The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1891-12-24

to mention 1T, because my fortune teller
knows already" CThen making believe
TO whisper | kissed her and she kissed
me.) ''Why, she says you're thinking of
as little as three and threepence! I
couldn't have believed it, even of you,
unless she told me. Three and three
pencel And a set of printed tables in
the lot that'n calculate your income up
to forty thousand year! With an in
come OF forty thousand year you
grudge three and sixpence. Well, then,
I'll tell you my opinion. so despise the
threepence that I'd sooner take three
shillings. There. For three shillings,
three shillings, three shillings! Comet
Hand 'em over to the lucky man."
AS there had been no bid ut all every-
body looked about and grinned at every
body, while touched little Sophys face
and asked her if she felt faint or giddy.
"No: very, father. 1t will soon be over"
Then turning from the pretty patient
eyes, which were opened now, and see
Ing nothing but grins across my lighted
grease pot went on again in my Cheap
Jack style. where's the butcher" (my
sorrowful eye had just caught sight of a
fat young butcher on the outside of the
crowd. "She says the good luck is the
butchers. Where IS he" Everybody
handed on the blushing butcher to the
front, and there was a roar, and the
butcher felt obliged to put his hand in
his pocket and take the lot. The party
picked out, in general, does feel obliged
10 take the lot-good four times out of
BLK. Then we had another lot, the coun-
terpart OF that one, and sold it sixpence
cheaper, which is always very much en-
| Joyed. Then we had the spectacles. 1t
amt special profitable lot, but put
'em on, and see what the chancellor of
the exchequer is going to take off the
taxes, and see what the sweetheart of
the young woman in the shawl is doing
at home, and l see what the bishops has
| got for dinner, and deal more that sell
dom fails to fetch 'em up in their spirits,
and the better their spirits the better their
bids. Then we had the ladies lot-the
teapot, tea caddy, glass sugar basin, half
a dozen spoons and caudle cup-and
all the time was making similar excuses
to give look or two and say a word or
two to my poor child. 1t was while the
second ladies' lot was holding 'em en-
chained that l felt her lift herself a little
on my shoulder to look across the dark
street. "What troubles you, darling?"
Nothing troubles me, father. am not
at all troubled. But don't I see a pretty
churchyard over there" eyes, my dear"
kiss me twice, dear father, and lay me
| down to rest upon that churchyard grass
so soft and green" staggered back
into the cart with her head dropped on
my shoulder, and | says to her mother:
"Quickl Shut the doorl Don't let those
laughing people seer' whats the mat
ter" she cries. rOh, woman, womang' T
tells her, you'll never catch my little
Sophy by her hair again, for she has
flown away from you'll"
Maybe those were harder words than
| l meant 'em; but from that time forth
my wife took to brooding, and would
sit in the cart or walk beside it hours at
| stretch, with her arms crossed and
| her eyes looking on the ground. When
| her furies took her (Which was rather
schooner than before) they took her in a
new way, and she banged herself about
to that extent that was forced to hold
her. She got none the better for a little
drink now and then, and through some
years / used to wonder, as I plodded
| along at the old horses head, whether
| there was many carts upon the road that
held so much dreariness as mine, for all
my being looked up to as the king of the
| Cheap Jacks. So sad our lives went on
| till one summer evening, when we were
| coming into Exeter out of the farther
west of England, we saw woman beat
ing child in cruel manner, who
screamed, Don't beat me! Oh, mother,
mother, motherl' Then my wife stopped
her ears and ran away like wild thing,
and next day she was found in the river.
Me and my dog were all the company
| left in the cart now, and the dog learned
to give short bark when they wouldn't
bid, and to give another and nod of his
head when / asked him, 'FWho said half
crown? Are you the gentleman, sir,
| that offered half a CROWN He attained
to an immense height of popularity, and
l shall always believe taught himself en-
tirely out of his own head to growl at
any person in the crowd that bid as low
as sixpence. But he got to be well on in
years, and one night when I was con-
wulsing York with the spectacles, he
took conwrlsion on his own account
upon the very footboard by me, and it
| finished him.
Being naturally of tender turn, I
had dreadful lonely feelings on me arter
this. I conquered 'em at selling times.
having a reputation to keep (not to men,
ton keeping myself, but they got me
down in private and rolled upon me.
That's the way with us public characters.
See us on the footboard, and you'd give
pretty well anything you possess to be
us. See us off the footboard, and you'd
add triie to be off your bargain. 1t
was under those circumstances that I
come acquainted with giant. I might
have been too high to fall into converse
ton with him had it not been for my
lonely feelings. For the general rule is,
| going round the country, to draw the
line at dressing up. When a man can't
trust his getting living to his undis-
L. =