Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-02-28
LITTLE JACK HORNER.
BY MARY KYLE DALLAS.

Mr.. Jackson Horner-what would he
have said if he had known that now and
then irreverent people called him little
Jack Horner!-lived in very handsome
villa in bonneville, and was the richest
man. no doubt. in the whole county.
There was time-not so very long be-
fore, either-when he had been no
richer than his neighbors, and then he
had not, as they said, taken so many
airs"
But a lucky contract, not particularly
to his credit when it came to conscience,
and a lucky speculation or two added to
that had made Jack Horner rich.
In the old days, when he lived in the
row of frame houses with shops under
them, his most intimate friend had been
one Jerry Pine, who kept the tinsmith
shop next door to him.
Many a good turn had Jerry done him;
many dollar had he loaned, glad to
accommodate a neighbor; but Jerry, be-
ing generous, had been imposed upon,
and Jerry had grown poorer, and since
Mr.. Horner had gone to live at the villa
he had not invited his old friend to see
him.
Jerry felt the slight. For years they
had smoked their pipes together, sitting
on the low fences of their little gardens
i'll the evening, orplayed dominoes when
winter nights we're long. He still had
the old accordion they both usedto play
on in the boyish days before they were
married and they had been confidential
over their love affairs.
My jim was born two years before
Jacks Eliza came into this world" the
tlnsmith would say. "Jack used to
swear that.his girl should marry my boy,
andthelr mothers talked as if it were to
be SO. I'd like to see Jack Horner's face
up there in the villa, as he calls it, if he
Was put in mind Of that. Riches spoil
some men. And yet who doesn't want
EN-? I'd like to see my Jim one of the
flell ones, J. would; but he has got to
TAKE to his tools, like his daddy.
Jun was quite content. He was a big
fellow, with brawny arms and black
mar and eyes. And whatever GOODNESS
had come between the rich and the poor
one, none had come between their
children.
They had been playmates and Jim's
mother died early; SO that Eliza's
ni0'ner' feeling pity for the little child
"ao had no %womankind to watch over
n'iA, mad had him about the house o
good deal after that.
hliza was very affectionate, and by
,ne tme she was II and Jim 10, the
wy began to know that it was not as a
SISTER that he loved Eliza. He was
S0rfy Their for the first time that he had
Ao' a fortune to offer her, but he in
ended to make one-to hammer it out
= 'ne TIN, he said, if there was no other
nay' And he often went up to the
aolner villa, never guessing that the
mother knew so we'll what her hus-
u"no $ feelings on the subject would be,
M ra' she never let him see who called
lucy sat in the family room, and Jack
norner knew that Eliza had company
a. the parlor. Young folks always had
~ "pahy, he supposed: and they were
OIL me house, and the neighbors' sons,
ta people who We're quite up to his
"s'e e would naturally drop in.
.u nl'za," he would say to himself,
Of F az marry a big banker or something
nan .nat sort one Of these days. There's
N' ua like lifting your family up"
Ao~ever, he himself made no new
a nSsnas' He asked people to dinner,
AND vent out to dine. They bowed
nu spoke as they met-on the cars, re-
lung to their villas from the city. He
t n~a one of the select neighborhood, but
h; s'e was no one to chat with him over
old pipe' OR play dominoes, or talk wei
inf; "'''es' as there was when he was
Tha "'e with Jerry Pine, the tinsmith.
in t H. adea that it was Jim Pine in there
j. 'ne fine parlor, with its carved man