Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-01-16

the hour for every sncal1ing son of
Winncbago to say his leetle now lay
me- in the reservation. Git" and he
pointed to the door Of the rendezvous
with gesture that admitted of no de-
lay.
Them copper-colorcd coy otes would
set thar like alabaster images all night,
and the hull Of ter-morrcr, if there
warn't somebody to boot them off. An
they lissen an don't understand word,
but look so pizcn KNOWN you'd think
they wuz drinlin' it all in
The Indians filed out and without a
sound disappeared into the night, and
the usual complement of visitors gath
cred at the stove with the man on the
cracker-boX as centerpiece. There was
man who was selling patent clothes
reels, and another who was selling
Bibles, old Capt. Lemming and the
postmaster and man from the Mis-
souri, bottoms, whose team was hitched
outside. He told them that he expect
ed his "old woman" and little gal"
by the stage, which was usually late.
"Speallin' of the stage" said the man
on the cracker box, I'm regularly
glad amt in it. Onct over them
driveways twiXt here and Omaha was
enough for me. No, thanllee, BARD, if
can't go by steam, then stays where
be. I've no notion for travclin' with
wimmen and sick babies in a stage
coach"
Tell us bout it, can't YEP" sug-
gcSted the clOthcs-recl man, who was
dying of what he called "endway" at
being stranded in such forlcrn place.
'"Eaint SO much to tell" said the
cracaer-boX man, cutting off a good
siz ID chew from the pig" of tobacco
offered to him, AN guess I can wind
it up afore the stage gets here, but the
dom and the suffcrin' of it is what
hurts my feelin's, to think when l
kept it all in just on account of that
gOod-for-nothin' - say! I'm Cettin'
ahead of my story.
Boys, dye remember when the
bridge over Pigeon river was built, an
what lot of money an work an po-
litical shenanigan it took, an how
picte's of the fine structure, as they
called it, was in them New York pa
pers, an how sot up all the fellers on
the prairie felt cause they didn't have
to take off their shoes an stockings
an ford the crick. An how the work
was we'll under way when the five
thousand dollars necessary to finish it
off was sent out by speshcl messenger?
Say, was on the stage when the fell
Ter with that money started to come
through. There was four or five of US
on the inside of the coach that day,
and one woman with q sick baby-she
was tryin' to get ii home to her folks
afore it died, she said. She were young
an pretty, but her eyes We're red with
cryin' an takin' care of the young un
day an night. She didn't have much
to say to any of us. but when she
looked at us with them big sorrowful
| eyes our hearts just went down into
our boots and we would have laid
down an let her walk over us.
THE baby was wrapped up in shawls
an wells and lay on pillow an was
fed with one of them nussin' bottles an
1t whined an cried lcctle, in faint,
sick way, an the mother kissed and
| coocd to it an sung leetle hymns that
made I all get colds in our heads, an
she f>aT>l it was Ecttln' worse and
woul d, afore she got home! She
was g''.n' to the fur end of the stage
route. nc said, with her voice full of
tenrS
THE tother passt niger that interested
us rid on the box with the driver. /
don't know how it was that we saveyed
| right OF that he was the Teller that
had the money for that bridge! / guess
1t were on the same principle that the
birds OF the air know when to get to-
gether an go south-a kind of instinct
Fact was, we didn't cotton rightly t.
that bridge scheme. We thought the
next county were putting on airs with
] wrought iron bridge out on the prairie
for the cows to hoof over Eut twern't