Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1889-06-28
MISCELLANEOUS.
A CLEVER CRIPPLE.

About hundred years ago large
party of guests Gncluding several of the
most famous men of that day. were as
sembled in the drawing room of fine
house in the most fashionable quarter Of
Edinburgh BY their frequent glances
at the door they seemed to be expecting
some one whom they specially wished to
see; and the one who looked most eager
Of all, although he never spoke word,
was a boy who was sitting in corner
all by himself.
At first sight you would have noticed
nothing very remarkable about him ex-
cept that his face was paler and thinner
than it should have been. aud that he
appeared to be lame of one foot. But
when you came to look closer you would
have been struck with his high. massive
forehead and clear. bright eyes, which
showed that whatever he might lack in
muscle was more than made up in brains.
us that sickly-looking boy with the
lame foot the young prodigy of whom
you were telling me last night, Mitch
ell ?" asked handsome and dandified
young fellow, turning to an older and
graver man beside him.
1.-The very same and he is prodigy,
If ever there was one yet. | really be-
lieve he knows by heart every ballad
that has ever been written, and he writes
ballads himself, too But the most won
derful thing about him, to my mind, is
that be should be alive at ALL"
'Indeed What do you mean ?"
"Why, mean that, young us no is,
he has had almost as many narrow es-
capes of losing his life as | have had of
mine and that's saying good deal, as
you know. First and foremost, when
be was only few months old he fell so
i'll that the doctors despaired of saving
him, and"
"Oh, that's not unusual nowadays"
interrupted the younger man laughing.
why, | saw u man myself only last
summer, who when | met him was just
completing his hundreth year, and he
had been given up by the doctors before
he had completed his third
'Well, this boy of ours surpassed
even that" said Mr.. Mitchell, "for he
had another narrow escape before he
had completed his second. Ono night,
when no ought to have been snug in
bed, ho slipped out Of the house and ran
away over the wet grass as hard as he
could go. Before they caught him he
had caught something else, viz, cold
and fever that laid him up for several
days, and when he began to get we'll
again they found that his right leg was
crippled, just as you see il now. Then,
little while after that"
"Why, he must have had as many
lives as cat"
Pooh oil that is nothing at all to
what is coming. A little while after
that, us was saying, he was sent into
the country with his nurse, an odd sort
of a creature, who must, should think,
have been more than half crazy. Any
how, she took spite against the child,
because her having to be with him kept
her from going home, as she wanted to
~ gu" s't, ~ 'a'0 "na' w you 'nihn quo
did Why' TOOK him out Tor Walk one
evening, intending Gas she afterward
confessed to kill him with her scissors
ana bury MS BODY IN swamp"
You don't say so
Fact, l assure you but the little
fellow looked 80 bright and happy, and
chung. to her so affectionately, that when
the time came she couldn't make up
her mind TO do IT.
wen, that was a nice piece OF work,
upon my word What an extraordinary
BOY ne must DC :.
Yes: you may call him extraordi-
nary. what do you think he did just
the other day ! l had been making q
call at his fathers house, and when l
got up 70 Co. he came TO me and said ,
I've got present TO give you, mr..
Mitchell, but you must remember that
s'.o ao " 70 es'ili'a'eu, NV aooor1.ns
~ n' ;aan.;a. ' ~ W.. valu a ou' s0oo'u"s
'" .. nS ,a'' h;"' :. ,"e e. 1'o' a..
no ~ I' ~. ~ r.. Wy y. ~ 1"a ~