St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-12-13

| SnOut, then arose hue and cry ana
| a chase with stones and sticks and
pitchforks. Small wonder, then.
that Peggy's disposition, originally
amiable, became embittered. and
| that the whole race of men and boys
came to be regarded by her as her
natural foes. The hard necessities of
the situation forced it upon her to
study war tactics. She began to
| show fight under provoca ton, and,
instead of running, to charge upon
her prosecutors with such fury and
| force that on several occasions they
were thrown into confusion and fled,
leaving Peggy mistress Of the field.
Only once was she caught nap
ping, and then the boy who found
her, less solicitous for the reward
than for a prolongation of the fun,
contented himself with painting her
side with stripes of red, white and
blue lit was the Fourth, and patriot
ism was rampant), and let her go
free again.
Possibly, it was this emblem of
patriotism which induced Peggy to
enter upon the career of an amateur
policeman, and to heap Goals of fire
upon the heads of her enemies by the
performance of most valiant deed.
Peggy, the despised, the execrated,
hunted and hooted at, and driven to
become a thief and a midnight Prov
Ter and bugbear to small children
this Peggy now became the savior of
the village.
All through the summer there had
been a irebug in the town. Several
buildings had been destroyed, and,
so far, the criminal had remained un-
discovered. There had been much
excitement about the ma tier, and the
nights were times of dread, since no
one knew, when he went to bed, but
that he might walked to find his
house in flames and himself in dan
ger of his life. Deacon Gillespie's
house stood in the most thickly pop
ulated part of the village, in line with
al stores and dwelling houses. 1t
had been remarked that, if the fire
should get in among these buildings,
it would make clean sweep Of the
most important part of the village.
One night, just at dark, Peggy, in
her wanderlngs, came to Deacon
Glllespie's back door, and, unaware
that she was upon ground of her
arch-enemy, lay down to sleep in the
midst of a rank growth of caraway
which had sprung up around the
sink-drain. Peggy was tired, and
her sleep was sound. On that ac-
count she did not hear the stealthy
footsteps which, toward midnight,
came creeping up to the house-did
not awaken, in fact, until the oiled
shavings had been laid and the
match applied, and the incendiary
had turned to flee from the scene OF
his crime. Then Peggy woke, and
woke angry, for the fellow, in run
ming through the caraway, had
stumbled over her, and had fallen
with heavy thump upon her poor
of her empty stomach. She rose in
regain his feet she had seized him by
the trousers leg, and had set up
prodigious squeal, which echoed and
re-echoed through all the neighbour
hood. The deacon sprang from his
bed and rushed out, regardless of
costume. In the twinkling of an eye
several other men appeared upon the
scene. The rascal, with Peggy still
clinging valiantly to his trousers
leg, was captured, and the incipient
fire was quickly quenched. In the
midst of the confusion Peggy released
her hold and disappeared. No one
missed her at the time. but afterward,
when the excitement had quoted a
little, they remembered to whom they
owed their escape.
Strangely enough, that was the
last that was ever seen of Peggy.
Whether she had fallen into some I'M
used we'll and had died there, or
whether she had betaken herself to
lands unknown, leaving the deed by
which she had retrieved her charac-
ter to stand as a bright memorial,
undimmed by any subsequent occur
rences, no one ever knew. But now
adays in the village they speak of her
in kindly way, and if they remember
the chasings and the stone throw
ings and the cruel pain of hunger
which she suffered, they console
themselves with the thought that
they are (by themselves forgiven.
Il Alice c. Anderson in the Outlook.