Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1889-02-16

Moses, the Tramp.
Miss Tabby Linscott and Miss Pegg,
Linscott, with their winsome littI
niece, Alice, lived in an old, weather
among the hills The windows of tn.
farmhouse looked ont on wilderness
OF rose and lilac bushes, while the pin,
trees near by gave to everything an al
Of stately solitude. The whole prem
ises We're spotlcssly clean and funertal
ly still.
1t seemed to Alice that the very bird,
sang in subdued tones. Teams seldom
passed, and when they did, they coult
scarcely lie seen for the thick hushn
at the foot of the garden. All da,
long the wind moaned through tn,
pines, and the child thought the SUI
never shone so brightly here rs it haC
at home.
Two years before the opening Of om
story Alice had liv Il with her parents
in Il lovely place lust out of the city of
New York, but a railroad accident left
her fathcrleSl and mo.herlesS.
Tn Sc two kind old aunts had given
her a home with them 1t was a great
change for the child from her beauti-
full home, loving parents. and hosts OF
plaYmates, to this lonely Ii e with the
two women who never kissed her. anG
who seldom smiled
Alice, child though she was, apprc
lated their kindness and sacrifice.
Yet sometimes she longel, Oh so bit
70 T.. 10 Il
breast, to feel her loving arms about
her, while She told her all the foolish
little crets that girls have to tell, and
that mc theirs alone can sympathi2e with
md be lntereste | in.
Alice was brave and unselhsh, and
her auntS never dreamed of the nights
that she lay weeping III her loneliness
and SORROW. But lit lie children are
ever near to Gods great heart, and
IN His own way He comforts them, SO
the child's life was not all lonely. She
sometimes sat for hours beside the
little brook, watching it flow over the
pebbles, listening to its voice, and I'M
consciously learning, from the beauty
around her, to love nature and natures
God.
But as brooding and loneliness are
bad for any one, and especially for n
sensitive child, Alice was fast losir g
her gay spirits and bright color, and
was acquiring thoughtfuIness unnat-
ural TO childhood. Her annts, being
amused to oh ldren, saw nothing of all
this change, save that tn y thought
the child WAS growing womanlv.
To- nht
womanly before their time.
One day something happened that
changed Alice's life completely. Such
simple thing, too. 1t was in the win
ter, and there had been snowstorm
the night beforI. Tom, the hired man,
had made a Wild path to the barn.
This path looked so inviting that Alice
begged to go out, so wrapping her uJ
warmly, her aunt let her go.
She visited Daisy, the COW, Billy,
the Lorse, and Smut, the pig All at
once she heard a ia mt mewing, and
hunting about she found curled up in
the hay, the longest, leanest black and
white cat she had ever seen.
Poor little Alice. with heart full of
love and tenderness, longing for some
object on which to bestow her atfec-
ton, seized the cat, and hugging him
up in her arms, ran to the house as fast
as her little legs would carry her
"Oh, auntie,' she cried, I've found a
tramp cat Please may feed him? He
looks 50 hungry"
The fact of his hunger appealed to
Aunt Peggy's heart as nothing else
,ould. She set some milk before the
at, and he drank as if he were starving,
while Alice sat watching him with
round eyes.
After he had eaten all he would she
took him in her arms and sat down by
the window softly. Nearly all day she
played with him, sang to him and
talked to him. When bedtime came
Aunt Tabby went to take him away, but
Alice Rugged him up tight, crying.
oh, auntie, don't put him ont in the
cold Please let him steep with me?
Oh, auntie, do"
Let that nasty cat sleep in M clean
blankets" cried Aunt Peggy, holding
up her hands in horror: well. / eness
not.
But something in the pleading face.
81 llht illOlItI litt HOW nlulen Ill the
grave. touched Aunt TaLbvs heart
md she said; There, there. Peggy.
let her have the creeter If he soils
the badclothes I'll wash EN-. used
to like eat when Twas little like her"
SO Moses, for so Alice called him.
went to bed with his little mistress,
who Rugged him up close and fell
asleep listening to his soft purring.
Moses grew fat and handsome under
the treatment he received, and Alice's
whole loving heart went out to her pet,
and she grew happy in consequence.
Her laugh grew merry and her step
light.
But Moses proved a sorry rascal. He
would tip over Aunt Peggy's work
basket and wind all the thread around
The chairs and tables. He hid a trick
of opening the clock, taking off the
pendulum and rolling it under the
stove or some remote corner. There
was not closet door in the house but
he could open, and many choice NOR
sci did be devour in the night.
Yet the worse Moses grew, the more
Alice loved him.
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