The Opelousas courier., 1894-11-24

~ ~ SSHctdl d~ppearmentS anC
.ook me for 4 fool. Whereas, at any
a.'s, me 'alio"ays picked up and lii
I"t ana moved Off to the city. John
n"achhe got some sort of a job at rail
roadln, whilst his wife and children
Ivy u q house with only one room and
.he kitchen n not enough ground tc
have a garden patch.
4 X
Little Speck Was Sick Ahed.
One day last spring I went up to the
Guy: n whilst there | took a notion
you'd 60 around and hunt up John
PUCK galloway and his folks. I found
the place and the folks, but John Buck
ne was on somewhere on the railroad
~ work. Misses galloway and all the
chlldren exceptin little Speck was so as
W De up and about, but nothin to bras
on. Little Speck he was down with the
same disease that Simon Peters wife's
Inothef, or some of their kinnery had
ne was sick abed with a hot fever. He
was pale and thin and nervous. and
talked fast and quick and ierkv like,
He wanted me to tell him about every
body in particlar and everything in
general back down therein the Rocky
Creek settlement. Was it warm enough
yet for the boys to wade in the spring
branch and build fiutter mills? Had
The trees put out SO the bark would slip
and l could make some whips and whis-
ties outen hickory sprouts? Did the
pearch and the hornvheads in the mill
p9nd bite and was fish bait very plenti-
VI? Was the ~dewberries gettin ripe
get n was the general fruit crop
Jromisin?
Wen sir, the boy went on talkin at
that lick till burned if l could stand it.,
hnd SO when | come back home that
evenln little Speck he come along with
me He was more than willin to come,
and his mother didn't put in no serious
objections, though she lowed maybe
John Buck would raise a rucus whep he
got home, but if he didn't like it he
would have to lump it. / could raise
twenty boys down here in the woods
and hills more easier and better than
John Buck Galloway could raise three
in that little crowded campin place
where he lives. II Twas to take a right
young colt and pen him up clost in a
stall, and feed him day in and day out
on corn and fodder, and never let him
make a track out in the open paster,
people would set me down right away
as a natural born blame fool. But that
is about the way in which John Buck
Galloway is tryin to raise his boys.
Inside Of three days after l got home
with Speck he was considerable on the
mend. l had to keep the check rein up
for about a week, then gradually by
degrees 1 give all the slack in the rib
bons till finally at last l let him slip the
bride and go.
There is plenty of prancin room
around here Speck,' says /, and if you
will but only fall in with the rest of the
boys they will soo learn you the lay
of the land. They can tell you wheth-
er the fish will bite or not, and where
the bait is most plentiful. They can
find the best hickory in the woods for
maxim whips and whistles, and tl-ey
can take you to the best wash hole in
the creek. They have got to turn off a
place-choppin wood and fetchin water
cows and ropin off the calves, and So
find plenty of time and plenty of hand
romance for fun and frolicin.'
A little later along in the summer I
rounded up a yoke Of little slab-sided,
razor-back steers for the boys and built
them a truck wagin. After two or
three runaway scrapes they got the
steers broke into the reglar service and
hauled up cook wood enough to last till
Christmas. Speck was powerful neat
and nice with his clothes when he first
come down from the city. but it want
long before he got bravely over that.
/ think he is fully recovered by now.
He can git as ragged and dirty and hot
and tired and hongry as any of the boys
now, and he has also got as many diff
ferent sorts of patches on the gable end
of his breeches as any of the rest. /
didn't give him any further trouble and
worriment with school books and med
icine, and for three or four months he
has been runnin foot-loose and free and
wild as a buck. But he comes up at
meal time reglar as pig tracks three
times a day, and he comes like any
yearlin boy ought to come-healthy
and hongry and happy.
Give The Boys CROWN Room.
The onlyest way to take a boy and
make a full grown man out of him is to
give him plenty of CROWN room. and
let him hold his head up and feel like
he is somebody. You recollect all about
James Sanders Scroggins, which the
same we called him Jimmy for short.
You remember no doubts how Jimmy
come along. a stray colt as it were. and
sorter took ap at our house and stayed
there till he got to be a grown up man.
Well now when that boy turned up at
our house he had been browbeat and
bulldozed aud run over till he was the
worst hacked youngster | ever saw.
But / took him and give him a boys
chance and he was soon holdin his head
as high and proud as any chap in the
settlement. About that time, along in
the fall of the year. / had started him
to school down at the Cross Roads
schoolhouse to a man by the name of
Solomon. One Friday evenin Jimmy
come home lookin powerful droopy and
down in the mouth. He didn't eat
nothin to speak of Saturday and Sum
day. Monday mornin come, and still
Jimmy didn't have no appetite to eat.
At last he up and told me what was the
matter. He had went and got into a
fight with another boy and old man
Solomon had give it out that he was
goin to give. them both a good lickin on
Monday. So I lit out right Don after
breakfast and rode over to Mr.. Solo
mons house to find out the facts in the
case. He didn't know nothin about it
except that Jimmy and the other boy
had got into a fight and he had told
them that he was goin to whip them
Monday. Nobody didn't see the fight
aud he didn't know which one was in
wrong, but they had got into a fight,
which the same was agin the rules of
school and he was necessarily compelled
to give them a good lickin.
sinister Solomon" says I, shat amt
way to treat a white and freeborn
American boy. You don't SO much as
know which one Of them was in the
1t maybe that Jimmy had to
eight or run, and it maybe that the 9TH
er boy had to run or fight. The chan
are that yoa will whip a bow for no