Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-09-04
The STORY Teller.
Jan.

i A slender girl. of about Is years
with jet black eyes of remarkable
brightness and a tangled mass of shin
ling black hair falling over her brow
from beneath the torn brim of ragget
straw hat, stood at my mothers doc
one morning in November and asked
"Can you just lend me cup of cof
fee and a cup of sugar and fou
enough for a bakin' of bread? II
pay it all back when can."
NY mother had never seen the cir
before. She was untidy in Der dress
her shoes were not mates, and the,
were buttonless and full Of holes.
"What is your ame9" my mothel
asked.
"Fan."
"And your other name ?"
"Tracy."
"Where do you live ?"
"Oh, just q little ways down the
road, the,first house from here. be
lieve they call it the old Peters place.
We knew the place very well. NJ
one had lived there for years. The
house, which was in the woods short
distance from the river, had beer
shabby in its best days, and now WIS
little better than hovel. Scarcely
pane of glass was whole, and such o.
the doors as remained were off theil
hinges. The floors were sunken, and
the plaster was falling from the walls
The house was unfit for human habi
tation.
The girls appearance seemed to in
dicate that the new family was in har'
mony with the condition Of the house
"Do your parents live here9" my
mother asked.
"I amt got but one parent-my dad
We just come here three days ago
and dad was told he could live in the
old Peters house rent free, and if he
can get work we'll settle here"
Chow many are there of you ?"
"Just dad and me and my little
brother Carey; he's only six, and lit
tie for his age"
My mother gave the girl the articles
for which she asked, whereupon she
said, with sudden outburst:
"I'll tell you, honest now, that meb'
be sha'n't be able to pay you back
these things. Dad aint got work yet
and mebbe be won't get anything to
do but if he does and if / can, III
pay you back"
We did not see the girl again for 9
week; but in that time we learned q
little more about the Tracy family.
Mrs. Hornby came over to our house
one afternoon to "set awhile" Mrs
Hornby was an elderly person of SC
much leisure that she spent most oi
her time in "setting awhile" in the
homes of her neighbors; but she had
so much gossip to relate that she was
not, as rule, unwelcome.
"You've heard about man named
Tracy and his two children moving
into the old Peters place, haven't you,
Mis- Harley ?" asked Mrs. Hornby.
eyes," replied the mother. "The
girl has been up here to borrow some
things"
"Oh, I reckon so Iguess they live
mostly on what they can borrow.
They'd better call it begging and he
done with it. Have they paid you
back ?"
"No; but the girl was honest enough
/ to tell me that she couldn't pay me
back if her father did not get work
here"
"Work !" calculated Mrs. Hornby,
contemptuously. 81 guess that all the
work that Tracy fellow does won't
hurt him much nor do his family any
good. He spends most of his time
down to Jim Fifer's saloon near the
Ferry. Ny! I'd lead the way and
carry an axe if the women of this
neighborhood would 60 down there
some night and tear down that saloon
to the ground I"
"Then the Tracy's are so poor be,
cause the father is drinking man p
ayes; and you may well say poor
was going by the old Peters place
yesterday, and 1 just thought I'd steE
in and see how the children were get
ting along in that old shell"
"Have they made the place at al
habitable ?"
"Well, the man has exerted himsel
enough to hang door or two ano
patch the floor up some. They don1
use but two rooms, and all but one
window in them are boarded up
They've got a rusty old cook-stove
one or two old chairs, a battered anc
patched-up old bedstead, a little pine
table and an old red cupboard, ano
that's every stick of furniture they
have, excepting what that girl, Fan
has made out of some old boxes
She's terror, that Fan is !"
"One must allow good deal tol
surroundings and the influence she ha:
probably been under all her life" sale
my mother.
"Well, she needn't be so saucy, any
how. She just as good as told mi
that she didn't thank me for coming
around, and going there with the kind
est motives! And when l asked he
if she didn't have broom to keep tn