The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1890-03-28
Willie. Patch.

It was lonely out there in that far
Western home, and when little Willie.
came it was a great joy to his mother;
now she would have something living
to talk to, while papa was out in the
distant fields aud woods, for they had
taken up a large track of land and their
nearest neighbor was ten miles away.
And, though they were prospecting, IL
was terribly lonesome. Sometimes
Willie's mother would shut her ewes
rs she sat in the wintry silence, and
fancy that she heard the creakinp Of
the wood sled on the hard snow of the
lane that led to her fathers farmhouse
in distant Massachusetts,. She heard
the snap of the whip, and her father
stamping the n off his boots in the
back porch; then there would be rush
of feet and a chorus of voices from the
warm sitting room, and Ponto and
Carlo would Join in the mad welcome
and then she would sit up and open
her eyes and perhaps shed q few tears,
poor little woman. But that was be-
fore Willie came with the warm spring
sunshine. Willie was q little COM
forter. He chuckled, and sucked his
fat fists, and twirled his feet, in their
odd little WOODEN boots, vigorously by
Christmas; and was quite ready for the
trunkful of dainty dresses and aprons
that grandma sent at that season. And
when spring came again he could tod
die along by the chairs or fence. and
shout defiance at the chickens and the
cat.
So he grew and grew, as the fairy,
tales say, and he vas as good as gold
Papa used to tell him about all the
other little children-this was when
he had got to be three years old-who
lived in various parts of the world:
for at first this baby thought that
there was only II boy in the world.
and that boy was himself. =;
He was quite o lively fellow. He
would run out to the barn to meet his
father and ride, perhaps, to one of the
near fields on m of the horses backs
but he generally stayed with hiS
mother. She used to work in her Rars
den a good deal, planting seeds, after
the ground had been made ready for
her. And Willie loved to do inst al
she did.
Mamma" he said one day, II want
+ plant some torn for the poor title
boys in the big city, SOS they can have
'nough to eat, too.s
well ask papa. Willie darling, to
give you a sunny place for a corn
patch" said his mother.
When papa came home to dinner he
dug u patch a few yards square in 8
sunny part. and fenced it with stones:
and here Willie planted some seed
corn, and watered and tended it till il
was twice as tall as lie was himself.
But, alas! when it was full in the ear.
little Willie said one day to his mother:
Mamma, my throat all sore. Tan't
swallow"
She did all she could for him. while
his father rode off for the doctor. and
all night the three watched and worked
oyer him; but in the morning, when
the red sun rose into the amber sky.
and the soft breeze tossed the tassefs
OF the corn back and forth, little Willie
lay white and still.
They buried the poor baby in a cor.
ner OF the garden, for there was no
graveyard near; and then they Thought
how they could do what lie asked.
Send my torn to the poor little bows.
papa" It was almost his last thought,
How could they do it?
At last his father thought of q plan.
de measured the corn and put the
money for tit was very little-into
Wlilies little money-box; and then he
took the corn, carefully dried it for
g and put il away, labeled,
SWillie's corn" The next season he
planted 1t, put the price of its produces
away also. and planted that for seed
next season; and so he did each year.
until "Willie's Patch" as the called H..
was . field Of q hundred and eieht,
acres, the produce Of which supported
. home for poor little boys In one Of
our crowded cities. And the home was
called sWillie's Patel" too.-Eaith ii.
Norris. in Yankee Blade,