The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1890-03-01
DIRE PROPHECIES.
How the Town Fool Turned Out to
Be the Town Blessing.

u
or girl unlike the other boys and girls
in the town. Sometimes this popularity
is of such nature that the person
manifesting it earns for himself the un-
enviable distinction of being somewhat
lacking in the upper story" as the
villagers often express it.
He is spoken of as being "kind of
queer" or openly called the ''town
fool" when his supposed mental weak
ness may consist of nothing more seri-
GUS than his thinking and talking and
acting in an original sort of way.
The town of Wendom, in an Eastern
State, had within its limits fool of this
kind. His name was Hiram Curry. He
was friendless and homeless boy, who
lived first with one villager and then
with another who could find enough for
him to do to earn his food and second
hand clothing, and he earned all he ever
received, although some of the penuri-
Gus old farmers near Wendom gave
themselves credit for great deal of
generosity for allowing Hiram to go to
school for few months in the winter
season in return for such tritling serv-
ices as feeding and milking six or eight
cows, chopping and carrying in all the
wood used in the house, feeding forty or
fifty head of hogs, building all the fires,
and putting in his ''spare time" before
and after school in shelling corn for the
mill, churning, washing dishes and
scrubbing kitchen floors.
Perhaps it was because ho had lived
with so many different people and be-
cause no attention had ever been given
to his manners that poor Hiram was not
| just like other boys.
''He's been knocked round from pillar
to post all his born days until / reely
wonder that he's got any sense at all"
said old Grandmother Crewe, sympathiz-
| ingly. ellis pa was real smart man,
and might have amounted to good deal
If he'd only let Ticker alone; but he
wouldn't, and when he was run over and
killed by the cars one dark night and
the shock of it killed his mother ten
days later, little Hiram began to be
tossed round from one family to another
in way that want likely to make him
like other boys, poor little feller!'
Unfailing cheerfulness was one of
Hiram's peculiarities of character.
Amid all the sorrows of his hard life he
presented to the world a smiling face,
although there must have been times
when his heart was heavy.
''He amt sense enough to reelize his
own mis'ry," was what some of the vii
layers said about Hiram's cheerfulness.
And indeed he had an odd way of
laughing and joking about every thing
as though human misery was something
he had not yet heard of.
His odds and ends of cast-off clothing
could not but give him singular APP
pearance. His coat was usually too
large, his trousers too short, and some-
times his boots were not mates; but he
would even turn this mortifying fact
into a joke
"If fellow can't have what he wants
it's good idea to be satisfied with what
he can get" was one of Hiram's favorite
sayings.
He was boy of fourteen when he first
heard the words, ''town fool" applied
to him.
He had gone down to one of the vii
lage stores one evening to get pound
of soda for Farmer Gerrish's wife, with
whom he was staying that winter.
The soda had been given him, and he
had started to leave the store, but had
stopped near the door to look at the
things in the showcase, when he heard
a stranger at the other end of the store
say in low tone to the village mer-
chant:
"Well, it's pity that boy couldn't
add to the variety of his clothes. Does
the town hire him to wear out it's old
duds, and who is he, anyhow?"
so, him?" Hiram heard the village
merchant say, sneeringly. Hes sort
of town fool; his names Curry-Hi
Curry; he works round for his keep.
guess he amt got any more sense than
the law allows him."
Had any one met Hiram hurrying
home with bowed head, few moments
later, he might not have greeted them
with his usual smile and CHEEKY words,
for his face wore fierce, determined
look, and his cheeks were wet with
something that was not melted flakes
of flying snow falling on his hot face.
The wind blew keenly through his
thin, ill-fitting garments, but every drop |
of blood in his body seemed boiling
"I'il show 'em who's their town fool! |
IL 0toW GIN! ue odlu, dPdlu anu again. |
"They shan't always call me their town |
fool, If l do wear their old duds now |
and work for my keep. l earn all get, |
and they know it. I'll shoD 'em''
The next day at school he was the |
same smiling, good-natured boy he had
always been; but his lessons were un-
usually we'll learned and he was less
mischievous in school.
He had never been known to be |
rude or saucy to his teachers, and some
of them, believing what they Lad
heard about him, accepted his good be-
havior and unusual courtesy as evidence
of the fact that he had not wit enough |
to be as bad as some of the seemingly |
brighter boys.
They never saw beneath the surface
Of his nature, and, like some other
boys, Hiram hid his strong points and
revealed the weak ones.
When school closed that spring, Hi
ram surprised Farmer Gerrish by de-
manding wages for his work in the fu-
ture.
"I'll be fifteen years old in month"
he said, ''and I'm too old to work for |
just my keep, 'speshly when ] do the
same work you pay man twenty dol |