River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1890-06-12

THE GENEROUS FARMER.
An OId-Fashioned Story with Moral at
the End of 1t.

/
| the End of 1t.
One day as Farmer Brill was sitting
under the wide-spreading branches of
his favorite apple tree boy about
/ fifteen years of age, whose appearance
| indicated that he was both tired and
! hungry, came along from the direction
of Boston and halted and said:
IF you please, kind sir, would you
| let me Gull few harvest apples to fill
up the vacuum in my stomach ?"
| Now, Farmer Brill was noted as
very stingy man. While he was strict
ly honest he was so stingy that he
wouldn't sharpen his axe for fear of
wearing out the grindstone. The request
of the boy so paralyzed him that he
gasped for breath, and for several min
utes was unable to speak. He was
about to jump up and give the young
ster blast which would scare him out
of years growth, when some strange
power restrained him, and much to his
amazement he found himself replying:
YES, my good boy, you can have a
whole bushel if you want them
Thanks, kind sir" replied the boy;
"Heaven will surely reward you for
Jour great liberality."
lie climbed over and began to put the
largest and finest apples where they
would do the most good, while Farmer
Brill looked on in mystified way and
wondered whether he was asleep or
awake. The boy had eaten his fill, and
was about to request the loan of a two
bushel bag in order that he might take
some apples along to serve him as
| luncheon, when band of Indians sud
denly burst from the sugar-bush with
blood-curdling yells and made for the
house. There were fourteen of them,
and they were under the lead of He
| Who Hankers-fo Scalps." They had
come to kill and destroy, and as the
farmer heard them he went down into
his boots with the exclamation:
''Alas! my goose is cooked"
| But how was it with our boy hero,
whose name, by the way, was Charles
Won Tottenham? He took in the situa-
tion at a glance, sprang for an old
scythe hanging in a cherry-tree, and the
next instant he bounded forward with
wild yell and shouted:
Back, cravens, or l will destroy
Jou!'
But the crayenS came on, and the work
of death began. With one powerful
sweep of this terrible weapon Charles
cut seven of them down, and at the next
only one was left alive. This was
warrior named Pink-Eye, and with
scream of anguish which was heard
high above the squealing of the hungry
pigs in the pen he fled to the depths OF
the forest to carry the news to his chief.
Farmer Brill, | have saved you!
said the boy, as he stood beside the
helpless old man.
by gum, but so you haver' gasped
the man, finding his voice with great
| effort.
Then he got up and Rugged Charles,
and offered him all the young, sweet
turnips he wanted to eat and sent him
away with his blessing, and when he
came to overhaul the dead and figure w
the money and pearls and diamonds
found in their hip-pockets he saw that
he was rich for life. Turning from the
wagon-load of wealth at his feet to view
the boy hoofng it down the road in the
direction of Tatertown, Farmer Brill
extended his hands and solemnly OBJ
served:
"A good action is never thrown away
never Even if | had given that boy
a nickel | should still be a long ways
ahead of the game. Detroit Free
Press.