The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-23


peared at the forge she uttered a scream
of delight. Jack had neatly joined the
hollow iron globe taken from the newell
post of some old iron staircase railing
at the two prongs and covered fit with
coat of red fire-proof paint. 1t was
true that its complexion was rather
high, that it was inclined to be top
heavy and that in the long run the
other dolls suffered considerably by en-
forced association with this unyielding
and implacable head and shoulders, but
this did not diminish Mary's joy over
her restored first born. Even its utter
absence of features was no defect in
a family where features were as evan
escent as in hers, and theInost ordin-
airy student of evolution could see that
the ''Amplaoh'' ninepins were in legiti-
mate succession TO the globular headed
Misery" For a time l think that Mary
even preferred her to the others. How
belt, it was a pretty sight TO see her
on summer afternoon sitting upon a
Wayside stump, her other children du-
tifully ranged around her, with the
hard, unfeeling head of Misery pressed
deep down into her loving little heart,
as she swayed from side to side, Groom
ing her plaintiVe lullaby. Small Won
der that the bees took up the song and
droned a slumberous accompaniment,
or that high above her head the enor-
nous pines stirred through their depths
by the soft Sierra air-or heaven knows
what-let slip the Pickering lights and
shadows to play over that cast iron
face. until the child, looking down upon
it with the quick, transforming power
of love, thought that it smiled!
The two remaining members of the
family were less distinctive. "Gleriana"
pronounced as two words: Celery
Ann" being the work of her father,
who also named it, was simply a cylin-
drical roll of canvas wagon covering
grit so as to define a neck and waist
with a rudely linked face-altogether> a
weak. pitiable, manlike invention; and
Johnny Dear" alleged to be the repre-
sentative of John Doremus,' a young
store keeper, who occasionally supplied
Mary with gratuitous sweets. Mary
never admitted this, and as we were
all gentlemen along that road, we were
blind to the suggestion. Johnny dear
was originally a small, plaster phreno-
logical cast of head and bust, begged
from some shop window in the county
town, with a body clearly constructed
by Mary herself. 1t was an ominous
fact that it was always dressed as
boy and was distinctly the most HUI
man looking of all her progeny. In
deed, in spite of the faculties that were
legibly printed all over it's smooth.
white, hairless head it was 4ppallingly
life-like. Left sometimes by Mary
astride of the branch of Wayside tree,
horsemen had been known to dismount
hurrledly and examine it, returning
with mystified smile, and it was of
record that Cuba Bill had once pulled
up the Pioneer coach at the request of
the curious and imploring passengers
and then grimly installed Johnny
Dear beside him on the box set, pub
licly delivering him to Mary at Big
Bend, to her Wide-eyed confusion and
the first blush we had ever seen on
her round, chubby, sunburnt cheeks.
1t may seem strange that with her
great popularity and her well known
maternal instincts she had not been
Kept fully supplied with proper and
more conventional dolls, but it was
soon recognized that she did not care
for them-left their waxen faces, roll
ing eyes and abundant hair in bitches
or stripped them TO help clothe the
more extravagant creatures of her
fancy. So it came that Johnny Bears"
strictly classic profile looked out from
under girls fashionable straw sailor
hat to the utter obliteration of his
prominent intellectual faculties; the
Amplach twins wore bonnets on their
I
was made to fix faxen scalp on the
iron-headed Misery. But her dolls We're
always creation of her own-her af-
lection for them increasing with the
demand upon her Imagination. This
may be somewhat inconsistent with her
habit of occasionally abandoning them
in the woods or in the bitches. But
she had an unbounded confidence in
the kindly maternity of Nature, and
f,..r- TOD 1,1,- o1,sI -
the Great Mother as freely as she did
herself in her own motherlessness.
And this confidence was rarely be-
trayed. Rats, mice, snails, wild cats,
panther and bear never touched her
lost waits. Even the elements were
kindly; an Amplach twin buried under
a snow drift in high attitudes reap
peared smilingly in the spring in all its
wooden and painted integrity. We were
all Pantheists then-and believed this
implicitly. 1t was only when exposed
to the milder forces of civilization that
Mary had anything to fear. Yet even
then when Patsey O'Connors domestic
goat had once tried to sample the
lost Misery, he had retreated with the
loss of three front teeth, and Thomp-
sons mule came out of an encounter
with that iron-headed prodigy with a
sprained hind leg and a cut and swol-
len pastern.
But these were the simple Arcadian
days of the road between Big Bend and
Reno, and progress and prosperity,
alas! brough changes in their wake 1t
was already whispered that Mary
ought to be going to school and Mr..
Amplach-still happily oblivious of the
liberties taken with his name-as trus-
tee Of the public school at Duckville
had intimated that Mary's bohemian
wanderings were a scandal to the coun-
". She was growing up in ignorance
of everything but the chivalry, the
deep tenderness, the delicacy and I'M
selfshness of the rude men around her,
and obliviousness of faith in anything
but the UNNECESSARILY bountyi of Ma
ture towards her and her children. Of
course there was a fierce discussion
between Nthe boys" of the road and the
few married families of the settlement
on this point, but of course prog ress
and "SniVelization"-as the boys chose
to call it-triumphed. The projection
of a railroad settled it; Robert Foulkes,
promoted to firemanShip on a division
of the line, was made to understand
that his daughter must be educated
But the terrible question of Mary's
family remained No school would
open it's doors TO that heterogeneous
collection and Mary's little heart would
have broken over the rude disposal or
heroic burning of her children. The in
genuity of Jack Roper suggested a
compromise. She was allowed to select
one to take to school with her; the
others were adopted by certain of her
friends. and she was to be permitted to
visit them every Saturday afternoon.
The selection was a cruel trial ca