got to nave some milk for
this child-some warm milk with sugar
into it; l hain't raised a family Nv 'leven
children for nothin'."
The baby didn't cry no more that night;
leastwise we didn't hear it if it did cry.
And what if we had heard it2 Blessed if
| don't think every last one of us would
have got up to help tend that lonesome
little thing.
That wuz more'n twenty years ago, but
l kin remember the last words l heerd the
colonel say: mo matter if it does cry"
SEE he. ut don't make no more noise
than a cricket, nohow, nd I reckon that
being a director NV the road l kin stop
the train nd let off anybody that don't
like the way the HANDFUL nd St. 10 does
business"
Twenty years agol Col. Elijah Gates
is sleepin' in the Palmyry buryin' ground;
likely as not the baby has growed up
leastwise the HANDFUL nd st. 10 has;
everything is different now-everythink
has changed-everythink except human
natur, an that is the same it allus has
been, and it allus will be, 1 reckon
Eugene Field in Chicago News.