Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1888-12-27

a short time after ] had attained my ma
jorlty IS hieh indeed was al l did attain-I
wentoy rintoadistant neighborhood and be-
gan work at saw mill The owner ofthe mill
Old Bill Ilunltett--,tas II brusque Old fcl-
loIv and, Sd far as beok5 were concerned,
was about Us ign0gany Il man as | had ever
seen, except possibly. my father, who, after
the cNfrcmest effort, could not have spelled
dog.
Old Bill seemed to respect me, not be-
cause | could read and write and cipher
little upon a pineh bat because / was a
very strong aud active young fellow and
consequently very handy in rolling logs.
One day after had lifted the end Of n
log which had been declared to be beyond
the strength Of any man in the party, Old
Bill Invited ne TO 80 home and take supper
with him This WIS a surprise, for he had
nevcr shown 50 great u preference to any
OF the other boys, holding himself, as he
did, greatly above them went he lived
about two mites from tho Hsill, not in
frame house ais yoa would suppose from the
fact that he owned saW-mll, but in an old
log house dadbed with clay and not won
daubed either. lie hadn't much TO say as
we walled along tho road, aud just rs soon
as we had entered the house, Instead Of OK
tending to me tho courtesy of conversation,
lac feH to cutting hamc strings from piece
Of leather which he took down from the
clocl shelf
Some time elapsed before any one else
entered the room. Then, after light foot
steps in an adjoining room, there entered q
girl. As soon as | sax her knew that /
must have looked like a fool. What could
yoa expect Of a green young fellow unused
TO the society Of ladiesl say what could
a FOIL
holding q sirl whose face must have been a
pleasant contemplation to the creative god
Of beauty, and with hair-ah, what hair
Its sil1eu threads fit across my face now
and diTu my vision
!" Kit" said the old man, squirting al his
leather 70 see II he was cutting straight,
this here is zeb Brown what works for
me-
She dropped graceful courtesy-she
could not have dropped another kind and
gave me q smile that seemed to have
dropped down from the glorious brightness
Of her hair
Kit" said the old man, ''zeb will cat
supper with US. She amt got no mother,n
he added, turning 10 me, IAN hastor tend
Ter every thing herself
Supper was soon announced. How well
Ircmember that meal, and how awkward
IN did ! acQHit myself. ] turned over a
pitcher Of butter-milk; upset a molasses
Jug aud dropped plate Of batter cakes in
nay lap Kit blushed and ] knew that she
was ashamed net Of me, but for me. The
old man burst out laughiHg. "Wy,n said
lie. after he had with the violence Of his
outburst, blown corn bread crumbs all over
the table, won kon handle pine log bet
ter than yoa bca-a pau cake"
Blind Oh MAN. lie knew not the cause
Of my aWswarduess
After supper Ola Bin sat down to grease
his ncwlymade hare strings. Kit and
naturally fell into conversation; no, not
naturally, Tor the blood-treacherous fluid
kept mounting to my face and my great
rcd hands kept getting in each others way.
But | managed to talk, especially when
the girls cordial air had placed me more at
case.
II have some books that can lend you,n
she said. Il have few very old ones full
Of poetry and songs. / had great work,
know, in protecting one of them. It was at
a time when eather had suddenly become
scarce. Fathers passion for hame strings
(here She save the old man glance of ms
chief naturally drove him to my choice
cook, b3Ird ii leather. He wanted the
binding foI hame strings, and l do believe
that tho book would have been sacrificed
had / not succeeded in persuading him that
tile binding was not strong enough for his
purpose
We had talked but a little while longer
when the old man got up, put his can Of