The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1892-12-23
He Jumped upon his stool and caught
me bU the breast of the Jacket.

7~-N
He jumped upon his stool and caught
me bU the breast of the jacket.
For day that was begun so ill the
day passed fairly well. We had the
porridge cold again at noon and hot por-
ridge at night; porridge and small beer
was my uncle's diet. He spoke but little,
and that in the same way as before,
shooting a question at me after long
silence, and when sought to lead him
In talk about my future slipped out of
it again. In o room next door to the
kitchen, where he suffered me to go,
found great number of books, both
Latin and English, in which 1 took great
pleasure all the afternoon. Indeed the
time passed SO lightly in this good COM
pany that began to be almost recon-
ciled to my residence at Shaws, and
nothing but the sight of my uncle, and
his eyes playing hide and seek with
mine, revived the force of my distrust.
One thing 1 discovered which put me
in some doubt. This was an entry on
the fly leaf of chapbook Zone of Pat
rick Walker's) plainly written by my
fathers hand and thus conceived, "To
my brother Ebenezer on his fifth birth
day." Now, what puzzled me was this:
That as my father was of course the
younger brother he must either have
made some strange error or he must
have written before he was yet five an
excellent, clear, manly hand of writing.
tried to get this out of my head; but
though I took down many interesting
authors, old and new, history, poetry
and story book, this notion of my fathers
hand of writing stuck to me, and when
at length went back into the kitchen,
and sat down once more to porridge and
small beer. the first thing 1 said to
Uncle Ebenezer was to ask him if my
father had not been very quick at his
book.
alexander? No, him. was the reply.
81 was far quicker myself; l was a
clever chappie when Twas young. Why,
Icould read as soon as he could"
This puzzled me yet more, and a
thought coming into my head asked
If he and my father had been twins.
He jumped upon his stool, er' the
horn spoon fell out of his hand upon the
floor. What gars we ask that?" he said,
and caught me by the breast of the
jacket and looked this time straight into
my eyes, his own, which were little and
light and bright, like birds, blinking
and winking strangely.
"What do you meant? asked very
calmly, for I was far stronger than he
and not easily frightened. "Take your
hand from my jacket. This is no way
to behave"
My uncls seemed to make great
effort upon himself. "Dod, man David,
he said, eye should nae speak to me
about your father. That's where the
mistake is" He sat awhile and shook,
blinking in his plate. "He was all the
brother that ever had," he added, but
with no heart in his voice, and then he
caught up his spoon and fell to supper
again, but stiA shaking.
Now this last passage, this laying of
hands upon my person and sudden pro-
fession of love for my dead father, went
SO clean beyond my comprehension that
it put me into both fear and hope. On
the one hand, began to think my uncle
was perhaps insane and might be dan
gerous; ON the other, there came up into
my mind quite unbidden by me and
even discouraged story like some bal
lad had heard folk singing of q poor
lad that was rightful heir and wick
ed kinsman that tried to keep him from
his own. For why should my uncle
play part with o relative that came
almost begger to his door unless in
his heart he had some cause to fear himi
With this notion all unacknowledged
but nevertheless getting firmly settled in
my head, now began to initiate his
covert looks, so that we sat at table like
a cat and q mouse, each stealthily OBJ
serving the other. Not another word
had he to say to me, black or white, but
was busy turning something secretly
over in his mind, and the longer we sat
and the more 1 looked at him the more
certain l became that the something was
unfriendly to myself.
When he had cleared the platter he
got out single pipeful of tobacco, just
as in the morning, turned round stool
into the chimney corner and sat awhile
smoking with his back to me.
"Davie," he said at length, "I've been
thinking;" then he paused and said II
again. "There's wee bit siller that
half promised ye before we were born,'
he continued; promised it to your
father Oh naething legal, yc under.
stand; Just gentlemen dating at their
wine. Wei. kept that bit money
separa;c-~it was a great expense. but q