The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-01-10

G In &g& f&&% &# aS&8# II QoSo T66ulb9A al -
M circumatantia
~ history Of the FAM
,s ups and downs and driftings
TO ana fro in the far west dur
ing the previous fifteen years. There
was a message now from out back, and Col.
Sellers went out there in answer to Il.
Hawkins took this opportunity to ask how
the world had boon using tbs colonel dar-
the past half generation.
''Oh, It's bsen using him just the same;
it couldn't change its way Of using him It
it wanted to, for no wouldn't let IT,"
~ oans easily believe that, Mrs.. Sellers
s'Yes, you ses he doesn't change, himsslf
not the least little bit in the wofld-he's
always Mulberry Sellers"
II can sec that plain enough
Just the same old sohsming. generous
eood-hearted, moenshiny, hopeful. no-ac-0
count failure he always was, n still every
body likes him Just as we'll ~ il he Wal the
shiningest succsss.''
s.Ihey always did, and it was natural, be-
cause he was 10 obliging and aosommodat-s
ing, and had something about him that
made it kind of easy to ask help Of him, or
favors. You didn't feel shy, you know, or
have that wish-you-didn't-have-to-try feel
ing that you have with other people,"
tits Just SO yet; and a body wonders at
ut it, too, because ho has been shamefally
treated BY people that had used him az a
ladder to climb up by, aud then kicked
him down when they didn't need him any
more. For q time you can see hos hurt,
his pride's wounded, because he shrinks
away from that thing and don't want to
to talk about it-and 40 l used to think
now he's learned something and he'll be
moro careful hereafter-but laws! in q
couple of weeks he's forgotten all about it.
and any selfish tramp from nobody knows
where can come and put up a poor mouth
and walk right into his heart WITH his
boots on" &
'.It must try your patience pretty sharply
sometimes.n .
ooh, no, I'm uasd to it; and I'd rather
have him SO than the other way. When I
call him a failure, / mean to the world he's
a failure; he isn't to me. I don't know as
] want him diffsrent-much different, any
way. I have to scold him some, snarl at
him you might oven call it, but I reckon I'd
do that Just the same if he was different
" b Lly H0h6s Dub LII u k0Ou O0oA A0oS
snarly and moro contented when he's a
failure than I am when he isn't"
'"Then he isn't always a failure" said
Hawkins, frightening.
Him? Oh, bless you, no. He makes a
strike as he callsF it. from time to time.
Then's my time to fret and fuss. For the
money Just fiea-Grst come frat served.
Straight of, he loads up the house with
cripples and idiots and stray cats and all
A. L /. sol - ~~~- Lrr-~ -j. Al,-A
other people don't want and he docs, and
then when the poverty comes again I've got
to clear the most of them out or we'd
starve; and that distresses him, and mo the
same, of course. Here's old Dan'l and old
Jimmy. that the sheriff sold south one of
before the war--they came wandering
back after the peace, worn out and
used up on the cotton planta-
tons, HOPELESS and not anotherlick of work
left in their old hides for the rest of this
earthly pi~lgrimage-and we 80 pinched, oh,
in us, and he just flung the door wide and
the way he received them you'd have
thought they had como straight down from
heaven in answer to prayer. | took him
one aide and said, Mulberry, We emit have
them; we've nothing for ourselves; We can't
md said, Turn them out and They've come
to me just as confident and trusting as-as
why, Polly, / must have bought that
confidence some time or other a long
time ago, and given my motto, so to speak
you don't get such things rs a gift-and
how am going to get back on q debt like
that? And, you see, they're 80 poor and
old and friendless. and But l was
ashamed by that time and shut him off.
and somehow felt u now courage in mo. and
so / said softly, Well keep them-the Lord
will PROVIDE He was glad, and started TO
burt out on of those over-confident
speeches of his, bat checked himself in
time and said humbly. I will anyway 1t
was years and years ago. Well, you see
those old wrecks are here yet" =.
But dom they do your housework?"
Claws! The idea. They would if they
could, poor old things, and perhaps they
superstition. Dan'l waits on the front
door, and sometimes goes on an Grand;
and sometimes you'll see one or both OF
them letting On to dust around in here
but that's because there's something they
want to hear about and mi1 their gable
inUo. And they're ALWAYS around ut meals
for the same reason. But the fact Ia, we
have to keep a young negro girl just to
take care of them, and q negro woman to
do the homework and help take care of
Them"
We'll, they ought to be tolelsbly happy,
] should think" #
Its no name for ii. They quarrel to-
gether pretty much all the time-most al
ways about religion, because DAn'Ps a
bunker Baptist and %Jinny's = shouting
Methodist; aud jimmy believes in special
providence and Dan'l don't, because he
thinks he's a kind OF Il FREQ thinker-and
they sing and play plantation hymns to-
gether, and talk and chatter inst ~etsrnally
and forever. and are sincerely fond Of each
other aud think the world Of Mulberry, and
he puts up patiently with all their spoiled
ways and foolishness, and so-Ah, well,
they're happy enough il it comes to that.
And I don't mind-I've got used to it. l can
get used to anything. with Mulberry to
help; and the fact is, / don't care much
what happens, SO long az hos spared to
me-
well, here's to him, and hoping he'll
mike another strike oon."
And rake in the lame, the halt and
blind and turn the houas into n hospital
ngain3 " what he would do, I've soon a
plenty Of that aad more. No, Washington.
j wan bis strikes to DO mighty moderate
onea tho rest Of the way down the vals.'
r. N.Y. -. 81