Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-04-30
guest took theopportunity to inquire if his


 guest took theopportunity to inquire if his little daughter had always been blind.
 "No, she warn't allus blind; 'twar done when she were only two year old; she'll be seven, come next August Ye see nigh about every body had bunch of cattle ranging in the woods then, and every win. l ter they'd set the woods afire and burn the dry grass, so's, come spring, the new grass 'ud be good grazing. That's where all the flowers is gone to. Folks come down from up country, and every last one on lem says: So this is ''The Land of Flowers" Huh, I don't see many' As if flowers could bloom l and have to fight fire every year! Why, it's | as much as this yer old tough wire grass can do to stand the fires!
 "But were going to tell ye about my lit tic girls eyes, which twas all along of these yer same fires. Me and the boys was gone | to Tampa with a load of mandarin and Tan- | gerine oranges (nice prime uns they was, | tool, leaving brother Sam to lock after the | Pullet and the Chicks. The Pullet's my old 'ooman. I called her so when I fust con- menced honeysucklin' round her-and she'd think l were sick or mad if was to say 'Mssoury Ann.' | | "Well, we hadn't been gone no time fore neighbor K.ilgore, three mile away, sent his boy after Sam to come and doctor him up a little, being's he were takened purity bad. There warn't no doctor closter n forty mile, and as Sam had done a good deal in that line, he couldn't very well help from going, though he did hate to leave the folks alone.
 "But the Pullet's as plucky little 'ooman as ever eat scuppernongs She he'd Aminee (she was fourteen), and Sed (he was purity nigh ten), and then little Sudie, the baby. We'll, Sam, he didn't come home that night, | being as Jim Kilgore were so bad of. In fact, pore ole Jim, he petered out in the night.
 ''1 can't jest tell ye how it all happened, but in the night the hammock clost to the house was set afire, an when the folks walked twas to find the flames so clost to the cabin they saw 'twere bound to burn. But that warn't the worst. The fire had ketched in solid ring round the cabin, and there didn't seem to be no way for the folks to git out 'cepting to walk right thro' the flames.
 "There warn't no time to lose, nuther, for the open place were a gitting smaller n smaller. So the Pullet, she snatched quilts and soaked lem and wrapped the children in lem, fixing all three head of children so 8 they could run. Then she climbed up on the ladder to see where the flames was thinnest. Hard a choicing, it were, she said, but there warnt no time for fooling. So she told the two oldest to hole the quilts over their heads, and when they come to the fire to make break till they didn't feel the heat no more. Then she took the baby all wrapped in quilt. She might a got out all right, for these yer piney woods ain't thick, and the grass don't git high enough to make high blaze, but she were small, and the baby were heavy, and something or other must have tripped her up, for she fell jest as she reached the edge, and the quilt come off from the little un's head.
 "She thought they was safe, but afore she could get up, a blazing branch fell from tree over their heads, right down across the baby's eyes. Of course, 1t didn't take the Pullet a second to snatch it off-but- and-well, stranger, ye know the rest. l tell ye, friend, when I come home and found every thing in the world I could call mine gone to ashes, it were purity hard. But when had to believe that my little SRdie had lost for always the light out of her two bright eyes, I'd have been glad to see a million of dollars burn clean up afore my eyes, and never lifted finger to save it, if d have brought back her sight. But there ain't no good of hoping for any such happen ing, for the best doctor i'll New York reckon ed she'd never see no more.
 tWhen we got roof over our heads , onct more, we lived on mighty slim rations, and in two years we d saved enough to take me and the little girl to the big city. But came back with my heart a heap heavier than it was when we set out. I must have hoped purity strong, but never sensed il till that doctor had looked at her eyes-anC then looked at me.
 "He didn't say one word, but jest reached , out his hand; and took it in both of mice and I never said nothing, too. I never wished were 'ooman but onct, and tha , were the time, for it 'reared to me like my
 pore ole he art d break if didn't find a let
 out somehow; and what the girls call gooe
 cry 'ud done me powerful sight O good
 But bein's were a man, jest sot and hell
 hard onto that there kind hand till Sudie pu , her little fingers up on my face and had t.
 choke dowr the hurt and speak to her. Pora
 little girl! she warn't old enough to sensl : how much that look were meaning to her even if she could have seen it. Well, rvt , been eyes to her ever since, and I've seer , more in the last five year n I ever saw in m. , l whole lifetime afore.
 'Look down in that there bay-head ovel : you. It's the head of a big hammock, ant
 if ye don't say it's enough sight the purties : place ye ever sot eyes on, then I'm pluml out O my reckonin'. There's where Sudi a and me-but hyer they come in the ox-car D now, and yell see for yerself how she love her ornery ole ."--C.. s. Cowenhowen, fl q N. Y. Ledger.