Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-10-31
IN SPITE OF LUCK.

what old Mrs. Ordway called 1.-THE beat
amOst 1t had been a gradual come
down so far as the oldest inhabitant knew,
and old Mrs. Lyons, nigh into a hun
bred = as she said could well remember
the great great grandfather of the late
Nathan. who was a well-tO-dO man and
represented the town at the general court,
and out of courtesy was always called
Squire.
The grandfather of Nathan, though
standing high In the estimation of the
townspeople being the old Squire S only
son, enjoyed sort of free and easy life,
and having what the exact and prim
housewives called a ''shiftless wife, as the
years went on developed into seedy look
ing old man who liked his pipe and ease
too well for determined effort In any
direction. His sons, as the villagers said,
did not amount to much and the time
came when the only descendant left was
Nathan, a grandson. Nathan's physiOg-
nOmy showed to the close observer what
effect might be expected from such down
hill process. Fortunately he wasn't vicI-
Gus; he drank neither cider nor whisky,
was honest and good natured and easy.
His wife, poor girl who had little edu
cation but good heart, must have seen
q
have shaved twelve long years to keep the
larder half filled. She would doubtless
have gone on shaving many more had not
the good Lord taken her up higher and
mercifully, too, remove, Nathan only few
days later.
The clergyman who oficiated at the OBJ
sequies called it AN inscrutable dispersal
tion of Providence, but in the opinion of
the village doctor it was want of drain
age. Little Tommy, their only child,
was then about 10 years old. long and lank,
with i'll fitting clothes from which his
wrists and ankles protruded in such a sug-
gestive way the minister S wife who had
large heart for the heather in Umzilla's
kingdom, said to Mrs. Graham, ''it might
be necessary to borrow trousers and jacket
for the boy to wear to the funeral, since it
was to be in the vestry
Tommy long hair and sallOw skin did
not make him specially attractive, though
the mournful black eyes, full of unshed
tears, in well fed and well dressed boy
who had not lived in the malariOus valley
that had been his home, might have found
foster parents whose hearts would have
gone out to him. Instead, poor boy,
Deacon Allen, overseer of the poor won
dered if Seth Grattan did not want a
thorities would "bind him on" probably
for a term of years and get him off their
hands.
None of that shiftless tribe for me, >
said Mr.. Grattan when interviewed.
But, said Deacon Allen, who with a
little opposition was always ready with an
argument, you don't know nothin' agin
the boy and in ten years time you can
oft q heap O. work out of him-be a good
investment.
"Humph, tell We, l believe in hered-
ity, and | don't want any such lazy ne'er-
do-wells about
His mother wasn't lazy" said the
deacon
Now, don't tell me she was smart, Iiv-
ing there as she did"
'.Well but what's to be done with the
boy?"
There's the poor house.
mo, no, Mr.. Grattan, don't sent the
little fellow there, said Hamil Brown WHIP
ing away tear, rough man that he was,
for while listening to the above conversa-
ton his heart was filed with tender pity.
He was one of the gang of men who, with
guns and axes, were going into a forest
some twenty miles away to spend the win
ter. Let him come to the camp with me,
I'm going up tomorrow.
WELL well, if you will take him off our
hands, said the good deacon, 1T will be a
great relief. | don t know that there is
anything he can do ON the town farm to
earn his board this winter; he would only
be am expense and taxes are high enough
now"
Hamil Brown looked at the deacon as if
he could hardly repreSS an OATH and the
Lord who looks into the heart might have
had one to forgive. He shut his teeth for
a moment and then proceeded to make ar
rangements for taking the boy along
provided he is willing" said the man.
Willing or not, he'll have to go, was
the answer
Hamil Brown found him sitting for
lornly on the wooden steps of the little
house that had been his home.
. Poor little chap, you here alone?
Where are the women Of this town, | Won
der?"
He sat down beside him in such a
friendly way, the boy suddenly burst into
tears and cried as never before. The daz-
ed condition that had enveloped him had
passed away and he was a little sorrowing
boy, as full of grief as any other who had
lost his ALL Mr. Brown let him cry, till
he sobbed, Twill not somebody put me In
the grave with them?" Then. with one
arm around him, he talked and talked I'M
til the stars came out.
In the spring when the men came down
from camp. red checked, black eyed and
handsome lad came with them. Whole
some hearty food, life in the keen, clear
air of the hilly forest had worked a mir
acle 1t had vitalized the whole system.
Body and brain had alike received an I'M
petus Hamil Brown said to Seth Graf
tan, who exclaimed over the vigorous look
ing boy: Yes, 1t has been good thing
for him. | think. and | know it has for me
and the other men, for what think you of a
boy who saws his prayers every night and
is always obliging and pleasant, and who
is brave enough to shame us all? Yes, |
believe IN heredity, too. and know whose
son | am, and whose grandson, but |
know, too. that. with all my opportunities
and education. have been a disgrace to
them Since | was expelled from college,
more than six years ago, I've roved and
wandered, to be brought to my senses by
this little fellow, who might have had
home with your paupers, though your tax
es would have been increased thereby.
Thomas Armstrong. with wide awake
brain and thirst for knowledge, is going
with me where | am going, like the
qrodigal of old. You have heard of the
philanthropist and millionaire of F.?
Well, you may be surprised. but he is my
father, and know him so well, know the
fatted calf will be killed.
A little later, like the butterfly from
ehrysalis, Hamil Brown emerged from his
old life. shorn of much that outwardly had
,oada him c17ob contrast to tho vO1th