Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1888-01-26
HOWELLS' BOYHOOD.
he story of the Uomesick Little Printer.

=
part of the second winter, which found
Ms still there, that it was justly thought
fit | should leave these vain delights
and go to earn some money in print
ing office in X. | was, though so
young, a good compositor, swift and
clean, and when the foreman Of the
printing Office appeared one day at our
cabin, and asked if | could come and
take the place of a delinquent hand,
there was no question with any one
but myself that | must 90. For me, a
terrible inconsistencies fell instantly
upon me-a inconsistencies that al
ready, in the mere prospect of absence,
pierced my heart, and filled my throat,
and blinded me with tears.
The foreman wanted me to go back
with him in his buggy, but days
grace was granted me, and then my
older brother took me to Y, where
he was to meet my father at the rail-
road station on his return from Gin
cinnati. 1t had been showing, in the
soft, Southern Ohio fashion, but the
clouds had broken away and the even
ing fell in a clear sky, apple-green
along the horizon, as we drove on.
This color of the sky must always be
associated for me with the despair that
then filled my soul, and which | was
constantly swallowing down with great
gulps. We joked, and got some m,ser-
able laughter out of the efforts of the
horse to free himself from the snow
that baled in his hoofs, but suffered
all the time an anguish of homesick-
ness that now seems incredible. All
the time had every fact of the cabin
life before me; what each of the chill
dren was doing, especially the younger
ones, and what, above all, my mother
was doing, and how at every moment
she was looking; | saw the wretched
little phantasm of myself moving about
there.
The editor to whom my brother de-
livered me over could not conceive of
me as tragedy; he received me as if |
were the merest commonplace, and de-
livered me in turn to the good man
with whom ! was to board. There
were half dozen school girls board
ing there, too, and their gayety when
they came in added to my desolation.
The man said supper was about
ready, and he reckoned | would get
something to eat if | looked out for
myself. Upon reflection, | answered
| that | thought did not want any sup
per, and that | must go to find my
| brother, whom | had to tell something,
| | found him ut the station and told him
was going home with him. He tried
| to reason with me, or rather with my
| frenzy of inconsistencies; and ! agreed
to leave the question open till my faith
er came; but in my own mind 1t was
| closed.
My father suggested, however, some
! thing that had not occurred to either
Of us; we should both stay. This
seemed possible for me; but not at that
clearinghouse within the sound
of the laughter of those girlSl We
went to the hotel, where We had beef
steak and ham and eggs and hot bls,
cult every morning for breakfast, and
where we paid 81 apiece for the week
we stayed. At the end of this time the
editor had found another hand, and
we went home, where | was welcomed
as from a years absence.
A gain | was called 10 suffer this tria
the chief trial Of my boyhood-but n
came i'm q mllder form, and was light
ened to me not only by the cNperieuc,
of survival from il. but by various CIR
cmstances. This time | went 10
D., where one of my uncles wa
still living, and he somehow learned
the misery ! WA. IN, aud Dado me coml
and stay With HIM while remained it
D.. WAS very fond of him and o.
, the gentle creature. his Wife who stool
To- me- tor an that was naturally ant
. cou,tutjoualir refined, type of gra'
[ ciuu> loneliness and worldly spleuuor
They had ana only rh,ld, 10 whom
her cousins presence Iu the house Wa'
a constant Joy. Over them all hung
the shadow of fragile health, and | loob
back at them through the halo Of their
early death; but the remembrance can
not make them Kinder than they really
were. With all that was homeslck
b stU fell asleep with the radiant
image of our LOG cabin before my eyes,
and l awoke with my heart like lead
in my breast.
did not see how could Get through
the day, and began it with miserable
tears. had found that by drinking q
good deal of water at my meals ! could
I Keep down the sob- for the time being
and practiced this device TO the sur
prise and alarm Of my relatives, who
| were troubled with the spectacle of my
unnatural thirst
Sometimes left the table aud ran
out for burst of tears behind tine
house; every night after dark | cried
there alone. But I could not wholly
hide my suffering, and | suppose thai
after awhile the gut Of it became in
tolerable At any rate, blessed
evening came, when. returning from
work, l found my brother waiting fol
| me ut my uncle, house; and the mex
( morning we set omit for home in the
keen silent dark before the November
dawn.
We were both mounted on the italjc