Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1897-12-09

hood, to build a fire and seldom to
light lamp. Money paid to him was
given to his wife or thrown into chair
or on the floor for her to take care of
He had no time for such trities as
money. He cared little for his per-
sonal appearance. always preferring
coafort to st, le. Who that knew him
can forget the low rubbers and old
gray shawl that used to cover the
Judges quaint figure. and that he
liked SO well because ''they fit so nice. E"
At ore time the Judge was billed to
make speech at Beetown. He or
dered team at the livery stable to be
tied at post near his gate. Getting
ready to start, he walked out of the
gate past the team and on to Beetown
without once thinking of the team.
A printer now on the Herald re-
lates the following true incident:
Many wears ago Castillo n Holford sol
der. poet and printer conducted newspa-
per in Lancaster in the Budd block. During
vacation enforced by ill-health from my
regular position on the Herald would some
times for few days help Mr.. Holford
through rush of extra work.
At that time Mr.. Holford had been mar
ried two or three years and had baby girl
whose name, think, was Elsie. Mrs. Hol-
ford often assisted her husband in the office
and at such times the baby was allowed to
creep about the ONCE floor and amuse itself
after its own fashion.
One summers day l returned from dinner
to work sometime before one o'clock The
mother, who had gone home early to prepare
dinner, had left the father to bring the baby
and he in moment of forgetfulness had
gone home without the child. When 1 ar
rived. nobody was in the ONCE. the front
door was standing wide open and the baby
was crawling up and down the iron steps in
front of the ONCE.
waiting for the clock to strike the hour of
going to work. l sat down upon the once
steps and watched the baby, admiring its
wealth of nerve. as ii would crawl laborious-
ly to the top OF the steps. fall down to the
bottom on to the stone tagging and without
and do the whole act over again.
Presently Judge Mills came along and
stopped. For a time ne stood regarding the
baby, balancing the while at first on his
heels and then on his toes and swinging his
cane. then finally he asked:
lis that your infant"
No. Judge; I've got no baby.
Yes, yes-well, well who does it belong
to- them
g 1 don't know. Judge. Nobody, | guess.
You can have it if you want it,"
All right. sir" said the Judge cheerfuily.
helped tuck the baby under his arm and
he trudged off toward home with the re-
mark: Mrs. Mills will be so ptedsedt''
The editor and his wife came and we went
work at one O'Clock. Along about half
past two there was an uproar in the ONCE
over the lost baby and l slipped out and
down to Judge Mills house to get it.
When Mr.. Mills arrived home. nobody was
in the dining room: SO he placed the baby in
the center of the dinner table, piled salt
sellers. pepper-boxes bottles of catsup
dishes of butter and honey, and other arti-
cles around il to prevent its falling off after
which he went down into his basement Office
and To work on a law Brief soon forgetting
all about the child
Mrs. Mills was in the topmost story Of the
house doing chamber work and when an
hour afterward she came into the dining
room She was shocked beyond expression at
the appearance of her table. The child was
in high glee with everything turned into its
lap
The wife screamed. Mercy merey''' and the
Judge came up out of his ONCE to discover
the cause. He could recollect bringing the
baby home, but for the life of him he could
not tell where he had gotten t. and he
stood perplexed mute and miserable while
the good wife heaped her opinions red-hot
on his defenceleSS head
Matters and things had reached an wful
crisis when / arrived in the dining room.
Every possibility Of expression in the Eng
lish language was being brought into play
by the lady in her frantic efforts Ia make
the Judge recollect where he had found the
child. The baby. with molasses and butter
and vinegar streaming down its hair. had at
last become frightened and set upa terriGlc
and prolonged yell Mr. Mills was in total
eclipse; but his face frightened when he
saw me, and when / claimed the baby ne cx-
claimed There Ma. / knew it would all
come out right if YOU would only hold sttll