The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1895-04-25
LUCK OF THE ATKINSES.
BY MARGARET Il. YEATES.

Nobody ever was poorer than the At
kinses, or, in common parlancc, any
moro ''shif'less." The family consisted
of the old man, Bill by name, n half
blind, decrepit creature, who yet pos
scsscd share of quaint humor; his
wife, Lou-i-sy, n lazy, ragged old
woman, who had grown fat on nothing
and who managed to keep her snuff
box full even when the coffcc-po was
empty, and five or six lanl, sallow
boys and girls in various stages of age
and dirtiness. They occupied a small
log house on the outskirts of town in
the mountains of Arkansas, and their
dwelling was remarkable only for its
simplicity. 1t consisted of Single
room which the entire family occupied
without regard to age or sex; the fire
place furnished at once heat, light and
the means of cooking their scanty
food. Three wrctchcd beds, n broken
chair or two, Il box which served
as table, a frying-pan, spider
and coffee pot, with few broken dish
cs, composed the entire wealth of the
Atkins family, for their house was tho
property of well-to-do citizen who
let them live there for very pity. 1t
was quite prosperous, this inland Ar
kansas town, though fifty rough and
rocky miles from the nearest railroad;
it was considered by the country folk
around dashing, stylish place. The
ladies there never went barefootcd,
even in the hottest weather, and sun
bonnets were long since out of date
The men, too, wore store clothes, and
some of them wore their coats 70 meet
ing during the summer; but this inno-
walton was by no means popular. 1t
was gossipy little community as an
isolated place must be, and its church
and political factions managed to keep
things from stagnating. But the whole
town was united upon one thing-in
heartily condemning the Atkinses
Even the Methodists and the Campbell
ties agreed on that, and they did not
often agree upon anything, for the
Campbellites had affirmed that they
could sing louder and faster than the
Methodists, and the boast had caused
considerable i'll feeling.
The town had TO support the Atkins
es, so surely it had the right to disap-
prove of them, but the disapproval was
rather out of proportion to the aid they
furnished, and. had the position been
reversed, the Atkinses would have had
more to eat. One lady in the town had
declared that She would never help
them Atkinscs' again. She related to a
circle of svmpathizing friends that she
had offered Mis- Atkins two bits a
week an all she could eat if she
Il \, 1,
the offer had been refused. Mrs. At
kins said she had to stay at home and
take care of her man." as he was
mighty nigh blind" and the old man
had loosely remarked that he Flowed
Lou-i-sy'd been dom nothin' so long
she'd hate to quit"
Mr.. Johnson was proprietor of the
only grocery store in the town. He
had come from New England years be-
fore, and had opened this store when
lemons and oranges were practically
unknown and white sugar wcll-nigh
as hard to obtain. BY dint of keeping
these and similar luXurics and selling
them ut astonishingly high rates, and
by Introducing into the western market
many high-prccd novelties, such as
sardincs, canned fruits, oatmeal, A Il C
crackers, and other articles calculated
To please the eye and palate of the
village customer, he had managed to
amass quite tidy little sum. On this
gentleman the burden of contributing
to the support of the Atkinscs fell
with especial severity. Not that he
gave more than anyone clsc-quite the
contrary-but that his well-lknown
stingincss made him feel it more It's
doubtful if he would have given any
thing at all, but from his desire to
stand well in the eyes of the commune
ty, and especially of the gentleman on
whose land the Atkinscs lived. He
was the rich man of the town, and his
influence and Importance were wonder
full in small way.
One evening group of men had
gathered i'll Mr.. Johnson's store, as
was the custom, solcmnly gossiping
about the events of the day. The pro-
prictor stood behind the counter keen
ing an anxious eye on his boxes of
crackers and fruit that stood invitingly
open. lie was a slender man, slightly
stopped, with his face and upper lip
shavcn and an iron-gray beard adorn-
ing his chin. He had small eyes and
bland smile that was intended to be
very pleasing. 1t was hard to keep
the smile this evening, though, for a
lank mountainccr was making fearful
dcprcdations upon box of animal
crackcrs' that stood open on the coun-
tel. lie dared not stop the man, for
he was possible customer, but as he
saw his pastry cows and elephants dis
appearing his heart sank within him.
1T was not until he had safely mancu-